Exhibition

Admiration for Kafka and the mystery of his work have steadily grown ever since his death a hundred years ago. Kafka’s influence is incredibly decisive on other authors. Countless graphic and visual artists have been captivated by stories that Paco Roca defines as «magical for illustrators». In many cases, they discovered them in their youth, stepping through Gregor Samsa’s bedroom door.

The writer’s influence, however, goes beyond that famous morning after an uneasy dream. Kafka’s fascination extends to his entire oeuvre and biography. The two are inseparable: “I am the novel, I am my stories”. This exhibition blends life and creation, offering a unique journey through the thirty authors who make up ‘Kafka Kaleidoscope’. Their gaze forms a prism that allows the visitor to enter Kafka’s universe in a different light, a territory full of unattainable architecture, seductive women and talking animals.

The exhibition includes original works, reproductions, audiovisuals, and unpublished material. Kafka’s mystery travels from text to image across all these exhibits, preserving an exuberant, imaginative, poetic, humorous and equally unrestricted essence when taking shape. We encourage you to peek into this mechanism we have built to enjoy a vision of a metamorphosed Kafka at every turn.

Carolina Ontivero
Exhibition Curator

Kaleidoscope Kafka’ will be exhibited from October 2 to 29 at the Etxepare and Axular halls of Bizkaia Aretoa – UPV/EHU (Abandoibarra, 3 – Bilbao). Free admission.

La metamorfosis – Miquel Barceló · Paco Roca · Manuel Marsol

Watercolor by Miquel Barceló for ‘The Transformation’ (Galaxia Gutenberg)

Miquel Barceló

I read The Metamorphosis when I was 13 or 14, in one night, in one sitting. Perhaps even twice in a row, as I sometimes used to do.

The very next day, returning home from school, I discovered my mother reading it in tears, whereas I had found it rather amusing and disturbing.

My mother cried just thinking that I had read THAT book.

I have since reread it several times. Probably every decade.

I consider it as a kind of essential, modern comic (“like Cervantes”).

As time goes by and events unfold, I find Franz Kafka increasingly relevant, revealing his Jewish humour, which is nothing but a very old form of humanism… a cosmic hopelessness…

Metamorphosis: change. The only one who doesn’t change is Gregor Samsa, he gets thinner at most, but he is the same from the moment he wakes up until the end. Everything around him is transformed. His father, his mother, his younger sister. The increasingly threatening outside world that we glimpse peeking through the cracks in the doors and windows.

Each reading reveals something we had long forgotten, and yet we knew.

Miquel Barceló
La transformación (Galaxia Gutenberg,  2020)

Paco Roca

I don’t remember when I first read ‘The Metamorphosis’, I think it was just a passage from a story in my school textbook. It must have been the beginning, a beginning that García Márquez considered to be one of the best in the history of literature.

It immediately hooked me and sparked a lot of feelings and images within me.

Years later I read the whole story and right after that, the rest of the short stories and novels. I was studying at the Design College at the time and “toyed” with the idea of transforming Kafka’s oppressive atmospheres into images.

Many years later I finally had the opportunity to illustrate ‘The Metamorphosis’, a story of infinite graphic interpretations. And that is what makes it a magical story for illustrators.

Paco Roca
2024

Manuel Marsol

I have often woken up in the morning after a restless sleep, just like Gregor Samsa. Almost six months have transpired since I reread The Metamorphosis in October 2014 until I concluded the work in March 2015. Throughout this time, I read the rest of Kafka’s work and several graphic novels and watched films and short films related to the author. I even fled to Prague with my girlfriend for a weekend and to Benidorm to my illustrator friend Ximo Abadía’s house, who took me in for a few days amidst vegetables and dogs while I searched for inspiration.

I crammed ideas and sketches into several notebooks, visited exhibitions and museums, and put the project on hold more than once to return to it, but, above all, I felt overwhelmed. “My friends and family would ask me, “Are you still at a standstill with Kafka?” and my worries were always the same: “How do I handle such a sacred text? How can I offer a different vision?

