João Abel Manta is of particular importance in the area of the cartoon, and is considered to be "the most extraordinary case of Portuguese cartoon drawing of [the 20th century], only comparable [to] Bordalo Pinheiro himself". Manta's activity as a cartoonist was from approximately 1954 to 1991, being particularly intense between 1969 and 1976. For about seven years his cartoons — dealing critically and deeply ironically with Portuguese reality — were published regularly in newspapers like the "Diário de Lisboa", "Diário de Notícias", and "O Jornal". Manta's cartoons marked the period before the 25th of April (revolution) with their unique and meticulous graphic quality. He questioned the identity of a country in turmoil in drawings such as "A Difficult Problem", where a group of outstanding figures from the past – from Karl Marx to Trotsky and Sartre – stare inquisitively at a small map of Portugal on a blackboard. Manta "will be associated in a very particular way to the best and worst that we lived through in Portugal during those years."