Comics Have Wide Appeal in Barcelona
This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on May 1, 2007 Sign up now!
by Heidi MacDonald, PW Comics Week -- Publishers Weekly, 5/1/2007
The worldwide reach of comics of all kinds—from manga to indies to mainstream—was on display at the recent Saló del Cómic de Barcelona in Spain, which ran from April 19 to 22. Now in its 25th year, the comics festival is held yearly in Barcelona, and the 2007 edition was the biggest ever, with more than 100,000 attendees. According to the show director Carles Santamaria, it's now the second biggest comics show in Europe, after Angouleme.
This year's guest lineup included Enki Bilal, Howard Chaykin, Amanda Connor and Joe Sacco. Exhibitions included tributes to Asterix writer Alfredo Uderzo; a display of Juan Guarnido's art for Blacksad; a salute to El Jueves, the Mad magazine of Spain; and memorabilia from the American film 300.
Original Spanish comics are available mostly via fanzines; however, a few smaller publishers like Sins Entido and Astiberri are introducing a new generation of Spanish indie cartoonists. Both were represented at the awards given out on Friday night, although the prizes were swept by Max for his Bardin Superrealist, published in Spain by La Cupola.
Astiberri definitely represents a new direction for Spanish comics and thinks of itself as the Top Shelf of Spain (and has in fact translated a number of Top Shelf titles). Only in existence for six years, the company has gradually built up an audience for alternative comics in Spain. According to editor Laureano Dominguez, graphic novels, as in the U.S., are still expanding in the Spanish bookstore environment, with large chains such as FNAC recently establishing sections dedicated to graphic novels. The success of manga has obviously had an influence on the expansion, but books such as Bone and Blankets have also had success—Blankets is in its fourth printing, and Bone volumes have print runs of 10,000, a high figure for the category.
Astiberri surprised everyone when it won the right to publish Bone in Spanish—almost every other publisher was in on the hunt, said Dominguez, but creator Jeff Smith thought Astiberri's commitment to high-quality editions was the direction he wanted. The imprint has also had success with other American books like Jessica Abel's La Perdida and the works of Alex Robinson (who was a guest at this years Saló.) Later this year the publisher looks forward to putting out the Spanish edition of Nick Bertozzi's Le Salon.
As for original Spanish comics, Astiberri is also hoping to find an audience for a number of talented young cartoonists, such as David Rubin, who mixes autobiography with fantasy characters in a style somewhat reminiscent of Craig Thompson, and Javier de Isusi whose Los viajes de Juan Sin Tierra is set in the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas. Rubin won the Best Newcomer prize at the show.
With the success of this year's Saló, Barcelona is poised to become even more of an international hub for comics: Santamaria announced government plans to build a museum of comics there in the near future.
