Science fiction in Spain

Cover The anachronopete (1887), the first piece of science fiction that introduces the machine of time.

Science fiction, scientific fiction or anticipation literature is a literary, film, cartoon and television genre based on scientific speculation, which In Spain it has not reached the popularity and importance that it has in Anglo-Saxon countries or in some other Castilian-speaking countries. Despite this, there is a tradition in this regard, which is reflected in the large number of titles published, as well as in its list of authors. Many of these have recently turned to heroic fantasy or children's or youth literature, due to the commercial boom in these genres.

Literature

Historical background

Illustration of Quixote, which shows Don Quixote and Sancho Panza mounted on Clavileño. Edition scored by Nicolás Díaz de Benjumea and illustrated by Ricardo Balaca.

There is no single definition of “science fiction”. In 1953, Michel Butor considered science fiction those narratives "that speak of interplanetary travel"; Subsequently, this very narrow vision has been expanded, considering science fiction the stories that have a speculative intent, what Miquel Barceló calls "What would happen if...?", in addition to having a component of "a sense of wonder". In this sense, Brian W. Aldiss considers Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus (1818) to be the first novel of the genre, but it could be extended to mythology or fantasy devoid of science and technology.

However, drawing boundaries, both from a temporal point of view and from a literary point of view, is so difficult that the writer Norman Spinrad is credited with having said that "science fiction is everything that publishers publish with the label of science fiction". Even so, a series of stories can be considered predecessors of science fiction, above all the utopians, which venture into the field of speculation.

For example, Yuli Kagarlitski in What is science fiction? (1977) wanted to see in the eleventh story of El conde Lucanor (between 1330 and 1335), "Of what happened to the dean of Santiago with Don Illán, a great teacher who lived in Toledo", a "precursor of time travel or parallel worlds", instead of classifying it as a magical story.

Related to mere fantasy and close to the world of legend is the Sarrazine Chronicle or Chronicle of King Rodrigo with the Destruction of Spain by Pedro de Corral, written in 1443 and published in 1499, actually the first chivalrous novel in Spanish literature, which includes some fantastic elements such as a kind of quicksilver television that the protagonist finds in the Cave of Hercules that anticipates the future. Among the utopias, the most famous example is the Book of the most eloquent Emperor Marco Aurelio with El Relox de príncipes (1527) by Antonio de Guevara. This utopia describes the customs and laws of the "garamantes", a simple and peaceful people who do not bear arms and who only have seven laws, but who are inflexible in their application.

Among the stellar voyages, we must undoubtedly mention Sancho Panza's voyage "on board" Clavileño that Cervantes includes in the second part of Don Quixote. However, the voyage to the Moon that Juan Maldonado describes in his 1532 story Somnium. of a different society, even better, than that of the Earth." Days for one world and another, discovery of its substances, generations and productions. Science, judgment and conjecture of the eclypse of May 22 of this present year of 1724 (of which the Northern Astrologers have written), etc., by its author, the bachelor Don Diego de Torres, Professor of Philosophy and Mathematics, substitute for the chair of Astronomy in Salamanca, made a dream trip to the satellite. In 1787 José Marchena published a visit to the Moon at the age of nineteen in El Observador, a newspaper of speeches, in which he uses the description of a lunar society to fiercely criticize contemporary Spanish society.

Fly mode, engraving of Goya belonging to the series of the Disparates.

Finally, it is worth mentioning three fruits of the Enlightenment, curiously all due to authors from La Mancha. First of all, the utopia Viage de un filóspo a Selenópolis (1804) by Antonio Marqués y Espejo, a translation/adaptation of Le voyageur philosophe dans un pays inconnu aux habitants de la Terre, by Mr. de Listonai, the pseudonym of Daniel Jost de Villeneuve, published in Amsterdam in 1761. Another flying priest from the 18th century, but also an eminent scientist and astronomer and author of the first encyclopedia in Spanish, was the Jesuit Lorenzo Hervás y Panduro, author of a Viaggio statico al Mondo planetario ("Static Journey to the Planetary World", 1780, of which he would later make a revised version in Spanish, Static Journey to the planetary world: in which the mechanism and the main phenomena of the sky are observed; the physical causes are investigated, and the existence of God and his admirable attributes are demonstrated (Madrid, Imp. de Aznar, 1793 and 1794, 4 vols.) This work uses a slight narrative argument to actually explain pure and hard astronomy, no longer up-to-date, but at the forefront of the time. Finally, as interesting or more than the utopia of Antonio Marqués, but this one entirely original, is the dystopian tale or dystopia of the very modern illustrated Manchego Cándido María Trigueros "The world without vices", the first of Spanish literature. It is included in his collection of novels My hobbies. Warehouse of pleasant trifles (Madrid, 1784, volume II). It is evidently written as a reaffirmation of the theories of Bernard Mandeville and Adam Smith and is indicated as an antecedent of The Seven Columns (1926) by Wenceslao Fernández Flórez. Utopian elements appear in the original continuation or Supplement (1778) written by Gutierre Joaquín Vaca de Guzmán to his translation, with the title Viajes de Enrique Walton a las tierras incógnitas australes y al país de the monkeys (1769-1771), from the Italian classic of the imaginary journey, Viaggi di Enrico Wanton alle terre incognite australi ed ai regni delle Scimmie e dei Cinocefali (1749/1764), by Zaccaria Seriman; the «Journey to the country of the Ayparchontes» published in El Censor in 1784-1785; the trip to the moon described by the abbot José Marchena in the fourth speech of El Observador in 1787 and "La aventura magna del Bachiller", which appeared in the Cadiz newspaper by Pedro Gatell El Argonauta Español in 1790.

Some magical realism is contained in the genre of magical comedies of the 18th century, shows in which he appeared white magic (the Inquisition prevented me from continuing to talk about the other) identified with technology, science and knowledge. These works were sometimes inspired by real characters, such as Don Juan de Espina in his homeland and Don Juan de Espina in Milan by playwright José de Cañizares and the extremely famous The astonishment of France, Marta la Romarantina, also by the same author, and which was the most represented work in the 18th century , especially for its colorful special effects and automatons or animated statues. The avidity of the public for the genre meant that, for example, three more continuations were added to this piece. Both characters are inspired by real beings, such as the mysterious Juan de Espina y Velasco (1565-1642), a wealthy nobleman and Golden Age engineer interested in science and owner of some technological artifacts and Leonardo da Vinci manuscripts, of which writers of the time such as Luis Vélez de Guevara, Juan de Piña or Alonso Castillo Solórzano, and the French sorceress Marthe Brossier are admired.

Protoscience-fiction

Illustration of the flying time machine that appears in The anachronopete (1887).

