Las ciudades que somos (‘The cities we are’): A review of three Latin American comics by women creators

Abstract

This short-form article reviews three texts by women comics artists published with publishing house Sexto Piso. María Luque’s graphic novel, titled Casa transparente (‘Transparent house’) (2017), won the first Premio Novela Gráfica Ciudades Iberoamericanas (Ibero-American Cities Graphic Novel Prize) and captures her travels to Bariloche, Rosario, Buenos Aires, Cusco and Mexico City. The volume Las ciudades que somos (‘The cities we are’) (2018), authored by Chicks on Comics, won the second Premio Novela Gráfica Ciudades Iberoamericanas (Ibero-American Cities Graphic Novel Prize). It contains comics in Spanish by an international collective of seven creators from Argentina, Colombia, Holland, Latvia and Singapore (Bas, Caro Chinaski, Clara Lagos, Delius, Power Paola, Weng Pixin and Zane Zlemeša). The third text discussed is Power Paola’s graphic novel Virus tropical (2018), a Künstlerroman or autobiographical portrait of the artist covering her adolescence and family connections to both Ecuador and Colombia.