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Also to have a special and specific tribute we pay to Ibañez,
the creator of such beloved characters as Mortadelo and Filemón,
as well as TMO Magazine, the local magazine...
...with such an important trajectory.
I want the people to come to Getxo.
I want them to come and see this Comic Convention,
so they can enjoy this genre
and its colorful, imaginary, creative explosion.
We also have room for satire and criticism.
Therefore, I’d encourage people to come to Getxo so they’ll enjoy this genre in its fullness.
Also to enjoy a special ambiance here surrounding all this people
who’ve come to enjoy this genre and the comic strips in general.
TMEO was founded in 1986…
There many fanzines in the Basque country.
'Octopus' in Vitoria, 'Amelín' and 'El Chino' in Navarra.
It was a time with so much effervescence of festivals, gatherings, seminaries…
it’s like a circle of like-minded people,
with the same inquietudes, but in this case comic fanzines.
Taking advantage of that explosion of seminaries you were getting known by others.
So a bond is created there.
Let’s do something together
instead of making different fanzines on our own
let’s join forces and time to see what comes out of that.
And that’s how TMO was born.
Good afternoon and thank you for joining us
in this edition of the Manga and Comic Convention in Getxo,
and especially in this special ceremony.
Just a few minutes we’d like to dedicate this tribute
to those people who have made us enjoy
through their labor in the world of comic strips and illustration.
On one hand to a Basque Magazine that has more than 20 years in the street
offering a space for new Basque creators.
It’s something we consider enough to receive this recognition
in the Manga and Comic Convention in Getxo.
The recognition is given by the culture councilman of Getxo Town Hall Mr. Koldo Uturbe
to Kini, coordinator of TMO Magazine
and also to Santi Orúe,
as a tribute
in the Manga and Comic Convention in Getxo.
Jeez, this the million-dollar question.
The truth is that I’ve been in TMO all my life, which belongs to the UNDERGROUND,
but I’ve never stopped to think what the heck that means.
(What is UNDERGROUND?)
A fanzine is basically a magazine...
...in which people work for the love of art,
I mean I clearly see that the difference between...
...a fanzine and a professional magazine...
is that in the fanzine people don’t get paid whereas in a magazine they do.
Our case is a comic fazine, because what we do is comic strips.
Writers don’t get paid because we have no money,
...although the final product tries to be...
...a competitive creation in the market of...
...professional publications.
For the love of comic and also because...
because you want to create another new platform
to reach more people and to create a channel for young artists
who don’t have other opportunities or have their first chance,
so they can have another way to express their work.
There’s a lot of good people and few media where they can express themselves.
It’s a complete altruistic thing. Isn’t it?
What we have is diversified and there’s a lot for all tastes.
There are still fanzines which are made in photocopies, stapled and cheap.
However there’s an average in no one’s land,
pretty much like Cretino, which are comics with a great quality
but that hasn’t been able to reach the big leagues in publishing houses.
It’s the base.
It’s from all illustrators, authors, writers are from, people who really…
When a young writer comes to me and shows me some pages and stuff,
I say: Hey, first publish something in a fanzine,
make a fanzine with friends, your buddies and you’ll see and learn a lot.
A little of fresh air in the sense...
...that allows making experiments...
...which couldn’t be made otherwise,
which an editorial that depends on other stuff cannot do.
In Spain we have big and powerful media groups.
And there’s some rather prompt initiatives,
...but they don’t often go to local levels,
and by local I mean entire provinces.
We usually fight in newsstands with magazines supported by big media groups.
There are more editorials than ever, there are magnificent authors
and maybe that’s the problem that many Spanish writers
are the ones who have it more difficult to publish their work here.
There are scarce professional magazines where you can present short stories and stuff.
Your only choice is to present a graphic novel and something like that
is what makes me feel a bit scared, right?
Compromising a year or two of your life for a graphic novel
without knowing really if in the end it’s going to be published.
If you don’t have any guarantee it becomes very difficult to go to a publisher and convince him
of a new project
unless your novel is ready.
Of course, how can you spend two years working on something
if you don’t know how it will end? To sum up, it’s complicated.
For 25 years we had a magazine called 'El Víbora' (The Snake)
where I used to publish up to 4, 6 or as many as possible pages
to all young writers which I considered promising.
And this was creating a learning process
and a connection with audiences.
We asked people what they thought about them.
When 'El Víbora' closed down I said: “This is a ***”
There are many people that… If a magazine starts to publish,
starts to polish up a style it can leap forward to other formats,
to other longer stories, to something more…
But now there are magazines no more.
Well, there’s Manglare, there are magazines that do, but…
there are no magazines that pay well.
Let’s see, before whe you sued to publish in a magazine you could live well,
now that doesn’t exist and now a time has come in
which you have to make a graphic novel, create other kinds of stories.
The problem is that many years ago,
or in France,
the guy that has been able to publish an album could live off it.
On the opposite case he could at least live off the royalties
for a season in which albums were being published.
The problem is that here, even though you get to publish an album,
even though people get excited about it,
it’s an illusion, and you’d never live off it.
Because you can publish an album and the few pennies you get from it
make you keep on working on other stuff so you can have a living.
That’s what usually happens; the people who are in world of fanzines in general,
what happens is that you have to earn your daily bread in other ways.
I have my job, I do it for fun and I think that a job
that you do from eight to five which compels you to draw and paint,
and that one day you don’t feel like it, becomes a torture.
Even if it’s to illustrate which may be the thing we like the most,
but in the end you get bored, why? Because it’s become a job.
People don’t draw anymore. Kids now want to do other stuff.
It’s difficult to live off creating comic books anymore,
so I think that there must be very few people who devote their time to it.
There are thousands of magazines, thousands of characters who have less time,
that have done a lot less things.
We have 20 years without a subvention, without any help,
making alternative culture totally independent,
with private initiative and self-funded.
And we don’t get any freaking attention.
It’s also true that we’ve never asked for it.
We’ve never been to any institution or else
because we know that asking for money and asking for attention from institutions
makes you co-dependent and sets a censorships over some things.
Anyway, it’s that on their own terms the people from Getxo
noticed that we’ve been here 20 years and that give us this recognition, right?
