ICAF 2009 and the Instituto Cervantes of Chicago proudly present:
Max & Pere Joan
Thursday, October 15, 6:30 to 8:30pm, at the Cervantes Institute
(for directions to the Institute, click here;
for more about the ICAF 2009 program, click here)
Please join us for presentations by and conversations with two of Spain's finest comic artists!
MAX will present:
Bardín: An Unusual Character (Bardín: un personaje poco corriente)
Catalan cartoonist MAX, born Francesc Capdevila (Barcelona, 1956), is probably Spain’s most internationally-known underground comics artist. A storyteller, illustrator, and book artist of diverse interests, Max is also the co-founder and co-editor, with Pere Joan, of NSLM (Nosostros Somos Los Muertos), a journal of avant-garde comics and graphics. Published biennially between 1995 and 2007, NSLM provided a platform for, and greatly boosted international awareness of, alternative cartooning in Spain.
One of Spain’s leading graphic artists and foremost proponents of comics as an art form, Max produces work that is by turns witty and disturbing, hysterical and grave, but always graphically exciting, even hypnotic.
Since entering the comics field in the 1970s, Max has published some seventeen comic albums in his native Spain, as well as over a score of translated volumes in diverse countries: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Finland, the UK, Brazil, Canada, and the USA. North American readers probably know Max best from two English-language translations, the graphic novel The Extended Dream of Mr. D (Drawn and Quarterly, 1999) and, more recently, the comics album Bardín the Superrealist (Fantagraphics, 2006), which earned him the Spanish National Comic Award as well as prizes for Best Work, Best Art, and Best Script at the International Comic Fair of Barcelona (FICOMIC). Both of these works display Max’s penchant for surreal and darkly humorous explorations of philosophy and the human mind, as well as his stunning graphic sense, influenced by the western European ligne claire ("clear line") tradition of comics but elaborated by Max into a handsome and poetic visual idiom like no other.
In addition to his comics, Max has illustrated a vast range of books that testifies to his artistic reach, including more than three dozen children’s books since 1990 (with translations in France, Portugal, and the USA), as well as a large handful of other books, ranging from sketchbooks and art books to such unusual titles as Orfícas, consisting of treatments of the Orpheus myth (1994), and Un perro en el grabado de Durero titulado “El Caballero, La Muerte y el Diablo” (A Dog in Durer’s Etching “The Knight, Death and the Devil,” 2006), an illustrated treatment of the classic text by Argentinean Marco Denevi.
Max has illustrated seven books in the series Filosofía para profanos (Philosophy for Laymen, 2001-), written by Maite Larrauri and covering such diverse thinkers as Gilles Deleuze, Simone Weil, and Epicurus. He has also produced many posters, book and record covers, editorial illustrations, and animations for music video. His illustrations won him the Spanish National Award for Children’s Illustration in 1997, and his art book DreamSpy (an anthology of his best illustrations) won him the Junceda Illustration Award in 2004.
Visit Max's website at http://www.maxbardin.com.
PERE JOAN will present:
Drawing Comics without Conflict or Resolution (Dibujar cómics sin nudo ni desenlace)
Like his friend and collaborator Max, Catalan artist PERE JOAN, born Pedro Juan Riera (Palma de Mallorca, 1956), is a protean and unclassifiable artist. A cartoonist, illustrator, painter, critic, and lyricist, he has had a long career both in and out of comics. Since entering the nascent Spanish alternative comics scene in the 1970s, he has created work for diverse periodicals, among them El Víbora, Cairo, Blanco y Negro, Snake, Star, Complot, Timber!, TBO, Bullets, Vol 502, Fort Cavall and Viñetas. In addition, his work has appeared widely in children's books and newspapers (he has created popular features for Diario de Mallorca and El Pequeño País). His work embraces a traditional ligne claire aesthetic, enlivened by his own surrealistic and distinctly personal touch.
From 1995 to 2007, Pere Joan co-directed, with Max, NSLM and its publishing operation. Based in Mallorca (not only Pere Joan's birthplace but also Max's adoptive home), NSLM and its allied publishing house, Inrevés, became an important nexus for comics, books, exhibitions, editorial illustration, graphic design, and educational materials. Publishing outstanding Spanish creators such as Linhart and Alex Fito, as well as translated work by non-Spanish cartoonists such as Julie Doucet and Lorenzo Mattotti, Inrevés gained a reputation as one of the best independent presses in Europe.
Among Pere Joan's most notable works are Pasajero en Tránsito (Passenger Transit, 1984), El cielo de Septiembre (The September Sky, 1987), and Mi cabeza bajo el mar (My Head Under the Sea, 1991), for which he earned the award for Best Work at the International Comic Fair of Barcelona (FICOMIC). His acclaimed work 16 novelas con hombres azules (16 Novels with Blue Men, 1996) combines comics, illustration, narrative, philosophy, and poetry.
In 1999 Glénat published a compilation of Pere Joan's best works entitled El hombre que se comió a sí mismo (The Man Who Ate Himself).
Pere Joan's most recent book is Azul y ceniza (Blue and ash, 2004), a series of reflections on people who have sacrificed their lives uselessly
More information about Pere Joan can be found at Bizancio Ediciones.
