Toni Batllori

I was born in Barcelona in 1951. Son of the artist Antoni Jofre Batllori. I began to publish cartoons in Patufet magazine (the 2nd edition) and Mata-Ratos then afterwards at El Papus. I collaborated in local magazines and publications more or less dealing with political and social issues (in the late 60s). I studied Economics (after Engineering). I lasted until the third year of studies. Then I decided I wanted to study architecture, but I didn’t enroll. I published my first cartoon in the newspaper El Noticiero Universal. In 1980, I published the first comic strips in Ciero. That same year I began to draw in El Jueves and in the newspaper Avui in the sports section (the four corners). In 1987, I started drawing for the Diari de Barcelona in Catalan. There I drew a daily cartoon strip until its closed down in 1994 (then called Nou Diari). At the same time I did a cartoon strip in 'El Burladero' La Vanguardia and shortly afterwards another in the sports section about football. For a couple of years after the closure of the Nou Diari, I collaborated in El País with drawings made in a completely different style, which I still use sometimes to this day, and I signed them under the pseudonym “TONIGHT”. In 1995, during the regional elections, I drew the first daily comic strip for the political section of La Vanguardia where I’m currently still working as well as in El Jueves and several magazines of more limited scope. Aside from the cartoons, I make sculptures and paint pictures. I studied film and I have made the occasional animated film. I have also made puppets and illustrated a book. I have published several collections of jokes and cartoon strips such as Pobres abuelos (El Jueves, 1992) Ninots. La política de 1999 en tires (La Vanguardia, 1999), Pujol (Ed. Dèria 2003) and Aznar (Ed. Dèria, 2004). Ninots 2005-2007 (Ed. Now Books, 2007) Exhibitions of my work have been shown at the Col·legi de Periodistes in 1993 (jokes and cartoon strips); the bookstore Ona, 1995 (paintings, prints and sculptures) and the Serveis Territorials de Cultura de la Generalitat in Barcelona in 2004. In 2000 the Col·legi de Doctors I Graduats en Ciencies Polítiques I Sociología (College of Doctors and Graduates in political Science and Sociology) presented me with the award Manuel Sales i Ferré for the best observer of current affairs, social and political. In 2004 I won The International Gat Perich Humour Award and the Premi Junceda (in the section of graphic humour) and in 2008, the media award Premi Ciutat de Barcelona.