COLLECTION / 1945-1989 / Spain / Montesol

210 originals and documentation.

Francisco Javier Ballester Guillén (Barcelona, 1952), better known by the pseudonym Montesol, is, together with fellow artists such as Nazario, Mariscal and Ceesepe, one of the main strip cartoonists of the Spanish comic underground of the seventies and eighties. In 1974 he founded, alongside Juan José Fernández Ribera, the magazine Star (1974–1980), a publication that, alongside the magazine Ajoblanco, became an icon of the alternative press during Spain’s transition to democracy. He was also part of the collective El Rrollo Enmascarado (Mariscal, Nazario, Pepichek, Farry, etc.), and contributed to Barcelona’s counterculture and comic magazines such as El Víbora, Cairo, Nasti de plasti, Makoki and Bésame mucho.

In 1992 he moved to France and abandoned comics to completely dedicate himself to painting, holding exhibitions in Madrid, Barcelona and France. In 1999, he was the recipient of the Max Award for the best set design for Guys & Dolls. He eventually turned his attention back to graphic novels in 2011, publishing titles such as Speak Low (2012), El antipríncipe (2017), and Idilio. Apuntes de Fortuny (2017).

Comprised of over 200 items, most dating from the seventies, this collection includes correspondence, photographs, magazines and comic albums, although most extensive are the original works by the artist, consisting of sketches, illustrations, collages, mock-ups and drawings, and, above all, the original copies of various graphic stories, such as Las aventuras de Marcelo, Objetivo: La epiglotis del Shá, Epilepsia desencadenada, El doctor Fumanchú, La venganza del hijo de Machín and La noche de siempre.



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