Artist Juanjo Guarnido has been announced as the winner of this year’s Sergio Aragonés International Award for Excellence in Comic Art. The co-creator of Blacksad was presented with the award during the Opening Night event of the Lakes International Comic Art Festival’s weekend-long Festival in Bowness-on-Windermere.
Alexa Frank was also announced as the winner of this year’s Sophie Castille Awards for Comics in Translation – English, for her translation of “沖合の雷” (“Offshore Lightning”) by Saito Nazuna, translated from Japanese and published by Drawn & Quarterly.
The Sergio Aragonés International Award for Excellence in Comic Art, named after the world-famous cartoonist, best known for his work on MAD and as co-creator of Groo, was established in 2017 by The National Cartoonists Society, the world’s largest and most prestigious organisation of professional cartoonists, in partnership with the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, and is presented annually to an exceptional comic artist, animator, or cartoonist.
Born in Granada, Spain, in 1967, artist Juanjo Guarnido is co-creator of the comic book series, Blacksad. He spent his childhood drawing, in the town of Salobreña, before moving north to Granada with his family. There, he studied Fine Arts, joined the local fanzines and had some Marvel character illustrations published by Comics Forum. He turned next to animation, moving to Madrid, to work for the Lápiz Azul animation studio.
On his first day at Lápiz Azul, Guarnido met Juan Díaz Canales, who would become his friend and the writer of Blacksad. In 1993, Guarnido moved to Paris to join the Walt Disney Studios in Montreuil, where he moved from layout work (on The Goofy Movie, Mickey’s Runaway Brain, and Hunchback of Notre Dame) to character animation (Hades in Hercules; Tarzan and Sabor in Tarzan; and Helga in Atlantis). Guarnido also contributed to The Jungle Book 2 and Lorenzo the Cat before the French Disney office closed down, ten years after he was first hired.
A longtime fan both of the European bande dessinée market and of American comics, Guarnido patiently began the production of his first graphic album while still at Disney, working long-distance with Díaz Canales toward the 2000 publication of Blacksad: Somewhere within the Shadows. The overwhelming success of the title has allowed Guarnido to take on other projects – like Sorcelleries with writer Teresa Valero – or directing and animating the music video Freak of the Week for the Swedish band Freak Kitchen.
Five issues of Blacksad were released between 2000 and 2013. Guarnido spent then three years and a half working on the one-issue, ambitious 145 pages fully watercolour graphic novel Les Indes Fourbes, with script by Alain Ayroles, which hit Europe in autumn 2019 with huge success, and has recently completed and published the two-issue Blacksad adventure They All Fall Down.
Previous winners are Dave McKean (2017), Hunt Emerson (2018), Charlie Adlard (2019), Boulet (2021), Posy Simmonds (2022) and VIZ comic, edited by Graham Drury and Simon Thorp, in 2023.
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, supported by the Arts Council, the Lake District National Park Authority and other valued partners, is taking place this weekend (27th – 29th September) in Bowness-on-Windermere, attracting hundreds of fans to the Lake District town for a packed comic art weekend extravaganza.
Events for comic fans of all ages at various venues include The Old Laundry Theatre and Windermere Jetty Museum, offering guest panels, free events for children, comic workshops, exhibitions, and more.
As usual, the Festival also offers plenty of family-friendly activities, and promises a weekend of wonderful events. You can download a PDF of the full programme here
Announced guests for 2024 in alphabetical order are: Mehdi Annassi, Yomi Ayeni, Kate Charlesworth, Cloud Chatanda, Mike Collins, Dagsson, Benoit Dahan, Jorge Fornés, Heike Friesel, Paul Gravett, Isabel Greenberg, Juanjo Guarnido, Luke Healy, Paolo Herras, Marc Jackson, Aimée De Jongh, Bobby Joseph, Keli Lark, Michael Lark, Cyril Lieron, Victoria Lomasko, Dave McKean, Junko Mizuno, Terry Moore, Reetta Niemensivu, Fumio Obata, Karel Osoha, Dan Panosian, Jacob Phillips, Sean Phillips, Pieter De Poortere, Jason Quinn, Patricia Ramos, Mollie Ray, Kevin Eric Raymundo, Bruno Redondo, The Rickard Sisters, Tom Richmond, Mohammad Sabaaneh, Nina Six, Bryan Talbot, Mary Talbot, Amy Tetteh, Emma Vieceli and the VIZ team.
• The National Cartoonists Society is online at nationalcartoonists.com
• Blacksad collections available on AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events, Other Worlds, US Comics
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