In Spain, the literature of what can already be considered «science fiction» began in the middle of the XIX century. This first stage, which in Spain lasted until the Civil War, is often called "proto-science fiction", although it has also been called "scientific fantasies" or "utopian literature".

Traveling into space is relatively common in late romanticism; Mention may be made of the Sleep-Air Trip to the Moon, or Zulema and Lambert (1832), by Joaquín del Castillo; Astolfo. Voyages to an unknown world, its history, laws and customs (1838), by an unidentified D. F. de M.; Lunigraphy: that is, curious news about the productions, language, religion, laws, uses and customs of the lunícolas (1855-1858), by Miguel Estorch y Siqués; Selenia, by Aurelio Colmenares y Orgaz (1863); A trip to the planet Jupiter (1871), by Antonio de San Martín, and A season on the most beautiful of planets (1870-1871), by Tirso Aguimana de Veca.

The novel by Amalio Gimeno, later translated into French, An inhabitant of the blood (1873), narrates the adventures of a red blood cell endowed with consciousness and personality, is only the first of a series of later Hispanic medical allegories: those by Juan Giné y Partagás A trip to Cerebrópolis (1884), The family of onkos (1888) and Mysteries of the locura (1890; translated into Italian) and Silverio Domínguez's Bacteriological implausibility (1894) and Tuberculosis or microbial confidences (1894). Mention should be made, in Galician, of the novel Campaña da Caprecórneca (1898), by Luis Otero Pimentel, which is an imaginary and folkloric dream trip to the Moon, and the story "Once thousand nine hundred twenty-six" [«Once thousand nine hundred and twenty-six»] (1927; later included in the second edition of Dos arquivos do trasno [From the goblin's archives], 1962), by Rafael Dieste. The first science fiction novel in Catalan, which in turn is the first Spanish work that deals with the topic of «Frankenstein» or «artificial people», is Homes artificials (1912), by Frederich Pujulà i Vallès.

Mariano Martín Rodríguez points out that «proto-scientific zarzuelas were not, in fact, unusual in Spain at that time, since there were at least two zarzuelas set in the future, namely, El siglo que viene (1876), by Miguel Ramos Carrión, and Madrid in the year 2000 (1887), by Guillermo Perrín and Miguel de Palacios, along with the theatrical imaginary journey From Madrid to the Moon (1886), by Carlos Luis de Cuenca». In the same humorous register, Dr. Hormiguillo (1890-1891), a didactic novel for children by José Zahonero published in installments and unfinished, which the same author rewrote with the title "El doctor Menudillo" (Cuentos chimericas y patrañosos, 1914) in the form of a complete narration for adults, increasing the humorous tone already present in the first version and transforming it into a philosophical and satirical tale against nineteenth-century scientific (and patriarchal) certainties. «His matter», writes Martín Rodríguez, «(the miniaturization of a scientist, who is confronted with gigantic small animals for him due to the change in size suffered after drinking a concoction administered by a Hindu sage) coincides with that of the classic The Shrinking Man [The shrinking man] (1956), by Richard Matheson, of which it is perhaps the first precedent».

The genre is not one of the most prolific in Spanish literature, but it was not without many prestigious authors who used it. However, in general, unlike in the Anglo-Saxon and Central European worlds that dominate the field, and despite the influence of Verne and Wells, these works do not develop the most well-known topics of science fiction: robots, aliens or space travels. Encouraged by regenerationism and conditioned by the national technological backwardness, Hispanic authors dedicated themselves above all to uchronies and post-apocalyptic futures.

Within this group, for example, speculative fantasies such as «Four Centuries of Good Government» (1883; collected in For Imaginary Spaces (with scales on Earth) 1885), deserve to be highlighted. probably one of the first European examples of the genre little cultivated then in Spain of the ucronia; It is a rewriting of the history of Spain by Nilo María Fabra, according to which Spain «has retained its world power until the end of the XIX century and is about to leave Earth to colonize Mars." Fabra's most famous story heralds both the future depictions of totalitarianism and the warnings made in numerous 20th century science fictions against a technology that is no longer controlled by a humanist worldview. Thus, «Teitan the arrogant» (1895; collected in Present and future, 1897) is the portrait of a dictator who reigns over the entire world as the «personification of the State-God» and who has acquired a mechanical device capable of reading people's thoughts, with which he can complete his absolute monopoly of power. Certainly, Fabra's fictional production is extensive and abundant in interesting ideas. «Cuento futuro» by Leopoldo Alas, ‹Clarín›, included in his El Señor y lo demás, son cuentos (1893), is undoubtedly the most original of this volume. Anticipating magical realism and in ironic parallelism with Genesis , he devised the first post-apocalyptic story in Spanish literature starring Dr. Adambis and his evil wife Evelinda, with symbolic names. The doctor invents a collective suicide machine and extinguishes humanity; only he and his partner are saved. They find God wandering the world and he leads them to Paradise, but the doctor gets tired of the materialism of her wife, the couple gets rid of her and God expels her from Paradise; Loneliness in these conditions ends up making the doctor yearn for a death that has become impossible. Following this precedent of the generation of realism or the generation of 1968, we must name various authors of the generation of '98: «La ruina de Granada» (1899), by Ángel Ganivet, «El fin de un mundo» (1901) and "Prehistory" (1905), by Azorín, "The corrected pessimist" (1905), by Ramón y Cajal, "The Republic of the year 8 and the intervention of the year 12" (1902), by Pío Baroja, and "Mecanópolis" (1913), by Miguel de Unamuno, who exposes an ordinary man's hatred of technological alienation. The importance of the genre can be seen in the fact that Ramón y Cajal published half a dozen stories that can be included.

To these authors we must add, within the generation of 14 or noucentisme, the so-called «London Group» or the «Chicos de Londres», Luis Araquistáin, Salvador de Madariaga, Ramón Pérez de Ayala and, from the previous group, the nineties Ramiro de Maeztu. These four authors, who had worked and lived in London, were in contact with the English science fiction authors of the time: George Bernard Shaw, Herbert George Wells and Aldous Huxley. Some important humorous utopias have emerged from the London Group, such as Sentimental Club (1st edition, 1909) / La revolución sentimental (2nd edition, 1928), by Ramón Perez de Ayala; Dos mundos al habla (Forty days of interplanetary relations) (1922), a dense Wellsian novel by the anticlerical priest José Ferrándiz; The wonderful archipelago , by Araquistáin, and The Sacred Giraffe (1925), by Salvador de Madariaga. The most successful pre-civil war science fiction novel was El paraíso de las mujeres (1928), by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, which deals with the relationship between men and women with a cinematographic structure and a diffuse plot, which "today can be somewhat arduous to read." And the most anticipated, The owner of the atom (Madrid: Historia Nueva, 1928), a short novel by Ramón Gómez de la Serna from the 19th century that already talks about energy and the atomic bomb... in 1928!

