The comic is a popular form of culture of singular importance in Spain. Converted during the 1940s into the main form of popular entertainment, it has radically evolved over the last 70 years, adapting to both commercial and artistic needs from profound structural changes in the industrial fabric created around it.
Who is Salva Espin?
Salvador Espín Bernabé, artistically known as Salva Espín, is an illustrator and comic designer of Spanish nationality. He has a degree in Fine Arts, specializing in Animation, from the Polytechnic University of Valencia.
He works for Marvel and such important characters from the world of comics have passed through his hands, for example, The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, Lobezno, Capitán América, La Patrulla X or Deadpool.
Salva says that his success has a lot to do with the help and support of his parents. His father was a great fan of comics and took him to specialized stores. He also encouraged him a lot to read them and taught him to draw from a young age. In his mother’s case, she enrolled him in painting in after-school activities and that helped him a lot.
Why is he so important for Marvel and so popular in Spain?
Salva espin has popularized the comic in the last two years in an incredible way due to his nice personality and a characteristic of him that is to talk a lot, he speaks like no one has spoken in history.
And it’s very funny, because in a very famous Spanish show he was invited to called “La Resistencia” he gave an impressive show not only demonstrating his incredible talent in drawing but also his incredible ability to speak in public without being embarrassed. He did not let the presenter speak; he took the leadership of the program on his own.
Why lemons?
The history of lemons is surreal, He comes from a Spanish city called Murcia. And there he grew up with his parents but also with his grandfather, with whom he used and usually spends a lot of time and also who had a farm with many trees of lemons. Since childhood, Salva’s way of drawing was to paint faces of the Marvel character Deadpool on all of his grandfather’s lemons until he actually he was able to enter a drawing school.
This story became popular when he was invited to the television show, and he brought more than 20 kilos of lemons from his grandfather´s farm with Deadpool’s face drawn on them to give away to the whole public.
A good question we can ask ourselves is: In the times we live in, children spend hours with consoles and video games. Is this compatible with comics?
Salva says: I think so. A child who likes video games can also combine it with reading comics. In Marvel both things are enhanced. Normally, the stories come out first from the comics and then the company, from there, develops other types of products. But the comic is without a doubt the most affordable medium.
In these modern times with so much technology everywhere, comics continue to survive, we still have that piece of history that our grandparents left behind, I hope this culture never dies and we continue to have good comics.