José Guadalupe Posada: Cuentos (Stories)

One of the prominent genres of the chapbooks that were produced by the printing house of Antonio Vanegas Arroyo were the storybooks or "cuentos." The covers of these were illustrated by José Guadalupe Posada using the letterpress technique. These were usually under 20 pages in length and measuring roughly 9x12cm in dimension. Chapbooks contained a variety of popular subjects including but not limited to: prayers, religious themes, recipes, short stories, songs, plays, and verses. The images that appeared in chapbooks were printed on a variety of newsprint quality paper stock. Their front covers were illustrated with an image related to the content of the chapbook. Sometimes there were illustrations on the inside and often there was an advertisement on the backside.