I wanted to document as much as possible by studying Kafka’s work and the countless artists who had approached it. And now, once the work is finished, I think that perhaps I overdid that research. I explored so many paths that I was overwhelmed. I couldn’t decide between the number of ideas I had written down. And besides, I couldn’t find the tone, the voice I wanted to convey to a story so firmly established in the popular imagination. Should I listen to Kafka and not draw the bug at all, as he himself had asked in a letter to his publisher? Or was it better to surrender to the temptation of depicting something as graphically appealing as the idea of an insect-monster locked in a room? I ended up entangled like Gregor in Augusto Monterroso’s short story:

“Once upon a time, there was a Cockroach named Gregor Samsa who dreamed it was a Cockroach named Franz Kafka who dreamed it was a writer who wrote about a desk clerk named Gregor Samsa who dreamed it was a Cockroach”.

The one thing that was clear to me and the editor from the beginning was that this edition of The Metamorphosis would be published in colour. It was a good starting point to break away from the image of black and white that has become so established in Kafka’s illustrated works. A first idea to avoid offering more of the same. But, obviously, that alone was not enough. It was necessary to avoid falling into the literal aspect, to preserve the reader’s capacity to imagine and not limit his or her interpretations. When walking through Prague, I paid close attention to the façades of its houses, especially to the windows. I imagined Gregor peering out from behind those glass panes or simply behind the walls. What was happening inside those houses? Although I did not return from Prague with clear ideas, not even having decided whether to show Samsa’s son, most of the images that appeared in the sketches in my notebooks left him out and focused instead on what might happen between the scenes narrated by Kafka.

Of all the endless interpretations of the text, I was particularly interested in the vision of the Russian film director Valeri Fokin in his Prevrashchenie (Metamorphosis), in which he opted to show Gregor as a human, but a human who moved as if he were an insect. According to this interpretation, Gregor could be an unwanted offspring hidden by the family. I thought the image of a family disgustedly looking at and recoiling from an equal was brilliant. A personal take on Kafka’s text that complemented it, I was looking for something like that. Besides, there was room for humour and irony. In the end, another idea came up parallel to the drawings I was doing at the time. As Sartre said: “Hell is other people”. Insects are those other people, those who are repulsed by Gregor and immediately reject him. Gregor would not appear, but his presence would “insecticise” the rest of the family (I don’t know why I didn’t listen to Kafka from the beginning). I also borrowed from Kafka himself the intimidating and suffocating presence of the father he relates in Letter to His Father, which conditions much of the author’s work and is also perceived in The Metamorphosis. Graphically, it took me many trials and errors to find the final tone for the illustrations. Along this road, for example, I switched from paper to wood as a resource to find the right atmosphere and textures. Artists such as Edvard Munch and, especially, Francis Bacon were references I grabbed hold of from the beginning. When I had not yet decided whether or not to show Gregor, I imagined him as one of those soft, shapeless figures of the Irish painter who are bedridden in a room whose limits are unclear, where perspective is confusing. Bacon’s sordid atmosphere conveys uncanniness in a realistic setting. I imagined how one could become an insect in one’s own room, looking at the clothes one will never be able to wear lying on the chair.

Some of the references I documented may have seeped into the Samsa family home: something of the low ceilings from Orson Welles’s The Trial ; of the flesh-walls from Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers {Viskningar och rop} ; of the dirt on the floor of the Quay brothers; of the doll’s houses at the Prague Toy Museum; or the silence of Hammershøi; and what about those curtains? Where have I seen them? in an empty hotel at the foot of a mountain in Colorado, perhaps?

I’ve already said I didn’t sleep well during the whole “process”. Looking back through the notebooks now, I see those blocking moments in small sketches that are repeated over and over again. I remember the feeling of spending days thinking about a scene without daring to draw, paralysed by doubts. In the end, there was only one thing that saved me: to get on with it without knowing how it was going to end. To keep moving forward. Pasting tiny squares of paper like bricks, waiting for my subconscious or intuition to put order on its own in all the ideas and references I had accumulated. I hope my excessive responsibility did not detract from the freshness of the images. That was my battle.

