Picanyol

Josep Lluís Martínez Picañol (Moià, Catalonia, Spain, 16th of march 1948), artistic name Picanyol, is a Catalan autodidact comic illustrator often considered a "modern classic" in Catalan comic history. His most well known creation is the character Ot el Bruixot.
== Biography ==
His professional career began during the 60s under the direction of Josep Toutain, editor-in-chief of Barcelona S.I. Artists, an agency in part responsible for the resurgence of the comic industry in Catalonia and the introduction of the Franco-Belgian school in Spain. Early in his career, Picanyol strived towards a realistic style, writing Western and adventure comics, his attempts were largely unsuccessful as he struggled to find any publisher. It was in the early 70s when he changed to a more humorous style, which would accompany him during the rest of his career. In his own words writing humor allowed him to use a more genuine, relatable and personal work.
Shortly after, he began working for different magazines such as Mata Ratos and L'Infantil (later Tretzevents) generally drawing comic strips while experimenting with characters, style and tone. As his popularity grew during the 80s, he began working for more widely distributed magazines such as Lecturas in 1981 and Mussol in 1982, the later belonging to Norma Editorial. In collaboration with Editorial Barcanova and Editorial Galera he also created several children's books such as Picajocs in 1991, La Rata Sàvia series starting in 1996, L'aligot savi in 2000 and El gripau saberut in 2003. Picanyol also worked briefly on television, collaborating with the Catalan circuit of TVE2 between 1983 and 1986. His most well known partnership was with the magazine Cavall Fort, which saw the first appearance of Ot (double issue 215/216 year 1971). For more than 42 years, Ot became a staple of Cavall Fort with an uninterrupted presence for 1,500 issues until Picanyol's retirement in 2014.
From the second half of 2005 until 2006 Picanyol suffered a creative crisis which made him refocus his career and begin writing an autobiography. The text was later published by Editorial Barcanova under the title Històries d'una pensió. Preus barats i plats plens. The book focuses on his experience living in his mother's pension during the 50s.
In 2010 he participated in a TV3 program to provide illustrations to a videoclip for the song Puff, el drac màgic by Falsterbo.
Begining in 2019, Edicions del Pirata collected Picanyol's books for children reediting them in the series Memòria d'Elefant, from which 6 volumes have published since.
During the 2010s Picanyol became interested in the Gospel and, in collaboration of writer Toni Matas, began working on La Bíblia dels nens, a comic about the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth aimed specially at children. The book was published by Barcelona Multimèdia in 2011 and quickly would proved highly successful being edited in Italy, the United States of America, Poland, France, Germany, Norway, Brazil, Portugal, Greece, Croatia, India, Australia, Netherlands, Slovenia and Russia. Consequently it was expanded into a series and a multiplatform project involving mobile apps. To this day five more books have been published about the Parables, Francis of Assisi, Ignatius of Loyola and the Psalms.
His maturity made him focus his career on ludo-didactic content and has lead to the creation of several books such as El gran llibre de les set diferències in 2016, similar in concept to Where is Wally? with a tale attached to each drawing, and Ot el bruixot i les dites dels mesos in 2017, in order to teach Catalan sayings to children. In addition, several of his early comics have been reedited in bilingual Catalan-English editions. Some examples are Ot the Wizard and the dragon, Ot the Wizard and the magic cloak and Ot the Wizard reads a story.
== Characters ==
In addition to Ot el Bruixot, Picanyol is credited with creating several characters across different publications and platforms. Some examples are:
* Nuria y su familia i Miss Lucy (Catalan for Nuria her family and Miss Lucy), included in the magazine Lecturas.
* La família Moixó (Catalan for the Moixó family), included in the magazine Catalunya Cristiana.
* Les Filles del Joglar (Catalan for The Mistrel's Daughters), for the magazine Barbie.
* Sopars de duro (Catalan for Nickel Suppers), for Cavall Fort.
* Els mims (Catalan for The mimes).
* El trobador (Catalan for The troubadour).
* Alabí.
* La Noemí i el pilot (Catalan for Noemi and the pilot).
* L'illa perduda (Catalan for The lost island).
* El doctor Pots i els seus ajudants (Catalan for The doctor Pots and his assistants).
Beginning in 1996, the software company Barcelona Multimèdia created several video games involving Ot and Noemí i el pilot, they were distributed in several CD-ROM commonly calles "Otijocs" (a Catalan portmanteau for Ot-and-games). More recently, in 2014 several of those games were ported to mobile devices along with additional educational games involving the New Testament.
Also, some of his characters have been used to promote reading among children in the program Llegir per Sentir of Vilafranca del Penedès and the Book Fair of Valencia.
==In the media==
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== References ==
== External links ==
* Picanyol: Spanish cartoonist (born: 1948)
* Picanyol, Josep Lluís M., 1948- - LC Linked Data Service
* Ingrid Picanyol Studio
* Picanyol 1948- WorldCat Identities
Category:1948 births
Category:Illustrators
Category:People by province in Catalonia
Category:Comics artists
Category:Franco-Belgian comics
Category:Spanish cartoonists