36th Barcelona International Comic Fair Poster

Jan (Juan López, Toral de los Vados, León, 1939)

After studying mechanical drawing and working as a draughtsman in a factory making badges and metal plaques, Jan began his professional career in 1956 in Estudios Macián animation studios, as a sign painter and trained as an animator while publishing some strip cartoons in the magazine Yumbo. In 1959 he emigrated with his family to Cuba, and worked in Cuban television as a technical adviser on animated drawings and later in the ICAIC (Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry) as a cartoonist for a year, before returning to television. After a while, seeing no future in animation, he threw himself into comics, publishing his strip cartoons in magazines such as Pionero, Mella, Din Don and Muñequitos, where he signed as Juan José. On his return to Barcelona in 1969, he worked on series such as Lucas y Silvio, Don Talarico and El último vampiro in publications such as Gaceta Junior, Strong, Trinca and Din Don.

In 1973 he created the character Superlópez, a parody of Superman, with cartoons for the publisher Euredit. The following year he began what was to be a long collaboration with Editorial Bruguera, where he was already illustrating children’s books and adaptations of TV series like Heidi, Marco or La abeja Maya, taking the opportunity to propose the Superlópez character. With scripts initially written by Conti and Pérez Navarro (especially in the adventures of Superlópez with the Supergrupo), Jan would do the short cartoons of Superlópez until in 1980 he also took over the writing of this popular series, which he has continued right up to the present (firstly for Bruguera, then with Ediciones B and now in B Cómic).

In 1981 he created the character Pulgarcito, a boy given to fantasy and reading books. He published several of his adventures in the magazine of the same name until he decided to concentrate on Superlópez. Jan has also done other works and series such as Nosotros, los catalanes (1979) and Las aventuras de Pasolargo (both in conjunction with Pérez Navarro, 1979), Los últimos de Villapiñas, (written by Oli, 1982)  and on his own sagas like Cab Halloloco(1982), Viceversa, Trotacosmos de ida y vuelta (1984), Laszivia (1984), Superioribus (1988), Pun Tarrota (2000), Supertron (2002), Situaciones insólitas (2002) or Cederrom (2011),  as well as two lengthy cartoon strips on the character Tadeo Jones by Enrique Gato (2008 and 2010). He also worked as an animator in Estudios Equip on the series Mofli, el último koala(1986).

In 2002 he received the Gran Premio del Salón del Cómic de Barcelona, and in 2005 he was awarded the Premio Ivà.