'The Ever-Open Door' (Misty #35).
Carlos Guirado is an artist affiliated with the Comicup Studios in Barcelona, an agency that provides artwork to children's magazines throughout Europe. After working for the publishers Toray, Bruguera and Doncel in his home country, he has drawn 'Fix und Foxi' and 'Knax' for the German market, assisted Dutch artist Robert van der Kroft on the gag feature 'Claire' and provided artwork for Disney comics. He is sometimes erroneously credited as "César Guirado" or "C. Girado".
'Félix, el amigo de los animales' (Super Pulgarcito #1, 1970).
Spanish market
Born in 1945, Carlos Guirado's career began in the early 1960s. He drew for Bruguera's girls' title 'Sissi' (1963), and made installments in the adventure comic book series 'Brigada Secreta' (1965) and 'Espionaje' (1965) of Editorial Toray. He was an artist for 'Una aventura con Félix, el amigo de los animales' (1970), an educational wildlife feature printed in Bruguera's Super Pulgarcito, starring the famous Spanish TV naturalist Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente. The starring role of Rodríguez de la Fuente in this series makes it a celebrity comic at the time. Together with a fellow artist called César, Guirado provided the artwork for 'La Pandilla Trinca' (1970-1971) in Trinca magazine by Editorial Doncel. Written by Enrique Sánchez Pascual, the adventure comic starred a group of youngsters intended to become the mascots of the magazine. The artwork and coloring was alternative, with psychedelic influences. The series never reached the aimed popularity and only ran in issues #3 through 22. Since the artist team was credited as "Cesar-Guirado", several sources mistakenly list Carlos Guirado as César Guirado.
'La Pandilla Trinca' by "Cesar-Guirado" (Trinca #4, 1970).
German and British market: Bardon Art
From the 1970s on, Carlos Guirado has been active as a so-called "agency artist": an artist-for-hire for foreign comic magazines through one of the many Spanish art studios. Initially associated with Jordi Macabich's Bardon Art, Guirado provided story art to the German horror and monster magazines Gespenster Geschichten, Spuk Geschichten and Geister Geschichten, published by Bastei Verlag. He also drew stories for the British girls' magazine Misty, published by Fleetway in London. These stories later reappeared in Germany in Bastei's Vanessa title.
'Fix und Foxi' (© Kauka) and Knax.
German market: Comicup
By 1980 Guirado was affiliated with José Cánovas' Studio Comicup in Barcelona. At the time, Comicup mainly provided artwork to children's magazines for the German market. Guirado drew comic stories for KNAX, the advertising comic book for Germany's saving banks, written by Fred Kipka. The comics are set in a medieval-like community on an isolated island called KNAX, representing an idealized image of a bourgeois society. The kids Didi and Dodo are the main heroes, who are often confronted with a robbers gang known as the Fetzensteiner. Guirado was also one of Comicup's pencil artists for Fix und Foxi magazine. Staying faithful to their 1970s cartoony redesign by Massimo Fecchi, Guirado drew stories with Fix, Foxi, Lupo and other characters from Rolf Kauka's funny animal world. Many of his stories were inked by José Antonio Pineda. He worked for Fix und Foxi until the magazine folded in 1994.
Horace and Clarabelle, from Donald Duck #25, 2014 (© Disney)
Dutch market
After his German assignments had dried out, Guirado moved over to the Dutch market. Comicup was at that point one of the Spanish studios who ghosted artwork for short stories with the two rebels 'Sjors & Sjimmie', all under supervision of the official artist Robert van der Kroft. They ran in magazine SjoSji and its successor Striparazzi until the title's disappearance in 1999. From then on, Guirado was mainly active as an artist of Disney comics. After illustrating a handful of 'Donald Duck' stories for the Danish publisher Egmont in the late 1990s, he was assigned to Comicup's story production for the Disney licensee in the Netherlands, Sanoma. Between 1999 and 2016 he drew short stories and gag pages with many Disney characters, including 'Bucky Bug' and the 'Big Bad Wolf'. He was however mainly associated with the characters Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow, penciling many gag pages written by Jan Kruse.
'Big Bad Wolf' from Donald Duck #8, 2002. (© Disney).
Assisting Robert van der Kroft
Around 2003, when Robert van der Kroft suffered from a muscle injury in his shoulder, he seeked assistance for 'Claire', his gag comic written by Jan van Die and Evert Geradts. Since Guirado had managed to approach Van der Kroft's clear linework the best with the 'Sjors & Sjimmie' comics, he was asked to provide the finished artwork and inking. Guirado worked with Van der Kroft from the 16th album on, throughout the rest of the feature's run in Flair, a magazine for young women appearing in a Dutch and Flemish edition. The magazine's cancellation of the comic in March 2017 coincided with Carlo Guirado's retirement.
'Claire' page 1055, by Robert van der Kroft and Carlos Guirado.