Fighting for a different world

Hugh Thomas' The Spanish Civil War and its impact on Free Planet

The past few years, I’ve been up on my mountain, plotting out the Shape of Comics to Come, conducting extensive research into real-world revolutions and civil wars. One of the most impactful books I read – one of two that I sent my cocreator Jed Dougherty upon Free Planet being picked up by Image Comics – was The Spanish Civil War by Hugh Thomas.

My initial interest in the Spanish Civil War was due to anarchists being active and crucial combatants in the conflict. Given the contemporary prevalence of what Murray Bookchin described as “lifestyle anarchists,” it was difficult for me to even conceptualize anarchism being put forth as a valid way of organizing a country. Even tougher still was imagining anarchists engaging in large-scale conflict, participating in an organization as rigidly hierarchical as the military.

However, as Free Planet is a book about the fight for freedom complete and absolute, the right to do as you wish with no one telling you what to do, it was crucial that I gain an understanding of how a modern anarchist society might function. While critics on the left – including Bookchin – take issues with what’s perceived as Thomas’ centrist take on the Spanish Civil War, I found his 1,000+ page doorstop of a tome invaluable in its provision of overarching context regarding how Spanish anarchism fit into the larger, extraordinarily complex wartime milieu.

Another, closely related aspect of the Spanish Civil War that intrigued me was the wide range of possibilities that existed at the time. The Spanish Civil War was a test-run for World War II, with the major combatants lining up for a proxy war on the Iberian Peninsula. But while both wars were fought – broadly speaking – to combat the rise of fascism, there was something more at stake during the Spanish Civil War: The future.

In World War II there were, essentially, only three paths forward for human civilization: The business-friendly liberalism of the US and Western Europe, the authoritarian communism of the USSR, and the business-friendly authoritarianism of the Axis powers. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, humanity has suffered an even further reduction in choices.

During the Spanish Civil War, however, there were a plethora of active, viable theories for how society should be organized, all striving with one another. While business-friendly liberalism, authoritarian communism, and business-friendly authoritarianism were all well represented, they were also joined by communists opposed to the USSR, anarchists of libertarian and syndicalist stripes, democratic socialists, multiple separatist movements, and even those who felt that casting aside the monarchy had been a mistake.

The struggles between these groups – even and especially between those aligned on the same side of the conflict – comprises a significant portion of Thomas’ The Spanish Civil War. In turn, it became the core of Free Planet: The never-ending argument over what freedom is and how it can be best obtained and protected. This can already be observed in our preview pages, in which we detail our core cast and their diverse backgrounds and points of view.

Outside of the types of broader thematic concerns outlined above, The Spanish Civil War was also enormously helpful in terms of mapping out the specifics of Free Planet’s wartime backstory. While the war that precedes the start of our story is a revolution, it was heavily informed by the Spanish Civil War, specifically with regard to the numerous, fractious factions forced to unite under the same banner.

Additionally – as with all my research – there are countless bits of local color that found their way into Free Planet. You can see the influence of The Spanish Civil War in everything from our exhaustive and exhausting worldbuilding to specific bits of dialogue. Those lucky enough to get their hands on one of our exclusive ashcans have already seen our epigraph, from El Nabarra by poet Cecil Day-Lewis (father of actor Daniel), to which I was first exposed by The Spanish Civil War.

To close us out, another quote I first read in The Spanish Civil War. It’s been lodged in my brain since I first read it and has been enormously influential with regard to the willful obstinance of our Free Planet cast:

Every Spaniard’s ideal is to carry a statutory letter with a single provision, brief but imperious: “This Spaniard is entitled to do whatever he feels like doing.” –Angel Ganivet

As ever: The best way to help make Free Planet a success is to call your local comic shop and preorder the book. Doing so not only ensures you’ll get a copy of the first printing but indicates that there will be wider demand for it. If you don’t have a comics shop in driving distance, my friends at Collector’s Paradise have you covered. And if you are – somehow – still not sold on the Shape of Comics to Come, check out this preview.

NEXT WEEK: Why is Image Comics the only place that Free Planet could be published?

Aubrey