Agrimbau answers: How many projects do you need to do at the same time to make a living from comics?

¿Cuántos proyectos necesitás al mismo tiempo para vivir de la historieta?

Los proyectos se pagan diferente, no puedo medir por cantidad de proyectos. Yo sé que tengo que juntar cierta cantidad de dinero por mes como para justificar vivir de esto y no ser un mantenido por Laura (Vázquez Hutnik). Entonces sé que tengo algunas entradas que son mensuales, como la tira del diario, antes hacía historieta erótica (hasta el año pasado). La revista erótica es una de las pocas publicaciones que se mantienen mensuales (No sabía que la revista Kiss cerraría pronto). Y lo bueno que tienen las revistas mensuales, es que contás con una plata segura por más que sea poca. Te permitía programar los gastos de un año. En cambio los contratos por un libro por ahí es mucha plata, pero no sabés cuánto. La “vaquita lechera” de todos los meses antes era la historieta erótica, de la que me cansé después de cinco años, y ahora por suerte tengo la tira diaria. Y los talleres de guión que sumo a lo de la tira, y hoy por hoy como entrada mensual tengo la Fierro, mientras dure la serie, que es mensual. Juntando todo eso me hago el sueldo fijo. Pero la parte más importante de los ingresos proviene de los libros. Y eso es un trabajo muy a largo plazo, en el que uno especula la llegada de contratos armando varios proyectos. Yo trato siempre de vender por año al menos un proyecto al exterior. Si son más, mucho mejor. A eso se le suman las reediciones, que es otra entrada de divisas diferente. De todos los libros que tenés, algunos se reeditan. Esa es la parte más felíz del trabajo porque cobrás por lo que ya hiciste, sin trabajar.

How many projects do you need to do at the same time to make a living from comics?

Each project pays differently, so I can’t measure by the number of projects. I know that I have to make a certain quantity of money per month to justify my career and not be maintained by (my wife) Laura Vázquez Hutnik. I have a few monthly inputs, like the comic strip in the newspaper, and I wrote erotic comics until last year. The erotic magazine is one of the few publications that continued coming out every month. (I didn’t know that the magazine Kiss would close so soon [after this interview]). And the good thing about monthly magazines is that you can count on a certain quantity of earnings, even though it’s not very much. It allows you to plan yearly expenses. In contrast, book contracts can bring in a lot of money, but you are never sure how much. My “cash cow” was the erotic comic, of which I got tired after five years, and now, luckily, I have the comic strip. The income from the comics writing classes is adding on to the salary from the comic strip. Another monthly salary I have comes from Fierro, as long as the series I am writing continues. Adding all of this together, I have a fixed salary. But the most important part of my income comes from books. This is a very long-term type of project, in which one speculates on the arrival of contracts while assembling other projects. I always try to sell at least one project per year abroad. If I can sell more, all the better. To this I add the reprints, which is a different source of income. Some of the books you have are reedited. This is the best part of the job because you are getting paid for what you’ve already produced and don’t have to put in any more work.

Agrimbau on...projects

¿Cuántos proyectos estás haciendo usualmente al mismo tiempo?

No lo sé. Eso depende más de los contratos que uno va firmando. Lo que tengo que hacer ahora por contrato es un álbum para Francia que se llama Edén Hotel para la editorial Casterman; los Canillitas que es una tira diaria para Tiempo Argentino; Cielo Alto que es una serie que sale en Fierro; la biografía de Bob Marley para una editorial por encargo dentro de la serie Tragedias del Rock. Pero ahora tuve que cortar con un par de cosas para no irme con trabajo a Francia. Pero tenía que hacer adaptaciones literarias, que acabo de terminar y ya se la pasé a Fabián Mezquita. Tenía que hacer Romeo y Julieta pero por el viaje se la pasé a un alumno, Hernán Carreras. Hice un par de unitarios para Aurea Editoriale de Italia, y si me olvido de algo, ya me retarán los dibujantes.

¿Y al mismo tiempo te dedicás a distintas etapas de cada proyecto?