Cover The Keeper of Peace (1925), of Colonel Ignotus, the number twelve of the Novelesco-Scientific Library; the author of the illustration was Mariano Pedrero.

The influence of Jules Verne was enormous at the time and several authors followed in the footsteps of the Frenchman. However, the Spanish «vernismo» was more daring, going further and being more imaginative, anticipating innovations that would come later in other countries. The best example is El anacronópete (1887), by Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau, in which a time machine appears eight years ahead of Wells's. Also the aforementioned Lunigrafía (1855), by Miguel Estorch y Siqués, which anticipates the work of Verne, and Rafael Zamora y Pérez de Urría, in his Crímenes literarios (1906), which describes automata and robots and a "brain machine" very similar to our laptops are other interesting examples. The two authors who best represent this current are José de Elola and Jesús de Aragón, the so-called "Spanish vernes". Elola wrote under the pseudonym Coronel Ignotus in the specialized collection Biblioteca Novelesco-Científica, being replaced within the collection by Aragón, who published under the pseudonym Coronel Sirius. Nilo María Fabra, founder of the Agency, cannot be forgotten either. EFE —indirectly and by twists and turns—, which published three collections of science fiction stories: Por los espacios imaginarios (1885), Illustrated Stories (1895) and Present and future (1897). Other authors that can be mentioned are Pedro de Novo y Colson, A 19th century sailor or scientific walk around the ocean (1872); Segismundo Bermejo, Doctor Juan Pérez (1880); and the stories by the aforementioned Juan Giné y Partagás, A trip to Cerebrópolis (1884), The Onkos family (1888) and Mysteries of madness (1890).

Among the trips to Mars we can mention Voyage to Mars (1928), by Modesto Brocos, and The secret of a madman (1928) / The end of a sidereal expedition (Voyage to Mars) (1932), by Benigno Bejarano; in addition to the novels in installments, A trip to Planet Mars (1933), made up of by 24 booklets from the Nick-Fox collection written by W. Barrymore, pseudonym of an unknown Spanish author; A trip to planet Mars, 24 booklets with the same name but from the Marco publishing house, whose author could having been José Canellas Casals, known above all for his novel After the hydrogen bomb; finally, The trip to Mars by K-Hito, the pseudonym of the humorist and cartoonist Ricardo García López, who humorously recounts the adventures on Mars of the cadets Pepito Binomio and Juanito Espoleta. Within satirical science fiction, Juan Pérez Zúñiga should also be mentioned, who in his work Seis días fuera del world. Involuntary Voyage (1905) describes a trip to Venus in a floating closet, whose astronauts eat ham to survive.

Science fiction was also sponsored by Catholic publishers, who tried to use it to introduce social criticism. Among these books we can highlight Elois and Morlock (1919), by Carlos Mendizábal, which is based on The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. The work had a great influence on later novels, such as Jerusalem and Babylon (1927) by Antonio Ibáñez Barranqueros, and El fin de los tiempos (1933), by Carlos Ortí and Munoz.

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  Juan Giné and Partagás (1836-1903)

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  Enrique Gaspar and Rimbau (1842-1902)

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  Nilo Maria Fabra (1843-1903)

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  Pedro de Novo and Colson (1846-1931)

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  Modesto Brocos (1852-1936)

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  José de Elola (1859-1933)

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  K-Hito (1890-1984)

The post-war period and "hard novels"

The Civil War produced a huge cut in Spanish science fiction literature. While in the United States between 1938 and the 1950s there was a "Golden Age", in Franco's Spain any type of literary fantasy that was not his own was viewed with suspicion (with the exception of Agustín de Foxá, author of the classic stories "Journey to the ephemerals" and, above all, "Hans and the insects", although he also premiered the dystopian drama Autumn of the year 3006 ) and from the left everything that was not realism was despised His brother, the engineer Jaime de Foxá, also wrote a valuable dystopia that advanced the ideas of ecological environmentalism and conservationism, Green Tide (1951), which was a finalist for the Pujol Prize and delves into the mystery of photosynthesis; In another of his novels, a wild boar tells his life in the first person: Solitary. Wanderings and meditations of a wild boar (1960). But in the wasteland that was Spanish science fiction in the three decades that followed the Civil War, only a few "snipers" were seen, continuing the prewar traditions of dystopia and humor so characteristic of Spanish science fiction. The most outstanding works are The Incredible Bomb (1950), by Pedro Salinas, a dystopia in which he shows his concern for materialism and Western society; the play Four hearts with brake and reverse gear (1936), by Jardiel Poncela, deals with five characters who drink an elixir of eternal youth; and finally La nave (1959), by Tomás Salvador, which deals with the theme of the generational ship that has forgotten its origins, anticipating the "new wave" in the approach to the work. In addition, within this group of authors "external" to science fiction, who only write within the genre temporarily, we can mention Corte de cortex (1959), by Daniel Sueiro, The Bird Smuggler (1973) by Antonio Burgos, halfway between Ray Bradbury's social fiction and the Kafkaesque parable, and En el día de hoy (1979), by Jesús Torbado, alternate history about a civil war won by the Republic. As with La fundación (1974), by Antonio Buero Vallejo, some of these works were not recognized as science fiction.

At the middle of the XX century, «hard novels» appeared, later called «pockets», in imitation of American pulp literature and twenty years late. Little esteemed by the literary establishment, their own authors and publishers did not hold it in high regard: they were a means of subsistence; in fact, there are anecdotes that claim that originals were rejected for "having too much quality." The authors had to deliver one novel per week, typewritten, without the possibility of reflection or correction, in a length limited by the size of the novels, which fit in a trouser pocket, also taking into account that most of their The authors were unaware of foreign science fiction literature and based on American B-movies. However, their commercial success was enormous and they are currently avidly pursued by collectors. In the end, the quality was very irregular and among the best some names of well-known authors emerged, such as Domingo Santos or Ángel Torres Quesada, author of the series The Stellar Order. All of them published under Americanized pseudonyms, thus, Santos was «P. Danger", Ramón Brotons was "Walter Carrigan", José Caballer was "Larry Winters", Ángel Torres Quesada was "Alex Towers" and "A. Thorkent”, Pascual Enguídanos was “George H. White” and “Van S. Smith”, José Negri Haro was “J. Negri O'Hara", Vicente Adam Cardona was "Vic Adams" and "V. A. Carter", Luis García Lecha was "Louis G. Milk" and "Clark Carrados", Pedro Guirao Hernández was "Peter Kapra", "Walt G. Donovan", "Phil Weaber" or "Mike Adams", Juan Gallardo Muñoz was "Johnny Garland," and Enrique Sánchez Pascual was "Law Space," "H.S. Thels”, “W. Sampas", "Alan Starr", "Lionel Sheridan", "Alex Simmons" - who wrote no less than 350 novels, even creating his own collection, Robot, in which he tried to break free of the editorial corset under the pseudonym "Alan Comet »—