It’s also funny that TMO was born in Navarra, it then went to Alava
and it’s the people from Vizcaya the ones who realize we exist, right?
The first time we went to pick him up where were there like mesmerized.
We were in the Association for a while looking at him…
I was in the faculty and they called me:
‘Man, we’ve picked him up in the printing house’
and I was like: ‘Screw the class’
and I got out of it and I went running to the Association.
It was very stupid with the Nº 1 issue,
a very absurd sensation of ‘Damn, at last’
The ritual still stays the same, because every time that a Nº 1 issue is in our hands…
the first thing we see is its flaws and stuff,
but you get really satisfied.
We’ve just picked up Rantifuso 5, we have it here.
‘Stories that help you better or not…’
We were counting on the first sub-heading to be “Rantifuso 5: I screw your ***”
but it didn’t prosper.
We ended up picking them up, all 1000 samples.
Now were going directly to Casa de Campo to the Conventions Pavilion,
to Expo-Comic, to work.
Last year, when we came we didn’t like at all,
it was him the one who came, he saw it because we didn’t know where it was from
and we got really pissed off.
What happens is that with the first day and the sales we had…
It’s fine here, very comfortable, there are no problems and people come.
And on the 4th day when you’ve seen all the sales we’ve had,
that everything’s been great…
Would it be better to be there with the Editorials? Of course.
We can’t be there? Well then, there’s no more room and it’s cheaper.
We open another band here and we put… ¿Shall we put a band here and here?
As you can see this includes all kinds of works.
The pros and cons of a self-published fanzine, a self-edited comic magazine
is that we illustrate it,
distribute it,
sell it,
decorate it;
we do all kinds of activities.
We’ve done a thousand times, we’re a music band.
We’ve been working for 3 years and there’s always been a good vibe between us.
There’s a bad vibe too but the ideas has always been to talk it out so…
It’s solved.
It’s solved… It is a rule that has worked well.
***! No!
The two of them should be seen here
What?
No, now Keni’s should be here
Ok, ok. But they should be seen because…
They’re 30 or 20?
32 and they’re 1, 2, 3...
If we see that in a convention we’ve liked someone
or has the same vision as we do,
then we propose an exchange
that’s equivalent in price to our magazine and theirs.
It guarantees that if you want to earn that money you have to sell it.
Therefore you distribute their comic book and move it around.
Every time there’s an important event someone has a lot of free time.
Now it’s my turn, in other years Juan or Dani
were the ones who weren’t busy so they came.
This year I am not busy so I have to come: Thursdays, Fridays, Saturday and Sunday.
INTERNATIONAL COMIC CONVENTION IN MADRID
Hello, do you know who we are?
Samu is somewhat famous for being a pain in the neck when selling stuff to people.
He stands up in a certain position so that… “you have to see that…”
So he starts talking people into it bit by bit, until the person finally takes it.
He also works in France with Eduardo Ocaña...
No, I already set them aside to look at the badges
Great then!
When I go to the conventions, Expo-comic, Expo-manga…
well yes, I buy just any other fanzine that calls my attention.
The closeness between a fanzine and a buyer is great.
Besides, many fanzines deal with issues that many people like.
They are sometimes a bit persistent when selling them but well…
-See you later -See you later
Do you know who we are?
Take a look around, this is our last issue
We’ve just printed it out for Expo-comic 2007
The only fanzine that I’ve bought is this one and I liked it a lot.
I took this one, I looked at it...
I bought the first issue that also came out in this format which is the one I buy…
and spectacular, I liked it a lot.
I’m just the kind of buyer that… not the kind…
I love spending my money on comic books only.
I’ve come only for them; I’ve waited 2 years to get it.
So, great!
Something a little bizarre, that always comes fine.
-Only here? -Only here, we sell them in conventions.
We go to comic fairs and we sell them in…
-Ok. -Thanks.
Great, see you later.
Hello, Do you know who we are?
We’re a group of illustrators from Madrid and we publish this magazine.
This is the issue we’ve made. Take a look at it.
They’re short stories, self-conclusive, from all genres and styles.
There’s action, there’s humor, intimate stories, computer-typed stories, handwritten and…
...just 3 euros, very cheap.
We have 5 issues and several awards. We won the award for best fanzine in Madrid.
With the issue number 4 we won the Imagina Award in Malaga.
And number 2, with only 40 samples left.
I think it’s one of the ones I like most. It’s super intimate...
We ended up making it very, very intimate.
The best way to know what we do is buying one
Ok
If you have 2 more euros you can take number 2, you’ll like it.
Are you going to disappoint me and not buy one?
-Well then, thanks a lot. -See you.
That’s what I usually say.
And then you start playing a bit, you try.
I haven’t been able to… well then.
Only six have come by our stand all morning because there’s barely a person here...
...and I’ve only sold 4 copies.
And from all those 4 people only 2 bought everything.
I’m a persistent salesman, but then…
Hi there. I bet you remember us
Only number one? Option…
I illustrate in a magazine that I edit with a group of friends...
...I made in the Drawing Academy many years ago.
We had common likes...
...and also a common ground which was our desire to publish something.
We believe it’s a beautiful project that has been working for some time now.
I try to teach the best we do and also try to share the enthusiasm I have.
He who doesn’t define it as a sale, then it’s a lie.
I mean, why are you going to a fair?
If you go to crafts fair to sell your work, you go to a book fair to sell your books and sign books...
...you go to a comic book fair to what? To sell comic books of course.
RANTIFUSO is in lunch break! Come back at 17:00!
The problem today is… the bad thing is that today is Cosplay day.
It’s all full of children... people wearing disguises from their favorite series,
...there’s dance, music, performances and they compete to see who the best is.
Hundreds of children come, so there are probably a lot of people who don’t come because...
...that’s not their motivation.
Of course, the convention compensates for that, to the world of comic books so…
...because the only thing shown on the news is the child that jumps, wears a costume, sings...
...and gets you tired.
We wish to welcome you to the Cosplay contest.
As you know this is the tenth edition of Expo-comic Madrid.
It’s the tenth anniversary, not all the manga, comics or other type of events get to last 10 editions.
Some of them start with a strong step; people get tired and leave it.
So we want you to know we’re celebrating a very special one.
