Comics suggestions?

As some of you might know, it was my birthday last week (thanks for all the birthday wishes, by the way) and I got a decent amount of cash from my parents. I have decided to spend all of this money on comics, but don't know what to buy.

Please send me your suggestions! What are the best Argentine comics that I just have to buy before I leave Argentina?

Finally a "for real" blogger

I’ve had this blog for a year (and a few weeks) and when I first started writing I spent hours crafting each post. Was my grammar correct? Did I describe that comic to the best of my ability? I’ve always been a bit of a perfectionist and I brought that mania to my blog. As I began to feel more comfortable about my blogging abilities, I loosened up a little bit and stopped worrying. Writing in this blog is no problem.

A few weeks ago, a friend showed me an English language arts blog called Juanele and suggested I ask about blogging opportunities. I wrote the director an email, citing the need for more articles about comics, suggesting myself as a good candidate for the job. Surprisingly, he responded positively. The only problem? It took me a week to write the post. A week! And it's a super normal post.

Anyway, it finally got published today, so check it out:

http://juanelear.com/art-news-and-blogs-in-buenos-aires/comics-take-over-bulnes-street/

The Last Part of the Diego Agrimbau Interviews

¿Cómo conocés a tus amigos en general, y en especial historietistas?

Muchos de mis amigos son del secundario, la mayoría. Con Dante nos conocemos desde el colegio secundario, de donde también me han quedado muchos otros amigos que sigo viendo. Y a los historietistas los conozco de los eventos, de las revistas y experiencias que compartimos. En otra época éramos muy amigos con los chicos de La Productora, salíamos juntos todos los sábados a la noche. Conocimos a nuestras actuales mujeres en aquellos años. Pasamos juntos varios años muy divertidos y salvajes. Después fui sumando amigos en los años más recientes como Lucas Varela o Pablo Túnica, los autoproclamados “Dandys de Belgrano”. Y mantengo una estrecha amistad con los dibujantes con los que trabajo, claro, como Gabriel Ippóliti, Pietro o Baldó.

¿Pensaste en tener otra carrera?

Estrella de rock. No pierdo esperanza. Y antes en realidad tenía ganas de hacer publicidad, hasta que la hice y me pareció espantoso. A los veintidós decidí que la historieta era más que un placer.

¿Cómo es la relación entre Laura y vos, trabajando en cosas parecidas?

Tratamos de no trabajar juntos. Poder separarnos un momento en el día y poder volver y poder decir “hola querida” es mejor que estar veinticuatro horas seguidas juntos, porque es complicado. Antes vivíamos en un lugar más chico y trabajar pegados se hacía difícil. Ahora que estamos en esta casa tan grande, ella se pone en una punta, yo en la otra y tratamos de no cruzarnos.

Claro que nuestros trabajos se potencian. Compartimos datos, contactos, experiencias, viajes. Tenemos mucha sinergia con lo que consigue uno y el otro. Después en una época yo le mandaba los guiones para que me los corrija o critique, y ella me daba sus tesis o artículos. Eso lo hacemos cada vez menos. Hay épocas en las que necesitamos más espacio y que ella no se entere qué historieta estoy haciendo y yo ni sé qué está escribiendo ella. A veces es mejor que la relación fluya por cosas cotidianas, de pareja y no por lo profesional.

¿Tenés un plan para los próximos años?

En este país no se puede planear de forma muy concreta, por ahí de acá a un año pierde Cristina las elecciones y hay que tirar todos los planes al tacho; entonces se planifica siempre muy a trazo grueso. Sé que tengo que terminar el viaje, ver qué perspectiva se abre a partir del viaje, porque dependiendo mucho de eso, cambian los planes. Yo siempre después de un par de semanas afuera volvía con un montón de ideas, trabajo, cosas cambiadas y trabajaba un año en algo que se había gestado en un mes. Ahora me voy cuatro. Por ahí no pasa nada, por ahí sí, no tengo idea. Mi plan de por sí es seguir avanzando en Francia y en el mercado europeo en general, hacer el libro con Lucas, ver qué pasa con ese libro, hacer algún contrato más de los proyectos que tengo, y apuntalarme dos o tres años más en Francia. Sumar experiencia. Luego me gustaría hacer un serial en Estados Unidos, esto muy a largo plazo. O también Italia. Son muy a grandes rasgos los planes. En Argentina nunca podés planificar, acá somos muy famosos por improvisar. Para bien o mal, es así.

