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| Bloc #5: Connections between cinema and picture books | | May 2010 |  If we can say that since the appearance of films the direction of the stream of influences has been from literature, including children’s literature, towards the new art of images, in the final years of the last century and the first years of this one, it could well be said that the influences have flowed in a double channel, the second one being from the picture book, perhaps one of the areas of the greatest experimentation in recent years. Illustrated books such as The Polar Express by Chris van Allsburg, or very recently, Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak, have become a pretext and inspiration for great cinematic productions, not always faithful to the works which inspired them. This issue of Bloc tries to approach these reciprocal influences and analyse them from the point of view of practitioners from both fields and to listen to what those others, who have made the jump from one field to another, such as Miguelanxo Prado, have to say.
Perhaps for this reason, at this juncture, we could well speak of a certain cross-fertilisation between the genres which we are commenting on, as is the case with the comic which always took part in the syntax of both although it was only at the moment of constructing its own syntax. The existing boundaries between these languages have been blurred to a certain extent to the enrichment of each one of them.  15/05/2010 |  | | Free download of Bloc #0 (PDF) |  Since the Bloc #0 (fall 2007) is out of print, and many people are still continue to request, we offer you the possibility to download it in PDF format.
Although this is not the best way to read a magazine like this -where touch, texture and weight are so importante elements-, is better than nothing.
Bloc #0 (PDF, 8 Mb) 05/02/2010 | | | Bloc #4: Questions and enigmas in picture books | | October 2009 |  It is said that intelligence abides more in the question than in the answer and that indiscretion is morebefitting of the latter than the former. The ultimate function of literature, including children’sliterature, is closer to posing questions to the reader, confronting him with the mysteries of life, rather than providing him with answers and certainties. Thus the reader is obliged to look for his own answers or if he doesn’t find them, to make them up, or to create those surrogates which enable him to make his way through uncertainty with the minimum steadiness required to escape from desperation. And this mostly happens at the expense of the intentions of the writer himself, perhaps because he himself hasn’tgot the answers to the questions raised by the text. Illustrations, too,pose their own questions which sometimes complement those of the text by analogy or proximity or sometimes because the task of the illustrator, obligatory co-author, is to add his own doubts. And in this moment the pieces of the two puzzles are mixed up in our attempt to visualize the image which holds out against us. And it is even probable that in this moment an old certainty of ours has to be abandoned to be replaced by a new doubt.
This issue of Bloc tackles the controversial and impassioned theme of questions; questions which literature and illustration pose the user with no intention of offering answers or solutions. Each individual must finish the job how they may, using the tools which his unique, non-transferable history as a reader has granted him. From there our attitude in the moment of preparing the contents has been to remain in the shadow of doubt and uncertainty and sharethem with you.
(Cover illustration: Isidro Ferrer, Libro de las preguntas. Published by Media Vaca) 25/10/2009 | | | Bloc #3: Illustrated Alphabets | | April 2009 |  Sooner or later it had to happen: Bloc dedicates an issue to alphabet books, those books which were born to teach the letters to those who didn’t know them; books which, with the passing of time, have become the scene of the most thought-provoking graphical experimentation in illustrated publications be they for children or not. It is in this spirit that Bloc offers you its alphabet book. For it we have convened a group of Spanish and Latin American Illustrators and brought together a handful of major characters from children’s stories. Altogether they offer us a framework, with no claim to be comprehensive, of the world of books aimed at children. Undoubtedly important figures from both geographical areas have been omitted but there was only room for twenty-seven. What we do not doubt is that none of those included is surplus to requirements. The quality of their work is therefor all to see. Their offerings show that even those characters which have been interpreted many times throughout history have something new to say and a new view to give us, exposing further secrets to the reader.
We round off the pages of this issue with the contributions which were given in the tribute to the writer Juan Farias in Pontevedra. There wasn’t any date in particular to celebrate this author; it was just a great opportunity for his friends to express their recognition of the teacher who taught many the special alphabet expressly for children with solid words such as apple, island, sea, father,redhead, zoo… which bring to life texts full of emotion and literary honesty.
Bloc #3: index of contents 28/03/2009 | | | Javier Olivares in Bloc #3 | Javier Olivares participates in our ABC for Bloc #3 (april 2009), and shows us his illustration in his blog:
http://javierolivaresblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/revista-bloc.html 03/01/2009 | | | Now you can follow us on Twitter and Myspace | | Although Bloc is a printed magazine, and we like it like that, we want to keep you updated about news, previews, notifications, etc. from any device. To do so, we've created our own Myspace and Twitter account. We hope that this new ways of reading Bloc will be useful to you. 13/12/2008 | |
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