It started as a thing of you putting on a costume and you’d get free entrance but…
...after that I started getting a hang of it and now I like to compete.
It’s no more than an excuse to put on a costume.
Leave my role of intern for a few hours and just pretend I’m The Undertaker, Thor or The Godfather.
I’d define it as a lifestyle because there are more people who do it sporadically but...
I think people who take it seriously and love to do it…
Well you learn, start relating to people… I think that’s something… something good.
I’m dressed as a dark elf from…
...a saga called Forgotten Realms…
specifically from the Icewind Dale Trilogy and my name’s Drizzt Do'Urden.
An e-zine then, is a fanzine but done over the Internet.
We make comic books, upload them and then people can read them and make comments about them.
We started when there were practically no fanzines over the internet,
...or at least we didn’t see it as the way we had conceived it,
...as a site where several authors would upload their stuff weekly or fortnightly as we do...
...so people can read them and interact with the website.
What happens over the internet is curious because when...
...I used to work with fanzines,
...when I used to do stuff for fanzines 15 years ago it was like I threw a stone and never got an answer.
I used to edit my fanzine, published it and well, someone would say: “man, I read your fanzine…"
But I didn’t know what other people outside my group of friends used to think about it.
Now I know, now with Internet you have your blog, an email, people write you and…
That’s great; I do like that, now people who make fanzines...
...can know what people think about their comics.
It’s taken the charm away from the person that lived off others going to shops...
...to search for issues you didn’t know were there.
Or the exchange with other fanzine collectors who got them by post, which are less every day.
But the thing is that it’s more comfortable to read them over the Internet, right?
It’s not the same; you can get a better idea one afternoon surfing on the web...
...than spending a week buying fanzines.
It can be seen as...
the end of the fanzines… when they start to decay, right?
It will not be the end of it… only a substitution.
Internet and the digital world will be the end of everything.
It’ll be the end of DVDs, the end of CDs, the end of the books…
In fact there are already in the US… In Japan they’re commercializing with digital books.
That’s why I think it’s a logical evolution; it’s not going to better or worse for the fanzine world,
...on the contrary, it will be a change we have to adapt.
The one who used to draw with paper and pencil will have to do it on a graphic pad
...or scan the drawings and upload them on the net.
During the 20s radio was supposed to be the end of music…
in the 40s TV was supposed to be the end of movies...
...when I was a teen cassettes were supposed to be the end of vinyl records, right?
In the end, the way you enjoy a comic book in paper and stuff,
I haven’t lived the experience of seeing it on screen yet,
...you know watching an object, zooming when I feel like it,
...going forward or backwards in a very intuitively.
For that reason I believe that if Internet is meant to be the end of paper we’ll have to wait to see it.
And my bet is that it won’t ever happen, despite of it all.
Besides, we’re in a time in which everything is computer-related
and it’s precisely this time when the book is enjoying its best moment.
-You can open it... -What?
They gave us an award, the one from Expo-comic that was give to our pals from Ojodepez
-Ok -Well…
If you play the guitar, you love doing it but suddenly you find it hard to go playing with your band...
...in the last 5 years and you’ve only played in pubs, your time as a musician is over.
You may be a musician in your house, but it’s over.
I think that’s the thing to it.
I think that the moment you’re fed up with attending conventions...
...your life as fanzine freak is over.
We’re at the Pompeu Fabra University, in the Ciudatella Campus...
...which is between the Zoo and the beach, more or less, there in Barcelona.
I spend many hours here. I studied my career here and when I finished it I started a doctorate,
and right after it I was offered some classes
in professional practices and that’s what I’m doing now.
I’m a professional practice professor in a couple of
subjects in political sciences.
And I spend the day here, when I’m not teaching I am doing research or...
...drawing or surfing on the net or… well, just killing time.
I love teaching and besides I think I do it well,
I think people get me when I’m explaining myself.
Besides I’m very visual… that’s one thing I bring from comics to…
I’m always drawing and illustrating stuff telling people to imagine in 3 dimensions and stuff.
I do it well and I like it
I have good memories from the University; my best friends are from my years in college...
...when I used to be a militant in the student associations.
Trying to fix the world. Those are my good memories.
And the bad ones? Well, how difficult I find it to get to the end of the month...
...with a professor’s salary working part time.
How terrible I’m having t with my postgraduate research paper...
...which is worse than writing 'The Pillars of the Earth',
it is impossible to finish it.
Also, any misunderstanding I’ve had with any other professor but…
despite of it all, I tell you, no heart feelings.
Working as free-lance or maybe working for barcelona´s public administration.
I really don´t know. I have to finish the damn thesis and then we'll see
Hi there!
Hi!
I just came here to make a… fanzine, magazine for fans.
Very well.
I brought the Pdf.
Ok
Then, you normally make the covers with this green cardboard
Oh, you want a small format magazine
Right
The color we do have is orange. I’d have 150 in orange. And maybe some in blue.
I’m so nervous… let’s see…
How awesome! Great, great…
Take one of the good ones
I start drinking a beer and say: Oh no, all full of spelling mistakes!
How awful! Well
It’s common.
Well, thanks a lot, her, well, ok.
Ok, see you.
Can I take it now?
Ok then, see you.
Ok, see you.
The editing process of my fanzine starts in the university computer,
with their scanner, their photocopier and their printer in the department of political sciences,
without anyone knowing it… and when it’s done,
go back to my office because I can send mails for free from here.
So I have almost 75% of the work done.
I send the fanzine to all the collaborators, which I think are 16 or 17 in this issue.
And then to any other person who have sent their fanzines to me, ‘cause I owe them that…
...Also, I send it to a friend or two who are a bit lost, who haven’t participated…
Then I send it to people who should find it amusing even though they’re not in the scene,
for example, Mauro Entrialgo.
Pedro Vera should find it amusing too, anyone at TMEO, Rougé, for example.
And basically that. 30 numbers are gone, easy as that, only by email.
Now we’re at the sixth edition of the Comic Convention of Zaragoza...
...which is something that started in the Almuzara neighborhood,
specifically in the civic center 6 years ago,
and that has grown bit by bit and demonstrated that...
...we do have a genuine interest in comic books as a mass medium.
