) is a Spanish comics

Comics

Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...

 artist and an animated

Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

 film director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

, known as the co-creator of Blacksad

Blacksad

Blacksad is a comic album series created by Spanish authors Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido , and published by French publisher Dargaud. Though both authors are Spanish, their main target audience for Blacksad is the French market and thus they publish all Blacksad volumes in French first;...

.

Biography

At an early age, Juan Díaz Canales became interested in comics and their creation, which progressed and broadened out to include animated films. At the age of 18, he entered a school for animation. In 1996 he founded, together with three other artists, a company called Tridente Animation. Through this, he has worked with European and American companies, providing plots and scripts for comics and animation films, as well as directing animated television series and animation movies.

During this period he met Juanjo Guarnido

Juanjo Guarnido

Juanjo Guarnido is a Spanish illustrator and the co-author of the comic book series Blacksad.-Biography:Guarnido was born in Granada, Spain. He studied painting at the art school of Granada. He collaborated on several fanzines and produced work for Marvel comics. Unfortunately, the small size of...

, with whom Canales decided to create comics based around a private investigator, Blacksad. After contacting several editors, Guarnido and Canales finally signed on with French publisher Dargaud

Dargaud

Les Éditions Dargaud is a publisher of Franco-Belgian comics series, headquartered in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. It was founded in 1943 by Georges Dargaud.Initially, Dargaud published novels for women...

, and in November 2000, Quelque part entre les ombres (Somewhere within the Shadows) was published. It was a great success with both critics and the public, and was awarded the Prix de la Découverte at the Sierre International Comics Festival and the "Avenir" Prize at the Lys-lez-Lannoy

Lys-lez-Lannoy

-References:*...

 Festival, in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 and France respectively. In March 2003 the second album Arctic-Nation, was released. It was once again a great success, winning the Angoulême

Angoulême International Comics Festival

The Angoulême International Comics Festival is the largest comics festival in Europe. It has occurred every year since 1974 in Angoulême, France, in the month of January.The four-day festival is notable for awarding several prestigious prizes in cartooning...

 Audience Award

Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize Awarded by the Audience

This Prize Awarded by the Audience is awarded to comics authors at the Angoulême International Comics Festival since 1989.The prize was known as Alph-Art du public from 1989-2003, the Prix du public from 2004-2006, and since 2007 the Essentiel FNAC-SNCF, since it is sponsored by the retailer Fnac...

 and the Festival Prize for Artwork

Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for Artwork

This Prize for Artwork is awarded to comics authors at the Angoulême International Comics Festival.As is the customary practice in Wikipedia for listing awards such as Oscar results, the winner of the award for that year is listed first, the others listed below are the nominees.-2000s:* 2002: Le...

 in 2004. The third instalment of the Blacksad series, Âme Rouge (Red Soul), was published in 2005. In 2006 it was awarded the Angoulême Prize for a Series

Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for a Series

This Prize for a Series is awarded to comics authors at the Angoulême International Comics Festival since 2004.As is the customary practice in Wikipedia for listing awards such as Oscar results, the winner of the award for that year is listed first, the others listed below are the nominees.* 2004:...

.

Awards

• 2000: Prize for Best First Album at the Lys-lez-Lannoy festival
• 2000: Prix spécial at the Rœulx (Belgium) festival
• 2000: Prix Némo at the Maisons-Laffitte festival
• 2000: Prix découverte at Sierre International Comics Festival
• 2001: Best Artwork Award at Festival de Chambéry
• 2002: Best Artwork Award at Grand Prix Albert Uderzo
• 2003: Prix spécial du jury au Sierre International Comics Festival
• 2004: Angoulême Audience Award, for Arctic-Nation
• 2004: Angoulême Best Artwork Award
  Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for Artwork
  This Prize for Artwork is awarded to comics authors at the Angoulême International Comics Festival.As is the customary practice in Wikipedia for listing awards such as Oscar results, the winner of the award for that year is listed first, the others listed below are the nominees.-2000s:* 2002: Le...
  
  , for Arctic-Nation
• 2004: Virgin Prize for Best Album, for Arctic-Nation
• 2006: Angoulême Best Series Award
  Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for a Series
  This Prize for a Series is awarded to comics authors at the Angoulême International Comics Festival since 2004.As is the customary practice in Wikipedia for listing awards such as Oscar results, the winner of the award for that year is listed first, the others listed below are the nominees.* 2004:...
  
  , for the Blacksad series
• 2006: Bédéis Causa - Prix Maurice Petitdier for the best foreign comic at the Festival de la BD francophone de Québec for Blacksad

Sources

• Canales publications in Pilote BDoubliées
• Blacksadmania.com (French)
• reyes y poetas (Spanish blog of Juan Díaz Canales)

Footnotes