December 15 will be the first anniversary of the death of Eduardo Pelegrín, better known as Eduardo Pelegrín. calpurniumvideo artist, illustrator, screenwriter and comic book artist known as the creator of cuttlas. Despite his simple appearance and lines, this cowboy became one of the most charismatic characters of Spanish comics and made his author. One of the most important cartoonists of the second half of the 20th century.
“For me Calpurnio is in a league Chris WareOne micharmutOne George Herriman…In short, the people who developed the comic book language. In fact, I think it will take many more years for everything he has done for this art to be absorbed,” explains the critic and comics expert. Alvaro Ponsresponsible Cuttlas’s wonderful bookA compilation of the character’s best adventures, recently published by Reservoir Books. It is a volume of over seven hundred pages selected from more than two thousand pages featuring the character, described by Pons as “a catalog of possible narrative resources of the comic strip that no one but himself has explored”.
In the early ’80s, when punk was still at its peak, Calpurnio released an album with his friend. Nacho Villaro, Japanese. In the first of this “expectorant and mucolytic” fanzine appeared the first strip of Cuttlas, consisting of only a few ovals and four sticks; Because of its simplicity, it contrasted both with the academicism of traditional comics and the diversity of comics. underground.
“When first published JapaneseCuttlas is nothing but a parody western. Although these first stories have the intention of provoking and making everyone say that they can do this, Calpurnio is aware that this parody does not go any further and decides to look for more. In this sense he realizes that: western It is a species that hybridizes easily, and what you have in your hand is essentially a tool of discovery,” recalls Álvaro Pons.
What begins as a simple western strip starring Cuttlas, his mare Rosario, his girlfriend Mabel, and his black friend Jim, who is chased by a Ku-Klux-Klan gang. was growing both spatially and conceptually. The strip gave way to the half page, which became a full page; this soon became too small for Calpurnio; Calpurnio had to transcend the confines of the format to release his anxieties; experiments with dictionary, grammar, sequential expression, relativity theory or quantum physics.
“First half page cuttlas what I saw in the fanzine Rat Butcher From Zaragoza. I enjoyed reading it, thought it was masterful, but didn’t think much about it. I thought this was a private exercise, not something longer-term — recalls the cartoonist Mauro Entrialgo—. Months later, I started publishing it in the first issue. Makoki thanks to Ernesto Murilloforming a creative trio at the time mediavilla And BraveSecondly, he is the manager of the magazine he also started publishing. cuttlas. Ernesto was delighted to publish Calpur, but 17-year-old me didn’t quite understand the enthusiasm for something with pure humor. He looked too white for that brown satirical magazine. Then he explained to me why that half-page worked so well: the choice of moments and ellipses, the expressive roundness of that classic pen, the size of the short stories… From that moment on, the first thing I read was, Makoki It was Cuttlas,” says Entrialgo.
“It’s genius to come up with simple solutions that are somehow accessible to everyone but no one notices.”
“It’s genius to find simple solutions that everyone can somehow reach but that no one notices. When that simple solution is presented in a medium like a comic book, associated with such an “inevitable” effort, the sacrifice and dedication is still a little provocative; so much so that they make their lives look like comic books.” “It will likely spell disaster for some creators and their loyal followers, for whom dedication to the cause is part of the value of the business,” he comments. Ata Lassalleeditor Autsaider Comics, Label whose catalog includes the following titles: spring to madrid Winner of the 2021 National Comics Award by Magius or Ronson By César Sebastián, one of this season’s illuminating comics. Despite this good editorial evaluation, Lassalle admits that the decision to bet on Calpurnio’s work was not a simple one at the time.
“It’s hard for me to go back to that time, but I can say that in the comics undergroundCreativity and breaking the mold, far from being a risk, was and still is an incentive. In any case, the formal violation may offend pure comics artists and classicists with a more consistent mind.something probably caused by the editors at the time cuttlasa certain joy rather than giddiness, whose business profession was never too pretentious. Another thing is that if we talk about a traditional editor, in his case it is not a risk, but it is feasible.”
blessing
After going through Makoki, Viper and other comics magazines found their place in the pages of traditional press imprints such as Cuttlas in the 90s. small country anyone Land of Seductionswhere it was discovered by a new generation of readers.
“I met cuttlas I don’t remember exactly that moment when I was a kid, but I’m sure Little Country. It caught my attention, but I didn’t pay attention to the style. A lot of people tend to think that the more realistic it is, the harder it will be, but I find it much harder to just leave a comic with minimal expression and make it work. “Nobody shoots a gun better than Calpurnio, but I can’t imagine how many times you’ve heard him say ‘my boy can do it’,” he says. Grillillustrator and comic book artist Álvaro Pons agrees.
“Cuttlas looked like it was made by a three-year-old child, but when you read it, you realized it wasn’t that simple. When you see the character, you understand that he is happy, he is happy, he laughs, when he gets angry… It is very complex to convey these emotions with just two circles and a few bars. You became aware of this challenge when you saw Calpur drawing. He would make a Cuttlas and then delete it because he said it wasn’t right. I would draw again, erase again, and after ten times I would get the expression I wanted. When I showed it to you, the character was actually laughing, happy, happy, or expressing whatever he wanted to express at that moment.”
As if it were a conquest of the West, Cuttlas gradually discovered new territories where it was no longer necessary to expound on the greater or lesser academicity of his drawings. “This was the first time I heard about comic books cuttlas was in Land of Seductions, cultural complement and postmodern reference. This framework legitimized Calpurnio’s comics; “Not because there may be doubts about its creative pulse in line with its surreal humor, but precisely because of the fact that it is a publication at the vanguard of cultural trends,” comments the critic and comics expert. Elisa McCauslandPlacing Calpurnio at the level of one of the most international Spanish artists of that time: “As Marshal, Calpurnio legitimized the naive, childish streak as a form of artistic expression with ironic and critical components.“.
Unvalued
Despite the aesthetic and conceptual revolution cuttlas and what Calpurnio means by the comic is a fact that, to this day, neither the character nor his author have been valued enough in Spain or internationally.
Cuttlas are underappreciated, but it is something that is very commonly produced with author-intensive works that also have popular appeal.”
“Most people love his work because we’ve all enjoyed it at some point, but perhaps it’s his style, along with the fact that it’s something anyone can read for free while riding the bus or subway. 20 minutesGrillante, whose opinion Mauro Entrialgo shares, explains: “cuttlas underrated, but this is something that happens very commonly in author-heavy works that also have popular appeal. In any case, I have the impression that precisely this lack of recognition gives writers like Calpur a creative freedom that real-time high culture applause would curtail.”
“Calpurnio never cared or cared about what he did. He had a good time at what he did, and that was all that mattered. He never worried too much about his work being published in other countries. He felt that the character would not be understood in the stranger, and I said to him: ‘On the contrary, your comic is the most understandable in any language‘. In fact, the few times international editions have been carried, Cuttlas Shukan Morning from Kōdansha Japan and now a Chinese edition will be released,” says Álvaro Pons. cuttlas It was one of the most important works of Spanish comics. “When Calpur read it, he appreciated it, but he said he wouldn’t pay me to write stuff like that. He was extraordinarily humble, and in his opinion, there were many people much better than him, no matter what. I told him many times that there was no one who did what he did,” Pons concludes.