PR: SPX 2016 Announces Spanish Fever

Contact: Warren Bernard Email: warren@spxpo.com   SPX 2016 Announces Spanish Fever with Santiago García, Ana Galvañ, David Rubín, Javier Olivares and José Domingo for SPX 2016   Bethesda, Maryland; August 16, 2016 Media Release – With funding and assistance from SPAIN arts & culture, Small Press Expo is proud to announce Santiago García, Ana Galvañ, David Rubín, Javier Olivares and José Domingo as special international guests at SPX 2016. These gifted artists are featured in Spanish Fever-Stories By The New Spanish Cartoonists, an anthology of 28 contemporary comics by 30 authors from Spain showcasing the best of the new wave of art comics hailing from a country with one of the strongest cartoon traditions in Europe. Spanish Fever is published by Fantagraphics and will be debuting at SPX 2016. These creators are in addition to previously announced special guests Daniel Clowes, Lisa Hanawalt, Jeffrey Brown, Trina Robbins, Charles Burns, Jaime & Gilbert Hernandez, Sarah Glidden Carol Tyler, Jim Woodring, Drew Friedman, Sophie Goldstein, Ed Piskor, and a rare festival appearance by Joe Sacco.   Other international special guests include Tom Gauld, Roger Langridge,Aimée de Jongh, Pascal Girard, Cyril Pedrosa and Steffen Kverneland.   Santiago García has been a comic's creator and essayist for more than twenty years. He was a founding member of U and Volumen, magazines specializing in comic reviews and news, for which he served as editor. He has written about comics for the cultural supplement of ABC and is the author of La novela gráfica (2010), which has been translated into English for the University Press of Mississippi as On the Graphic Novel (2015). In 2011 he received the outreach prize at the Salón del Cómic de Barcelona. In the last few years, he published the graphic novels Beowulf (2013) with David Rubín, Fútbol [Soccer] (2014) with Pablo Ríos, and Las meninas [The Maids of Honor] (2014) with Javier Olivares, The Maids of Honor won the National Prize in 2015 and will be published by Fantagraphics in 2017.   Ana Galvañ was born in Murcia, Spain. After her time in the Faculty of Fine Arts in Valencia, she moved to Madrid, where she worked as art director. She eventually left advertising to pursue comics and illustration full time. Her work has appeared in publications such as Mortland, Nobrow, Off Life, Clift, Ferocious Quarterly, Autsaider comics, Skunk Art Mag, and Tik Tok. Galvañ published Trabajo de clase in 2014, Más allá del Arcoiris in 2015 and Luz Verdadera in 2016.   David Rubín was born in Orense in 1977. He is a comics and animation illustrator, who codirected the full-length animated film El espíritu del bosque [The Spirit of the Forest] (2008). His many graphic novels include La tetería del oso malayo [The Tea Room of the Sun Bear] (2006) and Cuaderno de tormentas [Notebook of Storms] (2008). His graphic novel El Héroe [The Hero] (2011–2012), retells the myth of Hercules from the perspective of superheroes, which was translated into English in 2015 and published by Dark Horse. He adapted Beowulf with a script by Santiago García, soon to be published in the United States.  His collaborations with American creators, include The Rise of Aurora West with scripts by Paul Pope and J. T. Petty, and The Fiction (2015) written by Curt Pires.   Javier Olivares was born in Madrid in 1964. An illustrator and cartoonist, he started the journal Madriz in the '80s, and since then has contributed work to numerous magazines and newspapers, as well as illustrating books  for both children and adults. His most recent graphic novel Las meninas (2014), which was translated into French and won the National Comic Award. The comic Finland, which is included in Spanish Fever - Stories from the New Spanish Cartoonists was adapted from an original story by Argentine author Hernán Casciari.   José Domingo was born in Zaragoza in 1982. An illustrator, cartoonist, and animator, Domingo is part of the Polaqia Collective. His first long comic was Cuimhne: El fuego distante [Cuimhne: The Distant Fire] (2008), with a script by Kike Benlloch. With Aventuras de un oficinista japonés [Adventures of a Japanese Businessman] (2011) he won the Salón del Cómic de Barcelona prize and the English edition from Nobrow was nominated for an Eisner Award. His latest works are Conspiraciones (2013), and Pablo and Jane and the Hot Air Contraption (2015).                                          SPAIN arts & culture features the most cutting-edge works of international renowned Spanish artists in fields such as design, urban culture, architecture, visual arts, film, performing arts, literature and music. A series of exhibitions, conferences, showcases, and performances take place every year at the most prestigious American cultural institutions bringing a taste of all the creativity, history, and talent of Spanish artists to the American public. This program is organized by the Embassy of Spain's Cultural Office in Washington DC and its network of General Consulates and Cervantes Institutes in the United States together with the Spain-USA Foundation. More info: www.spainculture.us.   In the next few weeks, SPX will be announcing the 2016 Ignatz Award nominees, a full slate of programming and additional special guests.   SPX 2016 takes place on Saturday and Sunday, September 17-18, and will have over 650 creators, 280 exhibitor tables and 22 programming slots to entertain, enlighten and introduce attendees to the amazing world of independent and small press comics.   Small Press Expo (SPX) is the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels, and alternative political cartoons. SPX is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit that brings together more than 650 artists and publishers to meet their readers, booksellers, and distributors each year. Graphic novels, mini comics, and alternative comics will all be on display and for sale by their authors and illustrators. The expo includes a series of panel discussions and interviews with this year's guests.   The Ignatz Award is a festival prize held every year at SPX recognizing outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning, with the winners chosen by attendees at the show.   As in previous years, profits from the SPX will go to support the SPX Graphic Novel Gift Program, which funds graphic novel purchases for public and academic libraries, as well as the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), which protects the First Amendment rights of comic book readers and professionals. For more information on the CBLDF, visit their website at http://www.cbldf.org. For more information on the Small Press Expo, please visit http://www.smallpressexpo.com.