Manuel Marsol. April 2015

Robert Crumb

Cartoonist, illustrator, and musician Robert Crumb (Philadelphia, 1943) was one of the most prominent figures of the American underground comics and counterculture movement of the 1960s. He created hugely popular characters such as Fritz the Cat and Mr.  Natural, Mr.  Snoid and the She-Devil. The latter was the epitome of his distinctive women character with plump buttocks, legs and ankles. At the height of his success, he designed album covers for well-known bands and starred in Terry Zwigoff’s cult documentary ‘Crumb’. In the 1990s, fed up with his fame, he moved to the south of France with his wife, fellow comic book artist Aline Kominsky. He has lived there ever since, continuing his work, which has yielded immense results, such as his illustrations for Kafka’s biography (written by David Zane Mairowitz) and his adaptation of The Genesis, both books published in Spain by La Cúpula. Crumb’s work has been exhibited in the most important European and American museums. In 2013, he was awarded the fourth BBK Ja!

Miquel Barceló

(Mallorca, 1957) is one of the most outstanding Spanish artists on the international contemporary art scene. Best known for his pictorial work and his taste for experimenting with forms and materials, Barceló has worked in places as diverse as Barcelona, Portugal, Palermo, Paris, Geneva, New York, the Himalayas, and Mali. His work has been exhibited in art venues all over the world, including the Louvre Museum, the Picasso Museum in Paris, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. A voracious reader since childhood, he has illustrated Dante’s ‘The Divine Comedy’, Goethe’s ‘Faust’ and Kafka’s ‘The Metamorphosis’, all published by Galaxia Gutenberg. He has received many awards and distinctions throughout his career, including the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts in 2003. He currently lives between Mallorca and Paris.

Paco Roca

(Valencia, 1969) is one of the most internationally renowned Spanish illustrators and cartoonists. Creator of the character that emerged in El País Semanal and that later resulted in the trilogy collected in the full-length book ‘Memorias de un dibujante en pijama’, also author of ‘Arrugas’, ‘El invierno del dibujante’, ‘Los surcos del azar’, ‘La casa’, ‘La encrucijada’ -in collaboration with musician José Manuel Casañ (Seguridad Social)-, “El tesoro del Cisne Negro” -with screenplay by Guillermo Corral and adapted by Alejandro Amenábar for the cinema-, “Regreso al Edén” and “El abismo del olvido” -with Rodrigo Terrasa-, all of them published by Astiberri. He illustrated the book ‘La metamorfosis y otros cuentos de Franz Kafka’ for this publishing house. His comics have been awarded, among others, the National Comic Prize in 2008, the Goya for the best-adapted script for ‘Arrugas’ in 2011, the Excellence Award in Japan, the Inkpot Award at the San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, and the Eisner 2020 for the best foreign work. His work has been featured in many exhibitions and retrospectives, such as ‘Paco Roca Dibujante Ambulante’, which was shown at the Ja! Festival in 2014.

Ana Juan

(Valencia, 1961) she is one of Spain’s most international illustrators. After studying Fine Arts, she moved to Madrid, where she began her professional career in Madriz and La Luna de Madrid magazines. She has contributed to the newspapers El País and El Mundo and has been commissioned worldwide to design book covers, posters, advertising campaigns, and publications of all kinds. Among her most outstanding creations is her work for The New Yorker magazine, where she has designed twenty-five covers to date. She also writes. She is the author of the children’s books ‘Snowhite’, ‘Comenoches’ and ‘Circus’ and illustrated books for adults, several of them published by Nórdica Editorial. In 2010, she received the National Illustration Award. Her work has been the subject of many exhibitions in Spain and Mexico and in cities such as New York and Tokyo. She currently lives and works in Madrid, where she continues to illustrate, paint and narrate stories through images.

https://anajuan.net/

Fernando Vicente

Self-taught, Fernando Vicente’s (Madrid, 1963) first works as an illustrator appeared in the first half of the eighties in Madriz and La luna de Madrid magazines. After a decade focused on the advertising industry, where he was art director in several agencies, he returned to the illustration field in 1999. Since then, he has regularly contributed to the newspaper El País and its supplements, particularly his creations for Babelia. He has worked for magazines such as Vogue, Letras Libres, Rock de Lux and Playboy and illustrated portraits, posters, and many record and book covers. He has also illustrated over twenty books for children, young people, and adults.His work, collected in several publications, including ‘El arte de Fernando Vicente’  (Norma Editorial), stands out for its literary connections. He has been exhibited in numerous collective and individual exhibitions, with the retrospective Universos (2011) deserving special mention.

