“The MNAC has been collecting comic originals for years and we want to integrate them as equals in our exhibition, not only to approach new audiences, but also because we understand that it is part of our patrimonial responsibility. And even more so in a case like this, when a character that is part of the popular imagination of the United States and is already universal was created in Barcelona,” says Mitrani.
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In the midst of the explosion of feminism and the Black Panther movement, Friday Foster became a reference and soon had its own film starring an exuberant Pam Grier, muse of blaxploitation, who had just released the legendary Foxy Brown (1974) and whom Quentin Tarantino would recover in Jackie Brown (1997). “It was something political, something social, a gift (…) It’s still an honor to be able to say ‘I was Friday Foster!’” recalls Pam Grier in the magnum volume Norma published in 2021, Friday Foster. Un icono del Black Power, the first compilation in Spanish of all her strips.
“It was very difficult to edit it because there were hardly any originals, they were all left in the United States. So they had to redraw many parts,” recalls Marc Longarón, architect and son of the cartoonist, who today safeguards and disseminates his legacy through a virtual museum and temporary exhibitions like this one. “In Spain, Friday Foster is absolutely unknown. People are surprised when they discover her modernity, both the aesthetics that today we would call vintage and the character. If she wore a miniskirt, it wasn’t to be sexy, but to vindicate that women could dress as they wanted and do whatever they wanted with their bodies, whether they were white or black,” explains Longarón.
