Juan Alarcón

THE CARTESIAN LOVER La amante cartesiana Written by Paloma Ruiz Román Artwork by Juan Alarcón Published by Editorial Egales · Spain · 2016 THE GRAPHIC NOVEL Can mathematics prove that love is destined to fail? The Cartesian Lover (La amante cartesiana) is a Spanish graphic novel that brings together romance, mathematics, comedy and drama to explore one of the most universal human questions: can a relationship really last? At the heart of the story is Julia, a young mathematics teacher who sees the world through numbers, probabilities and logic. When she encounters a mathematical model suggesting that long-term relationships naturally tend towards failure, she becomes determined to prove it wrong. But the problem soon becomes deeply personal. If the mathematics is right, what does that mean for Julia’s own relationship with her girlfriend, Elena? What begins as an intellectual challenge gradually becomes a confrontation between two apparently opposing ways of understanding life: reason and emotion, probability and desire, scientific prediction and human freedom. PUBLICATION DETAILS Original title: La amante cartesiana Suggested English title: The Cartesian Lover Writer: Paloma Ruiz Román Artist: Juan Alarcón Publisher: Editorial Egales Country: Spain Publication year: 2016 Language: Spanish Format: Graphic novel Binding: Paperback Dimensions: 17 × 24 cm Length: 144 pages ISBN:https://www.twine.net/signin

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CAT ISLAND Spanish-Created Manga · Published by Kame Kame Ediciones EDITORIAL LOGLINE One of the original series launched by Kame Kame, Cat Island belongs to a new generation of manga created in Spain, bringing the Japanese model of serialized storytelling to a publishing platform dedicated to emerging Spanish and international creators. INTERNATIONAL POSITIONING Cat Island can be presented internationally not only as an individual work, but also as part of a broader movement within the Spanish comics industry: the emergence of a new generation of creators who have embraced the visual and narrative language of manga to develop original works for a market where European comics, American comics, and Japanese manga increasingly coexist. Its publication in Kame Kame represents an early example of the professional serialization of original manga produced in Spain, placing the project within a particularly interesting period in the recent development of the Spanish manga scene. Rather than simply reproducing the conventions of Japanese manga, projects such as Cat Island demonstrate how its visual language and storytelling techniques can be adopted and reinterpreted by creators working within a different cultural and publishing environment. PUBLISHING CONTEXT The original Kame Kame initiative sought to provide manga creators with a professional serialized format inspired by the Japanese magazine model, allowing different series and authors to share the same publication and build an audience through successive chapters. Within this context, Cat Island was part of the magazine from its initial launch and continued across subsequent issues, making it one of the titles associated with the identity of Kame Kame’s early publishing period. The project was later connected with Shiro Kame, the subsequent editorial phase of the magazine and its continuing commitment to original manga production. INTERNATIONAL PITCH Created in Spain and developed within a professional manga publishing environment, Cat Island represents the growing internationalization of the medium: an original European production built around the visual language, narrative techniques, and serialized publishing tradition of manga. Its history as one of Kame Kame’s original serialized titles gives the project a distinctive position within the emerging landscape of Spanish-created manga, while offering a foundation for its presentation to publishers and readers beyond the Spanish market.

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THE LOST SOULS A graphic novel about memory, identity, and the stolen babies of Francoist Spain Cartem Cómics presents The Lost Souls (Las almas perdidas), a graphic novel by Francisco Ballesteros, Juan Alarcón, and Pilar Tarifa that revisits one of the most painful episodes in Spain’s recent history, transforming it into a story of historical memory, drama, and suspense. Published as part of Cartem Cómics’ Spanish Bombs collection, The Lost Souls addresses the tragedy of Spain’s stolen babies and the repression suffered by women during and after the Spanish Civil War. Drawing on real historical events, the graphic novel weaves together different periods to show how the consequences of those events continue to resonate in the present day. The story begins in 1936, with the murder of several women in El Aguaucho, before taking the reader to Saturrarán Women’s Prison, where numerous inmates endured hunger, disease, repression, and the forced separation from their children. The narrative eventually reaches the present day, shaped by investigations and demands for truth and justice surrounding the cases of babies who disappeared during Franco’s dictatorship and in the decades that followed. At the heart of the story is the son of a former Saturrarán prisoner, who years later becomes a United Nations Special Rapporteur. Deeply affected by his mother’s story, he embarks on an investigation that transforms his family’s memories into a search for accountability, connecting his own past with the experiences of countless victims. The Lost Souls combines historical research and fiction, building a tense narrative in which past and present unfold in parallel. Individual memory gradually becomes collective memory, prompting a broader reflection on the need to uncover the truth, pursue justice, and provide reparation for the victims. The project brings together Francisco Ballesteros, writer; Juan Alarcón, artist; and Pilar Tarifa, colorist. Its artwork reflects the harshness of the story through an expressive and atmospheric visual approach, while the narrative structure interweaves victims, witnesses, and historical events to create a broader picture of the consequences of repression. Published by Cartem Cómics, the book comprises 112 full-color pages in a 21 × 29.7 cm format, ISBNhttps://www.twine.net/signin-6. The volume also includes documentary material providing historical context for the events depicted in the story. Rather than simply reconstructing the past, The Lost Souls raises a question that remains unresolved today: what happens when a society is unable to heal its wounds because there are still victims searching for answers? A graphic novel about memory, but also about its consequences; about those who disappeared, those who survived, and those who are still searching for the truth.

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