Fauns, faeries, goblins, sorcerers, gentle giants… These are the type of creatures who populate my new little book entitled “Glimpses From The Mummified Wood”, which is out on January the 19th.

As you may have seen throughout my blog and Facebook page, the past year I’ve been working on a long-term graphic novel project called “The Mummified Wood”. It’s a modern dark fairy tale divided into three volumes. During this period, I have completed the final script for the 1st volume as well as created and designed all the main characters.

Because this is a very special and personal project for me, I want it to be delivered in the best possible way. I’m very fortunate and proud to have it taken cared, produced and supported by ShiftFWD, the creative house that my wife Naomi and I run together. For the next steps of the project, we will be experimenting and considering different formats, which include digital media, animation and apps. The future holds exciting possibilities!

Before I take another step into the depths of the wood, I’ve wanted to share with you some of the visions, characters and experiences that I have encountered during this part of the creative journey. That’s why we decided to publish this little book “Glimpses From The Mummified Wood”, which compiles many of the drawings, sketches, and illustrations that I’ve produced. They are NOT the result of the journey but an important part of it, so most of them won’t be featured in the final graphic novel but only on this book.

Rather than making of this book a pure exhibition of my work, I wanted to share with you my experience in a more personal and intimate level. In the book, I talk about personal experiences and events that have guided me along this journey. These include a few anecdotes, life stories and the omnipresent influence of the supernatural heritage from my ancestors in the mountains of the Basque Country. Oh!, and of course, the real encounters with the mischievous goblin that haunted our house during the making of this book.

I hope you enjoy the glimpse of the world that I’ve been exploring for the last few months. Thank you so much for being its witness!

You can read more about the book, see a promotional video and buy it here.

The eBook version of “Kooky Pets” is now available for $4.99 at The Illustrated Section, a wonderful store for comic/illustration fans, readers and artists.

This eBook contains exactly the same content as the 2nd paperback edition and it’s a picture book that contains the large size original images from the book. I hope that you enjoy it by browsing it in your devices!

Buying at The Illustrated Section is a great way to support the independent and self-publishing industry and I just love the way that Dani Jones has put it all together. Brilliant!

Get your copy of “Kooky Pets” here.

Google + looks like a comfortable and exciting place to be now! I’m updating news and posting new creations for my forthcoming novel The Mummified Wood and meeting new people. Please feel free to add me to your circles.

My book “Kooky Pets” has been featured at the last issue (8″) of Beyond Fantasy magazine. It includes 2 pages with a few images from the book. This issue of the magazine also features cover and illustrations by my friend and wonderful fairy artist Julia Jeffrey. You can get a copy of the magazine here.

I’m happy to announce that “Kooky Pets” is now available as an eBook! You can preview a digital copy at Google eBook Store.

It’s been quite a long time since I started finding the best way to deliver a digital copy of the book without losing it’s original artwork quality and for a fair price.

This eBook version of “Kooky Pets” contains exactly the same content as the 2nd paperback edition and it’s a picture book that contains the large size original images from the book. I hope that you enjoy it by browsing it in your devices!

Available for just $7.99!
Get you copy here.

I have created a Facebook Page for you where I’m keeping updates about my forthcoming graphic novel and other projects. Also, I will be posting sketches from the graphic novel that won’t be published anywhere else rather than this Facebook page. See you in Facebook!

It’s a great pleasure for me to announce that the 2nd edition of Kooky Pets is now available in all large online stores!

I few days ago, I announced a delay after the distributor just told me that the book wouldn’t be available until late February. Much to my surprise, I checked it out today and the book is actually already available in Amazon and Barnes & Noble online stores!

This 2nd edition of the book is paperback, a little bigger in size than the 1st one and a little less expensive too. It features a generous Foreword by my friend, the reputed Fantasy doll maker and sculptor Lorell Lehman! Read more about the 2nd edition of Kooky Pets here:
http://www.koldobarroso.com/kooky-pets-by-koldo-barroso/

If you buy the book in Amazon and Barnes & Noble, I would be delighted if you would like to write a customer review in the product page. This will be very helpful for the Kooky Pets to reach a wider audience!

It’s being a long time and a lot of work since I started this adventure along with many of you. Today, I feel really moved and certainly satisfied to see the book in the stores, for this has been such a beautiful experience!
Thank you all and Happy New Year!

Koldo Barroso

This week I was happily surprised to find my work generously featured at Anemotion, a wonderful blog by Susan Wheatley that talks about animation, illustration and other art wonders. It’s a real honor for me to see my work surrounded by some of my most admired animators such as animators Brothers Quay and Lotte Reiniger and illustrators like Arthur Rackham and Edward Gorey. I’m thankful to Susan for making me feel like home!

What is the graphic novel about?

• It’s a modern dark Gothic fairy tale related to the world supernatural creatures (goblins, pixies, trolls, faeries) inspired in old North-European Folk Tales and mythology.

