Equatorial Guinea.
Equatorial Guinea
2005
Equatorial Guinea has almost no recorded comics scene, and Africultures wrote that its comics could be summed up by one name, Ramón Esono Ebalé. Working from Malabo, he drew press cartoons for national and Spanish-run papers and launched the online comics magazine Para-Jaka in 2005.
His satirical graphic novel La pesadilla de Obi (2014) about President Obiang led to his arrest in 2017 and his release in 2018.
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4
2005
2000s
Artists from Equatorial Guinea in the archive.
Comics from Equatorial Guinea in the archive.
Para-Jaka, the earliest comic from Equatorial Guinea in the archive.
The decade when the most new comics from Equatorial Guinea began.
historieta
Equatorial Guinea in 2 chapters
A short history you can leaf through. Click a page, use the arrow keys, or press Turn the page to read on.
Equatorial Guinea.
2 chapters
Chapter 1
1997
to 2010
Esono Ebalé's first comics and webzine
1997
to 2010
Chapter 01
Esono Ebalé's first comics and webzine
Ramón Esono Ebalé, who signs as Jamón y Queso, published a children's book in 1997 and drew press cartoons for La Verdad, La Razón, La Gaceta de Guinea Ecuatorial and other titles. In September 2005 he launched Para-Jaka, the first online African comics magazine, with Almo and Kangol from Cameroon and Pahé from Gabon. In 2006 his story Le plan B was chosen for the Vues d'Afrique show at the Angoulême festival.
2011
to today
Chapter 02
Satire, prison and exile
From 2011 Esono Ebalé ran a blog criticising President Obiang that the authorities blocked, and he lived abroad in Paraguay and later El Salvador. In 2014 he drew La pesadilla de Obi, scripted by two anonymous writers and funded by the NGO EGJustice, and he was jailed in Malabo's Black Beach prison in September 2017 and freed in March 2018. A French edition came from L'Harmattan BD in 2018, and the graphic novel Diez mil elefantes, scripted by Pere Ortín, followed in 2022.
The comics to know
- Para-Jaka2005 · webcomicRamón Esono Ebalé with Almo, Kangol and Pahé. Online comics magazine of six issues, described as the first African cyber-magazine of comics.
- La pesadilla de Obi2014 · graphic novelRamón Esono Ebalé, with scripts by Chino and Tenso Tenso. Satirical graphic novel about President Obiang; French edition in 2018.
- Diez mil elefantes2022 · graphic novelPere Ortín and Ramón Esono Ebalé. Graphic novel adapted from a novel by Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel.