https://www.fernandovicente.es/

Renáta Fučíková

(Prague, 1964) She graduated in applied arts in her hometown. A prolific artist, she is the author and illustrator of numerous books for young people and adults. She combines her artistic career with creating children’s programmes for the National Theatre in Prague. Her work has been awarded many prizes, including the White Raven Prize (three times), the Czech Gold Ribbon Prize for Best Illustrations for Children’s Literature (five times), the First Prize at the Biennial of Illustrations in Tehran (1999) and the IBBY Honour List (1998). Among other works, she is the author of the illustrations for ‘Franz Kafka. A Man of His Time and Our Own ‘ (Red Fox Books), a biography of Kafka written by the poet Radek Malý.

http://www.renatafucikova.cz/

Max

Francesc Capdevila, ‘Max’ (Barcelona, 1956), is one of the most important personalities in Spanish comics. Author of comic strips and illustrator, having published some thirty comics since his beginnings in the magazine El Víbora, he is the sire of such delirious, surrealist and endearing characters as Bardín, Peter Pank or the storytelling devil. His published works feature ‘Vapor’ ‘ and “¡Oh diabólica ficción!”, both published by Ediciones La Cúpula. One of his recent works is ‘El tríptico de los encantados (una pantomima bosquiana)’, a comic about the work of El Bosco commissioned by the Prado Museum. For years, he has had a weekly cartoon section, ‘Trampantojos’, in Babelia, the cultural supplement of the newspaper El País. His work as an illustrator includes posters, album covers, animation and illustrations for the press and books. Among the latter, ‘El fogonero’ by Franz Kafka for Nórdica Libros. He has been awarded, among others, the National Comic Prize (2007), the Grand Prize at the Barcelona Comic Fair (2000) and the Ignatz Award (USA, 1999).

https://max-elblog.blogspot.com/

Nicolas Mahler

Born in 1969 in Vienna, where he currently lives, Nicolas Mahler is a cartoonist and illustrator. His comics and cartoons are published in leading German-language newspapers and magazines such as Die Zeit, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Titanic. He is known for his literary adaptations in comic form: the graphic novel interpreting Thomas Bernhard’s ‘Alte Meister (Old Masters)’, ‘Alice in Sussex’, based on the adventures of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’, which is published by Salamandra Graphics, where ‘Franz Kafkas Nonstop Lachmaschine (Franz Kafka’s Nonstop Laughing Machine)’, Nicolas Mahler’s unique biography about Kafka, has also been published in 2024. Some of his comics have been adapted for film and theatre. He has been awarded several prizes for his work, including the Max & Moritz al in 2010 and the Preis der Literaturhäuse in 2015.

Tom Gauld

The illustrator and cartoonist Tom Gauld (Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 1976) is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Scientist and The Guardian, a newspaper in which he has published a weekly cartoon for years, whose strips have been collected in several books published in Spain by Salamandra Graphic: ‘You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack’, ‘Baking with Kafka’, ‘Department of Mind-Blowing Theories’ and ‘Revenge of the Librarians’. His illustrations feature a strong link to the literary world. Tom Gauld now lives with his family in London, where he continues to illustrate covers and publications of all kinds, including his weekly cartoons in The Guardian.

https://www.tomgauld.com/

Peter Kuper

American graphic artist Peter Kuper (New Jersey, 1958) has his work published regularly in The New Yorker, The Nation, and Mad, where he has also published his comic strip ‘Spy vs. Spy’ for over twenty-six years. He is a co-founder of World War 3 Illustrated, a political comics magazine. He has produced more than two dozen books, including comic book adaptations of many of Franz Kafka’s works, including ‘The Metamorphosis’, published in Spain by Astiberri, and ‘Kafkaesque’, in Sexto Piso, an adaptation of fourteen of Kafka’s most iconic stories, including ‘In the Penal Colony’ and ‘A Hunger Artist’. Peter Super was a professor at The School of Visual Arts in New York and currently teaches graphic novels at Harvard University. His exhibition ‘INterSECTS: Where Arthropods and Homo sapiens Meet’ was exhibited at the New York Public Library in 2022.