• It’s a story for adults based on my own life experiences. It has to do with the inner search and the healing of the heart.

Which are my main objectives with his project?
(I especially want to share this with you openly because the experience of this project is as much important as the final result).

• To recover the joy for painting and telling stories that I lost sometime throughout my life. This is something pretty intimate that I haven’t shared before and I’d like to talk about at this blog in the future.

• To know myself better. This experience is a personal inner journey to my own fears, pains and struggles.

• To heal myself with the power of creativity and imagination, turning sad memories and old wounds into positive and inspirational experiences.

• To help other people to connect their inner child through imagination. I’m doing my best so the graphic novel is a helping and enriching experience for all of you, instead of a merely entertaining.

When and how can you see the graphic novel?

• The graphic novel will be only ready to see when the full work is published. On the other hand, I will be sharing at my blog some work-in-progress artwork and ideas throughout the process, but not the final work nor finished pages.

Am I working on any side projects?

• Yes, I’m also involved in other minor projects. For the last months I’ve been doing a cartoon style stripe as a collaboration for my wife’s blog -Naomi Niles- featuring a character called The Baffled Goblin, which I’ll keep working on indefinitely. This comic tripe has nothing to do with my graphic novel in terms of style and subject.

• I’m also considering a series of short graphic novel stories based on short tales which would be featured and downloadable for free at my blog.

• Also, the graphic novel that I’m now announcing will feature a series of special large size color illustrations that will be shown at my blog.

In forthcoming posts I will talk more in detail about all this and other aspects of the project. At this moment, I’m still in the process of working in the main storyline, characters, sketching, writing down ideas and researching.

I just wanted to add up that to this date, I consider this the most personally committed and deepest project that I’ve involved in. It’s also the first time in more than 20 years that I work in comics, after having spent an important part of my childhood and youth drawing them in an amateur manner. This will be as well my first published graphic novel/comic work. I’m holding my breath with my leaky pockets full of dreams so each day I can seed with them the path that I’m walking. Thanks for letting me share it with you.

With great surprise and sadness, I have just learned about the recent death of one of the most pivotal people in my life: Juan Carlos Camarasa Jimenez, passed away in Madrid at 57 years old. These lines are for Juan Carlos and all who loved him, as a personal tribute to one of the most creative, unique and generous people I have ever met.

I met Juan Carlos in August 1984, when I got several street musicians in Madrid interviewed for the music fanzine “SYN” that I used to publish at the time, along with my friend Jose Mª García Benito. I was 16 years old. At the time, he used to earn a living playing classical pieces and Rick Wakeman stuff in the streets in downtown Madrid, always accompanied by his partner Mayte and her daughter Nerea. From that moment on, we became very close friends and this meant a significant change in my youth. In a way, Juan Carlos, Mayte and Nerea became my family. I couldn’t count how many hours I spent in that old attic of theirs. They were the most humble people I’ve ever met and still they would always share their few resources with everyone else. Whenever Juan Carlos would meet a street musician or a beggar, first thing he would always say was: “Did you eat today?“. In his poverty, there was always an open door and a plate of food to offer.

Despite Juan Carlos being 14 years older than me, we used to share so many things: the Basque origins, our love for progressive rock, comics, art, the way we used to think about life… In a way, I became his younger brother, at least that’s how he used to proudly call me when he would protect me from all those sinister characters in the streets of Madrid. In those days, Juan Carlos teamed up with guitarist Javier Escudero under the umbrella of Pánico en el Teléfono. They recorded together several tapes at his attic, which were followed by the album “Línea Directa”. For this particular album he asked me to do the art cover and a logotype, to which I did several proposals. I didn’t really like any of them and finally they were not used, but here is one of them for you to see.

Album cover for Pánico en el Teléfono’s album, 1986

Around the same time, a TV reality show dedicated one episode to Juan Carlos. I believe they portrayed a pretty distorted image of his real life. I took part in some of those shoots but those takes were not used in the final cut. I keep so many good memories from those days! Such as the everlasting hours in that tiny attic, devouring his collection of hundreds of comics and graphic novels that he would keep collecting despite of his poverty. His small world became a real university of life for me, where I met an odd court formed by the most grotesque characters I could have ever imagined: street artists, thimblering players, go-getters, hobos, beggars, wannabe managers, nymphos and all kinds of urban tribe species.

Juan Carlos Camarasa was first and foremost a music crusader, a bohemian who left everything behind to be a musician. He left an everlasting stamp on my life and I’m sure that many of the surrealist anecdotes and characters I shared with him will end up showing up one way or the other in my future work. I feel really grateful for his generosity and friendship. He said in one of his songs: “You ask me who am I: a juggler of your dreams“. All of his life he was a dreamer who didn’t see any of his dreams of musical success come true. But he lived each and every day of his life making just what he always dreamed to do: music. And to me, that’s quite something!