Francesc Capdevila

Francesc Capdevila (born 17 September 1956), better known by his pen-name Max, is a Spanish artist who has worked in illustration, design, and comics. He is an important figure in Spanish comics, creating such popular characters as Gustavo and Peter Pank early in his career, and more recently Bardín. His clear line style (indebted to the Valencian tradition) tells humorous, angry, and sad, surrealistic stories.

Capdevila was born in Barcelona on 17 September 1956. His early reading was dominated by publications of the Bruguera Publishing house, such as TBO, Pumby, and Jaimito. He later came across American classics such as Flash Gordon and The Phantom and the Franco-Belgian albums of Asterix and The Adventures of Tintin.

In 1973 he joined the group El Rrollo (which included, among others, Nazario () and Javier Mariscal), publishing his first comic strips in their fanzine The Masked Rrollo, which he also sold in the streets of Barcelona. At this time, Capdevila was discovering underground comics, and in particular the work of Robert Crumb, who became his first great influence.

As a student he joined the Faculty of Fine Arts, with the goal of becoming a painter, but eventually felt more attracted by the narrative capacities of the comic strip, where his career ended up. In these years he published in magazines such as Matarratos (Rat Poison), Star, Butifarra and Integral.

In 1979 El Víbora (The Viper) was created, and Max was part of the founding artistic team. He used a character he had created previously, Gustavo (revolutionary, environmentalist, and anarchist) and in 1983 Peter Pank (parodying both the animation of Walt Disney and urban tribes).

In 1984, coinciding with the birth of his daughter, he moved to Majorca, the home city of his wife. In that year he published El carnaval de los ciervos (The carnival of the red deer), which was an important aesthetic and thematic change. Graphically, his new influence was Yves Chaland; narratively, it was his first foray info mythological and fantastic themes, characteristic of his work from then on. He created La muerte húmeda (the humid death), El beso secreto (the secret kiss) and then El canto del gallo (the crow of the rooster), a work in which the new influence of Belgian illustrator Ever Meulen is evident.

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