https://peterkuper.squarespace.com/

Luis Scafati

(Mendoza, Argentina, 1947). He studied art at the National University of Cuyo. His works have been exhibited in Barcelona, Frankfurt and Madrid and are in the collections of important museums, including the Museo Sívori, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Argentina; the House of Humour and Satire in Bulgaria; the Collection of Cartoon in Switzerland and the University of Essex in England. His work has been published in Brazil, Korea, Spain, France, England, Italy, Mexico and the Czech Republic. In 1981 he won the Grand Prize of Honour at the National Drawing Salon, the highest distinction that can be awarded to a cartoonist in Argentina. He has illustrated editions of classics such as ‘Don Quijote de la Mancha’, ‘Martín Fierro’, ‘The Metamorphosis’, ‘The Castle’, ‘The Black Cat’ and ‘The Scarlet Plague’, among others.

Fernando Falcone

The illustrator Fernando Falcone (Buenos Aires, 1977) studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón in his hometown. He has mainly worked for the publishing industry for many years, both in his country and the Spanish and French markets. He is known for his use of various techniques, ranging from drawing with pencils, pastels, and watercolours to different combinations of these materials with digital retouching. His speciality is in his illustrations of fantasy, horror, gothic, and mythological themes aimed at people of all ages. Surrealistic elements, peculiar beings and dreamlike atmospheres abound. He is the author, among other books, of the illustrations for the classics The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.  Hyde‘ by Robert Stevenson and “The Canterbury Ghost” by Oscar Wilde, both published by Alma, and ’The Trial’ by Kafka, published by Akal.

Tavo Montañez

Gustavo Díaz Montañez (Aguscalientes, Mexico, 1984), Tavo Montañez, studied graphic design at the Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes, where he lives. He works as a freelance illustrator, and from his studio, he collaborates on different publications and projects in Mexico, the United States, Uruguay, Spain, Israel, the United Kingdom, Holland, and Norway. He has made illustrations for creative agencies, books, magazines, posters, advertising, television, and designs for museums and universities. He works with analogue techniques, mainly pencil and ink on paper, combining traditional drawing with computer processing and also creating fully digital illustrations. Among his works, he is the author of the illustrations for Kafka’s ‘The Metamorphosis’ published by Akal.

Federico Delicado

(Badajoz, 1956) Drawing has fascinated him since he was a child, and he graduated in Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid. He took his first steps in the illustration industry in the 1970s, working for a publishing house specialising in audiovisual material. His illustrations stand out for their artistic value and evocative power. He illustrates books for publishers such as Anaya and SM for children and young people, but also for adults. Kafka’s ‘A Hunger Artist’, Roald Dahl’s ‘The Bookseller’ and ‘Taste’, and C.P. Cavafis’ “Ithaca”, published by Nórdica Editorial, are some examples. He contributes to different media, such as the newspaper El País and El Correo de Andalucía. He has participated in several exhibitions, both in Spain and abroad.

Jaromír 99

Jaromír Švejdík (Jeseník, Czech Republic, 1963). Jaromír 99 is a singer, composer and artist best known for his work with Jaroslav Rudiš on the comic trilogy Alois Nebel, published in Spain by Gallo Nero. He worked as co-writer and cartoonist on the animated film adaptation of this trilogy, which received the European Film Academy’s award for Best Animated Feature Film. In 2013, he adapted Kafka’s ‘The Castle’ as a graphic novel for SelfMadeHero, which was nominated for the prestigious Eisner Award. Written by David Zane Mairowitz, it is published in Spain by Nórdica Editorial, where you can also find ‘De momento bien’, a graphic novel written by Jan Novák and illustrated by Jaromír 99, who currently lives and works in Prague.

Antonio Santos

(Huesca, 1955). He studied Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona. He is an illustrator, writer, sculptor and painter. His work includes, most notably, his contributions to books by Nórdica Editorial, including his illustrations for Kafka’s La Metamorfosis and those for several books written by Jesús Marchamalo: ‘Kafka con sombrero’, ‘Hierro fumando’, ‘El rinoceronte del rey’, ‘Delibes en bicicleta’ and ‘El bolso de Blixen’. His work was awarded the Daniel Gil Prize for Best Children’s Book in 2003. He has had more than sixty individual exhibitions and a retrospective of his work in the illustration field under the title ‘El oficio de ilustrar’, which can be seen in the Paraninfo of the University of Zaragoza.

