Spanish illustrator and cartoonist FH Navarro is creator Sushi Online magazine and of the beautiful Dos Hojas, which I described as “one of the most poetic and thoughtful little comics I’ve read lately” – see my review here.  He has started a new webcomic, Zoe.  This time, “I don’t speak Spanish” is no excuse for checking it out, since Navarro also faithfully publishes an English-language version of every page as they come out.

It’s still a bit early to tell what it’s all about, but it features the moon, vampires and victorian explorers, so there’s not a lot that could go wrong!

This way of appealing to a larger audience by providing English versions of your webcomic is starting to be the new thing, it would seem. Israeli cartoonist Asaf Hanuka has been doing this with his The Realist for a while now, and Amir and Khalil’s Zahra’s Paradise was even published in no less than thirteen languages.

At the Expocomic festival in Madrid, Spain, the winners of the 2011 awards were announced last week.   The lifetime achievement award went to Esteban Maroto, who is probably best known for his work for various Warren Publications magazines, such as Eerie, Creepy and Vampirella.  He is also credited with the design of Red Sonja’s famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view regarding the depiction of scantily clad buxom female warriors) metal bikini  in Savage Tales #3.

The award for best Spanish book and for the best Spanish creator went to El Invierno del Dibujante (The Winter of the Draftsman),by Paco Roca, which chronicles the early days of the comics industry in Spain.  Best new talent is Carlos Pacheco for his work on Ultimate Thor, while Nemesis by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven gets the award for best international work. Revelation of the year is Montse Martin for Curiosity Shop. And finally, the best online comic in Spain is the humorous fantasy comic, El Vosque – which is also available to read online in an English language edition as well as the original Spanish, so go and have a look.

(via La Cárcel de Papel)

As I explained yesterday, all this week we’ll be previewing Sean Duffield’s War: The Human Cost.

Today it’s a hard-hitting work by Underground Comix legend Spain giving a historical and global view on Faith-Based Terrorism.

Faith Based Terrorism

By Spain Rodriguez

You can (and you should) buy War: The Human Cost from Sean Duffield at the Paper Tiger Comics webstore. £1 from the price of each book goes to Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT).

But more importantly than this donation, the book may well stir you to action, to find out more. Change is possible. War: The Human Cost shows us the way.

(Spanish language version of Spanish Revolution by Pepo Pérez and Santiago García)

Since the protestors were not there to campaign for either of the two main political parties I’m not sure the law covers the protest and frankly find it rather disturbing that such a law even exists in a democratic country. In the event the protestors ignored the authorities and the police chose not to enforce the law in this case – go people power. I don’t know how much of an impact the protest had on the Spanish political landscape, but kudos to them for standing up and expressing themselves to the politicians, especially when someone in authority thinks they can tell people that they cannot protest – given Spain had to struggle to get that democracy back after the dictator Franco’s period I’d guess it is an especially sensitive subject there. Alberto Garcia Marcos drops us a line to let us know that the country’s cartoonists were, of course, involved: Pepo Pérez and Santiago García created this comic strip, Spanish Revolution and to so they could share their concerns with people outside Spain (many of whom are undergoing similar woes) they also created an English language version.

More on this on the BBC News site here and here.

La BD à Bilbao : rencontre avec les Editions Astiberri from Bilbao Kultur Lab on Vimeo.

Graphic concerts, a sort of multimedia performance with cartoonists or other graphic artists sharing the stage with musicians, have become a bit of a mainstay at comics festivals.  At the 2011 edition of the Festival BD Pyrénées, which is appropriately held in the mountain range that separates France from Spain, a new twist was given to that formula, with draw-offs between two cartoonists.  The “fights”, which took place in a real boxing ring, had a particular ring to them, as each of them was between a French and a Spanish artist.  Most of them are predominantly well-known in their own countries, but for English-speaking comics lovers, the draw-off between Guarnido and Vuillemin (above, resp. known for their work on Blacksad in Hara Kiri, above) is pretty entertaining.  Other confrontations included Bruno Loth vs. Paco Roca(below), Jordi Lafebre vs Wouzit, TEBO vs. Munuera, David Rubín vs. Flao, and Vuillemin (again) vs. Munuera.

(via La Carcel De Papel)

The book, which was given nearly every graphic novel and comic award going in its native Spain (including the prestigious Premio Nacional del Comic) tells the story of  a former bank employee who is forced to move to a hospice for elderly people who suffer from dementia.  He tries to keep his head up, but feels himself slipping away further and further.  The dreadful fear that he will end up on the top floor, where the most desperate “cases” are housed, fills his life, and in the mean time he reminisces about how things got this far, and about what the meaning was and is of his life.

