Paracuellos

In Paracuellos, Carlos Giménez draws from his own childhood to depict life inside the austere, post-Civil War orphanages run by Spain’s Francoist regime. Published by Ediciones Glénat España from 1999 to 2003 across nine issues, this starkly autobiographical series uses a deceptively simple, expressive art style to chronicle the daily struggles, small rebellions, and fragile bonds among the boys confined within these institutions. It stands as a landmark of Spanish comics, a deeply humane and unflinching memoir that gives voice to a generation shaped by institutional hardship.