Sensational issue for the sleepless cybernauts!

Mexican comic strips can be redeemed

A very personal interview to PEGASO

From the simplistic drawings of a caveman in the Neolithic, to those unerring strokes from a mangaka, man has used drawings to reflect his reality and to project it. We must not forget that drawing precedes, by far, written language. At least 30 thousand years, according to the academists. In the long history of comic books (or pulp magazines), even evolution has divergent paths, and to some, like Rodolfo Perez Garcia, in Mexico, sadly, it has degenerated.

Far we are from the golden era Memin, the Burron family, Fantomas, all-too known, by which he was inspired, thirty years ago, the man who now signs under the nom-de-plume PEGASO. "I started when I was 17," he tells, "I had that inclination from an early age. When I saw comic books, I liked the way they translated the human figure to a set of few lines." Today, he acknowledges, the industry is having a crisis. "Pornography became the rule [...] They started to sell picaresque stories, and it had all kind of ingredients: adventure, erotism, funny stuff. I liked it, but I think you can do better than that, quality work; you are drawing human beings, with corporal expressions, that can be art as well." But, he points out: "Today is no longer done artistically. You are looking for economy, something that sells." And so do they, though, not in the amount you would expect.

After being ignored for a long time by erudites, who preferred studying the more mainstream artists, erotic pulp was elevated to a political debate when the Fox administration, mainly Gil Diaz, the Secretary of the Treasure, pretended taxing books and magazines under the argument: "Everybody knows that in Mexico nobody reads anymore." So ignored was the comic realm, that there was not a clear study for sales of the publications we should call porn-comic. Today we know that the magazines with higher sales are TvYNovelas and similar tabloid publications. However, a serious study of the erotic comic strip is eluding us still, and rightfully: being a more alternative publication in terms of target audience, the opportunity of having less restrictions in the argument was not correspondent to the same level to graphic liberties. PEGASO says, "We are in pigeonholed, maybe because of the work we do [...] in a pigeonhole of what the editor thinks will sell, and as long there is a profit, then he will continue in that path."

The aesthetics of imposed measures

Inside the multi-universe of Mexican publications nowadays, porn-comic deserves a detailed study. It is true; it lost the chance to connect to a very specific social reality (that of the demographical substrate including brick-layers, blue-collars, taqueros, cops, butchers, drivers, barbers...). However, it has on its side that, in an eminently male-dominated context, porn comics have strong female protagonists, aware and owning their sexualities, as a central element. Even so, PEGASO says, "I think that pornographic strips no longer sell that much anymore; that cycle is closed. It is so blunt, that I don't think it can actually stimulate anybody [...] There is stuff that no longer makes sense, it is not real, it is not stimulating. Maybe some writer's fantasies," he adds, with a laugh.

Who dictates such canon? I ask PEGASO, "The editor's decisions carry a lot of weight," he told me, "always based on what he wants to sell. There are trends that depict humans realistically, but in Mexico what had worked best is exaggeration [...] you make a cartoon of a pretty woman; the beauty in the face, everything, is exaggerated. Until now, that is what sells, o what the editor asks and is satisfied by." He adds, "In Europe, Milo Manara has very sensual, bur realistic, drawings. Very delicate and fine, like the modern beauty in a woman."

The problem is not pencilling, but the argument: "I really would look for real stories," he confesses. "I would look for stories inside pornography, with more content. Credible stories, actually presenting sexual problems, with solutions... I mean, real culture."

Comic strips could be exploited still, but to another level

"Comic strips have been exploited, but it cannot give something new anymore. We must look for a way to continue giving life to a comic strip.

"We should look into the Aztec or Maya cultures. Like the Japanese, try to invade the world," PEGASO said. "It is a dream but it is possible: [Creating] a new movement with Mexican culture and export it to other countries."

"That culture is to be told through graphic story, with images. It would be very attractive for the young in Mexico. Now they have to compete with very modern images, technologically speaking: computer, video games, all of that have been displacing comics."

 

 

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The mythical alter ego

Rodolfo Perez Garcia, best known as PEGASO, comic artist since he was 17 years old, with 30 years in the business he confesses that some days inspiration simply does not arrive. "Sometimes [the sketch] cannot be alive, no matter how much "artificial respiration" you give it. When that happens I just leave it and go out to have a walk or sleep [...] It is foolish to insist in drawing something when you simply can't, it comes out ugly." When I asked about his mystical pseudonym, he answers, "It comes from the last names of my wife and mine: Perez García y Peña Soto".

More drawings than Arithmetic

"This I have it since I was a kid," he tells me. "Mi arithmetic's notebooks and natural sciences were all full of drawings. The road was well defined from the beginning. I was on the vocacional (prep school of the Polytechnic Institute) electronics engineering... but it was not for me... I kept drawing." He confessed being an assiduous comic reader, "seeing so much action, so much movement, so much fantasy, I dreamt about creating that kind of characters."

 

11 Quick Questions

Any influence? John Buscema has been a big influence.

Artistically, how different is pencilling interior pages rather than the cover artist? In the inner pages you give life in every frame, in every dialog, with white paper and pencil... you give life to it, you can feel how they are coming to life.

In the cover, a magazine must sell itself in just one image. All the story must be concentrated in it. You take a lot of time to do a single cover; you can develop with more strength by doing inner pages.

Comic Strip you would like to draw? I would like to draw Tarzan.

How long does it take to do a single comic book? Well, it is very interesting. It varies a lot. As an artist sometimes everything just flows and you draw very quickly, as if the characters were having a life of their own and it is very easy... some days a single frame is very hard... the face comes out a bit wrong... and you just think you have been doing this for thirty years and it doesn't matter... it still happens.

You do about 15 to 25 pencilled pages a week... no more. It is a norm. Twenty pencilled pages is really a lot work. I have done about 5 or 7... it depends. It may appear to be weird, but inspiration counts.

What is the harder to draw? "Everything and nothing at the same time... Sometimes it feels easy; you can draw easily. Then it becomes harder. Nude figures are simpler. There is not much problem as it is with clothing and textures... and anatomy has always been studied the more."

What does a comic artist reads? Right now, I am reading Reader's Digest stuff. Those are easy readings, very palatable, with interesting plots; they reflect a lot of human sense, the daily experiences, people's lives. The reading of other publications is more analytic. Someone reads a comic book and throws it away. To me those are treasures. They end all ripped off and battered... I wear them out just by looking at them. I admire other people's art.

Favorite Comics? Astérix, Blueberry.

Best time to work? I like to wake up really early, like one or two in the morning. Solitude... you are fresh, more natural. Early morning is the most productive time. I start in the early morning, I go to bed early, but I get up earlier.

Background Music? Occasionally I see (or rather listen) TV. Music, I like to hear it, but it is not a system. A movie or a show... every now and then you see them, you notice something interesting and mentally copy it. But sometimes you just immerse in your work and you need no more. I like silence.

Leonardo Da Vinci said an artist is always alone in its endeavours. Is that true? To me it is. Very lonely work. Even when there is people around you, you are inside a universe. Generally it absorbs you, and the is nothing else.

Favourite material to use? Good ol' paper and pencil. I like tissue paper; wrinkly paper can suggest more when you draw. The filling itself feels like indicating where to stroke. A common blue Bic pen can give you a lot of freedom and it looks really cool.

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The interview took place on December 13, 2006.

Text: Roberto Hoyos
Photo: Marco R. Pérez
Artwork: PEGASO