Juanjo Guarnido

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Juanjo Guarnido (born 1967) is a Spanish illustrator and the co-author of the French comic book series Blacksad.

[edit] Biography

Guarnido was born in Granada, Spain. He studied painting at the Art school of Granada. Meanwhile, he collaborated on several fanzines and published some drawings for Marvel comics. Unfortunately, the small size of the Spanish market forced him to turn to other means of earning a living. In 1990, he left Granada and moved to Madrid where he worked on a TV series for 3 years. There he met Juan Diaz Canales with whom he imagined writing comics. In 1993, he applied for a job with the Walt Disney Studios in Montreuil, France and consequently moved to Paris.

Guarnido and Canales contacted several editors and finally signed on with Dargaud, a major comics editor in France. On November 1, 2000, Blacksad: Somewhere within the Shadows, the first album of this series, was published. It was a success among critics and public, and won the Prix de la Découverte at the Sierre International Comics Festival and the "Avenir" Prize at the Lys-lez-Lannoy Festival, repectively in Switzerland and France. In March 2003, Artic Nation, the second album, was released. It was once again a success, winning the Prize Awarded by the Audience and the Prize for Artwork at the 2004 Angoulême International Comics Festival. The third installment of the Blacksad series, 'Red Soul', was published in 2005.