The MNAC of Barcelona discovers the character drawn by Jordi Longarón in an exhibition of originals. Pam Grier took her to the movies in the 70s but Norma did not publish the comic book in Spain until 2021.
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In 1970, Friday Foster appeared for the first time in the pages of the Chicago Tribune presented as a “glamorous fashion photographer”. It was only two years since Martin Luther King had been assassinated. It was only five years since African Americans could vote in every state. And Friday Foster became (not without controversy) the first black heroine to star in a daily strip in major U.S. newspapers, among the Flintstones, Dick Tracy or Donald Duck. In reality, she was a fascinating and sophisticated photographer and detective who moved with the same ease in the Harlem underworld as she did among the cream of New York high society, thanks to her assignments for She magazine, a clear reference to the French Elle.
Friday Foster was a cult character, a feminist and African-American icon who, surprise surprise, was created by a Spanish cartoonist: Jordi Longarón (1933-2019). Although in Spain we didn’t even know about it, nor would his adventures have passed the censorship of the Franco regime. Neither did they in the southern states, where conservative and even segregationist newspapers vetoed it.
The Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC) vindicates Friday Foster with an exhibition of originals that seeks to popularize this milestone of national drawing under the title La heroína inesperada (The Unexpected Heroine). Longarón was the first Spanish cartoonist to work on a daily strip for the United States, sending the originals by plane by express mail three weeks before publication. Longarón’s name has always been associated with cowboys and the popular War Feats, but Friday Foster was his most transgressive character, which he brought to life based on the idea of screenwriter Jim Lawrence, author of the James Bond strips in the British Daily Express, which came out in parallel to the success of Sean Connery’s films. “Friday Foster is like a black female alter ego of James Bond,” compares Àlex Mitrani, curator of Contemporary Art at the MNAC and curator of this delightful micro-exhibition that “works like an installation” and can be seen until July 24.
