Miguelanxo Prado: Illustrator – Spain

Life enriches, and the more you live, the more you know about your sentiments, about society, about yourself… And your own language, logically, should also refine. … The more you master the techniques of language, the more freely you can effectively tell any idea. Because art isn’t just a medium for expression; it should be indefeasibly a medium for communication.

M. Prado

born in a coruña (Galicia) in 1958, Miguelanxo Prado is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning comic-book creator whose versatility makes him one of the most comprehensive and influential illustrators in the field. Although he is mostly recognized for his work in comic books, Prado’s artistry knows no boundaries—from graphic novels, children’s illustrations, and posters to character design and illustration for television and film animation.

Prado found his passion, comics, at the age of twenty and decided to drop out of architecture school to pursue illustration professionally. During the 1980s, Prado contributed to magazines such as Creepy, Comix Internacional, Zona 84, and El Jueves. The Spanish weekly comic magazine El Jueves published a series of stories that were later assembled under the title Quotidianía Delirious, for which Prado won the award for best work in the Barcelona International Comics Convention in 1989.

In the 1990s, Prado turned his attention to other artistic media. He was the lead character designer for the popular American animated Men in Black: The Series which aired from 1997 to 2002. Prado has illustrated many children’s books for his friend and fellow Galician, Agustin Fernández Paz, such as As flores radioactivas (Radioactive Flowers, 1990) and Cos pés no aire (With Feet in the Air, 1999). He also illustrated books for authors such as the Mexican novelist Laura Esquivel (The Law of Love, 1996), Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, and David Aceituno. In 2003, Prado worked with Neil Gaiman on The Sandman: Endless Nights, providing art for “Dream: The Heart of a Star.” The animated feature film, De Profundis—a poetic homage to the sea that Prado wrote, drew, and directed—was released in 2007. That same year, Prado was the recipient of the Gran Premi del Saló, the grand prize of the Barcelona International Comics Convention. In 2012, he published the graphic novel Ardalén, which earned him another best-work award at the Barcelona Comics Convention of 2013 as well as the National Comic Award that same year.

Miguelanxo Prado has also served as director of “Bullets from the Atlantic,” the A Coruna comic festival held every summer since 1998. In 2009, he became a member of the Galician Royal Academy of Fine Arts.