The government delegate in Galicia, Pedro Blanco, valued the innovative work 'The Body of Christ' (Astiberri), with which the graphic artist from Cordoba Bea Lema comes from winning the National Comic Prize of 2024. The Galician author, accompanied by her editor, Lucía Álvarez, held today in the Delegation a meeting with the delegate and the subdelegate in the province, María Rivas, in which she thanked the Ministry of Culture for this recognition, taking the opportunity to dedicate one of her copies to the institution.
Pedro Blanco congratulated Bea Lema “for placing the voice of Galician women in the cultural reference of our country, with stories as necessary as the one that recounts ‘The Body of Christ’”. In this sense, he valued the effort and talent of the artist “who is a true example for the new generations”.
As the jury recognized, it is a work, risky in the formal, with textures and compositions that transcend the most used techniques without renouncing the use of humor and a poetic look. The work has a great depth and sensitivity for the way to approach a subject as complex as that of mental health from the author's own experience, as well as the claim of the importance of care.
Likewise, Pedro Blanco encouraged the citizens to approach this reading of Bea Lema and invited the Galician boys and girls to take advantage of the Government Cultural Bond “to enjoy a literary genre as important as that of comic”. In this regard, he recalled that the bonus was extended until the month of October, so girls and boys who turn 18 in this 2024 still have it at their disposal.
The delegate pointed out that this is the first of the two National Awards that reached Galician authors in a few weeks, since the National Poetry Prize went to Chus Pato last Thursday 19.
Biography
An illustrator and comic book author Bea Lema was born in A Coruña in 1985. He made illustrations for magazines, posters or children's books. His work, usually autobiographical, deals with topics such as madness, family relationships, religion, trauma and popular rites.
In 2017 she received the XII Castelao Comic Award from the County Council of A Coruña for 'The Body of Christ', her first graphic novel, an autobiographical project that deals with mental illness from the perspective of a girl. In 2022 she was a scholar to carry out the residency of graphic novel at the Maison des auteurs de Angoulême (France). The book in which he worked, based on that first comic and which was published in France by the publishing house Sarbacane under the title ‘Des maux à dire’ and in Spain by Astiberri under the title ‘The Body of Christ’, was awarded the Jury Prize of the BD 2023 Festival in Pèrigord, and the Audience Prize of the Angoulême Festival, the Bédélys Prize of the Comic Festival of Montréal for the best foreign work and Grand Prize of the Heroine Madame Garfio in 2024. He is currently working on the adaptation of this book, the animated short film.