20 new comic books in Catalan to give as gifts this Sant Jordi

BarcelonaFor a few years now, the offer of comics in Catalan has not stopped growing in quantity, quality and diversity: manga, classics, graphic novels, children's comics, non-fiction... In view of Sant Jordi, we propose a selection of twenty recent novelties that range from the latest Mortadelo from Ibáñez to the latest British comic sensation, Zoe Thorogood, passing through masterpieces by comic geniuses such as Osamu Tezuka and Alan Moore.

The posthumous work of Francisco Ibáñez, who died while working on this album. Paris 2024 It includes the first 20 pages of the comic in pencil, the last ones drawn by the author, as well as reproductions of the author's typewritten script. It is not only a tribute to the author and the epilogue to his work, but also a unique opportunity to observe and understand the creative process of Spain's most popular comic artist. A good complement is the essay by Jordi Canyissà. Ibáñez, the master of comics, a thoughtful and understandable analysis of Ibáñez's work that reproduces the author's original pages.

Catherine Meurisse's attentive pen touches on the most famous philosophers: Aristotle, Nietzsche, Cioran, Rousseau, Voltaire, Hegel, Deleuze, Beauvoir, Arendt, Marx... And the cartoonist finds a perfect opportunity to mock the male predominance within the world of ideas. Using philosophical concepts with rigor and humor, turning myths on their heads, Human, human mass outlines another way of thinking and being in the world. The new work by the author of The lightness and The great spaces, survivor of the attack on Charlie Hebdo and the first female draftsman to be accepted into the French Academy of Fine Arts.

After the acclaimed Carte blanche, winner of the Uderzo award for the best album of 2021, the cartoonist Jordi Lafebre relapses as a complete author and enters the territory of noir to I am your silence, starring an eccentric psychiatrist with a personality disorder and a passion for mysteries. Between modern-day Barcelona and the Penedès cellars, Eva investigates the death of a patient's uncle, the heir to a large family business of cava producers. A gripping and entertaining comic with a taste of Nizaga of power and aromas from the beginning of the saga.

Monumental historical fresco on the rise and fall of Nazism that follows the intertwined stories of three characters who share the same name. Adolfo: a Jewish boy of German origin living in Japan; his friend, the son of a German father and a Japanese mother, and Adolf Hitler. Osamu Tezuka, the God of Manga, unfolds a dramatic and exciting adventure based on the appearance of some secret documents that prove Hitler's Jewish origins and that the Gestapo wants to destroy.

Alfons Vila, known as Shum in art, was a regular figure in the satirical press of the 1920s and 1930s, as well as a militant anarchist who seriously injured his hands in an accidental explosion in an apartment where material for terrorist attacks was being prepared. Jaume Capdevila, known as Kap in drawing, was already one of the authors of the book Shum. The anarchist cartoonist (Diminuta, 2019), addresses Shum's biography through a polyphonic and bold comic that tries to undo the confusions and misunderstandings that have surrounded the figure of a committed and critical author, essential to understanding Catalonia at the time.

One of the most influential titles in the history of manga, for the first time in Catalan: Mazinger Z Go Nagai's is the origin of the genre wick, about giant robots controlled by young pilots. More violent and dramatic than the popular 1970s animated series it inspired, the manga comes in a three-volume collector's edition that includes an interview with Go Nagai and bonus material not included in previous editions.

Finestres brings back into Catalan one of the great graphic novels of the last decade: What I like most are monsters (Eisner Award for Best Author 2018, Best International Work at the 2019 Comic Fair), a monumental work meticulously drawn in ballpoint pen that intertwines historical memory, crime mystery, family drama, and the fantasies of a girl in love with monsters. And it couldn't have been better timed: coinciding with the release of its highly anticipated sequel, which continues Karen's coming-of-age story and uncovers the dark side of her brother, Deeze.

Franco-Belgian comics are always pushing themselves to keep their classics alive. Cartoonist Frédéric Thebault, better known as Tebo, reinterprets the Smurfs in his own way in a comic that inspires love for Peyo's creatures and their universe, but also introduces innovation and freshness, as he did with Mickey Mouse in the magnificent Mickey's youth (Comic Planet). Who is that Smurf? It revolves around an unknown Smurf who doesn't remember how he got to the village, doesn't speak the Smurf language, and doesn't understand why he has blue skin.

The German cartoonist Aisha Franz, who in 2014 published the underground gem Planet Earth (The Dome), changes the pencil drawing and the portrait of female intimacy touched by science fiction of that comic for the equally naive and spontaneous but openly comic style of Work-life balanceWinner of the 2022 Max und Moritz Award, the comic examines the work frustration of three young people who stumble upon the false promises of start-ups and the elitism of the art world. Their common bond is a bizarre psychologist with unorthodox methods.

Ten years after an army of Kurdish men and women confronted the Islamic State in Kobane, it finally arrives in Catalan. Kobane calling, the cartoon report that he made the Italian comic phenomenon Zerocalcare –also known for his animated series– about the social, cultural, and political revolution that took place in Kurdish territory in the following years. The Italian cartoonist recounts his journey to experience the social experiment firsthand and shares both his admiration for the Kurdish people and his doubts about the success of their revolution.

