Mag-log in bilang miyembro
Pinag-uusapan natin ang tungkol sa espesyal na pagpapalagayang-loob na ibinibigay ng komiks bilang isang daluyan, tungkol sa kapangyarihan at kahulugan ng genre ng Kanluranin, at tungkol sa visceral visual na diskarte ng kilalang Serbian artist din sa likod ng The Goddamned o Django Unchained, hindi sa banggitin ang pagbabalik ng label na Vertigo.
"Hi Gamereactor friends, as you can see by the background we are at the Comicon in Napoli, the 26th edition, and I'm here joined by Guera, who's going to tell us a little bit more about his work.
You have some western, you have some detective, dirty jobs as well."
"The last thing, I suppose the most interesting for it is, I did Big Tex Wheeler, Man with the Golden Guns, in album form, big one.
So this is for Bonelli, and I did a very long book of Judge Dredd, this is recently what I did, and I'm mostly known about Scalped, which is Escalpo, I think in Italian, something like that."
"Then The Goddamned, I'm not sure of the translation, which we will, I suppose this year we will do the third book of The Goddamned, I'm doing a western for Dargaud, Urban Dargaud for France, and many more graphic novels, lots of things going on.
Okay, about Scalped specifically, it's dirty as I said, how would you say your style, your texture, the way you work with bodies and your faces, gave it some more spirit, which is important to the story?
Yeah, it is, but I don't know, I try to give life to script, so it's difficult to talk about what you do."
"I just do it, and I suppose the main description should come from readers, eventually.
I try to produce some kind of specific, original, interior feel of my pages.
If I succeed, if what I did is a success or not, it's up to readers.
I suppose that my style is many times defined as violent and very realistic, I suppose."
"There is a visceral part of the drawing that I like, personally, I'm into it.
My heroes are pecking paw, this is my gods, so I try to go there, reach there.
I'm not sure what to say about my style, it's a style.
If we talk about sculpt, and we compare comics as a medium to movies, do you think comics being more intimate can help you portray violence, as you said, guilt, some topics that perhaps with movies are more difficult?
Yeah, I think the lucky part of comics is that it's, to my mind, clear in between the literature and movies."
"Both are very important for the comic book artist.
So you have to know how to tell a story, and you have to know how to emotionally justify the script.
So you receive pages, and it's just letters, nothing, it's just dead.
And you have to make it alive, so this is your main job."
"So, to my mind, the luckiest place is comic, because you can do colors, black and white, you can write scripts, you can be the actor, you can be the director, you can be everything.
So it's very gratifying to actually do comics if you like expression or culture in general.
I think it's a very privileged place to be a comic book artist, to my mind."
"Alright, and sculpt is a collaboration with Jason Aaron, you did a few more, a couple more with him.
What can you tell me about working with him, and is there a future possibility that we can see you guys both together again?
We will, we actually, I think at the end of summer, we will start again the third book of the goddamn...
Jason is my other side of the coin."
"We were very lucky to meet each other, it was just incredible.
People call it chemistry, and I suppose something that doesn't go into words.
We just clicked, I just understood what he meant, and he started writing, as he says, for me, which is amazing.
It's really gratifying to do, because you try to make him happy, because his scripts are amazing."
"There is something, when you connect with a person, I just know what he wants, I understand what he means.
And the part that we connected, I suppose, could be literature as well, because we like similar writers and things.
And movies is typically pecking power, you know.
But in general, it was luck, pure luck, we just met, and instantly, we should do things."
"I'm looking forward to whatever you guys produce next.
Goddamn, for sure.
Something that was very different to that was the adaptation to Django Unchained.
We've been talking about movies, in this case, you were adapting something that was a movie, first and foremost."
"How did it shape you? How did you approach it?
Coming from a movie picture to something you had to tell with panels.
One of the most important points for me, doing Django, was not to see the movie.
So, I said, I will accept, but I don't want to see the movie."
"So, they sent me a lot of references, and I tried to adapt it in a way...
To my mind, Django was too many people involved.
With Tarantino.
Yeah, it was a little bit tiring, and the script wasn't adapted."
"So, it was a constant back and forth with the producer, with this guy, with that guy.
It was a little bit tiring.
So, to my mind, it should have been done like a very, very thick book, out of everything that was cut out from the movie."
"Okay.
And doing the same thing as the movie, my way, I think that, to my mind, it could have been better.
It could have been longer, in a way.
It could have been separated in chapters, made like a book."
"Like a paste to it, right?
