Illustration and Comic Fairs in Barcelona

A folding table in a bookshop back room, stacked with zines and a stamp pad, is where much of Barcelona's illustration calendar actually happens: comic and zine fairs, portfolio reviews, life drawing sessions and gallery shows, each one posted by the member running it. Barcelona Artists carries these dates exactly as their organisers set them, with the place, the day and however that member chooses to describe what is on.

Sant Jordi, the city's book day on 23 April, gives illustration a fixed point that comic and zine culture builds toward, since so much of the discipline lives on paper and sells through that date. Around it the calendar is shaped less by one season than by small presses and specialist bookshops, which host launches and signings whenever a title is ready rather than to a set date. Life drawing sessions and portfolio reviews keep their own rhythm, tied to a studio's programme rather than the book trade.

A fair table has to be booked well before the fair itself, which catches newcomers who assume they can just turn up with a stack of prints. A small show works the opposite way and can be announced with barely any notice, so the calendar rewards checking back rather than planning far ahead. The private view is the only evening visitors can count on finding the artist there in person; once the opening crowd thins, the quieter days that follow suit anyone who wants a closer look at the work.

Any member can post an occasion here, whether they hold the artist role or not, and Barcelona Artists simply carries what they set down: the place, the day and their own account of it, written by the person who drew the work rather than by a directory. From there a reader can narrow by discipline or by style, then move on to the illustrators themselves, their drawings and comics, or the classes running alongside this calendar.