The first collection of novels of this type to appear in Spain was Futuro, novelas de Ciencia y Ficción, which was published from 1953 to 1956, a total of 34 issues. The magazine was practically a personal project of José Mallorquí Figuerola, author of El Coyote, who translated American stories, changing the title and name to avoid paying royalties, and who even wrote some original stories, copying North American models. There were many other collections, some short-lived, others more long-lived, such as Naviatom, La conquista del espacio, Galaxia 2000, Héroes del Espacio or the various ones from Toray publishing house. But the most important was undoubtedly Luchadores del espacio, which began to be published in 1953, reaching 120 volumes. The importance of the collection lies above all in the publication of The Aznar saga, a series of 32 novels published from 1953 to 1958 by "George H. White", pseudonym of Pascual Enguídanos. The collection was republished in the 1970s, when another 24 unpublished episodes were added. The Aznar saga received the Hugo Award for the Best European Science Fiction Series at the Eurocon in Brussels in 1978, ahead of other important ones, such as the German Perry Rhodan.

The beginnings of modern science fiction and the transition to the prospective

The first steps in self-conscious modern science fiction came to Spain from Argentina, thanks to the magazine Más Allá de la Ciencia y la Fantasia, of which 48 issues were published from 1953 to 1957 The magazine, created in the image of North American women, such as The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, offered stories by American authors from the golden age and a few originals written in Spanish. In 1955, books published by the Minotauro publishing house began to arrive from Argentina, which is still active to this day in Barcelona and has obtained recognized prestige, thanks to the editorial work of Francisco Porrúa. The publishing house, which was the first to classify its books as "science fiction", mainly published Anglo-Saxon authors, the classics of the Golden Age.

At the beginning of the sixties, the first Spanish collections of books dedicated to science fiction appeared: Cénit (1960-1964), Galaxia (1963-1969), Vórtice, Infinitum (1965-1968), etc., among which The collection Nebulae (1955-1968) stands out, which published 138 volumes. Most of these were translations from English, but a few anthologies of Spanish authors were published, among which we must mention Domingo Santos, F. Valverde Torne and Antonio Ribera. Publishers such as Acervo or Castellote Editor also compiled national authors, publishing stories by Francisco Álvarez Villar, Francisco Lezcano, Juan G. Atienza, Carlos Buiza and Juan José Plans, the latter two having great influence on Spanish Television during those years.

During these years, the work of Domingo Santos stood out above all, without a doubt, the doyen of Spanish science fiction. Santos, coming from hard novels, published during this time some interesting works, such as the story Meteorites (1965) and the novel The Gods of the Prehistoric Gun (1967) that stood out for their quality. His novel Gabriel, the story of a robot that is gaining human consciousness, achieved the historic milestone of being translated into French, the first Spanish science fiction work translated into another language. But the importance of Santos resides above all in his editorial activity, as director of various book collections and curator of the anthology The Best of Spanish Science Fiction (1986), and as editor of the magazine Nueva Dimensión (ND; 1968-1983). Edited by, in addition to Santos, Sebastián Martínez and Luis Vigil at the Dronte publishing house, it is perhaps the most influential on the Spanish scene and, of course, the longest-running. It was awarded in 1977, at the Eurocon in Trieste, as the best European science fiction magazine.

It is considered that Nueva Dimensión inaugurates the transition of modern Spanish science fiction, from the adventure approach, which will not disappear completely, towards prospective literature, that which tries to answer the question "what would happen if...?". Among these transforming authors we can highlight Juan Miguel Aguilera —the saga of Akasa-Puspa (1988-2005)— and Rafael Marín —Lágrimas de luz (1984), Headless Unicorns (1987), Juglar (2006)—, which had subsequent success, and included a group with less commercial success: Ignacio Romeo, José Ignacio Velasco, Jaime Rosal del Castillo and Enrique Lázaro. We must also mention Gabriel Bermúdez Castillo —Journey to a Wu-Wei Planet (1976) and The Star Man (1988)—, an author difficult to classify, remembered for all for including Spanish references in his novels. Carlos Saiz Cidoncha is one of the indisputable classics of Spanish science fiction, after almost forty years of literary activity, who articulates his novels around a galactic Empire (The fall of the Galactic Empire, 1978) and who is also a historian of the genre in Spain with his Science fiction as a phenomenon of communication and mass culture in Spain (1988). It can be included in this group, what is possibly the best science fiction work written in Catalan, Mecanoscrito del segundo origen (1974), by Manuel de Pedrolo, a post-apocalyptic dystopia. Among the very few women who write science fiction at the time, it is worth highlighting María Güera, who in collaboration with her son, Arturo Mengotti, published a series of interesting stories from 1968 to 1971. From 1955 to 1990, among approximately 1,300 science fiction books that were published in Spain, only about 50 were by Spanish writers.

The Hispacón generation

In the 1990s there was a small publishing explosion of science fiction in Spain. Possibly the main driving force was the fanzines, small improvised magazines with a minimal budget that had been published by fans since the 1970s. Among the most important we can mention Kandama, Space Opera, Master, Transit, Cyberfantasy, Kembeo Kenmaro, Ad Astra, Parsifal, Elfstone and Buccaneer. Starting in 1990, the fanzine BEM was published, the most important and long-lived of all, and later in the decade, Artifex, by Luis G. Prado, and Gigamesh, a fanzine published by the bookstore of the same name, by Julián Díez and later by Juan Manuel Santiago. Other factors that influenced the spread of the genre were the popularization of Hispacón and the appearance of thematic gatherings in large cities. This is how the Spanish Association of Fantasy, Science Fiction and Terror (AEFCFT) was founded in 1991 and new specialized collections were created, such as those by Martínez Roca, Júcar, Destino, Edaf, Grijalbo, Miraguano, Ultramar or Ediciones B, although only these three The latter published regularly by Spanish authors.

