Borja González (Badajoz, 1982) is the new National Comic Award winner. His graphic novel Grito nocturno (Reservoir books), which takes up the beautiful and macabre universe that he already cultivated in The Black Holes, has been awarded by the jury of this award from the Ministry of Culture endowed with 30,000 euros “for lyric, surrealism and for a graphic work of great elegance and exquisite beauty with which its author builds an album that is as fun to read as it is deep and fascinating with a neo-Gothic character in which the strength and vitality of its female protagonists stand out”.
Likewise, the jury has indicated that “Borja González is capable of transmitting with his work emotions that catch and engage through his stylized faceless characters. Nocturnal Scream 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 La Reina Orquídea in 2016, published with his partner, Maite Alvarado, also an illustrator and comic book author, on the small label El Verano del Rocket.
In 2018 he took the big leap by publishing the graphic novel The Black Holes in Reservoir books, the beginning of a trilogy, The Three Nights, of which Night Scream is the second part and which this September will be completed with The Bird and the Serpent. A world in which his many influences, including horror movies, are mixed to create a universe with bands of young punk girls, horror and fantasy bookstores, ancient rituals, auras and otaku demons.
The jury was chaired by María José Gálvez, General Director of Books, Comics and Reading at the Ministry of Culture; and as vice-president, Jesús González, general deputy director of Promotion of Spanish Books, Reading and Letters, has acted. The members have been Juan Miguel Royo, proposed by the Spanish Comic Authors Association; Sara Sánchez Asensi, for the Spanish Confederation of Booksellers Guilds and Associations; Alberto Muriel, by the Federation of Professional Illustrators Associations; Cristina Hombrados, by the Association of Comic Critics and Disseminators of Spain; Marcos Martín Milanés, by the Association of Professional Comic Authors of Spain; María Teresa Valero, for the Comic Sectoral Association; María Isabel Muñoz, from the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts; Luis Menéndez, for the Federation of Associations of Journalists of Spain; Mónica Carabias, from the Institute for Feminist Research of the Complutense University; Salvador Larroca, by the Ministry of Culture and Francisco Valentín Sordo, awarded in 2022.