We also have the collaboration of the General Deputy of Aragón...
...which is their first time and this is our third time.
Although the Zaragoza Town Hall is organizing the whole venue,
if we don’t say that they’ll get mad.
Our mission is to spread the reading of comic books and...
...normalize the comic book within all cultural circles.
For that we’re developing a series of activities.
These activities range from comic book workshops to what we consider the most fundamental thing,
which is making comic books.
What for? To reach all those people who normally don’t read comic books...
and add them to this market, this target.
You see, a fanzine is the core of all comic books.
If there are no fanzines there’s nothing,
and right now the fanzine movement… not only in Aragón,
in Zaragoza, in Aragón, in Spain, is brutal.
The fanzine is a medium of expression for people who don’t have money.
It’s very cheap, very practical to do and very fast…
...I go to the newsstand and I don’t get interested in what they offer,
what calls my attention is the fanzines.
That stuff in black and white and stapled, with 200 issues… I give it a lot of credit, a lot…
Something done with care and so… How can I throw away a fanzine?
I can throw away a number of magazines because I can’t stand all the paper in mu study or living room,
because I’m constantly reviewing stuff… but I can’t throw away a fanzine because…
Something that was one in 200, 300 numbers...
...can’t be thrown away because it was done with heart,
with feelings and you… can’t go without it, right?
Let’s do something to have fun.
We feel like drawing, well we make comic books.
We meet here, come and get to know people, we laugh, drink a few beers…
And people respond very well to that, because we see it as having a party.
Thus we don’t complain about it.
Of course the comic books we make are quite simple.
They’re just everyday jokes and a bit more.
People respond well.
Here we’re not making an analysis about anarchy or love,
or about anything, they’re just flapdoodle.
The most normal thing is that it should be seen as a hobby because
it is very insufficient and not financially sustainable...
...and it’s a *** ruin…
well the… it’s normal that it’s seen as a hobby, a very healthy one of course.
Because if you start devoting too many resources and energy to it and take very seriously,
well… no? There’s more risk to failure.
Man, we’re in contact everyday with the blog...
...and with… we have a mailing list.
I mean, we’re practically in contact everyday talking about stuff. There’s always something…
...somebody asks for a comic book or there’s a collaboration that has arrived…
...Basically… since Cretino is our life, well… we’re busy all day long.
In the real world, we meet from time to time to…
The other thing is that we’re far from each other.
One lives in Alcalá, Colmenar, Vallecas and I live in Alcorcón.
Well, for a fanzine is just that.
A group of friends that has a common idea and they put it in paper.
In paper, online… they put the best of themselves, good,
bad or a bit of both, whatever.
Because I need it. Because I need to express myself and I’ve chosen this way.
If I want to make figurines out of ***, well I’d make them,
but since I find it quite disgusting I prefer to draw, that’s something I love doing.
The best thing for us in three-day conventions like these is that…
many times the guy that comes in the morning buys a comic book and then comes back...
...in the afternoon or the next day and says:
Man, last night I read your comic book before going to bed and I couldn’t stop laughing.
And I suppose there’d be more altruistic people, right? Like…
Let’s make these people I don’t know laugh cause I guess we have this in common.
I think that the idea is to be faithful to oneself and to what one likes and if you are lucky,
or have the courage or the time or the luxury
to be successful well then, good for you.
But… It’d never stop being UNDERGROUND the one does what he likes doing, just like that.
We are very peculiar people. we have our inner world and...
...in fact I think that's why we draw comics.
To communicate our inner world and share it with other people.
That’s what I think. Or don´t. ... I think I read that somewhere ...
The UNDERGROUND movement was an attempt to express the counterculture when...
...the culture distribution companies were very tied up.
Today everybody has a blog, everybody can say whatever he wants...
...and get everyone from home very easily.
So nowadays the Underground term no longer has the sense he had.
It was very important for many years but today...
...really believe that at least hasn´t the sense that ... had.
Thank you man. You really cheer me on.
We are going to “Arkham comics”, one of my favourite comic book stores.
They are really cool because they take and distribute all kind of fanzines.
The place is a mess, you'll see for yourselves.
Hi,
OK, cool. See you.
I´ve come to bring you the latest fanzine “Tonterias del Rock”, ok?
How many should I leave you? How many you think you can sell?
Give me all the fanzines you want and I´ll try to sell out.
Okay, how about ten?...
Great. Do you have the last delivery note?
I´m afraid not.
Awesome!!
I think we have already made a late payment.
Yes, but we also made the last delivery note.
Every time we take fanzines we sign a delivery note.
That is how we know how many fanzines we have and how many have been sold.
When she comes, she is supposed to bring here that note.
But she never does.
No, no, no, Thats not he order of ...
What about the 'Cretinos'?
'Cretinos'? 'Cretinos' I have only two.
Two. Well I'm telling you if you want five more ...
A lot of people ask us for fanzines every time they come to the store.
here are some people that only asks for fanzines,
and they come every week asking for brand new fanzines...
...or if we know about some fanzine in Valencia or Madrid.
We have a lot of fanzines in the store. We have 'Tonterias del rock', a great one.
We have 'Chuck Norris' that recently has been re-published...
We have plenty of them, plenty...
Thank you very much
My pleasure
Bye
HANDERGROUND, with an h and an a ... means basically no money ...
...and to be hip with no money ...
...typical in Barcelona.
In fact, I just remembered my fellow has to come, lets see if he can give us a hand,
its better than going by myself.
remembered he is now getting out of his job,
maybe he can help us with the job. Two hands are better than one.
Right now we are going to the place where we gather the Rantifuso members every week ...
The location is a neighborhood association, of which we are members.
We met when we were looking for enclosure.
We saw that there was this association that might give us the chances we need.
We became members and we get the place once a week.
Lets go get Juan
I give you two more, all right?
You leave it on deposit, and after a while they come and...
...see if you have sold or not and from there they leave the next publication.
We have music zines, comic zines, small short stories.
We've come a. .. to give you a note and let you a few more.
6, 7, 8 ...
This type of distribution is wich I imagine people begin when are young.
If they aren´t young like us, although we look like young people,
they usually have a car or work with a distribution company.
We do what we can.
