El Flaco de Úbeda already has his own illustrated biography. BAO Bilbao Ediciones has just opened the pre-sale of Joaquín Sabina. Passion and life (Vol. I) the authorized graphic novel that recounts the first chapters of the life and work of one of the most influential singer-songwriters in the Spanish language.
Sabina according to the Kikes
The project is scripted by Kike Babas and Kike Turrón, two music chroniclers with a long career in books about Rosendo, Los Rodríguez or Manu Chao, as well as being responsible for graphic novels dedicated to Fito Cabrales or El Gran Wyoming. For Sabina, the authors surrounded themselves with twelve outstanding illustrators of the national comic, achieving a work that combines documentary precision and overflowing visual imagination.
“I have a lot to say in favor of this book. It comes from my soul to congratulate the Kikes and their team: for the text, the fantastic drawings and the research work”, acknowledges Joaquín Sabina himself, who has given his approval to the project.
From Úbeda to the world
The first volume starts with the singer-songwriter’s childhood in Ubetán and covers his time at university in Granada, his commitment to the anti-Franco student movement, his exile in London and his return to Spain to begin a career that would take him through La Mandrágora before consolidating his solo career.
Iconic songs such as “Princesa”, “Y nos dieron las diez”, “Pacto entre caballeros” or “Pongamos que hablo de Madrid” are contextualized in vignettes that show how Sabina was weaving his myth as a nocturnal singer-songwriter, urban chronicler and international star.
A choral tribute
The graphic novel also reflects the collective dimension of the Sabina phenomenon: his collaborations with artists, his travels through Latin America and the construction of the irreverent character who knew how to turn bohemia, humor and melancholy into a shared cultural heritage.
Writer Benjamín Prado celebrates the fact that the book is “so well documented and well summarized that readers will not have the impression of having read the adventures of the protagonist, but of having been there. For his part, Luis García Montero emphasizes how the authors have managed to transfer to the comic the mixture of irony, desire and truth that defines the work of the singer-songwriter.
Publishing and pre-sales
Joaquín Sabina. Passion and life (Vol. I) is now on exclusive pre-sale on the BAO Bilbao Ediciones website (35 € VAT included). The pack also includes a T-shirt and eight exclusive postcards. Deliveries are scheduled for the end of October 2025.
