La Novela Cómica
Contents: Series History | Characteristics of the series | Other issues of La Novela Cómica |
Series History
Series Director: José de Urquía
Series start date: September 24, 1916, Año I, no. 1 El amigo Melquiades o Por la boca muere el pez by Carlos Arniches
Series end date: December 7, 1919, Año IV, no. 183 Nunca es tarde by Alberto Insúa and Alfonso Hernández-Catá
Total issues: 183
Special series:
- La Novela Policiaca (14 issues in 1918)
Initial price: 10 céntimos
Last price: 10 céntimos
Other prices: 20 céntimos (larger issues), 50 céntimos (2nd anniversary issue)
Periodicity: Weekly (Sundays)
Distribution: Domestic and international
Characteristics of the Series
La Novela Cómica is the shortest running series included in this digital library. While it did begin before La Novela Teatral, unlike La Novela Corta and La Novela Teatral which both reached 400+ issues, La Novela Cómica only had a series run of 183 issues. Like La Novela Teatral, these issues were published weekly on Sundays 1. Also like La Novela Teatral, La Novela Cómica mostly consisted of theatrical works not prose, so its issues are typographically structured like scripts. However, the issues are restricted to the comedic sub-genres of theater: sainetes (farces), juguetes cómicos (comedic sketches), operettas, revistas (revue/variety show), vaudeville, apropósitos (sketches), and many others. Works with music were very common 2.
La Novela Cómica did not have a consistent cover art scheme in the same way as La Novela Corta and La Novela Teatral. Sometimes they just had photos of individuals associated with theater, such as in Corazonadas above, but they also reproduced the winners of the poster contest they held for their covers 3.
While the poster contest (Concurso de Carteles) was the most important contest put on by La Novela Cómica (first prize 1,000 pesetas) it wasn’t the only contest. They had another contest for a comedic play and for a comedic lyrical farce to be premiered at the Teatro Infanta Isabel and the Teatro Cómico. There was also a novel contest. García-Abad García describes these contests as a strategy for attracting new readers 4.
Other issues of La Novela Cómica
In this table you can search for other digitized issues of La Novela Cómica not part of the collections of this digital library. Click on the hyperlinked title of an entry to be taken to the facsimile or the catalog record for the facsimile. Multiple years of publication and authors may be selected, you can bound your search by issue number, and you can do a text search on titles.