That is, by ourselves, handmade and store by store,
with suitcases, backpacks in different batches.
There are people that is able to distribute in the whole city of Madrid in one day.
We can´t. So we have to do it occasionally. It´s such a tedious job.
I know there are people who do not want to do it and they don´t.
And then his fanzine it is not in all the stores it should be,
when what matters is that people see you as much as possible.
Thanks.
You´re welcome" ...
Good luck, eh.
Thank you, goodbye.
In the hierarchy of publications: this is the seediest, the lowest and,
...Yeah, sure, that´s UNDERGROUND but the spirit...
...of the UNDERGROUND movement: Everybody can.
With little money you can make a good edition.
The technological advance is such that everyone now has available the materials and the technology.
And now we continue, we have made downtown,
but now we have to do the suburbs and the tiny shops and distribute as much as we can.
EXCEPT LOADING AND UNLOADING
A normal magazine when is distributed on newsstands and...
...bookstores the distribution company gets 50% of the profit.
If we did that in the 'TMEO' we didn´t have the money to make more magazines,
so we need and we have always relied heavily on all the pubs...
...that have traditionally not charge us for selling the magazine.
We have a distribution system which is one of the hallmarks of 'TMEO' magazine.
That is its own distribution.
We have a van and a driver that comes and load with boxes and...
...distribute throughout the Basque country.
It makes Navarra, Guipuzcoa, Vizcaya, Alava and Burgos, is manual.
Taking the boxes, taking the car, going from bar to bar, shop to shop,
bookstore to bookstore, collecting the money, leaving the new one ...
.. And then there is what I do from here.
Taking orders from booksellers who has been running with us a long time ...
Preparing packages, do mailings and then to distribute through distribution company...
...to reach out to other stores that we can´t.
More than a magazine closely related to the Basque country,
is closely related to the culture of ... by calling in some way, culture ...
... with attachment to go to bars.
So the more pubs the area have, the closer relationship it has.
And in the Basque Country there are many bars and we are from there ...
But in the 'TMEO' there are people from many places.
But since it was born there, 'TMEO' magazine looks like typical of the land.
They are a fundamental part.
Not only as the distribution center, but also the most of bars announce themselves on the magazine.
In the 80's when we started we used to lived in bars.
We remember that in that time you could smoke without a sign that explicitly allowed you ...
...you also got your drink in crystal glasses and not a plastic one like now.
I mean, the life unfolded in the streets and in bars.
It was our natural habitat and the idea was born "Let's see,
we are every day in bars, because we sell here and here is the people who know us.
And is where we get the inspiration for the comics ...' As I say, our natural habitat.
"Do you want a view of political scientist?
The social capital of the Basque Country
is very thick because...
...it has a network structure of interpersonal relations that is very dense and reciprocal.
And the issue of how they relate socially walking from bar to bar,
I think it has a little to do with that.
OK
I´m living. See you.
Ok, see you.
bye.
There was a time when there was a strong support to the local culture.
The bars made the favour of disseminate for free what the kids of the neighborhood were making.
Nowadays they still sell our magazine,
sometimes by tradition because they know us for a long time and because the TMEO is a classic.
And in some way because there are some bars that are benefiting,
because having ... good benefit in quotes, of course ...
But slightly because when you go to a bar in the Basque country and are selling...
...the 'TMEO' you already know that is a consolidated bar.
If they do not sell 'TMEO' it seems like is a dive bar that ...
How little they know the people from there that they do not even sell the TMEO!!
Well guess we all start at first saying: 'I draw, I draw' And you start to draw pictures.
And then you learn what is to do a comic and how to make a comic,
because it is not only sit and fill out a blank sheet.
No, there are many people who think
they are making comics and what they do is just...
...fill in the blank page of a bunch of doodles more or less well-made.
But it has a process behind it.
My case: at first when you're small and do these things, you just want to do a comic.
When you grow you try to do something you like and then people enjoy it,
and try to disseminate it as much as you can.
At the beginning you write your own stories because everybody at first wants to be a complete author
Many people wants to write, draw, ink and color it... do everything.
And not everyone can.
I was fortunate to collaborate in more and more things than I was able to write.
I was sick of write and I started to ask for scripts to Elisa, Dani, Jaime ...
... I like drawing the things that I write.
I write weekly for drawing little jokes.
But I also like to draw long stories written by other people, especially if you get good scripts.
Untill now I have had really good scripts.
There are very few people that really have something to say, and that is what *** me off.
A person like Marjane Satrapi, 'Persepolis', is somebody who has a story and tells it well.
With a naive style, with a purified narrative, but it is there.. 'Persepolis' is a unique work.
But how many clones of this artist we can find in bookstores?
Hundreds. And they are empty.
Lacking any kind of message and content that will not stand the test of time,
that's what I mean.
I like drawing more than tell stories.
And if one day something inspires me,
when you are in the subway and suddenly you think of a story and say,
I have to tell this story.
Right now the bookstores are filled of a genre that focuses heavily on this aspect, the "slice of life".
And for that I would rather open the window and see the crack-heads from my street.
And they will probably have more fun things to tell me that a fifteen euros comic,
drawn by one of those posh authors that don´t know anything about life.
I have read comics all my life.
When I was a kid I learned to read with Mortadelo and Filemon and...
...got from my father all his Tintin, Asterix and Obelix.
A good thing is that I have always considered it as another type of literature,
not something dumb or just for kids, like a lot of people thinks.
There are lots of spanish people who believes that comic is a minor art,
a holder for fools or children who don´t dare to reading books ...
I've always considered it very worthy and useful.
I began to scribble in the margins on the books.
When I was little I drew very bad, even worst than now. I was awful.
I draw sometimes at work when I finish a work that has taken me a long time or have stress me.
Then I take a break for drawing.
Also at home, when I come from work after a busy day I draw too.
And when I have a sketched comic sometimes I take it to bed before sleep.
I ink it on bed. I don´t really have a protocol.
I do not have writer. Actually, I should ... that is, be somebody else´s writer,
because I tell you I'm not particularly good cartoonist and nobody has taught me.
I violate things like the prospects or...
Things that I do not respect because nobody has taught me I do not know how to do,
and I'm not particularly good artist but ...
