Juan López Fernández (born 13 March 1939), better known by his pen name Jan, is a Spanish comic book writer and artist, most famous for his creation

Superlópez Superlópez is a Spanish comic book character created by Jan. Created in 1973, Superlópez is a parody of Superman. Born ''Jo-Con-Él'' (translated as ''Damn-with-him'') on the planet ''Chitón'' (Spanish slang meaning something like ''Shut up!' ...

Biography

He was born in the town of

Toral de los Vados Toral de los Vados is a village and municipality located in the region of El Bierzo (province of León, Castile and León, Spain) . According to the 2004 census (INE INE, Ine or ine may refer to: Institutions * Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung ...

in the

province of León León (, , ; ; ) is a province of northwestern Spain in the northern part of the Region of León and in the northwestern part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. About one quarter of its population of 463,746 (2018) lives in the cap ...

. Completely deaf from the age of six, his parents encouraged him to draw and in 1956, he began to work in a studio in order to learn

animation Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...

. He emigrated to

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

in 1959 where he worked in ''Televisión Cubana'' (Cuban Television) and the ''Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematográficos'' (ICAIC) (Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry). He also collaborated on some periodicals for children at this time, and later, on comic books and newspaper supplements. Jan returned to Spain in 1969, and worked in the now defunct publishing house

Editorial Bruguera Ediciones B is a Spanish publisher, which currently operates as a division of Penguin Random House. Ediciones B is headquartered in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain; with branches throughout Latin America. It was established in 1986, but has its origin ...

until 1985 where he helped illustrate the work of other comic book artists. In 1973, however, Jan created

, a parodized version of

Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...

. It was a series that began as a single page and later expanded into full albums, with adventures involving supervillains and criminal organizations. It also dealt with issues affecting contemporary Spain, namely the

illegal drug trade The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs through ...

, the transition to

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

post General Franco, ''etc.''. The stories had originally been written by Efepé (pseudonym of Francisco Pérez Navarro), but Jan later took over this duty as well. In 1982, Jan worked on the periodical ''

Pulgarcito Pulgarcito (in Spanish, literally "little thumb") may refer to: *Pulgarcito, the Spanish variant of the folktale Tom Thumb * ''Pulgarcito'' (Mexico), a children's magazine of the Mexican government, 1925–1932 * ''Pulgarcito'' (Spain), a Spanish w ...

'' for Editorial Bruguera, and stopped work on Superlópez in order to do so. However, he decided to abandon this in order to devote himself fully to his creation. Jan's eldest son ended up doing some work on ''Pulgarcito'', but also eventually abandoned this task. In 2014, some of the Pulgarcito books was released again in a new book format. When

was shut down in 1985, Jan, together with many other comic book writers, had to do work for other editorial companies. Jan published his first (and only) erotic comic 'Laszivia' in Norma Editorial, and created characters such as 'Cab Halloloco' and 'Los ultimos de Villapiñas' for the Jauja comic magazine. The character 'Superioribus', drawn for the editorial Forum, is also a superhero parody. In 1987, Ediciones B began publishing a Superlopez magazine. In this way Jan can continue working on this character until now, with a few other contributions from time to time to other magazines, such as the characters ''Pum Tarrota'' or ''Super Tron''.

Awards and recognition

In May 2002, he received the Grand Prize of the Barcelona International Comics Convention that acknowledged his contributions. In 2013 he was awarded the National Beaux Arts Medal but rejected it in coherence with his beliefs.

References

External links

Official Website

Cachis la Mar!
''(devoted to Superlópez)'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Jan (Juan Lopez Fernandez) 1939 births Living people Deaf artists Deaf writers People from El Bierzo Spanish comics artists Spanish comics writers Spanish parodists Spanish erotic artists Spanish erotica writers Deaf people from Spain