| Frequency: | Monthly |
| Category: | Comics magazine |
| Publisher: | La Cúpula |
| Firstdate: | December 1979 |
| Finaldate: | January 2005 |
| Country: | Spain |
| Based: | Barcelona |
| Language: | Spanish |
El Víbora (Spanish: The Viper) was a Spanish language monthly alternative comics magazine published in Barcelona, Spain, between 1979 and 2005, with a peak monthly circulation of 80,000 copies. The magazine was subtitled "Comix for Survivors".
El Víbora was established in December 1979.[1] The founders were a group of Spanish cartoonists led by Josep Maria Berenguer.[2] Catalan comics publisher Josep Toutain financed the establishment of the magazine[2] which was published by La Cúpula.[3]
Josep Maria Berenguer wanted to name the magazine as GOMA 3, a reference to Goma-2, an explosive notoriously used by the Basque terrorist/nationalist organization ETA during the 1970s.[2] However, the name was rejected by the Spanish authorities.[2]
El Víbora was published monthly[4] and had its headquarters in Barcelona.[5] The contributors included not only Spanish but also French and American authors,[1] including Peter Bagge, Robert Crumb and Charles Burns. Native contributors were Max, Nazario, Mariscal, Pons, and Laura Pérez Vernetti.[2] [6] Of them, Max created the characters of Gustavo, Peter Pank, Gallardo and Mediavilla.[2] Hernán Migoya served as the editor-in-chief of the magazine from 1992 to 1998.[2] The last editor was Sergi Puertas.[7]
El Víbora sold 45,000 copies in 1983.[7] Its circulation was 6,000 copies in 2004[7] just before its last issue in January 2005.[1] The magazine ran over 300 issues during its existence.[8]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the magazine was revived online, free of charge, as El Víbora para supervivientes (~ for survivors) for the duration of the lockdown in Spain. It contained mostly material from the original issues plus articles about coronavirus, with a cover about COVID-19.[9] [10] This revival lasted for six weekly issues.[11]