How did you meet your friends in general, especially in the comics community?

A lot of my friends are from high school, the majority. Dante Ginevra and I have known each other since high school, where I have a lot of other friends that I still see. And the comics people I know from events, from magazines, and experiences we share. In another era, we were very good friends with the guys from the Productora, we went out every Saturday night. We met our spouses in these years. We passed a bunch of wild and fun years together. In recent years, I’ve made new friends like Lucas Varela and Pablo Tunica, the self-proclaimed “Dandies of Belgrano.” And, of course, I maintain a close friendship with the artists I work with, like Gabriel Ippóliti, Pietro and Baldó.

Have you thought about following another career?

Rock star. I’m not hopeful. Realistically, I wanted to do publicity until I did and it seemed terrible to me. At 22 I decided that writing comics was more than just a pleasure.

What is the relationship like between you and Laura [Vazquez, his wife], working on such similar things?

We try not to work together. Being separated for part of the day, returning, and saying “hi honey” is better than staying together for 24 hours in a row, because that’s complicated. We lived in a smaller place before and working next to each other was difficult. Now we’re in a bigger place and she goes to one end and I go to another and we try not to cross paths.

Of course our work is mutually beneficial. We share information, contacts, experiences, trips. We have a lot of synergy with what the other accomplishes. For a while, I gave her scripts so she could correct or criticize them, and she gave me her thesis or articles. We’re doing this less and less. There are times we need more space and she doesn’t know what comic I’m working on and I don’t know what she’s writing. Sometimes it’s better that the relationship deals with daily life, couple life, and not the professional.

Do you have a plan for the next few years?

In this country, you can’t plan in a very concrete way. Maybe in a year Cristina Kirchner will lose the elections and we’ll have to throw away all our plans. So one always plans very generally. I know that I have to finish the trip [to France], see what perspective opens because of the trip, it depends a lot on this, plans change. After a few weeks abroad I always come back with a bunch of ideas, work, changes and I work for a year on something that was developed in a month. Now I’m going for four. Maybe nothing will happen. Maybe it will. I have no idea. My plan is to continue advancing in France and in the European market in general, make the book with Lucas, see what happens with this book, get another contract from the projects I have and shore up another two or three years in France. Add up experience. Later I would like to do a serial in the United States, but this in the long run. Or also Italy. These are very long term plans. In Argentina you can’t plan. We’re very famous for improvising here. For good or bad, that’s how it is.

Transcription by Santiago Slaby. Translation by Claire Denton-Spalding.

Diego Agrimbau on publishing in Fierro

¿E intentaste publicar muchas veces en Fierro?

Y publico en la Fierro. En la Fierro tuve bastantes desencuentros. Yo me entero de la Fierro antes que saliera, y ya empezamos a mandar cosas. Logramos publicar en el número 4. Ya les había llevado Bertold, pero me dijeron que no era para la Fierro, y creo que tenían razón. Entonces hicimos una historieta que salió en el 4. Entonces pensé erróneamente que si publiqué ésta, voy a publicar más. No. Ippóliti no quizo seguir haciendo cosas para la Fierro porque el pago no era el mismo que en Europa, entonces me empecé a contactar con varios dibujantes. Pasaban los números y no pasaba nada. En ese momento estaba trabajando con Totino Tedesco haciendo porno. Y le digo que estoy cansado de hacer eso, entonces se los presento a los de la Fierro. Y mandamos Vida y Obra de Simón Cortinas, que finalmente la aceptaron. Pero para entonces la Fierro ya andaba por el número 23 de Fierro. Luego escribí algunas críticas a la Fierro en mi blog, sin sospechar que me traerían varios problemas con colegas a los que admiro mucho. Tiempo después, le pidieron una historia corta a Lucas Varela. Entonces le paso el guión de Afasia, que fue muy bien recibida, por suerte. Y volvimos a colaborar juntos casi un año más tarde, con Claustrofobia. Hasta que en el año 2010 me escribe Lautaro (Ortíz) para decirme que iba a haber una reunión de guionistas de la Fierro -¿qué me va a llamar a mí que publiqué cuatro historietas?- a la que voy y están Sasturain (el director), Lautaro, Trillo y Pablo de Santis. Me dicen que quieren relanzar la Fierro con mayor preponderancia de las historias.

