Zhang Xun

Zhang Xun, born in 1978 in Jiangsu, China, is a founding member of the art project SPECIAL COMIX. He studied at the Design College at Nanjing University of the Arts. Since 2001, he has lived and worked as a teacher, artist, comic and children’s book author in Nanjing. He has participated in international exhibitions and edited and published a number of comics and children’s books. He has won several awards for his works. Recently, he has worked as curator in several comic art projects.
SPECIAL COMIX (SC) 异常漫画 was founded in 2003 by Tang Yan, Zhang Xun, Hu Xiaojiang and Yan Cong and is an open collective to support the independent comic scene in China. The SC collective is self-organized and independently funded. Since 2003, they published six editions of the Special Comix Anthology. In each volume, a different topic is proposed for discussion and comic artists are invited to hand in their artistic reflection on it. The seventh issue is scheduled for 2018. The scope and mode of production of the anthologies have given SC a distinctive artistic appearance: the comics are printed on randomly changing coloured paper, which makes each volume a unique work of art. Through their continuous work, SC has become a reliable and in-depth resource and archive of the independent comic scene in China. Volume no. 3 was awarded the Prix de la Bande Dessinée Alternative at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2010.