(cover art to Arrugas by and (c) Paco Roca, published Astiberri)

Paco Roca uses a very recognisable artistic style, which can be situated somewhere between the classical ligne claire, and your typical modern alternative comic.  His colouring is very expressive, and plays an important part in brining across the tone of the narrative, even if you don’t happen to read the language that it’s written in.  Indeed, I need to admit something.  I have not read this book myself, but people that I trust have given it high praise.  I guess I’ll have to hunt for the French version, but maybe some British or American publisher is interested in bringing out an English version, just in time for the movie ?

(based on reporting at Stripgids and Smith Orbit)

The congress cites Moore  as the most brilliant comic writer of all time, and lists Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell as nothing less than paradigm-changing works, influencing many areas of culture.  Even though Moore’s work is so ground-breaking and influential, and an academic study of comics is deemed virtuallly impossible without including Moore’s work, it has been largely neglected by Spanish universities thus far.

(Alan with Steve Bell at the Edinburgh Book Festival last year, pic from Joe’s Flickr)

This congress aims to be both a tribute to its author by presenting thorough and serious research into his work in comparison with other forms of narrative, and to the authors that Moore has influenced, with recent research into their own comics.  All this will be formalised in eight separate sections :

1. Comics theory through the work of Alan Moore
2. Narrative theory and criticism applied to the work of Alan Moore
3. The Author: Alan Moore
4. Sources and influences in the work of Alan Moore
5. Cultural studies on the work of Alan Moore
6. The language of Alan Moore (narrative, lyrical, aesthetic language)
7. The themes of Alan Moore
8. Authors and works with an aesthetic relation to Alan Moore’s.

The inaugural lecture will be given by Professor Dr. Ana Merino (University of Iowa), widely regarded as the best Spanish academic expert in the field of comics.

Researchers wishing to make a contribution should email the title of their proposal, along with their full name, a brief resume (qualifications, professional positions, lines of research, relevant publications) and a summary of 300 or 400 words to  Congress coordinator Dr. Fernando Angel Moreno (famoreno@filol.ucm.es) before June 15, 2011. The selection results will be reported before July 15, 2011.

The festival of Bastia, On the French island of Corsica, kicks off the season on March 31st.  Until April 3rd, a number of exhibitions are on the menu, with work by up-and-coming artists like Juliette Binet and Olivier Tallec but alsoÉtienne Davodeau, Dominique Goblet, Édmond Baudoin and Christian Lax.  There will be interviews and debates, signings etc.  The main feature, however, will be an overview exhibition about the modern police and private eye comic in France.

Torino comics (In Turin, Italy, on April 8th – 11th) will celebrate venerable Donald Duck artist, Don Rosa, along with Italian comics stars such as Paolo Mottura, Giacomo Bevilaqua and Stefano Frassetto.  There will be a Star Wars fest, with David ‘Darth Vader’ Prowse himself, a cosplay competition and loads and loads of publishers and book dealers hawking their wares.

From the 14th until the 17th of April the city of Barcelona (Spain) is host to the 29th Salón del Cómic, which boasts a quite international roster of guests (Eddie Campbell, Alfredo Castelli, Garth Ennis, Kurt Busiek, Reinhard Kleist and more).  There will be exhibitions on the work of Ruben Pellejero (who also did the poster), on cats in comics, and on how comics look at the failed coup of 1981.  A zombie cosplay competition and assorted musical guests provide the fun.

The Rencontres du 9ieme Art in Aix-en-Provence, France has already been in full effect since March 22nd, but runs until April, 23rd.  Expositions on the history of L’Association, Maya Mihindou, Zeina Abirached (who also did the wonderful poster) and others, and a quite interesting show of comic art on matchboxes are on the agenda, as well as a number of interviews and roundtables, organised in co-operation with the Festival of Angoulême.

And the month closes with the Napoli Comicon (Naples, Italy, from April 29th to May 1st), which boasts quite an international roster of guests, with French stars Jean Regnaud and Émile Bravo (My Mommy), Maarten Van de Wiele and Nix from Belgium as well as Barbara Yelin, whose Gift is quite a hit in Germany. On May 1st, the Micheluzzi Award will be handed to Italian cartoonist Davide Reviati.

Also this month : Maasland Strip (Maasmechelen, Belgium) on April 3rd; Des Planches et des Vaches in Herrouville (France), on April 2nd – 3rd; the Mostra De Valencia (Spain), April 7th – 10th; Torino comics (Turin, Italy) on April 8th – 11th and the Festival BD de Rouan (France), from April 30th until May 1st).  If we haven’t listed your festival, drop us a line and we’ll make up for it next year !