The boom was preceded by the publication of Tears of Light (1984), by Rafael Marín, and Mundos en el abismo (1988), by Juan Miguel Aguilera and Javier Redal. Although Rafael Marín's short story "Never say good night to a stranger" (1979) can be considered the beginning of modern Spanish science fiction, Marín is much better known for the space opera Lágrimas de luz. His merit as an author lies in the use of the classical Spanish literary tradition and in a careful use of language with a clear poetic vision. Mundos en el abismo, and its second part, Hijos de la eternidad (1989), the result of the collaboration of the authors Juan Miguel Aguilera and Javier Redal, represent a unpublished tour de force up to that moment in Spain: an ambitious space opera of hard science fiction, which harmonizes the technological epic with complex political and religious plots. From Aguilera we can also highlight La locura de Dios (1998) in which Roger de Flor and Ramon Llull appear in a city of the century XIX.

Authors who have sporadically written science fiction works are César Mallorquí and Elia Barceló, perhaps the two best authors of this generation. Mallorquí, son of the author José Mallorquí, is mainly dedicated to youth literature, but has written some notable short stories, such as "La casa del doctor Pétalo" (1995), "El rebaño" (1993) and "La pared de hielo" (1995), and a short novel, The Stamp Collector (1995). Elia Barceló is not only the most prolific author of Spanish science fiction, but possibly the most important in the gender in Spain. Its quality is endorsed by the Ignotus awards, for his short story La estrella in 1991, and by the UPC, in 1993, for his short novel Yarek's World, perhaps one one of the best in Spanish science fiction literature. Other notable science fiction works of his are the short stories Sagarda (1989) and Dangerous Futures (2008), and the novel Natural Consequences (1994), a fierce critic of machismo. Other notable authors are León Arsenal, with his stories collected in the anthology Besos de scorpion (2000); Rodolfo Martínez, with The Cat's Smile (1995), The Queen's Adept (2009) and The Garden of Memory (2010); Javier Negrete, who wrote some science fiction works in his early years, later opting for fantasy and historical novels, has written The Look of the Furies (1997) and Estado twilight (1993), a book full of humor that has become one of the most successful in Spanish science fiction; Juan Carlos Planells, who has only published El confrontación (1996) within the genre; in addition to canonical authors who have approached the genre: Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, with Perhaps the wind will take us to infinity (1984); José María Merino, with Novel by Andrés Choz (1976); Rosa Montero, with Tremor (1990) and Tears in the Rain (2011); Suso de Toro, with The Hunting Shadow (1995); and Ray Loriga, with Tokio no longer loves us (1999). Among the authors in Catalan, Miquel de Palol deserves mention, with The Garden of Seven Twilights (2007).

The news

Most of the major science fiction writers of the last fifteen years have been with the genre for a long time. Most started publishing in the 1990s, or even earlier, and not many new names have emerged.

Perhaps the most complete author of his generation is Eduardo Vaquerizo, an author of precious language who has moved away from hard science fiction. He has won the Ignotus award six times, in addition to winning the Domingo Santos and USC awards. His best-known works are Dance of Darkness (Ignotus Award 2006) and Memory of Darkness , which although not related, share a universe. Mention should also be made of the lyric Hipatia's last night (Ignotus Award 2010), a journey through time. From the same period is Ramón Muñoz, author of some sf stories, but who has preferred to opt for the historical novel.

The two most representative science fiction authors —in its strictest sense— would be Félix J. Palma and José Antonio Cotrina. Palma is mainly known for his trilogy The Map of Time (Athenaeum of Seville Award 2008), The Map of Heaven and The Map of Chaos, which has managed to be placed on the New York Times bestseller list; they recount a journey back in time to the Victorian era. De Cotrina highlights Las fuentes perdidas (2003), which mixes science fiction and dark and poetic fantasy, and Salir de fase and Tiempo muerto, winners of the UPC prize 2000 and 2001 respectively.

In addition, we can mention the authors Santiago Eximeno, with Asura (2004), although the author mixes elements of fantasy; Daniel Mares, author somewhat less commercial due to his unconventional themes and perspectives, and his dark sense of humor, with En mares extraños (2004), an anthology of short stories, Madrid (2007) and Seis (1994), perhaps his most outstanding work; and among those who have published short stories, Juan Antonio Fernández Madrigal, Joaquín Revuelta, Alejandro Carneiro and José Antonio del Valle. The authors Eduardo Gallego and Guillem Sánchez i Gómez, who have received various science fiction awards, revolve around UniCorp or Corporate Universe. It is also worth mentioning Víctor Conde, winner of the 2010 Minotauro award with Crónicas del Multiverso and author of the Metaverse Saga.

Among the new authors that have appeared in recent years are Juan Jacinto Muñoz Rengel, with his anthology of short stories De mecánica y alchemia (2013); Emilio Bueso, with Cenital (2012); Ismael Martínez Biurrun, with The Grisha hideout (2011) and A minute before darkness (2014); and Matias Candeira. These authors have been well accepted by general critics, indicating a growing external acceptance of the genre. Among the latest authors to appear, we can also mention Carlos Sisí, who with his work Panteón (Minotauro Award 2013) moved away from his zombie novels to approach hard science fiction. Others Those who have published works of some importance in recent years are Jesús Cañadas, with Soon it will be night (2015), Elio Quiroga, with Those who dream (2015). Dioni Arroyo Merino with We failed to dream (2017) or Ray Loriga with Rendición (2017). Rosa Montero, 2017 National Literature Award, also publishes a trilogy of the replicant Bruna Husky, set in the diffuse universe of Philip K. Dick and Blade runner, and made up of Lágrimas in the rain (2011), The weight of the heart (2015) and The times of hatred (2018).

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  Gabriel Bermúdez Castillo

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  Elia Barceló

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  Javier Negrete

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  Rodolfo Martínez

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  Eduardo Vaquerizo

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  José Antonio Cotrina

Awards

Alberto Magno Award (1989-)

is the prize dedicated to the oldest science fiction in Spain. It is delivered by the University of the Basque Country to short stories in Spanish or in Basque that belong to the genre of science fiction and fantasy on scientific subject.

Celsius Award (2008-)

previously called Celsius 232 Award, is delivered annually during the Black Week of Gijón to the best novel of fantasy, science fiction or terror originally published in Spanish.

Premio Domingo Santos (1992-)

Award given by HispaCon with the sponsorship of the AEFCFT for the unpublished short stories of science fiction. The ceremony is combined with the Ignotus Award.

Ignotus Awards (1991-)

were created in 1991 by the Spanish Association of Fantasy, Science Fiction and Terror (AEFCFT) in response to the Hugo Awards. The awards, which are awarded to the works published in Spain, are given in various categories, ranging from "Best novel", to "Best book of essay", "Best poetic work", "Best magazine", to "Best foreign novel", among others, including awards for cinema and web pages. In addition, the Gabriel prizes are given in the same event for the extraordinary contributions of a particular person.

