Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Blog

Here at the Cartoon Library we’re thrilled to have acquired a substantial run of the weekly Mexican satirical magazine Multicolor including six bound volumes and additional single issues.  Akin to the American publication Puck and Britain’s Punch, Multicolor was one of the first political satire periodicals to come out of Mexico. Multicolor was founded in 1911 by editor Mario Vitoria, and brilliant cartoonist and painter Ernesto “El Chango” Garcia Cabral. The magazine took an anti-revolutionary stance, and was fueled by criticism of Francisco I. Madero as he served his term as President during the Mexican Revolution.

Below are two back cover illustrations by Ernesto Garcia Cabral, from the first few issues of “Multicolor”.

Cabral was best known for the movie posters and cinema lobby cards that he created in the 1930s and 40s. With somewhat suspicious timing, Cabral was offered a government-sponsored scholorship to leave Mexico and study art in Paris in 1912- just when “Multicolor” fell into trouble with President Madero and the Mexican government’s administration.

Below are covers from two issues of Multicolor, illustrated by Santiago R. De La Vega.

 

For further research, you can view the full record of our Multicolor single-issue holdings here.

This acquisition was made possible with the assistance of Jose Diaz, Subject Librarian for Latin American and Iberian Studies