Max 1956-

(Francesc Capdevila Gisbert)

PERSONAL: Born 1956, in Barcelona, Spain.

ADDRESSES: Home—Mallorca, Spain.

CAREER: Illustrator and writer. Associated with El Rrollo, an artist’s group, beginning 1973; cofounder of El Víbora, a comics magazine, 1979; cofounder of Nosotros somos los muertos, a comics magazine, 1995.

AWARDS, HONORS: Prize for best work, Sixth International Comic Fair, 1988; prize for best work, 1996, for Como perros; prize for best story, for “El prolongado sueño del Sr. T,” 1998.

WRITINGS

COLLECTIONS

Gustavo Contra la Actividad del Radio, Ediciones La Cúpula (Barcelona, Spain), 1981.

Peter Pank, Ediciones La Cúpula (Barcelona, Spain), 1985, Catalan Communications (New York, NY), 1991.

Peter Pank el Licantropunk, Ediciones La Cúpula (Barcelona, Spain), 1987.

El Beso Secreto, Ediciones La Cúpula (Barcelona, Spain), 1987.

Peter Pank Pankdinista!, Ediciones La Cúpula (Barcelona, Spain), 1990.

Gustavo en Comecocometrón, Ediciones La Cúpula (Barcelona, Spain), 1994.

Como Perros!, Ediciones La Cúpula (Barcelona, Spain), 1995.

El Canto del Gallo, Ediciones La Cúpula (Barcelona, Spain), 1996.

El prolongado sueño del señor T, Ediciones La Cúpula (Barcelona, Spain), 1998, published as The Extended Dream of Mr. D, Drawn & Quarterly (Montreal, Canada), 2000.

Bardin the Superrealist, Fantagraphics (Seattle, WA), 2006.

ILLUSTRATOR

Mique Beltrán, Mujeres Fatales, Ediciones la Cúpula (Barcelona, Spain), 1989.

El león y el ratón y La liebre y la tortuga, La Galera (Barcelona, Spain), 1993.

Yoshi y la lluvia, La Galera (Barcelona, Spain), 1999.

Jorge Zentner, La Muerte Húmeda + El Carnaval de los Ciervos, Ediciones La Cúpula (Barcelona, Spain), 1999.

Oriol Izquierdo, adapter, La Sirenita, La Galera (Barcelona, Spain), 1999, translation published as The Little Mermaid/La Sirenita, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA), 2003.

Juan sin miedo, La Galera (Barcelona, Spain), 2000.

Caterina Valrui, adapter, Thumbelina/Pulgarcita, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA), 2004.

Hans Christian Andersen, El Muneco De Nieve, Grupo Anaya Comercial, 2005.

Hans Christian Andersen, El ruiseñor (title means “The Nightingale”), Combel Editorial (Barcelona, Spain), 2006.

Sandra Comino, Morning Glory, Groundwood Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2006.

Maria Eulalia Valeri, adapter, The Hare and the Tortoise/La liebre y la tortuga, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA), 2006.

Also illustrator of Órficas, 1994, and Monlogo y alucinacin del gigante blanco, 1996.

SIDELIGHTS: Artist and illustrator Francesc Capdevila Gisbert, who publishes under the name of Max, is a pioneering figure in Spain’s underground comics scene. He first came to prominence in the 1970s as a member of El Rrollo, an artists’ collective, and later cofounded El Víbora, an independent comics journal. “El Víbora advertised itself as a magazine for the sick-minded, and featured the most demented comic strips on the market, vigorously marking out for itself a separate territory from the typical sci-fi, Moebiusesque magazines,” noted Marcos Castrillón on the Ninth Art Web site. Max published his first collection, Gustavo Contra la Actividad del Radio, in 1981, and four years later he published Peter Pank, the first of three volumes featuring the anarchic title character. Peter Pank“is in equal parts an homage to J.M. Barrie’s original play, and a ruthless parody of 80s trash culture,” Castrillón stated.

In Bardin the Superrealist, Max collects a number of single-page strips and short stories, as well as one long work, featuring the title character. “Bardin, a big-headed balding man in a suit, is blessed with mystical powers that put him in touch with his own unconscious as well as the global (universal) unconscious mind,” observed Bart Beaty on the Comics Reporter Web site. “Guided by Dali and Bunuel’s Chien Andalou, Bardin moves through multiple worlds, debating the holy trinity in its many forms, and ruminating on his own philosophical beliefs.” “In Bardin, over ten years’ worth of work has been reproduced in beautiful stochastic printing, which uses ‘frequency-modulated dot patterns’ to create rich colors and intricate detail,” noted Jason Baxter on IGN.com.“The method suits Max’s clean, consummate style, which features the effortless line work, understanding of pacing, and comic staging that only a master can possess.” In Bardin the Superrealist and other works, “Max has managed to completely overshadow his comix heritage, and sails a sea of surrealist storytelling and futuristic conceptual design,” Castrillón wrote.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 2006, Ray Olson, review of Bardin the Superrealist, p. 70.

Publishers Weekly, October 2, 2006, review of Bardin the Superrealist, p. 46.

ONLINE

Comics Reporter Web site, http://www.comicsreporter.com/ (July 13, 2006), Bart Beaty, review of Bardin the Superrealist; (October 27, 2006), review of Bardin the Superrealist.

IGN.com, http://comics.ign.com/ (October 18, 2006), Jason Baxter, “Trippin’ in the Superreal World,” review of Bardin the Superrealist.

Ninth Art Web site, http://www.ninthart.com/ (April 23, 2004), Marcos Castrillón, “Beyond Borders.”*