The writer and columnist and the cartoonist Paco Roca talked about the ins and outs of their profession in the Comicteca of the Streekbibliotheek
There was a lack of seats in the Comics Library of the Regional Library of Murcia (BRMU) for all readers who wanted to host Elvira Lindo and Paco Roca this Friday. The writer and cartoonist played the main role in the meeting “Adosados en la Comicteca.” A conversation in which both took the opportunity to tell anecdotes, share with readers their creative beginnings, the concerns associated with their profession and the challenges of the profession.
“Now I finally enjoy writing,” confessed the creator of the children’s literature series ‘Manolito Gafotas’. The author, also a journalist, screenwriter, actress and broadcaster, emphasized that «it is the readers who reconcile me with my work. Now I realize the self-confidence, lack of political correctness, and little anxiety I had in writing » and he confessed to not re-reading his books. “It seems like a waste of time to read yourself. Unless you are self-centered, you always think that the works have not had the desired result,” said Paco Roca.
The author of ‘Wrinkles’, later made into a movie, and of other titles such as ‘The cartoonist’s winter’, ‘Los suros del azar’ and ‘Memoirs of a man in pajamas’, among others, emphasized the importance of stories of the everyday. “Anyone can find their story to tell, even as an ordinary person. In the end you tell the epic of the majority, the epic in which everyone feels identified. In the end, we all go through the same events and encounter the same feelings.
The National Comic Award in 2008 explained how he started drawing stories as a child. One of the first came after seeing ‘Star Wars’ in the cinema: «I thought it would be a long time before I saw that movie again and the only way to revive that story was to make it my own to make a comic. So while I was drawing, I recreated the sensations that movie gave me». An anecdote that led to reflection on childhood and education in that phase. “We are very limited by what we were taught in childhood. I believe that all children can do anything, but in early childhood education they were often clipped in artistic disciplines and you immediately became discouraged,” recalls the columnist of ‘El País’.
As for the writer’s routine, the author, who is preparing a new novel set in Rincón de Ademuz, a region of inland Valencia where her mother was born, emphasized the importance of discipline in creating: «You have to create illusion and dedication.” he said, as the cartoonist talked about “the importance of observing” to create new characters and stories.
About his beginning, Paco Roca told how his parents were not “at all” supportive of his profession: “For them it was something bizarre that didn’t fit in their heads. They always thought I couldn’t make a living from drawing, but in the end they understood and were proud» Elvira Lindo, for her part, remembered her work in ‘Interviú’ and her modesty for what her father might think, to which Roca replied that her beginning was “making pornographic comics”, a final confession that caused laughter among the attendees of the relaxed meeting.
Source: La Verdad
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