Minotauro Award (2004-)

given to the best unpublished novel of science fiction, terror or fantasy delivered by the publishing house Minotauro, behind which is the publishing house Planeta. The award winners are published by the publisher Minotauro. The first novel of pure science fiction to be awarded in the history of this award was Chronicles of the MultiverseVictor Conde, in 2010.

Pablo Rido Prize (1992-2008)

Short story award initially awarded by the Spanish Association of Fantasy and Fiction Science under the name "Aznar Award" and later by the Tertulia Madrileña de Literatura Fantástico.

UPC Award (1991-)

delivered by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia to the original short novels of science fiction written in Spanish, Catalan, English and French. It is an internationally recognized award and one of the most important in Spain. The best stories are published in the NOVA collection of Editions B.

Magazines and zines

• Anticipation. Between 1966 and 1967.
• New Dimensionfrom 1968 to 1982, undoubtedly the most important. 143 published numbers.
• Kandama. Published by Miquel Barceló between 1980 and 1984.
• Cimoc, dedicated to the comic book of science fiction and published monthly by Norma Editorial between 1981 and 1995.
• Transit (Fanzine)from 1982 to 1993, 18 published numbers.
• BEMfrom 1990 to 2000, edited Interface Grupo Editor: José Luis González, Pedro Jorge Romero, Ricard de la Casa and Joan Manel Ortiz. 75 published numbers.
• GigameshGigamesh. Published from 1991 to 2006.
• Stalker, about fantastic cinema and science fiction, also by the publishing house Gigamesh. Published from 1998 to 2003.
• The ghost, fanzine published by Luis G. Prado between 1993 and 1997.
• Solarisfrom the editor The Ideas Factory. From 1995 to 2005.
• Artifex. With four different times, between 1997 and 2009. Continuous fanzine The ghost and dedicated entirely to stories originally written in Spanish.
• Alfa Eridiani. Between 2002 and 2016.
• Asimov Science Fiction. Between 2003 and 2005. Spanish edition of the American magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, although incorporating articles and accounts of Spanish-speaking authors. Directed by Domingo Santos.
• Scifiworld Magazine (2005-dating). It is the longest magazine dedicated to cinema and the fantastic genre edited in Spain.
• Propeller: Critical studies on speculative fiction. Edited by the Xatafi Cultural Association and dedicated to literary criticism of science fiction (2006-current).
• Exégesis. Historieta and graphic narrative. (2009-Update)

Comics

During the post-war period, most series remained heavily influenced by Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon (Al Dany, Red Dixon, Gale, Marcos, Huracán, Kit-Boy, Angel Audaz), standing out for its quality The future world (1955) by Boixcar and Feats of audacious youth (1959), in which Matías Alonso adapted the saga of the Aznar family by Pascual Enguídanos, as well as the magazine Future (1957) from Cliper Editions.

At the end of the sixties the influence of the French new wave represented by Barbarella in Delta 99 (1967), 5 por Infinito (1967), Supernova (1972) or Fantasia, S.A. (1975).

During the adult comics boom, science fiction occupied an important place in magazines such as 1984 (1978) and to a lesser extent in Totem (1977), International Comix (1980) and Cimoc (1981), giving rise to series such as Galactic Tavern Stories (1979), Zora and the hibernautas (1980), Hombre (1981), Roco Vargas (1983) or Fragments of the Delphic Encyclopedia (1983).

Audiovisual media

The cinema

The short film El hotel eléctrico (1908?) is considered the first Spanish science fiction film —one of the first in the world—, despite being a film made for the French production company Pathé, since its director, screenwriter and expert in special effects was Segundo de Chomón, a Spaniard. The film shows a futuristic hotel in which everything is automated. Later, Chomón would make two other science fiction films, Journey to the Planet Jupiter (1909) and Journey to the Center of the Earth (1910), both also made for Pathé.

From the first half of the XX century the only known Madrid in the year 2000, a film shot in 1925 by Manuel Noriega, and The Mysterious Island (1927), by Enrique Rambal, which was never finished. Madrid in the year 2000 showed a futuristic Madrid, which would have become an international business center and a river city with a huge canal similar to the Suez through which large ships sail through the city, thanks to the photography work of Agustín Macasoli and the special effects of Bernardo Perrote. Unfortunately no copies survive.

We will have to wait until 1955 to find two more works of science fiction. La lupa (1955), by Luis Lucia, is the first Spanish film to deal with extraterrestrials; an unclassifiable adventure in which mystery buffs investigate a Martian landing. The second is La otra vida del capitán Contreras (1955), by Rafael Gil and with Fernando Fernán Gómez, which takes a humorous look at the adventures of a captain from the thirds of Flanders who wakes up halfway through XX century. The film was no less than forty years ahead of Visitors were not born yesterday (1993).

The accelerated economic growth and social transformation that occurred in the 1960s allowed for an increasing number of films to be filmed, and with it, science fiction as well. The first, La hora incógnita (1963), by Mariano Ozores, is a vision of the disaster produced by a nuclear explosion in a large city. The pessimistic approach of some survivors waiting for the radiation to kill them, had very good reviews, but very poor reception from the public, who preferred comedies. Three years later, El sonido de la muerte (1966), by José Antonio Nieves Conde, premiered. the screen, he managed to carry out an interesting treasure hunt in Greece. Within the humor genre is Give me a little love, directed in 1968 by José María Forqué, it is the first Los Bravos film, in which they appear as superheroes fighting against a Fu Manchú lookalike. Three other films were released in this decade: El ray disintegrador (1966), by Pascual Cervera, a children's comedy; Los monstruos del terror (1966), by Hugo Fregonese, an extraterrestrial invasion that can be included within the Spanish fantaterror; and Fata morgana (1965), by Vicente Aranda. The latter, despite being set in a futuristic London, is difficult to classify, being actually a strange psycho thriller in which people appear and disappear.

The 1970s were one of the most fruitful of the genre, taking into account that we are in the years of fant-terror and disclosure, and films like 2001 were seen abroad. The first of the lot is the comedy El astronauta (1970), by Javier Aguirre, in which a group of rogues, led by Tony Leblanc, found SANA (Sociedad Anónima de Naves Aeroespaciales), with the trying to put an astronaut into orbit. That same year, Transplantation of a brain, by Juan Logar, was released, and in 1974 I hate my body, by León Klimovsky, both deal with brain transplantation and identity problems. generated. In 1972, Eugenio Martín directed Pánico en el Transiberiano , with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, a horror story on the Trans-Siberian railway that shows influences from The Thing (1951). An adaptation of Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island with the same title was released in 1973, with Omar Sharif as Captain Nemo and Juan Antonio Bardem in production. Finally, mention The man persecuted by a U.V.N.I. (1976), by Juan Carlos Olaria, the story of a man nobody believes, and The travelers of the sunset (1979), by Ugo Tognazzi, with overtones similar to Logan's Run, a dystopia in which those over 40 are exiled.