I studied arts. If I have any artistic vein or a gift or something, I wouldn´t call it like that. ...
For me it is a secondary aspect. I do not need drawing lessons.
I think it would not be proportionate.
The learning curve or the effort I could invert on learning to do awesome drawings.
For get the results that I want I don´t need to spend a lot of time and money.
In fact for what I do, getting a ha ha!! with a little luck ... For What I do is enough.
Every time I see more and more. In the 'Tartatatín faNzine', 'Le petit cochon' or 'Rantifuso' with Elisa.
They are very noticeable: Look, a girl!! But ... It is true that we are a minority.
But actually I believe there is even positive discrimination. It may have played in my favor.
I feel very good treated. And as an anecdote, many years ago,
I was in a queue for Gilbert Shelton comic´s signing.
He had already run out of time and they were still 30 people in line and I was the only girl.
And the guy who organized the signing grabbed me and said ...
"OK, you´ll be the last" Of course is because I´m a girl!
I love Barcelona´s Comic Convention because is an opportunity to reconnect with ...
colleagues and people who I appreciate and I only see once a year as "Malavida Fanzine" people.
I see the 'Cretino' people a couple or three times a year but not much more.
And people who I really appreciate and I meet with them only...
...three days a year, on the Barcelona Convention.
Once a year, the comic is the star of Barcelona.
I have all my friends and the people from work telling me ...
Hey, Barcelona´s convention is coming!! As if it were Christmas, Christmas Eve ...
We have just arrived to Barcelona.
Today is Thursday 19th of April and we will spend four days here at the Barcelona Comic Convention,
me and my partners.
We have come to have fun, spend four days between comic-book fellows,
to sell fanzines and... To socialize, as you could say.
This convention is a special one because we are nominated.
We have been nominated as the best 2008 spanish fanzine.
hey considered that 'Rantifuso' in 2007 was a fanzine worthy of a mention in that category,
along with four other fanzines more.
What does this mean for us? It's fantastic.
We were shocked, because ... it´s awesome.
We do a fanzine for entertain people, to have a good time and learn.
Many people, many fanzines I see, and this is my own opinion,
are products that are exclusively for a specific audience.
We're the only fanzine of the nominees that contracted a stand for the convention.
That's good because we can advertise...
"Hey, we are the nominees for best fanzine 2008 in Barcelona.
But it also seems we are the only workers ...we can´t leave back the working class...
...in my case I am very proud to be working class.
I dunno, it seems that we are the only workers that have been nominated.
The other publications differ widely because they are aimed for people from his circle.
They only publish one or two hundred while...
...we publish a thousand and all of them are for sale, is the subsistence of 'Rantifuso'.
Thats why I see winning very hard, because we are very different of the other nominees.
Well, we are five so it is not so difficult.
But it is also true that the others know far more people, more editors and...
Now, we are also the only magazine that it is something a little different.
But hey, there is no hurry because we have been publishing for just three years.
So if we get nominated another year or we won, cool.
After all this is a fanzine and we do it because we like it.
Yeah, if you win is awesome. But is just another step, be recognized.
But it does not mean you're the best or anything.
Well, this award would enable us to publish another 'Rantifuso' number.
We are very pragmatic.
Perhaps we would get the promotion that we haven´t because...
...we don´t work with a distribution company.
That's what this prize would give us.
To be the best fanzine of Barcelona´s comic convention, dammit ... It is big.
The Barcelona comic convention is the biggest event that takes place in Spain about comic books.
This year we celebrate the 27th edition.
The latest editions we have had more than 100,000 visitors and 150 exhibitors.
A great media coverage, is the second european comic convention after Angouleme.
And it's a lounge where the comic is promoted.
Our intention is to spread the comic reading and promulgate that the comic-books...
...are a part of our culture and it is important to know it and read it.
For us it is very important. This is where we make sales.
Where we come to show our product,
...'Rantifuso' comic-books because we have no presence in stores.
The convention is the easiest way to show our work to the people...
...who likes comics and is interested in comics.
We do a fanzine without intention of get profits of it... just to get our work known.
We use it as a porfolio and sell it at the same price it costs us publish it.
And we also make a lot of gifts.
We try to fill a gap that spanish comic-book market have.
There are author comics, indie comics, politic comics...
But editors don´t publish action or entertainment comics.
I find stuff here that I can´t find elsewhere.
It really blow my mind what the people does.
It would be cool that the rest of the people would read it.
For us the conventions were basically,
getting the fanzines attached to our bodies
and going one by one...
"Buddy, buy me a fanzine"
Because if you haven´t bought it yet you will have to do it later.
And you have to buy fanzines because you must consume fanzines.
And you have to read fanzines because you know where the comics are,
but you only will find fanzines here and in a few places more.
My god, Adobo it´s so hilarious!! It´s so hilarious!!
Now we are going to launch 'Adobo' fanzine.
Some of the authors of the 'Ojodepez'fanzine that had...
...the same kind of rude humour decide to publish.
What does 'Adobo' have? Really sordid stories.
Gypsie jokes.
Gypsy-Jokes ... about Madeleine, about ETA (Spanish terrorist group),
you won´t find butterflies and happiness of any kind.
'Adobo' will probably gross you out.
As we think the humour is anything that makes you laugh and...
...there is nothing as spaniard as joking about everybody else´s misery.
Then we thought it was interesting to give that acid touch to the 'Adobo' fanzine.
For us, the 'Rantifuso' fanzine means team work.
A reward to perseverance and a product that make us feel very proud.
Uh, a tricky question... (laughs)
This is the first year we come here and we don´t know anything about it,
but if you ask it´s because there is probably something nasty about it.
The relationship between organization and the fanzines it´s really good in many ways.
The fanzines have a special area in the convention with a much smaller price...
...than a normal stand and they have a very active presence too.
They also have the recognition through the awards.
And we take care of updating the list of fanzines that are being published in Spain and...
...we care to maintain a very fluid relationship with them.
We have gone to other comic conventions, like Zaragoza, where the stands were for free,
and here it costs us money, but ...
I guess because it is like this, we have no complaints.
But maybe in the future... Fanzine-comics...
...is something that people with no resources do,
so the stands could be free to throw these jolly authors from Barcelona to the sky.
