Carlos Azagra

Closely attached to political and protest causes from his youth, Juan Carlos Azagra has imbued his work with these ideals throughout his whole career. For three decades, from 1984 to 2014, he worked with the magazine El Jueves, where his most famous characters appeared: Pedro Pico y Pico Vena.

Azagra began studying Fine Arts in 1975, in Barcelona, ​​where he would also become interested in politics. During his university days he collaborated with several clandestine political groups, such as the Unión de Juventudes Comunistas de España, and this strongly marked his whole artistic production, which is loaded with protest and contesting intentions. During this time he also made some posters for the Federació de Asociacions de Veïns de Barcelona (FAVB).

During the eighties he combined his work linked to politics with his first contacts with the world of comic magazines. Among other publications, he worked for Makoki and El Víbora, at that time two emerging magazines dedicated to the world of comics. He also collaborated with fanzines linked to politics, specifically to the CNT or CGT unions. He was about to be imprisoned for his ideas and political activity, specifically for making a drawing that was considered blasphemy

It was in the middle of the decade, in 1984, when he signed for El Jueves, a publication in which he would work for three decades, and where he developed one of his most notable works: Pedro Pico y Pico Vena. Currently, he continues to collaborate with publications such as TMEO, as well as some protest fanzines and some neighborhood magazines.

His work in the comic was especially prolific in relation to the series. The aforementioned Pedro Pico y Pico Vena stand out, but he also created other relevant stories and characters associated with politics, such as Rockerillos del Arroyo, Ovidio, Vicioso del Vidrio or Paco Jeta. All these works were charged with a strong claim, criticism and denunciation intention, which in the end has been the artist’s hallmark.