The Ladies-In-Waiting

by Santiago Garcia, Javier Olivares

Overview

This award-winning graphic novel is an examination of the mystery surrounding Velazquez’s painting.

In 1656, Diego Velázquez, leading figure in the Spanish Golden Age of painting, created one of the most enigmatic works in the history of art: Las Meninas (The Ladies-in-Waiting). This graphic novel, written and drawn by two of Spain’s most sophisticated comics creators, examines its legacy as one of the first paintings to explore the relationship among the viewer, reality, and unreality. (It guest stars Cano, Salvador Dalí, Zurbarán, and many others.) Olivares’s art moves from clear line to expressionistic; from pen nib to brush stokes; from one color palette to another, as The Ladies-in-Waiting uses fiction to explore the ties among artists and patrons, the past and the present, institutions and audiences, creators and creativity. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683960126
Publisher:	Fantagraphics
Publication date:	08/22/2017
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 10.30(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	16 Years

About the Author

Santiago Garcia (Trajano Bermúdez) has degrees in journalism and art history from Complutense University of Madrid and the Autonomous University of Madrid, respectively. He is a writer, editor, critic, and translator. He has translated Spanish Spider-Man, X-Men, and Calvin and Hobbes editions, and he’s edited several anthologies.

Javiar Olivares was born in Madrid, and draws comics and illustrations for both children and adults. He started the journal Madriz in the ’80s.

Editorial Reviews

★ 11/20/2017
Art is a pathway, a passion, and perdition in this inventive work (originally published in Spain), which examines Diego Velázquez’s famed painting Las Meninas. This is a kaleidoscope of a book that leaps back and forth through time, embracing multiple points of view and playing cheekily with comics history itself—numerous chapters flirt with pulp fiction–style iconography. Velazquez himself appears, naturally, and so do Michel Foucault, Pablo Picasso, Raphael, and more—drawn together, across time and space, by the pursuit of art. In this, the book mirrors Las Meninas itself, famous for its interplay between viewer and subject, reality and unreality. The result is a fascinating jigsaw puzzle of a narrative. The book’s rough, woodcutesque shadows slash through muted shades of mustard, cerulean, and sage; its wordplay jumps from frivolous to somber within a single page. It’s a joyful investigation of art and all that it means—and, simultaneously, a luminous work of art in its own right. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"The Ladies-in-Waiting asks lots of questions about art, the nature of fiction and perception in a series of intelligently, imaginatively constructed sequences that use all the capabilities of comics to move through time and space in a fascinating, beautifully realised piece of work."

Slings & Arrows

"Aspiration, frustration, chance: There's nothing archaic about this tale except the neck ruffs."

NPR Books

"The Ladies-in-Waiting is a visually vibrant piece, highly entertaining and engaging, dispensing with all brows (low or high) in order to create a new work of art, done with deep knowledge and appreciation of the subject, all building up to a thoroughly wonderful reading experience."

Bookgasm