18 graphic novels to celebrate Comics and Comics Day

Until last year, I didn't even have a day to celebrate.

Now, they have dedicated a whole week to it, with their own website.

The evolution of the official day of Comics and Comics, which celebrates its second edition this Sunday, serves as a summary of the creative moment that comics are experiencing, with works of all types, genres and colors, very simple or tremendously complex, traditional or groundbreaking.

And, also, the growing recognition, which is finally putting aside prejudices about the graphic novel.

Among the events coordinated by the Ministry of Culture since last Monday, there was a posthumous tribute to the cartoonist Carlos Pacheco in Cádiz or a series of conferences on comic strips in Madrid.

But also the second meeting of the Working Group on the sector: no matter how much talent shines, precariousness overshadows the daily lives of almost all authors.

While waiting for their working conditions to improve, you can enjoy their works.

Furthermore, this year's official poster calls for “a slow and comprehensive reading,” according to its author, the latest National Prize winner, Borja González.

To do this, here is a list of recommendations.

A vignette from the graphic novel 'They shot the pianist', by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, published by Salamandra Graphic.

They shot the pianist

,

by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal

(Salamandra Graphic).

The story of the disappearance of the Brazilian musician Tenorio Cerqueira Júnior after performing together with Vinicius de Moraes and Toquinho.

A wonderfully crafted comic at a graphic level, with a warm and enveloping atmosphere in each panel and a script with a documentary rhythm.

By Jacobo Rivero.

Vignettes from 'You know it even though I haven't told you', by Candela Sierra, edited by Astiberri.

You know it even though I haven't told you

, by Candela Sierra

(Astiberri).

We don't listen, we don't look at each other, we forget each other, we read diagonally, we pretend, we avoid contact, we lock ourselves in our cell phones.

Every era may have its flaws.

Ours, of course, are wonderfully narrated in an ideal book to stop and look at what we have become.

And, at the same time, to be amazed at the power of comic book language.

By Tommaso Koch.

Detail of the cover of 'An octopus in the throat', by Zerocalcare, published by Reservoir Books.

An Octopus in the Throat

,

by Zerocalcare

(Reservoir Books).

An autobiographical story, like all Italian stories, that takes place during childhood.

The second of his books, which is now published in our country, already had all the characteristics of his work.

An adventure with two schoolmates, with that mixture of irony, humor and social bitterness so characteristic of his gaze.

By Jacobo Rivero.

Vignette from 'Calavera Lunar', by Albert Monteys, edited by Astiberri.

Moon Skull,

by Albert Monteys

(Astiberri).

Long before director Greta Gerwig turned a doll into a movie character, Albert Monteys had already turned an

Ayrgam Boys

into a comic book superhero.

The phenomenon did not reach the same biblical proportions as Barbie, but Lunar Skull won the hearts of national geeks, thanks to a dirty epic and a frenetic pace that turns each of her adventures into a delight.

More than 25 years have passed since the publication of his funny stories (Monteys' first solo works after his glorious time in the La Peñya collective), and Astiberri celebrated it with a special compilation that also offers a new comic strip by this hilarious galactic skull.

By Aitor Marín.

Double page of 'The Great Book of Cuttlas', by Calpurnio, published by Reservoir Books.

The great book of Cuttlas,

by Calpurnio

(Reservoir Books).

A fabulous compendium of the work of the Aragonese Eduardo Pelegrín.

A great book (more than 700 pages) to keep on your bedside table, consult during downtime and get caught up in the cowboy Cuttlas' comics that have not lost their relevance and brilliance.

By Jacobo Rivero.

Double page of 'Gertrude Stein and the Lost Generation', by Valentina Grande and Eva Rosetti, edited by Liana.

Gertrude Stein and the Lost Generation,

by Valentina Grande and Eva Rosetti

(Liana).

In the 20th century there was a brilliant Paris whose brilliance still continues to dazzle.

It was the city that inspired Picasso, Braque, Matisse.

The setting where Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Sherwood Anderson composed some of their writings.

A galaxy of art and culture that gravitated around a figure who, unlike her contemporaries, all names for posterity, has been blurred in the retelling of history: the American writer and patron Gertrude Stein.

Woman, lesbian and highly complex—sometimes admirable and other times clearly reprehensible—Stein is the protagonist of a comic titled with her name and recently published by Liana.

Written by Valentina Grande and drawn by Eva Rosetti, both authors of another title in the same publishing house dedicated to the pioneers of feminist art (

Feminist Art

), the book seeks to resituate Stein's name by praising her achievements without leaving aside the contradictions. her.

By Silvia Hernando.

