Albert Monteys i Homar (
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
, 15 September 1971) is a
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
comic writer and illustrator, mostly known for his work in the satirical weekly magazine ''
El Jueves
(Spanish for "''Thursday''") is a Spanish weekly satirical magazine based in Barcelona.
Throughout most of its life, ''El Juevess masthead has featured the tagline "" ("''the magazine that comes out on Wednesdays''"). Its mascot is a nameless ...
'' of which he was the director from 2006 until January 2011.
Early life
Albert Monteys started reading comics in
Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
bought by his parents such as ''
Cavall Fort'' or ''Tretzevents'' until he discovered the ones of
Bruguera, especially ''
Mort and Phil'' and ''
Superlópez''.
[Monteys, Albert in an interview with Pedro Toro (07/2006). ]
Entrevista a Albert Monteys
'', ''Un día de texas''/''Guía del Cómic''. He is also a fan of
Asterix
''Asterix'' or ''The Adventures of Asterix'' (french: Astérix or , "Asterix the Gaul") is a ''bande dessinée'' comic book series about a village of indomitable Gaulish warriors who adventure around the world and fight the Roman Republic, wi ...
.
[Monteys, Albert in an interview with Santiago García (07/1997). ]
Interview with Albert Monteys
», ''U, el hijo de Urich #5'' (Camaleón Ediciones).
For two or three years he read many
superhero comics
Superhero comics are one of the most common genres of American comic books. The genre rose to prominence in the 1930s and became extremely popular in the 1940s and has remained the dominant form of comic book in North America since the 1960s. Su ...
and when he was twelve and fifteen,
Franco-Belgian, he even bought ''
Spirou'' in
French.
He also published in the school magazine.
He studied one year at the comics specialized school Escola Joso, joining a fanzine in
Mataró
Mataró () is the capital and largest town of the ''comarca'' of the Maresme, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia Autonomous Community, Spain. It is located on the Costa del Maresme, to the south of Costa Brava, between Cabrera de Mar and Sa ...
titled ''Què trames?''
Career
Early work (1990–1995)
While he was studying the first year of
Fine Arts
In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork ...
at the
University of Barcelona
The University of Barcelona ( ca, Universitat de Barcelona, UB; ; es, link=no, Universidad de Barcelona) is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, in Spain. With 63,000 students, it is one of the biggest universities i ...
, he provided samples to the publisher Joc Internacional, specializing in
roleplaying games
A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal ac ...
and
wargames
''WarGames'' is a 1983 American science fiction techno-thriller film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film, which stars Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, and Ally Sheedy, follows Dav ...
, things he were at that moment not very familiar about.
He was accepted and on the number 17 of its magazine ''Líder'' his first
newspaper strip
A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...
, dated 1989, appeared. He also made illustrations for RPGs and, over time, Monteys became production manager of the publisher.
Monteys befriended faculty fellows José Miguel Alvarez, Ismael Ferrer and Alex Fito, constituting with them the collective La Penya Productions, whose comic ''Mondo Lirondo'' (Camaleón, 1993–1997) won the prize for best fanzine in Comic Fair Barcelona 1994.
Monteys graduated in 1994 and went on to illustrate RPGs as well as publishing in the Catalan children's magazine ''Tretzevents''.
[Cuadrado (2000), pp. 867-868.]
1996–2014
In 1996 Monteys published for the magazine ''Puta mili'' of Ediciones El Jueves. For the
Barcelona International Comics Convention he published the comic ''Calavera lunar'', winning an award for best new author.
He also started the strip ''Paco's Bar'' for ''
El Jueves
(Spanish for "''Thursday''") is a Spanish weekly satirical magazine based in Barcelona.
Throughout most of its life, ''El Juevess masthead has featured the tagline "" ("''the magazine that comes out on Wednesdays''"). Its mascot is a nameless ...
'' with little success so he was suggested to make another strip starring a selfish
pizza delivery
Pizza delivery is a service in which a pizzeria or pizza chain Delivery (commerce), delivers a pizza to a customer. An order is typically made either by telephone, or over the internet, in which the customer can request pizza type and size, a ...
man titled ''Tato, con moto y sin contrato'', that ran from December 1996
to June 2014.
In 1997 his work rate became even more strenuous when he became director of the journals ''Puta Mili'' and ''
Penthouse Comix
''Penthouse Comix'' was an American mass-market, magazine-sized comic book, published by Penthouse International/General Media Communications from spring 1994 through July 1998. Founded and initially edited by George Caragonne and Horatio Weisfel ...
