Alfons Figueras. Honorary Prize.

Alfons Figueras i Fontanals (Vilanova I la Geltrú 1922, Barcelona 2009) was a Catalan writer and cartoonist, creator of characters such as Aspirino and Colodión and Topolino, the ultimate hero.

During the civil war he worked in various posts and during the 1940’s he started in the world of comics, working for publishers Marco, Bruguera and Hispanic American. He worked on the childrens’ journal Legends, where, among other things,he was involved with tracing colour pages of classic American heroes (Flash Gordon, Tarzan, etc.) later to printed in black and white.

Between 1946 and 1947 he published several series of comics such as Mysto (Chicos, 1946), Mr. Radar (El Coyote, 1947) and El Hombre Eléctrico (El Coyote also that year). After these publications, he gave up the realistic style definitively to concentrate on the humorous comic strip.

Between 1948 and 1956 Figueres made fifty different series for weekly comics, including:
• Napulión (KKO, 1948)
• Pistolini Lupo (Historietas, 1949)
• Rubin Ruud (Cubilete, 1950)
• Loony (Nicolás, 1951)
• ¡Qué guerra! (Nicolás, 1952)
• Pipo y Teka (Yumbo, 1956)

In 1956 he moved to Venezuela, where he lived for twelve years working in cartoon studios. On return, still working in animation, he had a series of failed attempts to make it back into the world of comics. He returned to work at Bruguera where he created some of his best known works such as:
• Aspirino y Colodión (1967)
• Harry Cawallo (1968)
• Topolino, el último héroe (1968)
• Cine Locuras (1969)
• Don Terrible Buñuelos (1975)
• Compatibilitzà aquests treballs amb la realització de tires de premsa, com "Don Plácido" (1970), per a La Vanguardia, o "El Bon Jan" (1976) i "Mr. Hyde" (1987), per a l'Avui.

Al 1988 col·laborà a la revista TBO d'Edicions B amb noves sèries, com "Fortunato" o "Historias extraordinarias", i aquell mateix any va obtenir el Gran Premi del Saló Internacional del Còmic de Barcelona.

El seu estil, amb una marcada predilecció per l'humor surrealista i fantàstic, resulta inusual en el marc de la historieta humorística espanyola. En la seva obra han tingut una gran influència el cinema còmic mut, el cinema fantàstic, les novel·les de gènere i els còmics clàssics nord-americans, com la tira còmica "Krazy Kat", de George Herriman.