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Who is Joso?

Joso is the alias by which Josep Solana Zapater is known, a humorist cartoonist who began his professional career in 1956 doing his first works in the magazines of Editorial Bruguera and in the sports newspaper “Dicen”.

40 YEARS

OF HISTORY

Joso soon began to publish his jokes and comics.
At the age of 19 he was already collaborating for Tío Vivo published by Crisol.
There he published a variety of jokes, including those starring The wise Eurekaand comic strips, and comic strips of series such as Lidia and her little brother Jaimito and Don Cuplé.. He continued to collaborate for Editorial Bruguera in magazines such as El DDT, Can Can, Pulgarcito or the first period of Din Danagain with jokes and with series such as Marilín, Blanquita Ese, Pepito Almendritos or Epitafio Perdigón. Epitafio Perdigón, which does not even hit with a cannon..

His extensive career in this field also includes his participation in newspapers such as Dicen, Barcelona Deportiva y Avuimagazines such as Readings, humorous weeklies such as
La PZ or comics such as Hiccup, Monkey and Fifi, RufufuPepe Cola, Pepe Cola, Tele Chico, Tele Cómico o Amaniac. And let’s not forget his presence, making live graphic jokes, for the show
Style,
Amor meu, Reina por un día and A todo gas from TVE’s Miramar Studios.

Joso has been able to adapt perfectly to all assignments, showing a healthy, fresh and essentially white humor, basically due to the historical and political environment in which he published his work until 1975.
And always with that graphic seal that identifies him.

Joso is a restless man, with initiative.
Already in 1957 he founded, together with his brothers Pedro Solana and Francisco Solana, the agency Publicidad Solana.
In 1981 he began to give some comic and graphic humor classes.
In the II Saló del Còmic i la Il-lustració de Barcelona, in 1982, he set up a stall to promote what would be his first school of comics.
And it worked.
In 1982 Escola Joso was inaugurated in a shop on Gran Via in Barcelona.
Among its first teachers (besides Joso), professionals of comics, advertising and illustration such as Leandro Blasco, Esteve Polls, Sebastià Torán, Aurelio Bevià or Àlex Sardá.

Escola Joso welcomed hundreds of students, and its success led it to grow.
In 1990, they moved to premises in Violant d’Hongria street in Barcelona, an old foundry, which with a lot of effort became a reference in the teaching of comics, illustration and graphic humor.
And Escola Joso continued to grow, taking on thousands of students, with some of the best professionals in comics, illustration, cartoons and graphic design as teachers.
And it moved, again, in 2014, to its current location in Entença street, expanding in 2017 an annex with new classrooms in Corsega street.
It also opened an Escola Joso in Sabadell in 1992.

Today, Escola Joso is more than ever a reference in the teaching of drawing and storytelling.
Some of the best cartoonists who are currently publishing have passed through its classes, many of them also teachers at the school.

Long live Escola Joso!