Now that the comic has grown older and is rampant in respectable cultural centers such as Caixaforum or the CCCB, the question seems obligatory. Or, at least, relevant. Is it worth organizing a great exhibition, an anthology of originals and unpublished, which can only be seen for three days? And while we’re at it, is a fairgrounds the best place to display cartoons and illustrations? The answer, like Jarabe de Palo, would be that it depends. Of the desire, the state of the accounts and how I know of the season.
Thus, after a year of struggling, closer to no than to yes (the pandemic, by the way, did not help either), the Comic Barcelona recovers the taste for large exhibitions, one of its superpowers in its previous incarnation as the Comic Fair, and is preparing to open its doors next Friday, March 31, blowing out candles Zipi and Zape, celebrating the talent of Daniel Torres and remembering the late Carlos Pacheco. «We do not stop betting on the exhibitions. We want to emphasize his special role”, highlighted the director of Ficomic, Meritxell Puig, during the presentation of the contest. Those of this year, in addition, “are very varied and seek to reflect all the trends and styles that exist today in the rich world of comics.”
That leading role that Puig refers to translates, for example, into a great anthology dedicated to Daniel Torres,winner of the 2022 Barcelona Comic Grand Prix and author of titles such as ‘La casa’, ‘Picasso en la guerra civil’ and ‘El futuro que no fue’. As Antoni Guiral, curator of the exhibition, has advanced, ‘The architecture of the cartoons’ draws on a hundred originals in black and white, color proofs, sketches and scripts. Four decades of work summarized in a dozen sections and with the cartoons turned into a round trip (and return) ticket to the creative universe of the Valencian cartoonist.
The double facet of the canary David Lopez roleplaying and penciling the Captain Marvel, Catwoman, and Batman series for Marvel and DC; a tribute to Carlos Pacheco by his professional colleagues; and a review of the renewal of graphic humor made by women through the work of artists such as Flavita Banana, Agustina Guerrero, Rocío Quillahuaman, Moderna de Pueblo, Monstruo Spaghetti, Lola Vendetta and Roberta Vázquez, among others, confirm the commitment of Cómic Barcelona for the stylistic variety of the genre.
And if that was not enough, Zipi and Zapethey will celebrate their 75th anniversary with an exhibition that brings together fifty originals, some of them unpublished, by Escobar; and Genie Espinosa, one of the protagonists of the exhibition ‘Constellación gráfica’ and Miguel Gallardo award winner as the revelation author of the Cómic Barcelona 2022, I have been in charge of designing an exhibition that reviews her career in design and illustration and her leap into graphic novels with the dystopian and feminist ‘Hoops’.
Halfway between cinema and illustration, the contest will also take advantage of its 41st edition to sneak into the studio of Alex de la Iglesia and show “how the filmmaker has fun and how he creates” through original drawings, workbooks and large illustrations. There will be, for example, the pages of his first comics, collaborations with fanzines, designs for his role-playing games, ‘concept art’ for his films, ‘storyboards’ and spontaneous sketches.
In addition to the taste for exhibitions, Cómic Barcelona is also recovering its international presence and will bring authors such as James Tynion IV, author of ‘The department of truth’ and some of the most celebrated titles of contemporary Batman; and Rick Remender, quoted ‘showrunner’ and creator of ‘Lethal Class’ and ‘Low’. Zerocalcare, Anne Simon, Aude Picault, Barbara Stok, Igort, Léa Murawiec and Sammy Harkham complete the list of authors invited to a Cómic Barcelona that hopes to surpass the 110,000 assistants from last year.