Pages of 'Zeca Alfonso.

Balada do desterro', by Teresa Moure and Maria João Worm, published by aCentral Folque.

Zeca Afonso.

Balada do desterro

,

by Teresa Moure and Maria Joâo Worm

(aCentral Folque), available only in Portuguese.

The story of the legendary Portuguese musician who inspired the Carnation Revolution through the particular perspective of two authors.

A succession of poetic prints about his exile in Africa and Galicia of enormous conceptual beauty.

By Jacobo Rivero.

Cover of 'Fantastic Four 1', by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.

Marvel Library: The Fantastic Four,

by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee

(Panini).

Valentine's Day finally became official with a beautiful sixties

pin-up

:

The Fantastic Four

, their first superheroes, were finally going to jump into the Marvel cinematographic universe, thanks to a fourth adaptation led by Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby that will be Set in the colorful sixties.

Because, although no film has been able to capture it, this team is not only a pioneer in what it does, but it is the most colorful, bombastic and imaginative portrait that has ever been made in comics.

A scientist, his girlfriend, his brother-in-law and his best friend.

They are nothing more (nor less) than a dysfunctional family that faces the most gigantic events: from a devourer of worlds with his silver herald (watched by a hairless being who cannot interfere in terrestrial problems) to the megalomaniac dictator of a country of the Balkans going through the social complexes of being a man of stone.

The period of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, now compiled as it was born, with its original email included, is for readers avid of archeology (attentive to the sexist branches that escape in the era), but it breaks the schemes of the imagination so much that Without them it is impossible to understand what came next in the genre.

They are pure sixties, and sometimes their simplicity (accompanied by a drawing that is not at all simple) gives you everything you need.

By Eneko Ruiz Jiménez.

Cartoons from 'Krazy Kat', by George Harriman, edited by La Cúpula.

Krazy Kat,

by George Herriman

(The Dome).

Few works can produce such consensus about his mastery and influence.

For three decades, Herriman's work became a laboratory of continued experimentation with the language of comics, which was ahead of its time to the admiration of artists and intellectuals, opening paths yet to be exploited.

But few editions have done as much justice to this immense work as the one he published La Cúpula, which oozes love for this creation with an exquisite restoration and an extraordinary translation work by Rubén Lardín, a task that seemed impossible.

By Álvaro Pons.

Cartoons from 'White Shark', by Genie Espinosa, edited by Sapristi.

White shark,

by Genie Espinosa

(Sapristi).

Maude never knew her father.

But, when he dies, she has to go to the island where she lived, to arrange the paperwork and pick up her things.

Thus, her last goodbye is mixed with her first discovery: while she learns things about her parent, she says goodbye to him.

A story about loneliness and grief, which takes full advantage of the language of comics.

By Tommaso Koch.

Cartoons from 'Alvar Mayor', by Carlos Trillo and Enrique Breccia, edited by Dolmen.

Alvar Mayor Vol. 01,

by Carlos Trillo and Enrique Breccia

(Dolmen).

In these times when colonial memory is reopened and one enters the complex terrain of whether there was ethnocide, whether decolonization is necessary or not,

Alvar Mayor

proposes an alternative without moralism.

The Argentine comic legends Carlos Trillo and Enrique Breccia tell a story of wild adventures that has nothing to envy of Corto Maltés.

The authors are more concerned with faithfully portraying the society of 18th century New Spain than with taking ideological positions.

Dolmen recovers in full format the comics that were originally published in the magazine

Skorpio

between 1977 and 1983. The comic is titled after the protagonist, one of the first white people born on the new continent who will guide the conquerors and pirates in a world of mestizos. , indigenous people, shamans and new and old gods.

Volume two is published in April.

By Caio Ruvenal.

Double page of 'Mónica', by Daniel Clowes, edited by Fulgencio Pimentel.

Monica,

by Daniel Clowes

(Fulgencio Pimentel).

Impossible, at this point, to discover Daniel Clowes.

For years he has been considered one of the best comic creators in the world.

Many of the reasons are condensed in his latest work published in Spain, a decalogue of complexity, melancholy, surrealism and mysteries, through many genres and even more narrative layers.

Sects, duels, search for origins and disappointments are mixed.

It took the author five years to finish the work.

It was worth it.

By Tommaso Koch.

Detail of the cover of 'Lois Lane.

Enemy of the People', by Greg Rucka and Mike Perkins, published by ECC.

Lois Lane: Enemy of the People

,

by Greg Rucka and Mike Perkins

(ECC).

Lois Lane is that character that everyone recognizes, but that few actually know, especially in recent adaptations like that of Amy Adams.

