Spanish author Javier de Isusi and Czech author Jindřich Janíček both began their careers as graphic novelists while traveling. Isusi’s year-long journey through Latin America led to the creation of the tetralogy Los viajes de Juan Sin Tierra (The Travels of Juan Sin Tierra), while Janíček’s trip through the Pacific Northwest of the United States and British Columbia resulted in the book Na západ severozápadní linkou (West by Northwest). What makes travel storytelling unique? How are experiences and emotions from travels translated into book form? How do hundreds of images seen with the naked eye get condensed into just a few pages?
In addition, both authors show a strong interest in depicting real-life events, whether through documentary form, like Janíček’s B jako běžec (B is for Runner) about athletic competitions in the United States, or through documentary fiction, like Isusi’s exploration of trauma related to the terrorist organization ETA in He visto ballenas (I Saw Whales) or his graphic novel on the contemporary issue of refugees, Asylum. How do graphic novels contribute to the documentary genre? How is storytelling structured in this genre? These and other questions will be discussed in a debate moderated by Jakub Sedláček, editor-in-chief of Paseka Publishing.
The debate is organized by the Cervantes Institute in Prague in collaboration with the Czech Literary Center with financial support of Embassy of Spain in Prague.
The debate will be interpreted from and into Spanish.
Javier de Isusi (Bilbao, 1972) studied architecture in San Sebastián and Lisbon. After his studies, he briefly practiced architecture before embarking on a year-long journey through Latin America. Upon his return, he decided to pursue his true passion: storytelling through comics. After winning several awards in various comic contests, he began publishing the tetralogy Los viajes de Juan Sin Tierra in 2004, inspired by his own travels. The series soon garnered translations into French, Portuguese, and Finnish and became the subject of university theses in Italy and the United Kingdom. His comic He visto ballenas (I Saw Whales, Astiberri, 2014), also published in Basque, French, and German, was nominated for awards at major comic festivals in Spain and France. In 2015, he published a new graphic novel, Asylum, for CEAR-Euskadi (Spanish Commission for Refugee Assistance in the Basque Country), which explores the topic of refugees from various perspectives. This graphic novel was co-published by CEAR and Astiberri in 2017. This was followed by the comics La divina comedia de Oscar Wilde (The Divine Comedy of Oscar Wilde), which he worked on for nearly five years and which was awarded the 2020 Spanish National Comic Award and the AACE Award (Spanish Association of Comic Authors), and Transparentes (Transparencies) about Colombian exile.
Jindřich Janíček (Znojmo, 1990) studied animation in Zlín and later illustration in the studio of Juraj Horváth at UMPRUM in Prague. He decided to pursue illustration professionally and in 2023 won the Czech Grand Design Award for the second time. Together with Nikola Janíčková, he owns the publishing house Take Take Take. At the end of 2022, his illustrated travelogue Na západ severozápadní linkou (West by Northwest) about a journey through the Pacific Northwest of the USA and British Columbia was published by Paseka. A year earlier, Paseka also published his “comic documentary” B jako běžec (B is for Runner) about running competitions in the United States. He hopes to one day illustrate a book – which he often talks about but has yet to start – about the history of utopian religious communities in 19th-century North America.
Jakub Sedláček (1973) studied Bohemistics at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. He later worked at the Institute of Czech Literature at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, focusing on textology. In 2002, he joined the publishing house Euromedia, where he led the editorial series World Literature (60 volumes). From 2008 to 2012, he worked at Hospodářské noviny as the editor of the weekend supplement. Since 2013, he has been an editor, and since 2014, the editor-in-chief at Paseka Publishing. He has published or continues to publish in magazines and periodicals such as A2, Aargh!, Analogon, Bohemistyka (Poland), Česká literatura, Harper’s Bazaar, Hospodářské noviny, Kultúrny život (Slovakia), Labyrint revue, Magnus, Nové knihy, Obratník, and Slovo a smysl. As a literary editor, he has prepared works by authors such as Konstantin Biebl, Josef Kainar, and others for publication.
