UNAM creates digital catalog of Mexican comic books

Kalimán, Chanoc, Memín Pinguín, the Burrón Family, Capulina, Los Súpersabios, Los Agachados

, and other classic Mexican comic-book series are now available in a digital catalog, uploaded by Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM) .

Now, you can find more than 1,400 comic books in “ Pepines ,” a website created by UNAM’s Bibliographical Studies Institute (IIB) .

The website is a result of 12 years of work and was developed in cooperation with the Innovation and Digital Strategy Coordination of the IIB and the Cataloging Department at Mexico’s National Newspaper Library.

The project came to life thanks to a cooperation agreement with the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA) and the Ministry of Culture .

The collection includes more than 7,000 bound volumes , plus unbound magazines.

This online catalog seeks to save Mexico’s comic book characters from oblivion while inviting general audiences to enrich themselves with the collection’s content, which constitutes a privileged and irreplaceable source of information on the country’s popular imaginary.

The comic books are divided into four categories: Adventure, humor, melodrama, and didactic comics , featuring titles such as “ 3 camaradas ” (3 pals), “ Pepín ,” “ Adán, el Hombre del Futuro ” (Adam, the Man from the Future), “ Viruta y Capulina ,” “ Los Charlots ,” “ Chistes y Chicas ,” and “ Amada Mía ,” among others.

The website takes its name from the comic book “Pepín,” which became so popular that in the 1950s, Mexicans used to say “pepines” to refer to comic books.

Mexico joins the Digital Library of Ibero-American Heritage

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