Santiago Valenzuela, author of The Adventures of Captain Torrezno, the most ambitious and longest-running epic of recent Spanish literature, says, “If you are a little bit sick in the head, that is, if you have a neurotic point, comics are a bad business.” The comic book has been reprinted by Astiberri since its first volume. «More than 20 years have passed, and now when I see the hands of that first book I think they were too amateurish, too amateurish. So I think I must have redrawn thousands of hands for the new edition. Now I’m preparing the third and fourth, but luckily these already fit the level and are graphically quite similar to the last ones. In any case, there are still many things I would change. For example, all faces, but this is not possible.
In 2002, Santiago Valenzuela published Distant Horizons, the first volume of The Adventures of Captain Torrezno, an epic whose origins lie in a short story written by him. «I don’t consider myself a writer, but I decided to write the story of a man who built some kind of model in the basement and created several miniature people in it. He would leave, and when he returned years later, he would be amazed to see that they had evolved, created cities, and even had different armies fighting in a religious war, some carrying flags and some carrying identities. credit card. In the end, God feared his creation and his second coming ended with his house exploding due to a butane leak, just like in the comics; he could not control his own circumstances.
two possibilities
Believing that the story could be adapted into a comic book, Valenzuela began developing the story and meeting some of the characters who would play an important role in his work. “Suddenly the character of God appeared there, that mysterious drunk from the bars who, with some cunning, works miracles, and finally Captain Torrezno appeared, the typical alien character who finds himself in a world he does not know and is completely out of place. A place that creates a comical effect. From then on, Valenzuela found himself faced with two possibilities: to opt for a costumbrista story about bars and drunks in Madrid, or to shape an epic with varying levels of reading, references to learned culture, and winks to popular culture. The most important events in human history.
“Instead of focusing on traditions, I chose to translate the Marxist motto of ‘first tragedy, then comedy’ into reality and play with history by mixing a Roman legion with Germans, as children do when playing with plastic soldiers. Second World War soldiers, sometimes not even on the same scale. Although it seems like an original suggestion, it is not, because it is not that difficult to differentiate yourself in a country where there is no comic book industry and there are not many people devoted to this business. On the other hand, despite the ambition that characterizes the work, there is a certain modesty throughout. The humility typical of genre literature, where it doesn’t need to be a thesis work, it doesn’t need to talk about something topical or something that worries people, and humor is important because things made without humor have a meaning, is a bit ridiculous.
After more than twenty years since the first volume was published, and with a National Comics Award behind it, The Adventures of Captain Torrezno now consists of eleven volumes; the last of these, Anamnesis, came to light a few weeks ago. a promotional claim: «This is how the microworld began. Even God doesn’t know how it will end.
“Well, I know how the story ends. Actually, it’s all very defined from the beginning. Before I published Distant Horizons, I already had some notebooks with a lot of the stuff that came out later, like a cutaway view of saucers or ships or a flying Death Star.” It’s like a kind of parody of balloons on a ceiling… Even though I didn’t collect things systematically, although some of them were, it was a period when I thought ‘this will appear in such and such an episode’. It’s still a long way off. Then it’s more or less filling in all the gaps. and at the same time I’m adding seminal things,” says Valenzuela, predicting how The Adventures of Captain Torrezno will continue in the future.
“With the 12th volume, which I am currently working on, the story of the basement on Valverde Street comes to an end, which represents a third of the total story. The second part will be the meeting of microcosm and macrocosm, which will take place in lush rural Galicia and seaside Galicia, two regions where different groups of Lilliputians will settle. Then the differences between macro and micro disappear, giving way to a piece that will exist in another time and another galaxy. By the way, my opinion is that Captain Torrezno is slowly gaining complexity.
traditional techniques
Adding to Santiago Valenzuela’s passion for narrative is the fact that the fantasy genre he developed requires very realistic drawing done with traditional techniques, without resorting to computers other than labeling and providing shadows. «Many people tell me that switching to a digital tablet will save time, but this means that the work process will take place in front of the screen from the very beginning, and I am not convinced. Moreover, although they assure me that you can get any texture, any brush, eventually you lose contact with the pen, because the digital pen is just a plastic tip on another plastic,” says Valenzuela.
“If I have to draw people going up the elevator for four pages, I can’t make it the same for all four pages. “To entertain me, to entertain the reader, each one will be different, and I believe that as a professional you have to have a certain deontology,” explains the author, concluding The Adventures of Captain Torrezno, aware of the enormous task that awaits him. “I think these are things that suit the character. A There are people who start something and want to finish it, and there are people who have delayed gratification. I think psychologically I’m one of the latter, because as much as I love finishing a volume and getting it published, I also have my sights set on the distant future. Part of this is because the comics genre I grew up with, ‘to be continued… ‘ I think it’s a result of the comics.