after confinement in Valencia Daniel Torres (Teresa de Cofrientes, 1958) “The wind gave him” and he left his home in Barcelona to retire, like a pious monk, in the Cantabrian valley of the Libana, in a village surrounded by nature, “with 14 cows and four people.” In this way he portrays himself Creator of Rocco Vargasillustrating the Apocalypse, on the back cover of Some teachers and the whole truth (Norma), which was to be brought out in the year of Pestilence, to celebrate four decades of his work, but whose publication comes now, when he is already forty-three and stands as a hero in the distinguished exhibition, in hundreds of originals, of comedian barcelona, Last year I gave him a Grand Prix for his entire career.
“In fact, I really pulled myself together The second eighth day Like the monk type The name of the rose. She was insightful. Now I’m just old,” the author laughs Picasso in the Civil War. He says he’s drawing the Apocalypse. Does everything look that bad? “No, no. Well, yes. It is The future that was not He was already condemning a lot of moral hype and very disturbing. That’s why I use my trick to get away from it all and hide well in the world of Roco Vargas, the modernization. Right now I’m working on some character memories. Revelation etymologically comes from “revelation”, what is to come. And I’m talking about a future that wasn’t.
In those memories he reveals, Rocco Vargasa brave adventurer and astronomer who owns a nightclub and writes his own pulp Under the pseudonym Armando Mistral, in 1980 he met an astonished young cartoonist named Daniel Torres and asked him to adapt his latest book into a comic book. Tritonthe same character that the character will be born into in 1983 and of which the author has already published nine adventures.
“I’ve always defended it Illustrations and comics are the same language. The illustration is really one short quotation that tells a story on its own. This appears in Some teachers and the whole truth, 12 large color illustrations, none digital, full of nods to his 40-year career, are intended for those who have followed the author, whose remarkable original work is on display in the gallery. The album is limited to 999 copies and includes an autographed copy. They were passed through a sieve of ridicule. The truth behind the irony. They went out like this: I wanted to think and entered Confession to count my sins. I asked myself: Where did I come from? What did you do? Where did you put your hand? What do you want to do?
“I have never worked with a computer, I advocate manual labor, I am not at all a follower of technologies. That is why I came with cows, away from technology.” But he can’t help but hear “this massive nonsense” about AI and ChatGPT, which allows you to say “make me a Leonardo da Vinci-style Mickey Mouse pictogram” and you’ll get it in 0.05 seconds. Same for asking for a Hemingway-style text about harvesting potatoes. What is the matter for me? It is of no use to me as a reader or as a creator. Stupid. I want to create. Creation is a path, not a destination -opinion-. This is what I count on Some teachers and the whole truthHow do you create your style through all these teachers. You don’t get out by spontaneous generation. I don’t trust tech heaven or those who say everything will be like this. There is something dark behind it. They will not fix the world. Better get away from that tsunami. The only thing that saves us as a society is the intelligence and curiosity that keeps us alive. They can’t tell us that curiosity is useless. It’s an insult to intelligence.”
What sins did Daniel Torres confess? “Wonderful sins,” he says mischievously. [estudió Arquitectura, de ahí surgieron las monumentales 600 páginas de La casa, al que dedicó seis años]. So he was like the black sheep of the family who wanted to devote himself to the theatre. The ultimate sin was the desire to make hobby A very nice profession and we live from it.”
And he did it right away. It started in Valencia, in fans like Gat Pilateand he came by train to Barcelona in 1980 with his painting by Claudio Coico, “Bad-looking chicken, straight from Underground American Robert Crump, who was against the system on a farm, and who turned him into a private investigator. A crazy idea sprung from the freshness of youth.” Snake And he left it to director Josep Maria Berenguer. “He loved them and told me he was going to tell me something. But at night, back home, I took his call to tell me he was going to publish it.”
It originated from a Valencian school in the 80’s, together Micarmot, Miguel Calatayud or Cinto, And a reference to the clear line, it will shine through later Opium (1982), Universe Rocco Vargas (Which was in 2021 AD spin offAnd The future that was notAnd with Detective Archi Cúper), Eighth day (1992 Where God Listens to Satan’s Stories) or a children’s series Tom the dinosaur (ninety-nine ninety-five).
Since its inception, he says, the market has changed a lot. “In the 1980s there were very few publishers and we were few. Today more and more are being published with shorter cycles, but the readership is not increasing at the same rate as the titles,” he laments.
“Taught himself by conformity, for there was no room for the study of comedy,” he sought “educated adventure” drinking, like a sponge, from childhood, from the classic American masters, especially from Milton Caniff (Terry and the pirates) but also Flash Gordon, Little Nemo or Crazy Cat. Already as a professional, he approached the “elect of the European school K Hugo Pratt, Dino Battaglia, and Jacobs“, without forgetting Moebius.
Rocco Vargas continues
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Today, keep reading the classics, and renewed classics, like eFor Corto Maltese Revival of De Prat by Juan Diaz-Canales and Rubén Pelegero. “I don’t mind giving someone Rocco Vargas a second life when I’m not around,” he says.
He loves mirror games, and shows them in him Picasso in the Civil War or on the same cover Some teachers and the whole truth. What does Daniel Torres see when he looks in the mirror? “Hundreds and hundreds of pages full of sketches. But I have not exhausted my curiosity. Faced with the mystery of the blank page, I am fascinated to know what will be on that sheet when I finish drawing. Professionalism and experience do not deprive you of surprise and bring out things you did not suspect. I repeat: I am interested in the course, not the work The ultimate. It is the core of my work.”