Sí, además tengo los proyectos que son solamente proyectos, donde no hay nada formalizado de por medio como para tener que hacerlos. Y el problema es que uno va acumulando mucho a través de los años. Hoy por hoy debo tener siete u ocho proyectos que nunca se hicieron. Pero es engañoso, porque esos siempre están dando vueltas, y puede pasar que en el viaje cualquiera de estos se active, se agrande, vuelva a la computadora, y se transforme en un contrato y un libro. No es lo más usual, muchos se han dormido para siempre. Están ahí, guardados. Se pueden reactivar según las oportunidades de trabajos por hacer.

How many projects do you usually do at once?

I don’t know. It depends on the contracts that one signs. What I have to do now, under contract, is an album for France called Eden Hotel; “Los Canillitas,” a daily comic strip for Tiempo Argentino (a newspaper); “Cielo Alto,” a series that’s being published in Fierro; a biography of Bob Marley commissioned for the series Tragedies of Rock. Now I have to cut a few things so I don’t go to France with a lot of work. But I used to do literary adaptations. I just finished one and passed it along to Fabián Mezquita. I had to make Romeo and Juliet, but I passed it along to Hernán Carreras, a student, because of the trip. I did a few one-shot comics for Aurea Editoriale, an Italian publisher. If I’ve forgotten to mention a project, the artist will admonish me.

And at the same time you work on different parts of each project?

Yes. In addition, I have the projects that are only projects, where there’s nothing written down yet. And the problem is that one accumulates many of these projects throughout the years. At this precise moment, I must have seven or eight that have never been completed. But it’s tricky, because they are always moving around, and it can come to pass that in one of these projects becomes active, gets bigger, gets written up on the computer, and transforms into a contract and a book. It isn’t very usual, some have gone to sleep forever. They’re there, stored. They can reactivate given the prospect of new jobs.

A day in the life of Diego Agrimbau

As promised, this is part of an interview with Diego Agrimbau. Because the interview is ten pages long (twenty, with translation included) I am going to post it question by question over a series of days. The first section is in Spanish and the second in English. In case the readers don't remember, I studied economics in school, not translation, so give me a break.

¿Cómo es el trabajo diario de un guionista? ¿Cómo organizás tus días y horarios?

No lo hago, la verdad debería tener algo más organizado. Lo vivo como una falencia. En general me levanto a las nueve y antes solía ir a un estudio aparte de mi casa junto a un dibujante. Con Fernando (Baldó), con quien hago mi tira de “Canillitas,” seguí esta modalidad por tres años. Yo llegaba al estudio a eso de las once o doce del mediodía y mi primera tarea era contestar mails, porque tengo una resistencia muy grande a sentarme y escribir por más que a lo que me dedique sea hacer lo que me gusta. Escribir me cuesta mucho, entonces empiezo a aflojar la mano escribiendo mails o artículos, cosas que tenga que hacer que no son guiones, y después de un par de horas de eso recién puedo sentarme a escribir, y si tengo un buen día escribo sin parar durante dos o tres horas, y de ahí saco todo lo que tengo que hacer. Es mentira si alguien te dice que escribe ocho horas seguidas guiones. Es imposible. La concentración que te demanda escribir y pensar es mucha. Cuánto toma escribir una página de guión, media hora como mucho? En ocho horas escribirías dieciséis páginas. O sea que en tres días tenés un álbum francés y en dos semanas una novela gráfica, y no conozco a nadie que haga algo así. Entonces de esas dos o tres horas muy productivas la gestión del resto del tiempo implica hablar con el dibujante, actualizar la página web, pensar, garabatear, cuestionar; siempre alrededor del acto en sí de la escritura.

What does a comics writer work on every day? How do you organize your schedule?

I don’t do it and to tell you the truth, I should have something more organized. I recognize that is a problem. In general, I wake up at nine and before [I moved] I would go to the studio I rented with a drawer. I followed that patter for three years with Fernando Baldo, with whom I make my comic strip “Canillitas.” I arrive at the studio at 11 or 12 and my first task would be to answer email. I’m very resistant when it comes to sitting down and writing, even though I’m employed doing something I like. Writing takes a lot of effort, so I begin to loosen my hand writing emails or articles, things I have to do that aren’t scripts. After a few hours or so doing this I can finally get down to writing and if I have a good day I write without stopping for two or three hours, getting out everything I have to do. If someone tells you they write scripts for eight hours in a row, they’re lying. It’s impossible. The concentration that writing and thinking demand is a lot. How long does it take to write a page of a comic? Half an hour tops? In eight hours you would write sixteen pages. So in three days you would have a French album and in two weeks a graphic novel. I don’t know anyone that can do something like that. So I have those two or three very productive hours and the rest of the time is delegated to talking with the artist, updating the web page, thinking, scribbling, debating, always around the act of writing itself.

