Around 1941, right in the middle of postwar Spain, a surrealist and absurd comedy publication appeared which had just as many fans as detractors. It was ‘La Codorniz’, ‘the most audacious magazine for the most intelligent reader’, as it defined itself.

It had a long life, from 1941 until 1978, when, probably due to changes in society, it couldn’t adapt to new times and stopped being published. However, it’s definitely the ‘dean of comedy press’, as it self-proclaimed later on. Its graphic and literary humour inspired other magazines that were to be born in the dawn of democracy, such as ‘Hermano Lobo’, ‘El Papus’, or ‘El Jueves’, with the latter still on sale.

The founder of ‘La Codorniz’, Miguel Mihura, who was also its director, had in its first years writers such as Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Wenceslao Fernández Florez and Enrique Jardiel Poncela, among others, as collaborators. In 1944, Mihura sold the publication and its chief writer, Álvaro de Laiglesia, became the director of the magazine. And so a new era began, a more fruitful one. Together with Fernando Perdiguero, his right-hand man, big figures of comedy such as Mingote, Chumy Chúmez, Gila or Forges began to collaborate with the magazine, as well as writers such as Rafael Azcona. The latter years of the magazine were directed by Manuel Summers and Cándido respectively.

‘La Codorniz’, that in its beginnings presented a more reduced format, began selling at 50 cents and ended up costing 15 pesetas. It went from selling 35,000 copies a week in its first stage to 80,000 later on, even surpassing 250,000 copies in its extra issues. It didn’t escape censorship, which it dodged masterfully, and it had to pay many fines and even deal with closure during four months.

This retrospective of ‘La Codorniz’ can bee seen at the Museo de la Ciudad in Madrid (Príncipe Vergara, 140) in an exhibition that will be open to the public until the 15th of April. The exhibition, commissioned by Felipe Hernández, tries to pay tribute to the magazines soul figures – De Laiglesia, Perdiguero and Herreros- as well as reviving it for those who knew those stories full of absurd, intelligent and avant-garde humour. And for those who never got to know it, now is a good chance to do so.

The exhibition also gathers more than 300 sketches, all of them originals, from Spanish cartoonists who dedicated themselves to comedy during the last century and this one as well.

From its birth on the 8th of June 1941 until its disappearance on the 11th of December 1978, they edited a total of 1898 issues. 37 years of history of a magazine that inspired new publications, such as the aforementioned, as well as the digital newspaper ‘La Kodorniz’, who takes pride in being its successor.

For more information: http://www.lakodorniz.com/.

Dew DROPS

If you are in the Spanish capital, come to the Museo de la Ciudad de Madrid to see the exhibition ‘La Codorniz. 1941-1978′. But, above all, don’t forget to rent apartments in Madrid

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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