Borja González (comics artist)

Born and raised in Badajoz, González had a self-taught formation. He began publishing in several fanzines and later worked as a professional illustrator His comics debut was La boca del lobo (2012), where he recreateda fictional meeting between the Extremaduran painters Antonio Juez and Carolina Coronado.^[1] In 2014 he founded the publishing label El verano del cohete together with Mayte Alvarado and Ruí Díaz, which accommodated both original works and those of other emerging authors.^[2]

In 2016 lhe released La reina Orquídea, a story about creativity in which he began developing to develop the unique style that has marked his career.^[3] For this comic book he got a deal to publish The Black Holes (Reservoir Books, 2018; English edition: A Gift for a Ghost; SelfMadeHero,2020^[4]), first part of the "Las tres noches" trilogy: a fable that crosses two stories from different eras about personal fulfillment.^[3] This work confirmed his place in Spanish comics and had international repercussions, leading him to work for the Franco-Belgian market since 2020.^[5]

In 2021 he published his third album, Grito nocturno (Night Cry), edited by Dargaud in the Franco-Belgian marker, by Reservoir Books in its Spanish edition and by Europe Comics in English.^[6][7][8] The work deals with subjects like forgetting, uncertainty and the friendship between the three protagonists, from a lyrical and surrealist point of view.^[5][7] For this work, Borja González was awarded the Premio Nacional del Cómic in 2023, by the Ministry of Culture of Spain.^[7] That same year he finished his trilogy with El pájaro y la serpiente.

González's work is characterized by a distinctive style that she began developing in La reina Orquídea. Most of the characters in his works are women, and from The Black Holes onward, they share a protagonist, Teresa, whose character evolves with each title.^[5] The situations these characters experience are based on the feelings and perceptions of the author himself, who also leaves threads open for the reader to become involved in each story.^[3]

Since La reina Orquídea, the characters in his works have no faces and follow a synthetic style, so González pays special attention to body expression, the dynamism of the poses and the atmosphere that surrounds them.^[6][9] Another important element is the use of color, with a limited palette that is justified according to the plot of each book.^[6] In A Gift for a Ghost, color serves to mark eras, and in Night Cry it distinguishes both the settings and moods: ranges of blues in the exteriors to create a homogeneous look, and greater variety in the interiors to reflect feelings and details reserved for intimacy.^[5][6]