Y ahí empiezan las series que salieron en diciembre, Cielo Alto que hago yo, Tristeza de Reggiani, Justicia Poética de de Santis, Sasha de Trillo… ahora hago una con Pietro que es un gran dibujante medio perdido en el panorama actual… Así que finalmente pude hacer una serie en la Fierro.

Have you tried to publish in the magazine Fierro many times?

I publish in Fierro. I’ve had quite a few disagreements with Fierro. I found out about Fierro before it came out and I started sending things. We were able to get published in the 4^th issue. I’d already brought them Bertold, but they said it wasn’t for Fierro. I think they were right. So we made a comic that came out in the 4^th issue. So I thought erroneously that if I published this, I would publish more. No. Ippóliti didn’t want to keep on doing thins for Fierro because the pay wasn’t the same as in Europe, so I began to contact other artists. The issues passed and nothing happened. In this moment I was working with Totino Tedesco making porn. And I said I was tired of doing that, so we presented ourselves to Fierro. We sent “The Life and Work of Simón Cortinas,” which they finally accepted. Fierro was going on issue 23. Later I wrote some critiques of Fierro on my blogs, without suspecting that they would bring problems with colleagues I very much admire. A while later, they asked for a short comic from Lucas Varela. So I passed him the script for “Aphasia,” which, luckily, was very well received. And we collaborated again almost a year later, with “Claustrophobia.” Until, in 2010, Lautaro [Ortiz] wrote me to tell me that there was going to be a meeting of writers at Fierro—why would he call me, who’s only published four comics? I went and Sasturain (the director), Lautaro, Trillo and Pablo de Santis were there. They told me that they wanted to re-launch Fierro with a greater prevalence of stories. And from there started the series that came out in December, “Cielo Alto” that I write, “Tristeza” by Reggiani, “Justicia Poética” by de Santis, “Sasha” by Trillo…now I’m doing one with Pietro who is a great artist sort of lost in the present scene…so I was finally able to do a series in Fierro.

Happy one year, Paper Tigress!

Wow. A year has passed and I’m still writing a blog about comics. In the past ten years, I’ve started and abandoned about seven highly embarrassing blogs: one where I pretended to be a prostitute named Candy (I was fourteen, give me a break…), another where I talked about “style” and a Livejournal. And the one I stick with is about comics. How did that happen? Let’s take a look at the past year…

When I started this blog, the only people that read it were my friend Avery, my mom, and my aunt. My mom even friended people on Facebook to get them to read my blog. Humble beginnings, people, humble beginnings. I mainly wrote about the basics of my Fulbright project and Owly, a children’s comic about an owl. After arriving in Buenos Aires, the composition of my blog changed to occasional reviews of comics and events, interviews, and musings on the Argentine comics world, all with a “what is happening to me” sort of vibe. Oddly enough, some people started reading my blog, mainly because of this recommendation by Andrés Valenzuela, but also because I post on Facebook every time I write. Now about 100 people per week read my blog.

Now that I’ve expounded upon the general trajectory of my year, let’s talk about statistics. As an obsessive Blogger stats checker, economist, and narcissist, these statistics are some of the most interesting parts of my blogging experience.

Since beginning this blog, I’ve had:

4,697 views in total

2,051 from Argentina

1,765 from the USA

Obviously I expected these people to read my blog, but then there are the big question marks, like the 50 views from Russia and 43 from Latvia. Most perplexing were the 8 views from Iran that only appeared in month of May. Apparently THEY didn’t enjoy my blog. I’ve also had readers from Colombia, Chile, Mexico, France, Poland, Peru, the UK, Spain and the Netherlands.

