Javier Rodríguez (artist)

Career

While studying at the University of Fine Arts in Barcelona, Rodríguez and a group of friends (one of whom was Germán García of Tess Tinieblas, X-Men and Superman fame) started a comics fanzine called Froilán. In 1996, he pencils Anselmo Ensombras, a comic about the history of Spanish cinema for the 34th Gijón International Film Festival, and self-publishes the first issue of Love Gun, a futuristic four-issue miniseries about a group of friends with heavy social criticism on such issues as unemployment and economic independence of young people (the tagline of the comic was "in the XXI century, unemployment is still a problem..."). Only three issues were published, leaving the story unfinished, which still was enough to attract attention to the young cartoonist from the critics and the audience. In 1998, the Madrid publisher Under Cómic relaunched Love Gun with a new #1 and a new story. Ígor Medio helped Rodríguez with scripting and inking for the second volume. Although the title suffered from erratic publication and stopped production after four issues, leaving the story unfinished again, the series gained enough attention for the publisher to release some merchandise (posters, T-shirts, postcards), something absolutely unheard of in the independent Spanish comic book market. In 1999, Rodríguez was nominated for the "Best Newcomer" at the Salón del Cómic de Barcelona (Barcelona Comic Fair).

Rodríguez began his professional career contributing to the cult underground Spanish comics magazine El Víbora. Besides several short stories and cover illustrations, he created series Paraíso, Punk Rock Bar (later compiled in a single volume by Kappa Entrialgo in Italy), Tenebro and Comprobando la Realidad, scripted by Mauro Entrialgo. Rodriguez continued to appear in the pages of El Víbora until 2002.

At the same time Rodríguez does some custom short comics like Blue Joven (for BBVA) and Los Potaje (for the municipality of Gijón), included in a campaign to prevent alcohol abuse aimed at schools, as well as various illustrations for music bands like Manta Ray, Australian Blonde and Felpeyu. He also worked on film production and advertisements for companies such as LolaFilms, Canal Plus and Mediapro, and played in a band called Kactus Jack.

In late 2002 he publishes his first full colour graphic novel Wake Up through Glénat. 2003 marks his debut on the American market, not as a penciller but as the colourist; he debuts on the limited series Batgirl: Year One by DC Comics (drawn by Marcos Martín and inked by Álvaro López, both also of Spanish origin). Since then he coloured a lot of covers and interior for both DC and Marvel, occasionally pencilling for various Daredevil and Spider-Man-related publications.

Rodríguez contributed to every issue of the children's magazine Mister K with his series Crononautas, and co-created Lolita HR with Delphine Rieu for Les Humanoïdes Associés, originally serialized in Shogun Mag and later compiled in manga-style volumes.