Borja González (Badajoz, 1982) is the new National Comic Award winner. Your graphic novel night scream (Reservoir books), which takes up the beautiful and macabre universe that he already cultivated in The Black Holeshas been awarded by the jury of this award from the Ministry of Culture, endowed with 30,000 euros “for the lyric, the surrealism and for a graphic work of great elegance and exquisite beauty with which its author constructs an album as fun to read as deep and fascinating neo-gothic character in which the strength and vitality of its female protagonists stand out.”
A double page of ‘Night Scream’
Likewise, the jury noted that “Borja González is capable of transmitting with her work emotions that capture and engage through her stylized faceless characters. night scream It is a work with a dreamlike and everyday touch at the same time, which makes the reader dream and participate.”
González assures that he did not expect the award – “he caught me boiling potatoes,” he smiles – but he feels that it is recognition for a work that in his case began self-taught and in the world of illustration, from which he ended up making the leap to the more narrative world, which inspired him with respect. He did it first with The Orchid Queen in 2016, published with her partner, Maite Alvarado, also an illustrator and comic book author, on the small label El Verano del Rocket.
A double page from the graphic novel ‘Nocturnal Scream’
In 2018 he took the big leap by publishing the graphic novel The Black Holes in Reservoir books, beginning of a trilogy, the three nightsfrom which night scream It is the second part and this September will be completed with The bird and the snake. A world in which their many influences, including horror films, mix to create a universe with bands of young punk girls, horror and fantasy bookstores, ancient rituals, auras and otaku demons.
A double page of ‘Night Scream’
The jury was chaired by María José Gálvez, general director of Books, Comics and Reading of the Ministry of Culture; and Jesús González, deputy general director of Promotion of Books, Reading and Spanish Literature, has acted as vice president. Juan Miguel Royo, proposed by the Association of Comic Authors of Spain, has acted as members; Sara Sánchez Asensi, for the Spanish Confederation of Guilds and Associations of Booksellers; Alberto Muriel, for the Federation of Associations of Professional Illustrators; Cristina Hombrados, for the Association of Comic Critics and Publishers of Spain; Marcos Martín Milanés, for the Association of Professional Comic Authors of Spain; María Teresa Valero, for the Comic Sector Association; María Isabel Muñoz, by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando; Luis Menéndez, for the Federation of Associations of Journalists of Spain; Mónica Carabias, for the Feminist Research Institute of the Complutense University; Salvador Larroca, by the Ministry of Culture and Francisco Valentín Sordo, awarded in 2022.