In terms of posting, my five most read are:

1. New Chicago Comics at the Museum of Contemporary Art

2. Interview with Andrés Accorsi

3. Tea and Totem Comix, my new remedy for the common cold

4. Estupefacto

5. La ciudad de los puentes obsoletos

The reason 1 & 4 are so often read is because I used images from the internet and when you look the authors up online, images linking to my blog appear. #2 and #5 were promoted by their respective subjects. I can’t account for #3…unless people just really like seeing a picture of me sick in bed and read that post.

The other stats (browser, links, etc.) are sort of boring, so I’m not going to include them. But the stats that I included are quite informative, showing a heavily Argentine interest in my blog. As people have told me, it’s exciting to read musings on the Argentine comics community from an outsider’s point of view. Although I enjoy being the “gringuita divina” that provides a new perspective on Argentine comics, I am returning to the USA in a few months. What happens when I become yet another boring American with a comics blog? I would like to keep on specializing in Argentine comics, but build some sort of presence in the USA. Keeping this in mind, I’ve decided to take on the example of my Catholic ancestors and conquer new territory. No, I’m not going to settle Kentucky, I’m going to try my hand at Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/ThePaperTigress. Wish me luck!

To next year and the surprises it brings! Happy birthday, Paper Tigress!

Agrimbau answers, "What was it like publishing in Argentina after publishing in France?"

¿Cómo fue publicar en Argentina después de Francia?

En Argentina empezamos a publicar más seguido desde la etapa auto-gestión, primero con El Asco, que salió primero en Historietas Reales (en el sitio en su etapa anterior: historietasreales.blogspot.com), tuvo mucho suceso y fue muy importante. Recibía cincuenta comentarios por página subida y recibía mails de un montón gente que seguía la historia. Me decían “yo soy fan del Asco”. En el pico de popularidad de Historietas Reales –salía en los medios, en varios lugares-, eso coincidió con la aparición de las nuevas editoriales que salían por todos lados. Y detrás de todas ellas está el mismo financista. Un tipo con mucha plata que empezó a poner plata en editoriales diferentes para sacar historietas, siendo el mismo tipo. Después te cuento por qué. De esa oleada caímos varios de los de Historietas Reales, como era algo popular de lo que se estaba hablando. Empezó saliendo Max Aguirre, después Mosquito, después salió el Asco. Al final publicaron prácticamente todos. Cuando estaban saliendo esos libros, estaban los premios “Papa Fina”, de la revista Comiqueando, que era la única publicación temática de acá. Y El Asco ganó a mejor libro del año en la categoría drama. Al ser un premio no muy importante, estaba bueno, porque era lo único que había. Y tiempo después tuve muchas ofertas para sacar La Burbuja de Bertold, pero finalmente accedimos a hacerlo a través de Historieteca, ya que era la editorial que más garantías me daba para que no aparecieran saldos por España, ya que eso podía traer conflictos contractuales.

Y después publiqué Campito, que es una historieta que venimos haciendo desde los noventa; era una historia muy sencilla, y muy vieja, data del 98. El dibujante tardó mucho tiempo en dibujarlo, como diez años para hacer 44 páginas. “Che, no voy a poder seguir la historieta” – Me dice cuando va por la página 35. “¿Por qué?” “Porque me voy a hacer una carrera universitaria”. Y cuando termina la carrera universitaria la siguió. ¡Eso es planificación! Pero lo terminó y lo publicamos en octubre.

What was it like publishing in Argentina after publishing in France?

We began to publish more regularly in Argentina after the self-publishing era, first with El Asco, which first came out in Historietas Reales (in the first site: historietasreales.blogspot.com), it had a lot of success and was very important. It would receive fifty commentaries per page uploaded and I received emails from a bunch of people that followed the comic. They said, “I’m a fan of The Asco.” The climax of Historietas Reales’ popularity- in the media, in various places—coincided with the appearance of new publishing companies that emerged everywhere. And the same financier was behind all of them. A guy with a lot of cash started to put money into a bunch of different editorials to make comics. I’ll tell you why later. The members of Historietas Reales rode this wave; it was something popular that was being talked about. Max Aguirre came out first, then Mosquito, El Asco came out afterwards. Finally, they published nearly all of us. When the books were coming out, the magazine Comiqueando (the only thematic publication here) had the “Papa Fina” prizes. El Asco won best book of the year in the drama category. Even though it wasn’t a very important prize, it was good because it was the only one that existed. A little while later I had offers to publish La Burbuja de Bertold, but we finally agreed to do it through Historieteca because it was the publisher that gave me the best guarantee that the book wouldn’t appear discounted in Spain, which can bring contractual conflicts.

