It is not difficult to predict that 2022 will be an excellent year for comics, taking into account the brilliant evolution that the ninth art has had in recent years in our country, also driven by the boom manga, consolidated as the engine of the industry. Of what will come this year, we must especially highlight the Spanish edition of a surprisingly forgotten and almost unpublished work: Soledadby Tito. The Cascaborra publishing house, specialized in historical comics, recovers this series by this Spanish author living in France who, already in the eighties, made a masterful portrait of emptied Spain, connecting past and present to understand a future that did not arrive. He will not be the only Spanish author who will see his work published this year: the Galician David Rubín will hit bookstores twice, with the science fiction comic Cosmic Detective, along with Matt Kindt, and with his long-awaited new personal proposal, The fire, both edited by Astiberri.

For her part, Laura Pérez Vernetti will once again adapt the poetry of Luis Alberto de Cuenca in Live your life (Kingdom of Cordelia), while the Apa-Apa publishing house prepares the new works of young authors who are marking graphic poetry, such as Begoña Garacía-Alén (of which it will publish Goodbye friends) and María Medem. A style that both Chris Stygryt feel close to, who will see published In construction (Desfiladero), like Borja González, whose second graphic novel will be published, Night scream (Reservoir Books). It will be the year of debuts like that of Eider Rodríguez and Julen Rivas in Holy family, winner of the Euskadi award to be published by Grafito; that of César Sebastián in a long narrative with a work that talks about life in the Valencian towns of the fifties, Ronson (Autsaider), and that of the new graphic novel by Isaac Sánchez Loulogio after more than two years of work: High tide (Dolmen). We can also read Mandarina, by Sergio Salma and Amelia Navarro (Nuevo Nueve), which has garnered such good reviews in France. And pay attention to the recoveries of national classical authors: ECC Ediciones opens with Born wild the Fernando de Felipe Library, dedicated to reissuing the works of this fundamental author of the eighties, while Norma editorial will rescue the Goomer by Ricardo and Nacho in full edition.

In the foreign comics section, one of the most anticipated novelties that is standing out in all the selections of the best of the year is the new graphic novel by Rutu Modan, Tunnels (Salamander). The same publisher will publish the risky and interesting Ex-libris, by Matt Madden, a declaration of love for the comic and its possibilities. From the greats of American comics will also come the new work of the always disturbing Charles Burns, Labyrinths (Reservoir Books), and the complete edition of one of the references of the nineties, Hateby Peter Bagge (The Dome). Autsaider will discover us one of the pioneers of autobiographical comics, the Québec girl Sylvie Rancourt, about whom she will publish her famous Melody, diary of a stripper. Impedimenta continues to publish the indispensable work of Catherine Meurisse with The bridge of the arts, which will appear in February. The most demanding comic will also have space with Girlsplaining, by Katja Klengel (Sapristi), while the everyday will return from the hand of Keiler Roberts in My plea table (Alpha Comic).

The followers of Simon Hanselmann are in luck with the edition of Critical Zone (Fulgencio Pimentel), which addresses the pandemic and confinement; as well as those of Bretch Evens, from which the spectacular Revelry (Astiberri). And sci-fi fans will happily receive Total, the new work by Ugo Bienvenu that will see the light of the hand of Ponent Mon. The comic more mainstream will not miss the appointment in 2022, with the comprehensive edition of the Sandman by Neil Gaiman (ECC Ediciones) taking advantage of the premiere of his television adaptation or the recovery that Panini will make of one of the best superhero comics of recent times: the vitriolic X-Statix by Peter Milligan and Mike Allred. And not only do you have to think about superheroes here: the renowned one will also have a Spanish edition Dylan Dog: Mater Dolorosa, by Roberto Recchioni and Gigi Cavenago (Nuevo Nueve).

We must not forget either the recovery of icons that publishers such as Dolmen have consolidated with the excellent collection Sin Fronteras, publishing the classic series of the press comic as Flash Gordon The Prince valiant. To this initiative is added La Cúpula, which will publish one of the comic masterpieces of all time, admired by artists such as Picasso or poets such as EE Cummings: Krazy Kat, by George Herriman. An inexplicably unpublished modern classic in Spain is Commissioner Spada, by Gianluigi Gionano and Gianni de Luca, a canonical policeman at heart, but groundbreaking in his form. The children’s comic will have its space in this section with the first volume of Mumin. Tove Jansson’s Complete Comic Collection (Salamandra).

The graphic essay is already one of the most interesting forms of the comic and will bring us works such as The word that starts with A, in which Elizabeth Casillas and Higinia Garay reflect on abortion (Astiberri); or biographies like Lugosi, by Koren Shadmi, dedicated to the life of the famous horror film actor (Gorge) and the singer Leonard Cohen, de Phillippe Girard (Norma). Herbby Keum Suk Gendry-Kim delves into the terrible episode of the Korean “comfort women” in WWII, while Ten thousand elephants, by Pere Ortín and Ramón Esono Ebalé, will deal with Spanish colonialism in Guinea, both in Reservoir Books.

And, of course, it will be the year of the manga: to the established publishers in this field such as Norma, Planeta Cómic, Panini, ECC, Ivrea, Babylon, Satori, Nowevoluton, Milky Way, Tomodomo or Fandogamia must be added those that are added or They open dedicated labels, such as Kitsune, Hidra, Ooso, Fujur, Odaiba, Sekai, Kame Kame, Salvat, Arechi, Kodai or Moondust, in an incomplete list that will be able to surpass, with certainty, the thousand of novelties of Japanese comics in Spain during 2022 Although it is practically impossible to highlight all the titles planned in this reduced space, attentive to the long-awaited edition of Team Phoenix, the manga that the Spanish Kenny Ruiz is doing in Japan (Comic Planet), as well as the publication of classics such as Tales from a distant past, de Shigeru Mizuki; The devouring fish, de Yoshihiro Tatsumi (Satori Ediciones), o Red Snow, de Susumu Katsumata (Gallo Nero).