Laughing so you don't cry: Frustration and irony as a publishing resource

Germán di Pierro is an illustrator and writer, author of books such as Aparato Reproductor (2010), Pólvora (2017) and Trabajo para alquilar (2025), a compilation of his illustrations together with Microutopías. He is the founder of Casa de Balneario, an illustration and graphic activism project that produces urban interventions and publications of graphic storytelling and illustrated narrative. By means of stickers in public spaces, they disseminate posters and illustrated stories that deal with the issues of work, money and the price of rent.

Maite Caballero graduated in Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country and then studied illustration in Barcelona. She usually does editorial illustration work, illustrated albums, posters, workshops, etc., but above all she has published drawings and comics in her own self-published publications or those of other groups of friends. Since 2014, she has been organising the Guillotina self-publishing fair in Donostia, together with cartoonists Paula Estévez and Mikel Larraioz. She is also part of the Tupust! comic collective. In 2019, she won the residency organised by the International Professional Illustration Meeting in Euskadi Irudika, and during the first months of 2024 she has been a resident at La Casa del Autor in Zapopan.

‘Ata’ is the pseudonym of Juan Lasalle, who worked as a publicist for 15 years while also creating comics, a task he has continued to this day. Born in Santander and a leading figure in the Alava comic scene, in 2008 he moved with his family to Llubí (Mallorca) and from there he continues his monthly collaboration with TMEO and also publishes his wild humour cartoons in magazines such as El Jueves and Mongolia, as well as producing illustrations for magazines such as GQ, Visual and Cáñamo. In 2012, he founded the publishing house Autsaider Comics, where, in addition to somewhat underground comics, he also publishes narrative and essays that follow the same line as his comics, which are extraordinary, unique, crude or sophisticated, inviting readers to think differently and which, precisely for that reason, no one else wants to publish.

Karla is a struggling comic book artist. She is Danish, but lives in Berlin, where she works at a flea market selling jewellery of dubious quality. In her daily life, she faces a multitude of bizarre situations: a visit from Herle, a nine-year-old girl, with whom she goes to steal Christmas food from a supermarket; the sighting of protective dragons; the gluttony of Dexter, the Italian dog with whom she shares a flat; an unpleasant encounter with a security guard in a supermarket... All Karla wants is to make comics and be left in peace, but the angels, or dragons, seem to have other plans for her.

In addition to all this, Karla is the editor of Hairspray Magazine, whose first issue was awarded the ‘Fauve a la Bande Desinée Alternative 2025’ prize at the Angoulême International Comics Festival.

After studying political science, Lucile Ourvouai changed course to enrol at the Haute Ecole des Arts du Rhin in Strasbourg. During her studies, she founded the fanzine l'Ennui and became interested in micro-publishing in all its forms and in collective work. She developed a taste for serigraphy, which shaped her understanding and interpretation of colour. Currently, in addition to being a press illustrator, she is an editor and cultural manager in Marseille, involved in the field of comics and fanzines. She is particularly interested in micro-publishing, rarities and the female perspective in comics. She is behind two fanzines: L'Ennui and Fanatic Female Frustration, the latter of which won the independent publishing category at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2025.