Superman's girlfriend is a tenacious and argumentative journalist, who is not intimidated by a man in a red cape and who will always want to investigate to the bottom.

There's a reason no one but her could have discovered Clark Kent's secret identity.

In this collection, noir

expert

Greg Rucka and Mike Perkins' torn lines give another layer to her personality.

She is now the investigator of her own event, of her own series.

She may not be the best at grammar, but she has all the characteristics of those idealized film journalists who could uncover any international plot.

A mix between

The Three Days of the Condor

and

Marvels.

For all those lovers of the mythology of the superhero world who get bored when the superheroes start banging around.

By Eneko Ruiz Jiménez.

Cartoon from 'The Body of Christ', by Bea Lema, edited by Astiberri.

The Body of Christ

,

by Bea Lema

(Astiberri).

Mental illness has entered the usual themes of comics through graphic medicine, but Bea Lema has managed to go one step further, showing the impact that these problems have on the personal and family level, playing in a very original way with the style. to create, through embroidery, an organic link that connects the most intimate feeling with reality, with the conflicting emotions that are generated at every step.

By Álvaro Pons.

Cartoons from 'Question', by Dennis O'Neil and Denys Cowan, published by ECC.

Question Vol. 1: Zen and violence

,

by Denny O'Neil and Denys Cowan

(ECC).

Superhero comics do better when a renowned author takes on a character who was buried in oblivion.

Alan Moore demonstrated it with

Swamp Thing,

Grant Morrison with

Animal Man

or Denny O'Neil with

The Question.

The latter, after rescuing Batman in the seventies, would revive journalist Vic Sage with the same serious and, preferably, nocturnal tone.

The spectacular nature of the masked men is exchanged for a story that combines the police genre, social realism and philosophy.

Particularly chilling is number 5,

Cityscape

.

By Caio Ruvenal.

Detail of the cover of 'The Flintstones', by Mark Russell, Rick Leonardi and Steve Pugh, published by ECC.

The Flintstones,

by Mark Russell, Steve Pugh and Rick Leonardi

(ECC).

This comic reveals one of the best kept secrets in popular culture.

In a curious sequence, we discovered that Yabadabadú is a self-help phrase to treat in therapy veterans of the Paleolithic wars who deal with post-traumatic stress.

Soon, the scene turns into a critique of how the US treats its military.

A few pages later, we will see how this society with dinosaurs that scrub and mow the lawn is dealing with a new invention that endangers its values.

Put on your helmet: marriage is coming.

On television you hear: “It is an immoral attack on our way of life.”

We often forget that the old

Flintstones

series was nothing more than a reversal of the classic

sitcom,

the genre that has best shown social changes on television to a general audience, from the purest family routine.

It ranged from pregnancy (which first appeared in

I Love Lucy

) to gay marriage (in

Will and Grace

).

Its wonderful and groundbreaking comic adaptation simply transfers the conflict to the 21st century, in a genre with much fewer concealments, censorship and where verisimilitude is many steps above.

Such a simple thing, and at the same time groundbreaking.

From its routine and madness, this comic is one of the most biting and critical on the scene.

By Eneko Ruiz Jiménez.

Illustration from the book 'El abismo del olvido', by Paco Roca and Rodrigo Terrasa, edited by Astiberri.

Astiberri Editorial

The abyss of oblivion,

by Paco Roca and Rodrigo Terrasa

(Astiberri).

Memory is a recurring theme in the work of Paco Roca, who this time has teamed up with the journalist Rodrigo Terrasa to reconstruct with detail and emotion the exhumation work of a mass grave from the Civil War in the Paterna cemetery (Valencia). .

Based on the story of Pepita Celda, an 81-year-old woman whose father, shot by the Civil Guard at the end of the war, lies in that unmarked grave, the authors create a profound reflection on the need to recover memory.

Roca's graphic and narrative work is, as usual, a master class, to which on this occasion the rigor and exhaustive research work of Terrasa are added to complete another essential work of Spanish comics.

By Aitor Marín.

A vignette from 'Dry Cleaning', by Joris Mertens, edited by Planeta Cómic.

Dry cleaning,

by Joris Mertens

(Comic Planet).

Very few words, many silences and some prodigious drawings come together to tell the strange story of François.

Not that there is much to tell: a bland, repetitive existence, with hardly any spark.

The same disappointing job, the same beer, the same failed attempt at the lottery.

Day after day, while it doesn't stop pouring outside.

Until the man finds a bag.

And, perhaps, a hope for change.

For the better?

By Tommaso Koch.

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I am already a subscriber

_