Tomás Hijo

Illustrator born in Salamanca in 1974, he distinguishes himself for his work as an engraver for the national and international market. He has illustrated more than seventy books and written ten, which have been published by publishing houses in Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, Iran, and China. Most of them are related to legends, magic and folklore. He is co-creator of the Tarot del Toro, in collaboration with Guillermo del Toro, and of Labyrinth Tarot, licensed and supervised by The Jim Henson Company, prop designer for ‘Nightmare Alley’, directed by Guillermo del Toro, and storyboard artist for ‘Concursante’, directed by Rodrigo Cortés. Illustrator for Cuarto Milenio, a programme directed by Iker Jiménez and ‘Les portes du temps’, a project featuring art direction by John Howe, he has also created merchandising for the Netflix series ‘Stranger Things’. He was a professor of design and illustration at the University of Salamanca for twelve years. He won the Tolkien Society Best Artwork Award in 2015 and has had his work exhibited in numerous galleries in Europe and the United States.

https://tomashijoart.bigcartel.com/

Sara Morante

(Torrelavega, 1976) She has illustrated novels, short stories, poetry books and essays by Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Lewis Carroll, Katherine Mansfield, Edgar Allan Poe, César Vallejo, Alaine Agirre, Emily Brontë, Miguel Hernández, Mark Twain, Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, Benito Pérez Galdós, Patricia Esteban Erlés, V. Garshín, Hans Christian Andersen, Fabrice Gaignault and Raúl Vacas. Her work extends to over fifty book covers, including Carson McCullers’ work published in Spanish. She received the Euskadi Illustration Award 2012 for her work on ‘La flor roja’. As an author, she has written and illustrated ‘La vida de las paredes’ (Lumen, 2015) and ‘Flor fané’ (Astiberri, 2021). She has exhibited individually and collectively on several occasions. She contributes to the press and advertising and teaches courses and seminars on illustration.

http://saramorante.com

David de las Heras

(Bilbao 1984) Visual artist and illustrator. He holds a degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country and graduated in Illustration from the Escola Massana. His work as a painter has been exhibited in countries such as Germany and Portugal, as well as various galleries in different cities around the country. As an illustrator, he has published several books such as ‘Martín de grumete a capitán’ or the book by the writer Julio LLamazares ‘Atlas de la España imaginaria’, published by Nórdica Libros. He has further specialised in book covers. His work for ‘Instrumental’, by pianist James Rhodes, published by Blackie Books and the book ‘Kalimán en Jericó’, by the publishing house Bambú, awarded as the best cover of 2015 in the Junceda awards, are worth mentioning. His work has also been published in newspapers such as El País, in the Cultural section of ABC, and on several covers of El País Semanal.

https://www.daviddelasheras.net

Manuel Marsol

(Madrid, 1984) Illustrator and writer specialising in the creation of illustrated albums. He holds a degree in Advertising and Audiovisual Communication and completed a postgraduate course in Children’s Illustration at the EINA School in Barcelona. His work has been published in countries such as France, Portugal, Italy, China, Japan and South Korea. He received the International Illustration Award at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2017 for ‘Yōkai’ (Fulgencio Pimentel 2017), co-written with Carmen Chic; the Edelvives International Illustrated Album Award for her first illustrated book ‘Ahab y la ballena blanc’a (Edelvives 2014) and the V Ibero-American Illustration Catalogue Award for “O tempo do Gigante” (Orfeu Negro 2015), also co-written with Carmen Chica. He has illustrated Kafka’s ‘The Metamorphosis’ (Astro Rey, 2015), Sacher-Masoch’s ‘Venus in Furs’ (Sexto Piso 2016) and Conrad’s ‘The Duel’ (Factoría de elefantes 2018), among other books. He has also designed covers for Anagrama, Libros del K.O. and Babelia, the cultural supplement of El País.

https://manuelmarsol.com/

Manu Quintero

(Granada, 1990). His first educational stage ended in a neuroethology lab, but he finally reconsidered and exchanged science for a truly prosperous profession, illustration. He began training at the Escuela de Arte de Granada and for the past few years has been working as an illustrator in various fields, including the project ‘Retratos de la vida de Ayala’, for the Francisco Ayala Foundation in Granada; the publication of the illustrated book ‘Informe para una academia’, based on the text by Kafka; he has illustrated for musical projects (such as Elsa Bhör and Fig.1, by Raúl Bernal); he has painted and designed for the podcast Remanece; he has returned to the Escuela de Arte de Granada as a speaker at La semana del diseño; and he is also a member of the project Babies don’t Cry, live rock concerts drawn for babies.