Agrimbau answers "How did you create a career making comics?"

¿Cómo formaste una carrera haciendo historietas?

Lo que es hacer historieta empecé en el colegio a los quince años, hacía fanzines con Dante Ginevra. Era un colegio de dibujo, yo estudié dibujo como seis años. Pasamos todos los noventas hasta el 2001 de forma independiente, con gente como Mosquito, Salvador Sanz, Lucas Varela. Todos éramos fanzineros. No es que éramos independientes porque había una contraparte mainstream, sólo había comics independientes. Hasta que en 1999 empecé a trabajar como creativo publicitario en una agencia. Era muy poco glamoroso, trabajaba en una cocina. Después cambiamos de lugar, y seguí hasta el 2004. Y yo en el 2003 había empezado a cobrar plata por hacer historieta erótica y por la Burbuja de Bertold. Y mientras trabajaba como creativo publicitario. Y en el 2003 con Dante dejamos la Productora -lugar que compartimos con Mosquito, Mallea y otros- ante la posibilidad de trabajar para editoriales grandes. De ahí en más en el 2005 dejo la publicidad para dedicarme de lleno a la historieta. Fue terrible. Trabajaba en casa. Yo esperaba que los libros como Bertold se encadenaran fácilmente, y no fue así. No había mucho más trabajo. Hacía mucho porno porque daba plata. Así que a mitad de año decidí que tenía que hacer los talleres porque no había manera de vivir de la historieta. Y de poco la cosa fue mejorando, y en el 2006 me puse el estudio, primero con Dante, después con Fernando. Ahí empecé a considerarme un profesional de la historieta. Sabía que era un riesgo dejar la publicidad, pero pensé que iba a ser más fácil después de Bertold. Y costó bastante, pero en eso siempre me ayudó mucho Laura. Ella me ayuda a tomar la decisión y me dice “arriesgate, que si de última sale todo mal, de hambre no te vas a morir”. El primer año nomás fue el más difícil. Después mejoró la situación. Claro que no te podés relajar del todo, nunca sabés si el año que viene vas a tener algo para hacer o no.

How did you create a career making comics?

I began making fanzines in high school with Dante Ginevra when I was fifteen. It was an arts high school and I studied drawing for six years. We passed the 90’s until 2001 independently, with people like [Angel] Mosquito, Salvador Sanz, Lucas Varela. We were all fanziners. It’s not that we were independent because there was an opposing mainstream. There were only independent comics. In 1999 I began to work as an advertising creative in an advertising agency. It was not very glamorous, I worked in a kitchen. Later we moved and I stayed there until 2004. In 2003 I began getting paid to write erotic comics and for Burbuja de Bertold (Bertold’s Bubble). And during that time I worked as an advertising creative. In 2003 I left the Productora with Dante—a group we shared with Mosquito, Mallea and others—for the possibility of working for large publishing companies. From there, in 2005 I left publicity to dedicate myself completely to comics. It was terrible. I worked at home. I had hoped that books like Bertold would line up easily, and it didn’t happen like that. There wasn’t much work. I did a lot of porno because it paid. So in the middle of the year, I decided that I needed to do the classes because there wasn’t a way to live from comics. And bit-by-bit things got better and in 2006 I got the studio, first with Dante and then with Fernando. From there I began to think of myself as a professional. I knew it was a risk to leave publicity, but I thought it would be easier after Bertold. And it was tough, but my [wife] Laura always helped me. She helped me make the decision and told me, “Take a risk. If everything turns out badly you won’t die of hunger.” The first year was the most difficult. The situation got better after that. Of course you can’t relax completely. You never know if you are going to have something to do the next year or not.