José Beá

Josep Maria Beà i Font, in Spanish José Beá (born 11 March 1942) is a Spanish comic book artist.

Career

Born in Barcelona, Catalunya, Beá joined the art agency Selecciones Ilustradas at 15 and started his comic book career in the late 1950s when he worked for ''Fleetway'' in Britain.
He also worked on ''Miller's TV Heroes'' during this period. In the early 1960s he worked on ''Space Ace'' for Atlas, as well as ''Lone Star''. He also worked on various British romance comics including ''Romeo'', ''Mirabelle'', ''Valentine'' and ''Jackie''. In 1962 Beá moved to Paris where he focused on painting rather than comic book art. Bea returned to comics in 1970 for the publication ''Dracula'' from Buru Lan, where he first started writing his own stories. His work for ''Dracula'' included the series ''Sir Leo'' as well as several stand-alone stories.

Due to his connections with the Spanish agency Selecciones Illustrada, Beá started working for Warren Publishing in America in 1971, premiering with the story ''The Silver Thief and the Pharoah's Daughter'' in Vampirella 13. Bea would both write and illustrate a large portion of his stories. Stories highlighted for praise by comics historian Richard Arndt included ''Picture of Death'' (Creepy 45), ''The Accursed Flower'' (Creepy 49), ''Quavering Shadows'' (Vampirella 15) and ''The Other Side of Heaven'' (Vampirella 28). ''Eerie'' publish three parts from his ''Tales of Peter Hypnos'' series, which had also been published in ''Spirit'' in Spain and in Australia. His work for ''Dracula'' was reprinted in a separate book published by Warren, as well as his story ''Invasion'' in ''Eerie'' 75. Beá would draw approximately thirty stories for Warren and two covers, one of which was actually an enlarged and colorized panel from one of his stories.

After his departure from Warren in 1976, Beá worked on ''Tales of the Galactic Inn''. He would also produce work for satirist humor magazines such as ''El Papus'', ''Muchas Gracias'', ''El Vibora'', ''Eh!'' and ''Por Favor''. In 1979 he was convicted for offenses against morality for the content of one of his stories in ''Tales of the Galactic Inn'', and was forbidden from doing anymore artwork. Once this ban was lifted, he co-founded the magazine ''Rambla'' with Luis Garcia, acting as Publisher and Editor, and working under both his own name and the alias ''Sanchez Zamora''. After ''Rambla'' went out of business, he would found his own publishing company, ''Intermagen'' which republished various works of his as well as producing various humor magazines.

In 1989 he made the television series Doctor Vapor, teacher inventor, composed of 26 chapters of 3 minutes."''Beà. Psiconauta de la historieta''", entrevista al autor realizada por M. Barrero, J. Mora y D. Belmonte para Tebeosfera, Sevilla-Barcelona, 20-VI-2009, disponibl
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It was "a kind of inventions of the TBO in which he devised strange gadgets" and was broadcast exclusively in the PLàstic program of the TV3. Other projects, such as the adaptation of their galactic tavern stories, did not come to fruition."Josep María Beà, libador neuronal", entrevista al autor realizada por el Señor Ausente, en Mondo Brutto nº 39, mayo de 2008, p. 94.

Selected bibliography

*''Miller's TV Heroes''
*''Space Ace''
*''Lone Star''
*''Dracula'' issues 1-5, 7-12 (1971)
*''Marilyn'' (1971)
*''Creepy'' issues 44-47, 49-53,56-58,61,80 (1972–1976)
*''Eerie'' issues 39-41,72,73,75,76 (1972–1976)
*''Vampirella'' issues 13,15,17,22,23,25,26,28,31,34,36 (1971–1974)
*''Tales of the Galactic Inn''
*''Rambla''

References

Sources

*

External links

Jose Bea biography
on Lambiek Comiclopedia
* Jose Bea biography on Spanish Wikipedia

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bea, Jose
1942 births
Spanish comics artists
Artists from Catalonia
Living people
Spanish comics writers
20th-century Spanish male artists
Warren Publishing