The filmmaker, producer and screenwriter Juan Piquer Simón deserves a category by himself, who in his Estudios Piquer trained a generation of specialists in special effects. Between the 1970s and the 1980s, Piquer Simón began his career in science fiction with a Vernian adaptation, Journey to the Center of the Earth (1976), which Piquer stated was "the first film that can be considered special effects in the history of Spanish cinema». In 1979 he shot the Hispanic version of Superman, Supersonic Man (1979), the first Hispanic superhero movie, if the sketch of Los Brincos is not taken into account. In 1983 he released The New Extraterrestrials , a kind of E.T. with which Piquer was not satisfied: what had begun as a horror story, was modified by the co-producers until be unrecognizable. He also filmed Mystery on the island of monsters, a youth adventure, but ended up focusing on terror, with films like A thousand screams at night (1982), Slugs, viscous death (1988) or The Crack (1989), although the latter, inspired by The Abyss by James Cameron, has overtones of adventure.

The 1980s saw one of the biggest blockbusters in the history of Spanish cinema: El caballero del dragón (1985), by Fernando Colomo, which in turn is one of its biggest flops. The film tries to mix the arrival of an alien in the Middle Ages with the legend of Saint George, without being able to convince, despite the luxury cast: Klaus Kinski, Harvey Keitel, Fernando Rey and Miguel Bosé. Two other films can be named in this decade: Rowing the Wind (1987), by Gonzalo Suárez, a recapture of the myth of Frankenstein through the story of Mary Shelley, and El niño de la Luna (1989), by Agustín Villaronga, about a clone created to lead the new Nazi empire, in which mutations, mental powers and genetic manipulation are mixed, with a result that makes it unsettling and unclassifiable.

The 1990s marked a before and after, mainly due to two films: Mutant Action (1992), by Álex de la Iglesia, and Open your eyes (1997), by Alejandro Amenábar, both of the best that science fiction cinema has produced in Spain. The first is a thick comedy that leaves no puppet with a head. It tells the story of some deformed mutant terrorists who travel to the planet Axturias in the Virgen del Carmen spaceship to commit an attack against the beautiful and rich of the society that marginalizes them. The second, Open your eyes , catapulted Amenabar internationally and the film had an American version, Vanilla Sky , starring Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz. The plot, reminiscent of Ubik and Eye in the Sky by Philip K. Dick, «uses science fiction resources, hibernation, the perception of unreality, to show the fragility of memories and the weak barrier between madness and sanity». Other films released in the decade were Supernova (1992), by Juan Miñón, with Marta Sánchez and Javier Gurruchaga, which was not very successful, neither with critics nor with the public; Atolladero (1995), by Óscar Aibar, based on a comic from the post-apocalyptic subgenre, starring Iggy Pop; Nexus 2.431 (1996), by José María Forqué; My name is a shadow (1996), by Gonzalo Suárez, which takes up the theme Jekyll & hyde. Finally, two films that deal with the topic of the mad scientist: Scientifically Perfect (1996), by Francesc Xavier Capell, and The Ugliest Woman in the World (1999), by Miguel Bardem. It is debatable that The Miracle of P. Tinto (1998), by Javier Fesser, belongs to the science fiction genre, despite the appearance of extraterrestrials.

The XXI century opens with Stranded (Náufragos) (2001), by María Lidón, which recounts a joint NASA-ESA mission to Mars. Being the first and last Spanish hard science fiction film, it was not very successful, to which its lousy distribution and little publicity contributed. From 2002 it is Mucha sangre, by Pepe de las Heras, with Paul Naschy as the protagonist, a B-series movie that tells of an invasion of ultra-corpses that is transmitted through the sodomization of men, “between the most extreme casposity and the most sublime tackiness". women; PROXIMA (2007), in which he deals with contact with extraterrestrials; Codex Atanicus (2008), a compilation of shorts; and Maximum Shame (2010), another dystopia. Perhaps the best science fiction film of the decade is Los cronocrímenes (2007), by Nacho Vigalondo, which shows that good science fiction can be made on a low budget. The film, which won three awards at the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, is a convoluted story about time travel. Another example of good work on a low budget is 3 días (2008), by Francisco Javier Gutiérrez, which won four awards at the Malaga Film Festival. The decade closes with Planet 51 (2010), by Jorge Blanco, an animated success in the Anglo-Saxon market about a terrestrial astronaut lost in an extraterrestrial world: E.T. returned from reverse.

In the second decade of the century we must highlight EVA (2011), by Kike Maíllo, and Extraterrestrial (2011), by Nacho Vigalondo, who have managed to make films interesting, despite the crisis that cinema is going through. Under the auspices of Antonio Banderas, two science fiction films were filmed, Automata (2014), by Gabe Ibáñez, a story about Asimovian robots, very much in the vein of EVA; and Solo, written, directed and starring Banderas himself, a story that explores the trope of the last man alive on Earth. The decade closes The incredible waning weekend (2019), by Jon Mikel Caballero, a remarkable time loop drama.

TV

In 1958, Televisión Española, still in its infancy, adapted the comic strip and radio soap opera Diego Valor for television, producing 22 episodes that were broadcast weekly. It was one of TVE's first own productions. The series presented several novelties: it was possibly the first children's series produced by TVE, as well as being the first science fiction series, and at the end of the program, the presenter Blanca Álvarez delivered toys to the children who were on the set, a segment sponsored by Industrias Plásticas Madel. Unfortunately not a single image is known, not a single frame; if the episodes were recorded, the tapes were reused and are not preserved.

It was not until 1964 that another series with content of the genre was broadcast: Mañana puede ser verdad, by Chicho Ibáñez Serrador and Narciso Ibáñez Menta. The series had already been broadcast in Argentina, so they were able to sell the idea to Televisión Española more easily, after a pilot episode was broadcast. Some eleven episodes were broadcast, each one based on a science fiction work by authors such as Ray Bradbury, Heinlein, Mann Rubin, Agustín Cuzzani and Dalmiro Sáenz. Later, Chicho Ibáñez Serrador would opt for terror, with Historias para no dormir, leaving science fiction behind.

In the 1970s, Antonio Mercero shot three medium-length films for Televisión Española: La cabina (1972), together with José Luis Garci, the most awarded Spanish television production in history; The little birds (1974) and La Gioconda is sad (1977).