'', and coordinator of ''Zona X''.
In 1998, he joined the editorial board of ''El Jueves'', alongside
Manel Fontdevila
Manel Fontdevila i Subirana, who signs as Manel, is a Catalan cartoonist (Manresa, 1965), who was a regular contributor to the satirical magazine ''El Jueves'', where he published the series '' Para ti, que eres joven'', alongside Albert Monteys ...
, aiming to promote the arrival of new authors: Darío Adanti, José Luis Agreda, Lalo Kubala, Pedro Vera and
Bernardo Vergara.
In 1997 he began the strip, ''Para ti, que eres joven'', a two-page strip with jokes with youth themes for the magazine ''El Jueves'' alongside
Manel Fontdevila
Manel Fontdevila i Subirana, who signs as Manel, is a Catalan cartoonist (Manresa, 1965), who was a regular contributor to the satirical magazine ''El Jueves'', where he published the series '' Para ti, que eres joven'', alongside Albert Monteys ...
as well as jokes of current events.
From 2004 to 2006 he published the strip ''Carlitos Fax'' for the children's magazine ''
Mister K
''Mister K'' is a Spanish comic magazine published from October 2004 to December 2006. It was directed by MaikelAlcázar, F. J. (2005). Caso clínico: Revista Mister K', tebeosfera. and its intended audience was children and teenagers. It lasted ...
'', about a silly and self-centered robot in a crazy futuristic world.
[Alcázar, F. J. (2005)]
«Caso clínico: ''Revista Mister K''»
''Tebeosfera
''Tebeosfera'' is an electronic journal devoted to the study of the media related to the graphic popular culture in Spanish, including comic, cartoon, illustration, pulp novels, cinema or videogames. The founder and director is Manuel Barrero, ...
''.
In January 2006, he was appointed director of ''El Jueves'', facing from this position the following year the conviction of its magazine for the crime of insulting the Crown due to a cartoon in the front page of Manel Fontdevila and Guillermo Torres which included an explicit scene of
Prince Felipe and
Princess Letizia
Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano (; born 15 September 1972) is the Queen of Spain as the wife of King Felipe VI. She came from a middle-class family and worked as a journalist for ''ABC'' and EFE before becoming a news anchor at CNN+ and Televisión ...
having sex. In 2011, he stepped down as director of the weekly magazine.
Abandonment of El Jueves
In June 2014, Monteys announced his departure from the magazine ''El Jueves'' after the editorial RBA not allowed to publish a cover with a joke which referenced the abdication of the king of Spain,
Juan Carlos I
Juan Carlos I (;,
* ca, Joan Carles I,
* gl, Xoán Carlos I, Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias, born 5 January 1938) is a member of the Spanish royal family who reigned as King of Spain from 22 Novem ...
. Other cartoonists also left the magazine. Those comic artist published on 18 June, the day before the coronation of
Felipe VI
Felipe VI (;,
* eu, Felipe VI.a,
* ca, Felip VI,
* gl, Filipe VI, . Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Grecia; born 30 January 1968) is King of Spain. He is the son of former King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía, and h ...
, an online comic with jokes about the event titled ''Orgullo y satisfacción''. He was later hired by the monthly satirical magazine ''Mongolia''.
Universe!
In November 2014, ''
Universe!'' #1, which was created, written and drawn by Monteys, was published on
Panel Syndicate
Panel Syndicate is an Internet, online publisher of DRM-free pay what you want digital comics in multiple languages, founded by Marcos Martín (cartoonist), Marcos Martín to publish his and Brian K. Vaughan's Creator ownership#Comic books, creator ...
. It is a
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
anthology series. As of December 2018, six issues have been published. The series was nominated in for a 2017
Eisner Award
The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books, sometimes referred to as the comics industry's equivalent of the Academy Awards. They are named in ...
for
Best Digital Comic.
[Hennon, Blake (July 22, 2017)]
"Eisner Awards showcase comics' diversity with Wonder Woman, Wayne Brady, Sonny Liew and 'Saga"
''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
''.
Bibliography
References
External links
Monnteys in Lambiek comiclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Monteys, Albert
1971 births
Living people
Spanish comics artists
Spanish comics writers
Artists from Barcelona