Our online British writers season “It's Time to Talk: let's talk about books”, presented in partnership with Málaga’s major municipal arts centre La Térmica, continues in October with a new episode in which we’ll be talking to the cartoonist and illustrator Tom Gauld (Aberdeenshire, Escocia, 1976), known and admired for his self-professed fondness of "deadpan comedy, flat dialogue, things happening offstage and impressive characters" (Hayley Campbell, The Comics Journal).
After satirizing the literary world in " You're All Just Jealous of My Jetpack" and "Baking with Kafka", Gauld is back with his "Department of Mind-blowing Theories" (Salamandra Graphic Spanish ed.), a collection of 150 of the weekly comic strips he publishes in New Scientist magazine. Although this time round the target of his gentle satire is the field of science, the strips are funny and up-to-date enough to hook anyone who still retains a vague recollection of their old science classes.
Our conversation with Tom will be aired within the digital programme of “Comics in Dialogue”, an International Conference organised by the Complutense University of Madrid from 20 to 23rd October. The Congress, focused entirely on comics, aims to provide a space for dialogue between Spanish and international writers and a meeting point for researchers from various literary fields who are currently focusing their work on comics.
We’ll also be joined by Juan Antonio Sánchez Jiménez, Professor of English at the Philology Faculty at the University and a member of the Conference’s organizing committee, together with Catalina Mejía from Tom Gauld’s Spanish publisher Salamandra Graphic for a brief discussion about the world of comics in Spain, before leading into the conversation with the cartoonist and illustrator himself.
You can watch it online here: https://www.facebook.com/BritishCouncilEspana/