it All starts with the end. Aboard a galleon sailing towards unknown lands. It has nothing to do with Arya Stark, Game of thrones was very far away when Quevedo embarked at Buscon to the Indies to end the story of the life of one of the great rogues of the Spanish literature.
Faithful to the second commandment of the father (of his father): “do No work”, Pablicos continues his misadventures guided by Alain Ayroles and Juanjo Guarnido. Them —the texts of the first and the bullets of the second— also embarked on an adventure to dare to continue the novel of Quevedo with The Buscón in the Indies (Norma editorial). 10 years ago that they talked about it for the first time, a long way to Pablos de Segovia, which Guarnido called Pablicos, despite their Eisner for different albums of the successful saga, Blacksad, the National Comic Prize in 2014 and his long career, he says that it is the character that more has cost him to find. One day by chance, and after hundreds of tests, gave him. “I drew without thinking, I emptied the mind and saw that what he had done. I liked it, seemed not mine, it was my tics as a cartoonist”. Describes Guarnido his protagonist by phone: “Skinny, proboscis, with the face of gamberrete but whom you can’t help but catch love.” It does so from Brussels, where he has signed his recent publication, in a tour that has taken him from a multitude of bookstores, French, Spanish, and belgian.
Neither Quevedo nor The Buscón are very well known in France, nor in Belgium —“the literature of the Spanish Golden Century who is known is to Cervantes”, explains the artist— and Ayroles (Lot, France, 51 years) neither knew about, but did not hesitate to accept the proposal of Guarnido when he had finished reading the work of Quevedo. In reality, the illustrator gave this idea to bring back the one she had the French to see a Don Quixote in Ecuador. The Buscon had an open end and resurrect Alonso Quijano to explore american lands was not of receipt.
The Buscón, of Juanjo Guarnido and Alain Ayroles.
What they thought was a comic book of 80 pages has become a volume of 160 sheets, aesthetically it is very beautiful, in which, in order to create Pablos, Guarnido has wanted to run away from his characteristic drawing. The documentation has been crucial, the authors have visited museums of the two sides of the Atlantic, have seen photographs, old prints and films well-documented. The illustrator, toured the sites that are part of this story. Went to Peru: “To convey the feeling of the places there are to know them”. And so, this virtuoso of watercolor —the technique that dominates and in which you feel comfortable— represented in the vignettes of the cities and landscapes that he spent The Buscón to find El Dorado, one of the objectives of Pablos, is there anything more quevedesco that the “Powerful gentleman is don money?” Always according to its precepts, the same that already imposed Quevedo: stay alive and not to work. The references to the original work are constants: characters, flash-backs to episodes of the novel, the way we talk about baroque style and the humor, one of the objectives of the authors is to remember that “our classics are amenísimos”, insists Guarnido (Granada, 52 years). There are vignettes playful with the reader, the narration says one thing, the characters another and the drawing shows a different one. Language plays a fundamental role —Guarnido has also been in charge of the translation: “I Had to put a lot of love and care,” recalls the cartoonist, noting that he worked with material of your writer’s favorite—.
Vignettes of Guarnido for ‘El Buscón in the Indies’.
The ambition of this work is palpable as you go through the story and the own ambition of the main character, the twists, the surprises are going in crescendo until a final worthy of entering the history books. However, he stresses Guarnido that there is no intention pretentious to continue the work of Quevedo. It is a tribute to the author, the picaresque novel and the Spanish literature. “To contribute a granite of sand to the interest in the classics,” affects as account that you have been told that in some libraries French there are people who read the comic again looking for the novel.
there are Also tributes to other artists of the Golden Century, the clear is to Velázquez and las meninas. The authors saw a lot of painting of manners, that Guarnido has stayed with them is reflected in vignettes such as those of the holds of the galleons that crossed the Atlantic ocean to those that only lack the stench, let’s not forget about the lack of hygiene and overcrowding in these small spaces for weeks at sea. Takes care of the details to the maximum, from a baby sucking on them while his mother sleeps, until the representation of the flora and fauna of the New World, it seems to do a panoramic to the places —photos of 360 degrees—. Goes into them, also it dares to do so in The meninas. This is all the fruit of the first collaboration between Guarnido and Ayroles (Garulfo, cloak and fangs, D. Journal of a not dead), two great comics who will return to work together, even without date, but already with an idea hovering around in their heads. Before the granada, you have to finish the next two numbers of Blacksad, don’t you think it might be for 2020. What will happen in march of this year is that open, Juanjo Guarnido. Secrets of the workshop of a master, an exhibition at the Museum of Comics in Brussels with a lot of his material creation: sketches, previous work, old documentation…
Overproduction French, little demand in Spain
Juanjo Guarnido believes that is improving the health of the comic-Spanish: “The catalog is very good and varied, but the market is what it is, is increasing little by little.” Believes that thanks in part to artists such as Paco Roca published by Wrinkles in a moment, “adecuadísimo” and played a major role in popularizing the comic through a topic that touches and interests.
Even so, the market is far from that of France, the country where you live. Also there is problems despite the fact that it has much more public: “While in Spain limps demand in France, the offer is almost over. There is a overproduction of which we are complaining about since years ago.”
Guarnido draws ‘Las meninas’ from within.
