Consell backs revival of “ADN” comic, 20 years in the making

The Formentera Departments of Culture and Language Policies are supporting publication of the fanzine ADN, the first comic in the Balearic Islands and from today, a returning feature on bookstore shelves on Formentera and in participating Eivissa locations.

In commemoration of Sant Jordi Day, Col·lectiu ADN and Espai F are unveiling the first in what they are calling a new era for the comic. A product of the digital revolution, today’s issue comes with the notable addition, for the first time in the comic’s history, of colour. The Consell covered layout costs and purchased fifty copies which will be kept at local libraries and be donated to the island’s primary and secondary schools.

The issue offers up collaborations in varying genres, especially comic, but readers will also find short narrations, illustrations, poetry, critical review and history. In addition to new talent like Guillem Marí, Joan Escandell, Lluís Ferrer Ferrer, Paula Tikas, Jan Ribas, Pilar Mena, Xico Mayans and Cecília Lemoine on the comic’s 16-strong team of collaborators, veteran followers will find that other faces —Juan Moreno, Vicent Ferrer, Jordi Soldevila, Joan Torres, Neus Costa, Santiago Colomar, Joan Francesc Ferrer and Alfredo Boto— are familiar.

Col·lectiu ADN was the name used to promote a motley crew of illustrators, screenwriters, poets, painters and other artisans whose efforts stretched from 1985 into present day. The artists and writers—mostly from Formentera, though some hailed from Barcelona, Eivissa and places outside Spain—published their efforts in two fanzines: ADN and Cosmos Factory.

First Catalan-language comics in the Balearics
In the 1980s, Col·lectiu ADN’s publications appeared amid Spain’s comic boom and the subsequent rise of fanzines. A fanzine itself, Catalan-language ADN was a regional forerunner, even predating the 1986 adoption of Balearic legislation to normalise Catalan’s place in society.

Frequent contributors were Juan Moreno, Pep Morna, Vicent Escandell and Vicent Ferrer, though ADN and Cosmos Factory had other help as well. Vicent Roig-Francolí, Juanjo Sarto, Luis Alberto Maldonado, Alfredo Boto, Georges Bess, Enric Riera, Antoni Tur “Gabrielet” and Joan Marí de la Fuente are just some of the creators who, along with Juan Moreno, would ultimately earn recognition outside Formentera and cultivate celebrated careers in painting, illustration, literature and communication.

In commemoration of the group’s thirty-year anniversary, five years ago, the local Department of Culture reprinted a 400-plus-page volume containing the 11 issues of ADN and Cosmos Factory that Col·lectiu ADN put out between 1985 to 1998. More than the occasion for the group’s members to catch up, the publication would be the driving impulse behind ADN’s return.

23 April 2020
Department of Communications
Consell de Formentera