Something like that.
So, it was a nice job, very nice job.
I'm happy I did it.
The script was good, but not adapted."
"So, this was eating time constantly.
And to my mind, what I really had the best time with, as a Western, was Tex Willer, actually, with Ruyo, on a script for Bonelli.
And actually, I come from Westerns."
"Right now, I'm finishing a Western for Urban Drago, for France.
And it's going to be a long one.
I think, right now, it's going to be three books long.
So, I'm into it."
"But everything I do is closer or further away from the Western.
I came from Western.
That's fantastic, because I wanted to ask you about Western, and we have this beautiful picture in the background."
"I mean, this is an old genre that we loved in the past, perhaps for new audiences.
It's different to absorb it.
What can you tell me about the genre, and about what you convey to audiences with it?
Skelpt was lucky enough to be a revival of Western."
"No country for old men, like Hell or High Water, or many new-age Westerns came into that train, and Skelpt is part of it.
So, Western never went away, and it will never go away.
It just needs new clothes."
"The main thing about Western is it has to be simple but deep.
So, many, many, many years back, 30 years, everything was complicated and not too deep.
Everything was sensibility, and Western is different stuff.
Taylor Sheridan is a master."
"Just give me a punch, but it has to be deep.
It has not avoided stupidity.
It's very easy for Western to be stupid, too simple.
Or simplistic, let's say."
"Simple but deep.
You have to know how to give it depth.
So, this is the main reason to do a good Western.
Make it deep, make it believable in a deeper sense."
"And perhaps drawing Western helped you understand and communicate the American style when you had to do more American comics?
Yes, but anything I do, even if I have my own charm produced in American comics, actually I add Western."
"This is my secret.
So, I add some kind of believable attitude which came from Western.
But it doesn't mean to have a sexy head.
No, it's attitude."
"It's something real.
Something that belongs only to Western.
There are many, many new stuff that don't look...
For example, there is a science fiction movie called Rover."
"It's an Australian movie.
Fantastic. It's a Western.
It's about science fiction.
So, this feel...
The Mandalorian, when it started..."
"That's it.
So, it's not disappearing.
It just needs new artists to translate this language into new age.
That's all.
And what can you tell me about your personal roots and how they shaped you?
Coming from Yugoslavia in the past, then Barcelona, if I'm correct."
"I'm living in Barcelona for 34 years.
I'm Spanish, so what can you tell me about your roots in Yugoslavia and then Europe shaped you as an artist?
I'm Serbian, I'm typical Serb."
"And I grew up in ex-Yugoslavia.
In ex-Yugoslavia, there was a thirst.
We were hungry for good stuff, for culture.
So, I grew up on black and white movies."
"How should I say? It's my passion.
Third Man, Treasure of Sierra Madre.
Seven Samurai. I grew up on this.
We have a joke about Wild Bunch."
"I saw Wild Bunch minimum 100 times, for sure.
But in Europe, Italy more or less, but France and Belgium, they grew up with culture.
So, they're not hungry as much as we are, I suppose."
"But in ex-Yugoslavia, Serbia, there is a hunger.
And in addition to it, we have a peculiar character, like Novak Djokovic or Jokic.
We are peculiar guys."
"And we have always wars.
There is a warrior culture that should be shown to the world.
It's not typical for the...
How should I say?
Stories that come through us are always a little bit different."
"So, I think we have something to offer.
Okay, and final one.
Last year, at the San Diego Comic-Con in Malaga, I was talking with Alfredo Martinez Bueno about the return of the Vertigo label."
"He was so happy because it meant so much for so many comic lovers.
So, how do you feel about that?
Being close to Sculpt, of course.
How do you feel about the label coming back now?
Gratitude for coming back, and I think it should never, ever have gone."
"Vertigo should have been maintained constantly.
It's the most European edition in America.
Vertigo is the closest to Europe.
And you have many, many artists that can go through this."
"As I said, my secret was that basically my sensibility is Serbian and my culture is European.
So, I offered that to Sculpt and it went pretty good.
Sculpt is really known and appreciated."
"So, I don't know, sooner or later we'll talk with them.
I have many ideas.
I suppose that...
Hello again.
Many people going around."
"So, I suppose it's a question of time that I work with Vertigo again.
I'd like to, for sure.
Fantastic.
Thank you so much for your time, Gera."
"Enjoy it here, enjoy the rest of the show, and I will enjoy your art.
Thank you, Napoli. Thank you, Italy. Thank you.
Thank you."
