Juanjo Guarnido

Juanjo Guarnido belongs to a generation of artists who can easily shift between different media.  When applied to comic art, his animation-inspired work methods yield spectacular results for Blacksad. The meticulous attention to lighting, sequences and dialogue infuses an incredible energy, tinged with humanism, into the extraordinary characters of this iconic series - which needs no introduction.

Juanjo Guarnido is now one of the most sought-after European creators on the market for original comic art. The global success of Blacksad, which has been translated into more than thirty languages and is considered a modern classic, has significantly boosted his market value over the past fifteen years. Album covers and original illustration fetch the highest prices. The record is €68,000, set in 2008 for an illustration, alongside €15,000 for a page from Blacksad Volume 5 (2014).

To preserve your works on paper, we recommend that you never expose them to direct light, as UV rays can damage the mediums used. Paintings made with pastel or charcoal require special care to avoid rubbing. Works containing watercolor are particularly sensitive to light, unlike gouache and acrylic.
We advise you to display them away from windows, and to use frames made from pH-neutral conservation materials and “Museum” glass with anti-UV and anti-reflective treatment. If you prefer to keep your works unframed, we recommend storing them flat, in drawing cartons, with sheets of pH-neutral permanent paper in between. Keep them away from light and humidity.

A graduate of the Granada School of Fine Arts, Guarnido began his professional career by illustrating Spanish Marvel comics published by Planeta-De Agostini. He then worked for the Lapiz Azul studio, where he stayed for three years. Around that time, Disney had bought the studio owned by Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi near Paris, leaving the brothers in charge of running it. There, they produced numerous series alongside three feature films: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules and Tarzan, which Juanjo Guarnido worked on as an animator starting in 1993. He stayed with the studio for ten years. During this time, he discovered the rich world of French comic art and, in 2000, teamed up with Canales to launch the Blacksad series. The series was a critical success from the very first volume and won numerous awards, including Best Album and Best Artwork at the Barcelona Comic Fair, as well as the Audience Award and Best Series at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. In 2019, he teamed up with writer Alain Ayroles to publish Les Indes fourbes with Éditions Delcourt. Complete biography.