Cormac McCarthy's acclaimed novel about a father and son surviving as best they can in the rubble of a post-apocalyptic world is adapted into a comic by Manu Larcenet. His drawings in muted gray tones, as beautiful as they are terrifying, capture the despair of the story and accompany the characters on their dark journey through a devastated territory where there is no longer room for hope. Along with the recent Group therapy, is the long-awaited return of the author of the magnificent The daily battles and The Dungeon. Festival.

After the high mountain adventure The wolf, Jean-Marc Rochette once again displays the beauty of nature in The last queen, a historical drama about a Great War trench veteran with a shattered face whose face is forged by a sculptor, giving him a leather mask that restores his will to live. Straddling the artistic circles of Paris and the forests and mountains of the Vercors, where Édouard is from, Rochette paints a grand story of love and dignity, a tribute to forests and animals. And she does so with a powerful, unpolished stroke, with the majesty of the peaks and the deep, damp colors of the undergrowth.

Miriam Bonastre is the Catalan comic phenomenon of this decade: both first volumes of its series, Hooky (published in Catalan by Entredos), have sold more than 450,000 copies, most of them in the United States, where the third volume of this series of fantastic adventures starring two teenage witch brothers topped the list of bestsellers of illustrated books and manga New York Times. Influenced by manga and Harry PotterBonastre is especially successful among children and teenagers. For Sant Jordi, he also debuts his first original comic in Catalan: The Princess and Saint George .

The correspondence relationship that French cartoonist Valentine Cuny-Le Callet established at the age of 19 with an American prisoner condemned to death gives form and content to this epistolary graphic novel, a rarely used genre in comics, which gives the reader the incandescent intimacy of messages that mean everything to Renaldo McGirth, a young man in the cell where he has been living for ten years. With a realistic and expressive line, Perpendicular to the sun accurately portrays the horror of American prisons and the need for human beings to communicate.

Alan Moore is surely the most acclaimed screenwriter in the history of comics and From hell one of the peaks of his career. With Eddie Campbell's meticulous black and white, Moore delves into the history and legend of Jack the Ripper to build a pagan cathedral in vignettes constructed from real events, suspicions and the speculations of Stephen Knight and other authors, who point the finger at him for the crimes. The version of the wizard of Northampton is the mother of all true crime, a gripping immersion in London at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century that intertwines magic, secrets and conspiracies in a terrifying spiral of violence.

The 2023 Windows Award for Catalan Comics is one thriller A fantastical story that unashamedly mixes the codes of the police genre with satanic rituals, magical conspiracies, and pacts with demons. The hypnotic work of David Sánchez, very accustomed to capturing sick atmospheres and strange creatures, fits perfectly into a comic strip proudly pulp that entertains from the first page to the last.

Known for the underground and heartbreaking humor of her fanzines and comics Relief! (Apa Apa) and for his participation in the exhibition Graphic constellation, Roberta Vázquez debuts in children's comics with Can disaster, a more natural leap than it seems, because the Galician illustrator based in Barcelona retains her delirious humor (toned down for its incorrectness) and a lovingly naive and luminous drawing that connects with children. The handcrafted colors—Vázquez's signature—and the meticulous editing are the strong points of this story of spooky ghosts and unexpected friends.

The asparagus, who eats fat children and then has no one to play with. The thundering cloud, who drenches people from his cloud. Slow, manipulator of dreams. Beyond the Santa Compaña, there is a rich and surprising Galician mythology that comes to life in Eye pain, the fascinating bestiary of magical creatures drawn by Cristian Robles (Barcelona, ​​​​1990), one of the best cartoonists of his generation who has demonstrated his prodigious talent for creating fantastic worlds (and what colors!) in comics such as Gourmeat (Reservoir Books, 2021), Souffle (La Cúpula, 2015) or in the magazine Lime kiln.

After reflecting on the great extinctions that have occurred on our planet – and the role of human beings in the current one – it is advisable Extinctions: Twilight of the Spices (Garbuix, 2022), the biologist Jean-Baptiste de Panafieu returns to the informative comic with The evolution of life, a fun exploration of the history of life on Earth designed for a young audience. With Adrienne Barman's stimulating and colorful artwork and a thoughtful balance of accurate information and humorous commentary, the comic serves as an entertaining biology lesson that easily engages readers.

Before turning 25, Zoe Thorogood is already the new sensation of British comics. If in her first graphic novel, The inevitable blindness of Billie Scott (Reservoir, 2023), reflected on the obsession with artistic creation, in his new work addressing the relationship between art and mental health in an autobiographical key. She is very alone in the center of the Earth, Nominated for five Eisner Awards, it begins with Thorogood's suicidal impulse when her partner leaves her and documents the subsequent six months of struggle with loneliness, isolation, and anxiety. More than a therapy exercise, the comic is a desperate attempt to understand herself and escape the hell of depression.