The fanzines are ***.
And they make you feel more and more like bums.
We have been cornered,
excluding us to the external parts of the conventions, to the toilet ...
Physically separated from other publications,
doing that visitors have to make an effort to go see what are those fanzine freaks doing.
The fanzines has a defined space that is an area shaped as an island...
...at a price we could define as symbolic.
We treat the fanzines like any other company.
We open a period of recruitment,
we sent the information to the fanzines and then they decide to hire or not hire...
...a space within the island, usually a stand with a size of one meter and...
...that´s what they have to participate in the convention.
It would be cool that they organize exhibitions of fanzines to promote it.
Do not forget that, although we are kidding around,
this is the real engine of the comic-books, don´t you?
This is where are born Luis Durán, Santiago,
a lot of people who are now publishing their comics with the big companies.
I think this is a fine place.
It is difficult to organize an event like this, with so many visitors.
Well you can´t quibble anything over that.
Well, there are things that can be improved as in everything, right?
Anyway, compared with other conventions I think it´s fine.
And indeed if we come from the boonies its because it is okay.
I guess it might be good if the fanzines start some
sort of federation with some weight.
For example, the Barcelona convention works with different sectors.
And the fanzines don´t have a spokesperson to speak for them there, right?
Doing that means to start with institution fundings and the freedom...
...for saying what you want just dissapear.
It stops being fun,you don´t have a good time anymore and becomes a burden.
We are like drug dealers.
We made this and the authors have to distribute it like a load of hashish.
We cut it and move it. This is the same.
I dunno, I think the network gives us the chance to organize ourselves.
Well, it´s been a pleasure... to lend you my hair for 5 minutes ... and feel again...
You don´t know what it´s like...
we receive at the magazine three proposals for new artists a day, more or less,
that at the end of the month are 90 and at the end of the year...
I do not even want to know how many they are.
The actions speak louder. So it is easier to see something that already works in other place and...
...magine how it would be in 'El Jueves' magazine.
Right now for example we share some collaborators with TMEO magazine.
I noticed Furillo a long time ago. And we thought that his comics were...
..too extremes for EL JUEVES.
Because he always draw those bizarre comics,
with a lot of hair and thick fluids...those are the Furillo stories.
I sent them a few comics some time ago just to try.
Apparently it arrived too late for been publish at that number of the magazine,
but they encouraged me to send more jokes. So I kept sending jokes.
I keep doing comics as before, right?
But now I attempt to read online newspapers at work in order to make jokes about current issues.
Anyway I still draw my usual comics about nasty *** and dirt.
I'm still doing the same so I guess if I was a professional before, I´m still one.
And if I wasn´t a professional before, I´m not a professional now.
There is much to discuss.
And finally we said: Why not giving a try? Let's see what happen"
And the truth is that it works very well on EL JUEVES magazine.
And even I think he also what makes for EL JUEVES is ...
...a little different than what it does for the TMEO.
Well, I am still the same. I have not stopped talking to old friends.
But anyway, I wouldn´t say that now I am a professional,
some of my comics have been published. It´s not a big deal.
Anyway, what is a professional? It would be a long debate.
Before, I felt professional although I didn´t get paid. So I do not know what can I say.
There is allways the economic satisfaction, right?
If earning a little money is to be a professional,
God forgive me, but maybe I´ll begin to be one.
Yeah, sure, of course, TMEO magazine is as my mother.
It's like, I do not know ... Marry a rich girl and stop seeing Mom.
You don´t do that, right?
The Barcelona comic convention give two types of awards: the professional awards,
voted by the spanish comics professionals.
And the popular awards that are voted by the fans through our website.
In these votes, the fans voted to the comics they have liked last year.
In the Red-carpet, he wears a fancy design ...
The fanzine awards follow the same mechanism as the other awards.
That means there is a phase where the professionals vote for their favourite fanzines.
And there is a second phase where the people choose between the five most voted fanzines.
...that can be voted are still alive and not fanzines that died two or three years ago.
My dear diary.
It gives me cause for deep satisfaction to record on these pages,
which on October 12th, day of the celebration of the Virgen del Pilar,
The award ceremony of the Barcelona Comic convention traditionally takes place on Friday,
which is the first or second day of the convention.
It's a ceremony where we announce the nominees and...
...we unveil the winners of different categories.
We are going to know who is the winner of the most rebellious sector of the comic-books.
And the winner is: fanzine ENFERMO.
I'm so glad.
I think the fanzine ENFERMO was something that was done with great taste in which it was found...
...that with very few resources it could do something of high quality.
Albert and I took care of the selection of authors
...in order to make a product with its own entity.
A homogeneous product and the truth is that it worked very very very well.
I think it was something It had to be rewarded sooner or later.
It´s been a little bittersweet because...
... the fanzine ENFERMO ended last year with the goodbye number.
It´s posthumously award, it´s a little sad because it no longer exists,
but at least the recognition is there.
We will take lunch tomorrow with the authors and thank them.
I´m very pleased, of course.
I´m very interested in the self-publishing.
There are people doing great things, we must support them,
because is a titanic effort.
People who make fanzines are people who strive so much,
usually artists that at the same time do the assembly, layout, publication, distribution ...
... it´s very hard and they go further, new authors appear,
young people that do it for fun.
The fanzines are something you like to do, because there is barely recognition,
you have to make a huge effort, spend a fortune...
I think there is a good fanzine movement,
a lot of good people all over the country.
It is something that will continue and It feels great.
Okay. There it is...
This is the one hundred number of TMEO, 100 pages.
Well ...
To take turns.
Cool ... you are famous, or what?
It's a documentary about Underground.
It´s kind of epic have reached to 100 number of a magazine like TMEO,
paradigm of the marginal magazine.
No state subsidies, regardless of the unique thought,
outside the normal distribution, regardless of socio-cultural taboos,
outside the economic interest, since their partners do not charge for their work.
But not outside the public as evidenced that TMEO is followed by...
...a large segment of readers that are not necessarily fans of comic-books.
Perhaps attracted by the usual contents such as the social customs,
the eschatology, irreverent humor and acid critics.
All this without forgetting the original purpose of TMEO that was...
...to provide a platform to authors that do not always have a site in professional journals,
for all kind of reasons, usually because of censorship.
