Coupling the grand guignol morality of Paul Schrader and Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver with the squashed black-and-white perspectives and grotesque human physiognomy (and humanity) that defines Chester Gould's Dick Tracy, Martí's The Cabbie (starring the eponymous "hero" known only as the Cabbie) was first published in installments in 1980s Spain, a product of a life lived under, and coming out of, Franco's fascist dictatorship.
In Volume One (initially published in 2011), the Cabbie's father's coffin is stolen in an act of vengeance for the Cabbie's vigilantism -- right after his mother tells him his inheritance is inside! Cabbie takes to the mean streets in a quest to find it. In Volumes Two and Three (both never before available in English), Cabbie runs the gauntlet of mad science, dog races where the dogs chase humans, evil millionaires, presidents, and popes in addition to every nightmare scenario imaginable. Ultra violent, ultra profane, and ultra vicious, The Cabbie is filled with scummy noir characters exaggerated to the absolute limit -- and the worst of them all might be the titular Cabbie, precisely because, not unlike Travis Bickle, he sees himself as a force for good.
There have been various incomplete English editions over the last four decades, but this is the definitive Cabbie saga published in English for the first time, complete with "extras," including a cover gallery!
Ferrer, Martí Riera: - Spanish cartoonist Martí Riera Ferrer (1955-2024), better known as Martí, was born in Barcelona. A major figure in the Spain's underground comics movement of the 1980s, his work appeared in the comics anthology magazine for adults El Vibora (which is analogous to and roughly contemporaneous with Raw magazine, in which some of his stories appeared, and Art Spiegelman's Maus was first serialized).
Rosenberg, Andrea: - Andrea Rosenberg is a translator who has worked on a variety of novels and graphic narratives in Spanish and Portuguese. Her translations of the graphic novels Run For It by Marcelo D'Salete and The House by Paco Roca won Eisner Awards in 2018 and 2020, respectively.
Spiegelman, Art: - Art Spiegelman is one of the world's most admired and beloved comic artists, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning Holocaust narrative, Maus. Born in Stockholm in 1948, Spiegelman studied art and philosophy at Harpur College before joining the underground comics movement in the 1960s. Spiegelman taught history and the aesthetics of comics at the School of Visual Arts in New York from 1979 to 1986, and in 1980 he founded RAW, the acclaimed avant-garde comics magazine, with his wife, Françoise Mouly. Honors Spiegelman has received include induction into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame and the Art Director's Club Hall of Fame. In 2005, he was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People. He was made an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2007, and in 2011 he was awarded the Grand Prix at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. In 2015, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2018 he became the first comic artist to receive the Edward MacDowell Medal.
