During that time, I was able to get hold of quite a few of Carlos Giménez works at Mercat de Sant Antoni, such as Los profesionales or Sabor a menta. Soon after that, I was awarded with the honor to spend one month in Barcelona as a learner in an animation studio called Dibutoonz. I placed an order from that magazine and that's how I got my first comic made by the great master Carlos Giménez. I had never seen anything like that before, the drawing was different and it was a very clear style I could distinguish from any other comic I had read so far. Then, I was about to start University when I found some amazing comic covers in an audio magazine. This is what I consider the core of my first 10 years of love for the art of comics.
Now I'm reunited with them and they are part of me. It was a bit of a hurdle since I had to pay more than the actual price of those comics, but it was well-paid money. To make things worse, it wasn't until last year that I sent them over to Japan. I started thinking I might had thrown more than I should have, including comics that I actually liked or used to, which was as important. After coming back to Japan I felt gloomy. I can remember myself at night, a rainy night, taking the not-so-loved comics outside of their boxes and throwing them away. During a holiday in Spain I spent hours and hours classifying comics according to how bad would I feel if I threw them away. Finally, two years ago I decided to take action. But on the other hand it was hard for me to send them back to Japan since I didn't even know what my future would be like. The garage conditions weren't good for them and made me sad. That was really a nightmare, so I decided to postpone my decision and instead, I asked my father to keep them in his rental garage for a few years until I figured out what to do with them.Įvery year I visited Spain I would also take a look at the state of my comics. However, I was very much afraid of discarding comics that could lead me to regrets later on.
I guess I could have got rid of the ones that I wasn't so intimate about, and just bring the rest to Japan. It was the first comic I've ever read, thanks to a friend from high school (thanks a lot Adrián!). For example, Las aguas de Mortelune ( Les eaux de Mortelune).