Conferences, comics and politics

Okay. I’ll admit it. I’ve been neglecting this blog like it was a pile of dirty dishes. A lot of exciting things have happened in the comics world (to me, at least), so I’ll discuss them in order:

Dibujados:

Dibujados was an enjoyable event, mainly because it was filled with lots of comics and people I like. It was held in a hostel and was set up really well for selling, mingling and signing, but not for the lecture series it hosted.* The lectures were given in an open hall and there were a lot of people talking in the background, so I couldn’t hear much. In terms of my Spanish skills, I still haven’t mastered the ability to understand fragments of lectures. (I am proud to say that I am getting better at overhearing conversations. The other day I heard one street cleaner say to the other “He wanted women, but he could only find transvestite prostitutes.”) But I enjoyed the event because I bought a bunch of comics and saw my friends, so I give it four stars.

University of Palermo’s “9º Jornadas de Diseño de Historietas:”

The Jornada offered a series of lectures that dealt from all points of view from the creation of a comic to its eventual sale as a book. You can see the impressive series of lectures here. I attended the second half to learn about the part of the comics creation process that I hadn’t learned about through my interviews, like the printing process, sales in comics stores and magazine topic selection.

Seminar paper for “Artes secuenciales:”

The theme for my paper for Laura’s class dealt with how the economy has an impact on the ability for comics artists to live off their work. I turned it in on Tuesday and met with Laura on Friday for my oral final. Overall, I really enjoyed the final product, though the process of writing a paper turned me into a lunatic. (Makes me wonder how I ever maintained friends in college while turning in a 10-page paper every month.) I got an 8 out of 10, a good grade considering the fact that I wrote it in Spanish. Hopefully, I will translate some of the content for my blog and eventually turn it into some sort of paper.

Interview with Andrés Valenzuela and article in Cuadritos:

Andrés Valenzuela, comics journalist and generally awesome person, interviewed me for his blog Cuadritos. We met in the most silent bar I’ve ever been to in Buenos Aires and talked for about 30 minutes. Fortunately, we did the interview in English, so I don't end up sounding like a raving idiot in the article. The paper I wrote for Laura’s class helped me organize my ideas, so that when I talked about my grant my proclamations were focused and clear, looking at the larger picture instead of a few small details. Anyway, if you want to read the interview, you can find it here: “Los últimos ocho años beneficiaron a la historieta argentina.” ("The last eight years have benefitted the Argentine comic") As the title implies, I talk about economic stability in Argentina during the last eight years. During the past eight years, both Nestor and Cristina Kirchner were in power. Coincidentally Argentina had elections today in which Cristina Kirchner won.

Anyway, next week I’m going to continue with interviews and transcribing. I will be publishing piece by piece an interview I did with Diego Agrimbau. And, most importantly, I'm going to find a costume for Halloween.

*I complain about space a lot in this blog. Maybe I’m anal retentive or excessively bothered by everything, but I think layout can make or break an event. And other people have commented similar ideas to me in interviews or personal conversations, so I’m not the only crazy one.

Paper, paper, paper

I just returned from a ten-day journey covering Córdoba and Paraná that was a mix of pleasure, investigation, and religious duty. Now I’m back and resting in Buenos Aires, writing a ten-page paper for Laura Vazquez’s class. Remember the seminar I took last semester? Well, in Argentina papers have a series of final dates during which you can submit them for grading and I’m turning mine in next week. My paper is generally about how the economic stability of the past few years has allowed people to have careers making comics, followed by a discussion of the characteristics of those careers. I’m a little bit nervous because my paper is based on part of the research I’ve been doing for my Fulbright. So basically I’m committing seppuku if it sucks. Wish me luck! (With the paper, that is, not the seppuku.)