https://grupocu.com/

Miguel Almagro

Born in 1967 in Ceuta, leaving at eight to move with his family to Barcelona, the cartoonist Miguel Almagro – ‘miguel almagro’ (in lower case, please). He made his debut in fanzines such as Pan y Pan and occasionally contributed to the magazine Cimoc in its early days. After that, he became a contributor to Toutain’s magazines, publishing eight short comics in Tótem el Comix and Zona 84. Subsequently, alternating with his main work, he has contributed to publications such as Bocetos, Lardín u Ojos de gacela and participated in collective comics such as Paz / МИР. In 2022, he published ‘Krakj!’ in Isla de Nabumbu publishing house and is currently preparing La Soledad de las cigüeñas, which will be published by Cósmica editorial.

Alex Orbe

(Barakaldo 1973) is a freelance illustrator of children’s and young people’s books, textbooks, advertising illustrations, animation, and comics. He is the creator of nearly thirty illustrated books, including comics such as ‘Los enciclopedistas’ (Astiberri, 2018) and ‘El invasor’ (Astiberri, 2024), both with a script by Jose A. Pérez Ledo, and ‘Sigue a la hormiga’, scripted by Unai Elorriaga (Harriet, 2021). He has contributed to numerous comic books, as well as to several collective albums such as ‘Historias del Olvido’ (Dolmen), ‘Yes, We camp’ (Dibbuks), ‘Puro Perú’ (Cesal) or ‘Fito. Y por supuesto la luna’ (BAO).

https://dibus6.wixsite.com/alexorbe

Asier Sanz

(Bilbao, 1969) is an illustrator, cartoonist and collage artist. He began publishing in Bilbao newspaper in 1987 and later continued his career in Deia, ETB, TVE and Mundo Deportivo. In 1999, he joined the graphic humourist duo Asier and Javier. This relationship has resulted in the publication of daily strips in Diario 16 and Diario Metro, as well as collaborations in El Jueves, Deia, Onda Vasca, Orgullo y Satisfacción, Bilbao newspaper, and 20minutos. He has devised and developed advertising campaigns and illustrated several books. His work has been awarded several international prizes. His caricature of Donald Trump, made using a collage technique with banana, chorizo and mortadella, was exhibited at the Design Museum of London in 2018 and was his first worldwide viral collage.

https://asiersanz.com/

Rodrigo Cortés

(Pazos Hermos, Orense, 1973) He wanted to be a painter, writer and musician; today, he does it all simultaneously by devoting himself to cinema. He was the director for Robert de Niro and Sigourney Weaver in ‘Red Lights’, Ryan Reynolds in ‘Buried’ and Uma Thurman in ‘Blackwood’. As a writer, Editorial Delirio published his two collections of “anti-aphorisms, breveries and hand bombs”, ‘A las 3 son las 2’ and ‘Dormir es de patos’, and the novel ‘Sí importa el modo en que un hombre se hunde’. His latest book is ‘Cuentos telúricos’ (2024), published by Random House, as well as his novel ‘Los años extraordinarios’ and the satirical dictionary ‘Verbolario’, which originated as part of the section of the same name that the author has maintained since 2015 in the newspaper ABC, where he is also a regular contributor. He discusses film, literature and music in two of the most popular podcasts of the moment: ‘Todopododerosos’ and ‘Aquí hay dragones’, alongside ArturoGonzález-Campos, Javier Cansado and Juan Gómez-Jurado.

