Gigamesh

Gigamesh is a bookstore in Barcelona, Spain, specializing in fantasy and science fiction literature, comics, and a wide range of non-electronic games including board games, war games, role-playing games, German-style games, and collectible card games. It was opened in 1985 by Alejo Cuervo, a bookseller, translator, and science fiction literary critic. The name Gigamesh was first used for Cuervo's fanzine launched in 1984, and subsequently for the Gigamesh Award (1984), the bookstore (1985), the Gigamesh magazine (1991), and the publishing house Ediciones Gigamesh (1999). In its early years, the store was highly successful selling role-playing games and especially miniatures for Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warhammer 40,000, and Space Hulk. In the 1990s, when the publishers of those games opened their own store in Barcelona, Cuervo was forced to reorient the market, taking advantage of the collectible card game trend that arrived in 1993. This new market allowed him to open a second store on the same street dedicated solely to collectible cards, and a third on Passeig de Sant Joan offering a wider variety of games. In 2007 the collectible card business was moved to the Passeig de Sant Joan store. In March 2014, all previous locations closed and Gigamesh moved to a single 500 m² space at Carrer de Bailèn 8, where it remains today as the largest science fiction bookstore in Europe. Since then, the store has refocused on fantasy and science fiction. Gigamesh operates both a physical store in Barcelona and an online shop, selling books in Spanish and Catalan, including signed editions, special editions, and pre-orders. The store is privately owned by Alejo Cuervo. The Gigamesh name is also associated with the Gigamesh Award, which was the first award in Spain given to science fiction works, and with Ediciones Gigamesh, a publishing house founded by Cuervo in 1999.

Gigamesh was opened by Alejo Cuervo on Monday, 10 June 1985 at number 53 of Ronda de Sant Pere in Barcelona. Cuervo, a bookseller, translator, and science fiction literary critic, had launched a fanzine called Gigamesh in 1984, and the name was also given to the Gigamesh Award in 1984. Cuervo never left a clear and complete written explanation for choosing the term Gigamesh for the fanzine and, a year later, for the bookstore, as he noted in his 2014 booklet Exégesis. In its early years, the bookstore was highly successful with the sale of role-playing games but above all with the sale of miniatures for the games Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warhammer 40,000, and Space Hulk. In the 1990s, the publishers of these games launched their own store in Barcelona dedicated to selling their products, which forced Alejo Cuervo to reorient his market. He took advantage of a new trend that had just arrived in 1993: collectible card games. Within a few years, this new market allowed him to open a second store at number 43 of the same Ronda de Sant Pere, dedicated solely to selling collectible cards, and a third at number 2 of Passeig de Sant Joan, dedicated to a greater variety of games: role-playing, board, and collectible card games. In 2007 the company moved the collectible card store's activity so that cards were sold in the Passeig de Sant Joan store along with the rest of the games. In March 2014, all previous addresses closed their doors and Gigamesh began a new stage, moving to a single 500 m² space at number 8 of Carrer de Bailèn, where it is still located today as the largest science fiction bookstore in Europe. Since then, the bookstore has again specialized in all things fantasy and science fiction. The name of the bookstore is also the name that Alejo Cuervo had given to Gigamesh, a now-defunct fantasy and science fiction magazine, to Ediciones Gigamesh (which Cuervo founded in 1999), and to the Gigamesh Award, whose importance in the history of science fiction in Spain should not be ignored, as this award was the first to be attributed in Spain to science fiction works. Alejo Cuervo is the owner of the Gigamesh bookstore in real life, as well as in Fanhunter, a comic universe by Cels Piñol.

• 2014

  All previous locations close; Gigamesh moves to a single 500 m² store at Carrer de Bailèn 8.

• 2007

  Collectible card sales are consolidated into the Passeig de Sant Joan store.

• 1999

  Ediciones Gigamesh publishing house is founded by Cuervo.

• 1993

  Collectible card game trend arrives; store reorients toward this market.

• 1991

  Gigamesh magazine is launched.

• 1985

  Gigamesh bookstore opens on 10 June at Ronda de Sant Pere 53, Barcelona.

• 1984

  Alejo Cuervo launches the Gigamesh fanzine and the Gigamesh Award.

Specialist retailer for science fiction, fantasy, and non-electronic games; described as the largest science fiction and fantasy bookstore in Europe.

• Science fiction and fantasy books

• Comics

• Board games

• War games

• Role-playing games

• German-style games

• Collectible card games

1. 1Gigamesh: Iniciogigamesh.com
2. 2Gigamesh - Wikidatawikidata.org
3. 3Gigamesh - Wikipedia (Spanish)es.wikipedia.org