The Council of Ministers has agreed, at the proposal of the Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, to declare March 17 the Day of Comics and Comics. That day is considered by consensus the date on which the publication of the comic magazine TBO began in 1917, which ended up giving its name to the phenomenon itself.
The declaration of the Council of Ministers of an institutional day for comics seeks to recognize that if they ever were, they are no longer a minor genre from any point of view, and to value the weight of their history and their importance in the current context, with its ability to generate readers through its diversity, creativity and quality. It also seeks to support the sector and the role of its professionals in social and cultural life.
The latest data from the comics sector in Spain, corresponding to 2021, reflect a thriving and rising cultural and economic sector. Last year, 4,130 comics were published in Spain, 1,082 of them with Spanish authorship. In addition, comic publishers have emerged that diversify the offer and decentralize production, previously located mainly in Barcelona and Madrid. Between scriptwriters, cartoonists, colorists and translators, there are more than 1,000 comic authors in Spain: 78% of them are men and 22% are women.
There are currently more than 250 specialized comic bookstores in Spain and 10.9% of total readers read comics, a percentage that has been increasing over the last few years.
The declaration of the Ministry of Culture, which responds to the proposal of the Comic Sector Association, seeks to make the industry visible through the celebration of different activities and give a unified sense, reaching all points of the Spanish geography through the collaboration of all agents in the sector, the media, social networks, private entities and civil society.