The series The tenant was broadcast by Antena 3 in 2004. The plot, an alien impersonating a writer, is science fiction, but the development is that of a sitcom manners, closer to Friends than to ALF.

In 2008 it began to emit Pluto B.R.B. Nero, by Álex de la Iglesia, a comedy that takes place in a spaceship, directed by Captain Valladares, who goes in search of a habitable planet. The series, inspired by humorous science fiction hits such as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Red Dwarf or Doctor Who, had 26 episodes out of 35 minutes. De la Iglesia himself stated that "it is a crazy comedy, with a rather wild humor", which was rejected by other television stations until Televisión Española agreed to film it.

Among the series produced by Antena 3, we can mention Los protegidos (2010-2012), El barco (2011-2013) and El internado (2007-2010). All three are inspired by American products: the first in superhero movies and the last two in Lost, which they come to copy characters and situations. In all three series, the science fiction element is less, with mystery and romantic relationships becoming more important.

Without a doubt the most important recent science fiction series has been El Ministerio del Tiempo (2015), by Javier Olivares, as shown by the Ondas, Fotogramas de Plata, Unión de Actores, etc. awards., received in 2015. Based on the idea that there is a Ministry of Time in Spain that is in charge of avoiding the modification of history by time travelers, the series has been received positively by critics: "exciting", "entertaining, funny, original and brave. And above all, it is intelligent and treats the viewer as if it were too", "the idea borders on genius", "the scripts add a mannersmanship, also soft, seasoned with countless humorous details. Laughter comes without looking for it, as well as identification with all kinds of audiences", "the references that connected with several generations. From the mention of Curro Jiménez to the Terminator, going through Rosendo or that Velázquez with airs of greatness". The success of the series on the networks has been such that its fans have their own name, the ministers.

The radio

The only radio soap opera from the Spanish golden age that belongs to the science fiction genre is Diego Valor, the adventures of a Spanish astronaut on the planet Venus. Broadcast by Cadena SER from 1953 to 1958, in four titles, Diego Valor, Diego Valor and the Diabolical Prince, Diego Valor and the Mystery of Jupiter and Diego Valor and the Wandering Planet, in a total of 1,200 chapters, told the story of the Spanish astronaut Diego Valor, with his inseparable companions, Portolés, Laffite and Beatriz Fontana, his girlfriend. The radio soap opera was based on the comic Dan Dare, pilot of the future, which had been serialized by the BBC, and was adapted for Spain by Enrique Jarnés Bergua. In fact, the success was such that comics with the characters were later published.

In 1972 a collaboration began between Narciso Ibáñez Serrador and Radio Nacional de España for the broadcast of the program Historias para imaginar. The stories, contrary to what was usual at the time, were self-contained and were based on stories that had already been published, by authors such as Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allan Poe, Gaston Leroux, Robert Bloch, and among the Spanish, himself. Ibáñez Serrador, Joaquín Amichatis or Fernando Jiménez del Oso. Serrador was the director and screenwriter and adapter, under the pseudonym Luis Peñafiel.

Music

There are some songs, like Year 2000 or Sueño espacial by Miguel Ríos, that could be counted as part of science fiction. However, there have been few albums dedicated to the subject. The first album of the genre would be by Miguel Ríos himself, who published in 1976, La Huerta Atómica. A tale of anticipation. Through the fourteen songs, Ríos tells an anti-war fable, very much of the time, each song, a chapter of the novel. Unfortunately the album was not a great success and has been forgotten.

But without a doubt, the Spanish group that is closest to science fiction is El aviador Dro y sus obreros especializados, usually Aviador Dro, created in 1979. Their songs often resort to themes and works from science fiction — «Nuclear yes», «The return of Godzilla», «Anarchy on the planet», «Wild chromosomes», «Picnic in Formalhaut», «Nestor the cyborg», «Alpha lunar base», «The Plexiglas girl», « HAL 9000», «Appointment on the Eden asteroid», «Alex and the Drugos», «The ghost zone», «Titan escape», «Great Asimov square», «Mechanisburg», «Orbital elevator», «Aelita» or «_Artificial Intelligence_»— inserted in electronic and techno melodies.

Awards

The Ignotus Awards have had the Best Audiovisual Production category since 1994, which has been awarded mostly to films, but which in 2013, 2014 and 2015 has been awarded to the podcast Los Verdhugos. Other exceptions have been 1997, with the delivery to the comic Iberia Inc., and 2006, with the delivery to web animation, Cálico Electrónico.

But without a doubt, the most important prizes dedicated to the fantastic genre in Spain are those awarded by the Sitges Festival, a festival dedicated to fantastic, science fiction and horror cinema that is held in Sitges, on the Mediterranean coast, to forty kilometers south of Barcelona. The festival awards various prizes: for the best film, director, actor, actress, script, photography, etc., as well as specialized prizes, such as the Gran Premi del Públic, for the feature film chosen by the public; Orient Express – Casa Àsia, for best Asian film; Sitges Clàssics, for classic cinema, which includes the subcategories "Tributes", "Imaginary Europe" and "Retrospectives"; Time Machine Award, Grand Honorary Award and María Honorífica, for professional career; or the José Luis Guarner Award, awarded by critics for the best film, among many others.

The Spanish fandom

The fandom in Spain begins to have importance with Nueva Dimensión. A certain number of fans gather around this magazine and, over time, will create their own fanzines and publications. With the creation of HispaCon (the most important annual event of the genre in Spain) and the appearance of the Spanish Association of Fantasy, Science Fiction and Terror, the phenomenon reached its peak.

Doing a history of the fandom in Spain would be complex, but it has served as a breeding ground for some of today's writers and essayists. Among the most prominent names in the Spanish fandom we find writers, anthologists, critics and editors such as Domingo Santos, Luis Vigil, Agustín Jaureguízar, Alejo Cuervo, Julián Díez and Miquel Barceló García.

Encounters

• AsturCon, an event that takes place during the Black Week of Gijón.
• Aznarcon, meetings organized by the Aznar Saga fans.
• Basauri Con, meeting held in Basauri (Vizcaya).
• Celsius 232, held since 2012 in the town of Avilés (Asturias).
• Espatrek, Star Trek series fan meeting.
• HispaCon, Congress organized by the Spanish Association of Fantasy, Science Fiction and Terror.
• JEHES, meeting of Star Wars fans in Seville.
• GolemFest, meeting of fans of fantasy, terror and science-fiction in Valencia.

Additional bibliography

• López Pellisa, Teresa, ed. (2018). History of science fiction in Spanish culture. La Casa de la Riqueza. Spanish Culture Studies 44. Ibero-American Vervuert. ISBN 978-84-16922-81-9.