The Propaganda Archive

A project by Propagandopolis to create the internet’s largest archive of propaganda posters, postcards, pamphlets, stamps and other ephemera.

This archive is currently a work in progress. New content and features will be added over the coming months. If you would like to learn about or support the project, you can do so below:

Roman Holiday in the Spanish Bull Ring (American illustration, 1938)

Text: Roman Holiday in the Spanish Bull Ring.

Year: 1938.

Publisher: Ken.

Artist: Derso & Kelen.

Additional information: The illustration depicts Spain personified as a bull, symbolizing the nation, being slain by weapons representing various factions of the Spanish Civil War. The bull is impaled with a sickle, a swastika-handled sword, a star-and-crescent sword, a fasces, a bayonet, an arrow, and more. British, German, and French ships sail around Iberia, while German planes fly overhead. The Republican flag flies from a smouldering Barcelona, and Mallorca is depicted as an Italian stronghold. The illustration was created by Derso & Kelen, a cartoonist duo living in Switzerland at the time, and was published in Ken, a magazine active between 1938-1939.