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The festival, which will celebrate its 40th edition from May 6 to 8 with a retrospective on the history of the medium over the last four decades, will dedicate an exhibition to the late creator of Makoki and will rename the Revelation Award after him
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With a poster by Carla Berrocal, the show confirms for now the visit of Peter Bagge, Nora Krug and John Allison
With a tribute to the cartoonist Miguel Gallardo, who passed away on February 21, with an exhibition that will cover the career of the creator of Makoki and author of ‘María y yo’ in the world of comics and illustration, in addition to renaming the Revelation Award after him and dedicating talks and conferences, the Barcelona comic will return to attendance 100% two years after the coronavirus forced the cancellation of the 2020 festival. It will be from May 6 to 8, in pavilions 2 and 5 and the Plaza del Univers de Fira Montjuïc, in a 40th edition which actually should have been held in 2021, but then the pandemic still relegated it to an ‘online’ version. Another retrospective exhibition will cover precisely the key moments and characters of the four decades that have elapsed since the fair was born in 1981 as the Barcelona Comic and Illustration Fair, in addition to reviewing the history and evolution of the medium in Spain.
With two months to go until the festival, his director, Meritxell Puigthe visit of some of the confirmed international authors has already advanced this Wednesday: the American peter bagge (‘I hate’), the British John Allison (‘Giant Days’) and the German-American Nora Krug (‘Heimat, far from my home’). Puig, who has given details accompanied by the content advisors Borja Crespo, Antoni Guiral, Oriol Estrada and Cels Piñol, has also presented the poster. If in the first salon, in 1981, she drew it precisely Miguel Gallardowho also collaborated in making possible the birth of the festival, this year’s comes from the hand of Carla Berrocal.
“I wanted to connect two generations of readers and vindicate a generation of comic authors who had not been seen or heard, with names like Lola Anglada, Carme Barberà or Trini Tinturé”, commented the Madrid author, who in the The poster combines her “commitment to gender and feminism” with her “love of comics and cartoons”. Thus, the image shows an author of the generation of the 40s, with a brush, who passes the baton to a racialized girl with a pencil in her pocket, all with a “typographic game inspired by women’s magazines of the 40s and 50s “.
Cinema and science fiction and fantasy
In its frustrated 2020 edition, Cómic Barcelona should have premiered two new sections that will see the light of day in 2022. It is about Comic Vision and Comic Fantasy. While the first, coordinated by Crespo, screenwriter and filmmaker, will delve into the ties between comics and cinema, the second, directed by Piñol, will delve into the relationship between cartoons and fantasy and science fiction through role-playing games and tabletop, miniatures and cards.
The awards
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Last year the ‘online’ edition clouded the controversy that arose when numerous authors made public a statement against the granting of the Barcelona Comic Grand Prix to the popularizer Antonio Martín, for understanding that this recognition of an entire career should be tacitly granted to an author comic. In a tense climate, a boycott was called and not to attend the show in 2022. Regarding this, Puig told this newspaper that “from Ficomic, whose objective is to work for the promotion and dissemination of comics, the discomfort that gender”. “Personally, I have always been open to dialogue, constructive criticism and common sense, for the good of the environment. And in these months we have held many meetings and we have spoken with many people and with different organizations in the sector, including the new association of authors [APCómic], and there has been ‘feeling’. Authors are always important to us. I understand that there may be those who do not want to come but I would like them to come and see the changes”. Changes that will begin with a modification of the prize rules and that will be announced in a couple of weeks.
The festival will return to the traditional round tables, workshops, author signings, editorial presentations and screenings, the Comic Kids space, designed for young readers, and the Comic Pro, for professionals.