The articles that talk about the spanish comic-books from...
...the 80s don´t usually talk about TMEO magazine.
Any fanzine coming out in Barcelona or Madrid which has lasted 20 issues...
...appears as it is huge and they have never paid too much attention to us.
Perhaps because we do not want to be a comic magazine exclusively ...
or professional...
Well, but there are amateur magazines that take a lot of attention, aren´t they?
But anyway, we are first a humor magazine, I think.
It would be nice if people..
...ealizes that you have to buy it, this don´t exist by itself.
Everybody feel simpathy for the TMEO magazine,
but they should realize that it´s a miracle that it still survives.
People must keep going to the bars and buying the TMEO and...
...that is the only way to allow us screwing around for more time.
So keep on trucking, guys!!
Wich are the interests of the young people? Taking drugs and jacking off all day,
then here is the TMEO to give them some support.
People say, "You are a bit outdated" We are not at all.
We are a current thing, like Marxism, a valid thing.
In the TMEO has worked so many people...
...that there are some people from certain times that we do not know they exist.
I don´t know all the people that started the TMEO.
I remember the first group,
the people from navarra who decided to join the efforts.
They were Ernesto Murillo Simonides, his brother Machas, Manu,
Yoquin, the chinese, the Vampire.
Only in the first issue there was forty people involved.
There was people that used to coordinate or distribute instead of drawing.
So many people in the entire history of TMEO.
We made recently a list of contributors, and we were over 200.
And only the artists.
Counting the rest of people involved we would have even more.
What I´m going to tell you? A charming people, really good friends ...
... that sometimes I would kill.
Using perhaps a bit political term: very militants of the cause,
because they feel it and live it.
For any of them the TMEO means something.
That's it. Militants of humor.
Damn, what a definition ...
VIEWPOINT OF LA ALHAMBRA
This meeting of fanzines began three years ago in Madrid,
and was the people of the CRETINO fanzine who started it.
The first year was pretty bumpy and the second was more quiet ...
Some time ago, talking with David, one of the CRETINO members,
we had the idea of organizing it on Granada.
Know new people, have some beers and have fun.
We are connected every day on the CRETINO blog on the internet, but...
I dunno...Spend some time together,
like a group of friends that is increasing every day.
There is no other intention,
as we do this for fun and not have any obligation to anyone.
We do it because we like it.
And you always know new people and talk a long time.
And then you think "hell, if it had not been here I had not known him"
Just with that, the time spent in this thing well worth it.
The essential basis to make a living from something is insisting.
I became a professional mainly by insisting.
You will improve your skills by insisting.
But if you're 25 years playing guitar and after that you can´t play it properly...you suck.
Anyone who dedicates in something strongly and want to do it,
he will end doing it well.
Literature, music or movies, what will you recommend?
If you believe in it, do it.
You have to do it,
you have to believe in it and you will have to stir heaven and...
...earth to get your work known and to advertise it.
Rather than have a specific target I think it´s more important, at least for me,
Rather than have a specific target I think it´s more important, at least for me,
do what I like.
And if I look back do not regret at all.
If you get a good opportunity and...
...you can catch it is because I had to come.
If it doesn´t, it´s OK because all these years...
I had been doing what I want.
First do what you want, enjoy it, and that's it, and then if it comes,
it comes and if it doesn´t comes, it's also OK. I think.
COMIC SURPRISE! STRETCH THE NOTE
Hey, you are *** a donkey!!!
I see comic drawing in the future as an escape route.
It will remain as something I do when I want to relax or take out the stress ...
In my fantasies I sometimes think,
"I know politics and I can draw, maybe I could publish political jokes"
I do not see very realistic,
there are so many people who really know how to draw and...
...are part of the business.
I see myself as an intruder.
I will continue drawing to telling jokes but I will never earn any money.
If ever get a penny it will be much. But ...
We sell culture only for one euro. Culture for one Euro. At your fingertips.
Publishing in TMEO is such an amazing incentive that I will continue drawing comics.
I´m struggling right now because I have no time.
And I'm taking out time from sleeping because...
...I have a lot of illusion about the next comic convention and he new number of the TMEO...
...with one of my comics on it.
As long as I have to draw comics for the TMEO,
I will keep editing fanzines.
Maybe less numbers, or just upload it on the internet.
But there always be Fanzines. Especially to trade with my friends.
Let's collect everything and give it back in just one trip.
We all can take everything quick and that's it.
That is Underground. It's what we're doing the fanzine people.
We launch goods to market,
passing under the rope of everything that is already stablished,
under the business of comic-books,
the world of music and the art world too
Because at the end everything it´s the same, in a hand-made format.
We find this gap,
we come from the Underground and we put the brick
in the wall and say
"This is ours"
This is what we have today and tomorrow we will have this,
and maybe the next day we will have this,
and finally someone comes and send everything to hell.
But Underground is when you are at that point,
because you're able to say what a publisher does not dare say.
And if he dares to say, does not dare to publish it in France.
And if we got to go to Angouleme, we go.
And it´s OK, you know why?
Because we have nothing.
'What? Have we have said something wrong?
we have made here a few references to what?
What do you want from me?
Are you going to give me something? A house? Food? the love of a man?
That's what you are going to offer me in exchange for what I'm doing?
You're not going to give me a free house.
Nothing will happen.
You can be as visceral as you want to be.
And the point otherwise you can be as romantic as you want,
you can share all the love you have inside.
You can say anything you want with a fanzine because...
...there is nobody that is going to come and tell you...
"No, no, not this, it can not. Ugh, this is not going out, it does not sell!
We are the poor of the comic-books.
We are the hobos of the publishing business,
and then they can not take away anything from us,
because we have nothing.
Then we can express ourselves freely,
no one can *** with us.
It symbolizes the power of comics over books and movies.
This is the world of comic, my friends.
We won this battle, but still not the war.
The next stop will be the Manga meetings, the comic conventions.
The life in general.
Hooray for comic!
CAROL managed to finish her THESIS
and graduated as Doctor *** Laude
SAMU still draw comics
and sometimes he gets paid
and TMEO?
as usual...
Dedicated to all those who, day by day, keep on trucking!! �