EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 22 © 2018 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

20 market, and step by step ended up forming an art agency which they called Selecciones Ilustradas (also known as S.I.). Toutain soon found that it was more lucrative for him to work as an agent than an artist, and dedicated his career to running an art agency. At around this period another Catalan artist, Jordi Macabich, who collaborated with Bruguera and Creaciones Editoriales, saw an opportunity to work within the British market’s thriving comic book industry. Since the currency exchange with the British pound gave a Spanish artist a higher profit per page rate, Macabich decided to travel to the UK on his motorbike accompanied by colleague Jaume Romeu. The Spaniards first stop was at Amalgamated Press, where they both had earlier collaborated through Creaciones Editoriales. According to Macabich, “We arrived when the engravers were on strike, and they (Amalgamated) needed the strips at a nearer date, or they wouldn’t have any work ready. We finished the job on time, and that’s how we got to work for them.” At Amalgamated Press Macabich also encountered Barry Coker, who at the time wrote western stories for the company. Coker spoke some Spanish and that was how the two men met, hardly suspecting that their encounter would pave the way to the formation of one of the most respected art agencies in the world. Before returning to Barcelona from his first trip to London, Macabich had gone to Belgium and contacted A.L.I., an art agency formed for the purpose of selling the Tintin comic series to the foreign market, as well as representing other European artists. At A.L.I. they were interested in what Macabich had to offer, and through them Macabich continued to collaborate for the foreign market. “At the beginning we didn’t think of forming an agency,” Macabich told Spanish comics expert Toni Guiral, “and on a second trip to London, Toutain asked me to introduce some of his artists too, which I did.” Later Toutain also received help from Luis Ferraz, another Spanish friend of his who lived in London. Barry Coker: “I think Macabich was working through Luis Ferraz at the time. Ferraz was good. I think he’d