Caroline Leaf

(Seattle, Washington 1946) is a filmmaker, experimental artist and teacher. She has produced numerous animated short films throughout her career, and her work has been recognised worldwide. She was one of the first filmmakers to join the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), where she worked from 1972 to 1991. During this period, she created several animation techniques. She is known for manipulating watercolours and gouache with her fingers on glass, which she used in The Street, which was nominated for an Academy Award, and the mixture of sand and paint on glass used in films such as The Metamorphosis of Mr.  Samsa, an adaptation of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. She currently lives in London. She has a studio where she works using oil and paper and draws landscapes with an iPad. She is also a lecturer at the National Film and Television School. Her work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions.

http://www.carolineleaf.com/index.php

Javier Jaén

(Barcelona, 1983) Javier Jaén was born the same year Joan Miró died, TIME magazine chose the computer as the machine of the year, and the A-Team was broadcast for the first time. He shares his birthday with Bruce Springsteen, Ray Charles, Julio Iglesias and the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus. He studied Graphic Design and Fine Arts in Barcelona, New York and Budapest. His professional career has focused on graphic design, editorial illustration, audiovisual projects, advertising, cultural communication, teaching and creating his own work. He has worked for The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, La Vanguardia, El País, Random House Mondadori, Planeta, Vueling Airlines, Unesco and Greenpeace. His work has been awarded several prizes: American Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, Print Magazine-New Visual Artists (2013), Gràffica Award (2010), The Society of Publication Designers (Gold 2018), Feroz Awards (2022) and Society for News Design (2022). He has participated in exhibitions in New York, London, Mexico, El Salvador, Tallinn, Seoul, Rotterdam, Paris and Rome. In 2022, he starred in his first retrospective ‘Primer asalto’ at Ja! Festival.

https://javierjaen.com/

Javier Olivares

(Madrid, 1964). Illustrator and cartoonist, his career began with the magazine Madriz in the eighties, and since then, he has combined his work in a number of magazines, including El País Semanal and newspapers: El Mundo or The Boston Globe, with the illustration of books for children and adults. Among his most outstanding comics are Cuentos de la estrella legumbre, La caja negra and Las crónicas de Ono y Hop. He has published El extraño caso del Doctor Jekyll y Míster Hyde, Las meninas and La cólera together with the scriptwriter Santiago García. La cólera was awarded the Zona Cómic-CEGAL prize for the best national work of 2020 awarded by the network of bookshops specialising in comics, a category in which he also received the top prize in the 2020 Lorna, Aragonese comics and Dolmen magazine’s critics’ awards. He has also contributed to the books El silencio se mueve and Prisioneros de Zenda with Fernando Marías. Some of his latest works include illustrating The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle, a new edition of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Luces de bohemia by Valle-Inclán, The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H. P. Lovecraft, Dracula by Bram Stoker, and participating in the collective comic book Efectos secundarios. In 2023, ‘El enigma Pertierra’ was published by Astiberri. Launched along with Fernando Marías, ‘El enigma Pertierra’ is a long-range project of the Olivares/ Pertierra duo to which Ja! The Festival dedicated an exhibition in 2023.

Joaquín Pertierra

An elusive illustrator and draughtsman, Joaquín Pertierra (Bilbao 1919 – Madrid 2002) worked abroad for most of his career, which spanned from the 1940s to the 1980s. Endowed with a very particular graphic style, his work seemed ahead of its time, which is why it was better suited to foreign publishers, who were more daring, modern and willing to take risks at that time. He produced many covers for publishers such as Dolphin, Sandclock and Bell, as well as numerous jazz and classical album covers for the international labels Stereo Dynamic and Hign Fidelity. As a comic artist, he was only able to produce two works, both autobiographical in nature. One of his most personal projects, a large series of drawings and paintings about the Civil War, never saw the light of day. In 2023, the Ja! festival organised ‘El enigma Pertierra’, the first retrospective on the author of elongated shadow.

Kōji Yamamura

(Nagoya, Japan, 1964) is an animator and filmmaker. In the 1990s, he made children’s films such as Pacusi and Bavel’s Book. He is a director, scriptwriter, editor, creator, and producer of his own short films. Two of his best-known films are Mt. Head‘, nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film in 2002 and ‘Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor’, winner of the Ottawa Grand Prix in 2007. His first feature, Dozens of Norths (2021), won the Grand Prize for Animated Feature at the 46th Ottawa International Animation Festival. He is also a regular illustrator of children’s literature and textbooks. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Vice President of the Japan Animation Association, and member of ASIFA Japan. He has been a visiting professor at Tokyo Zokei University, the China Academy of Art, and Aichi University of the Arts and has been a professor at Tokyo University of the Arts since 2008.

http://www.yamamura-animation.jp/En_top.html