Comixene with Mastantuono- 05.2005

This word seems to form a question that is very indifferent, but the source of your passion for the comics medium may need space to explain. You can draw, exceptionally good, but there’s more than talent to make a living out of it: A personal decision to stick to it until the success is at hand. And while the comics are a very unique form of art, as Will Eisner and Scott McCloud are not getting tired to mention, it is an art form that is not widely accepted or praised by the majority of our society (maybe with the exception of France/Belgium and exceptional titles like Spiegelman’s “Maus”).

It is difficult to find someone who gives the comics a real importance and dignity. Comics don’t have the eccentricity of a bronze cubist piece of work, neither have they the spectacularity of a Spielberg’s sequence, nor the continuation element proper of a television show, nor the lyricism of an epic novel, nor the evocative power of a string quartet; with their only characteristic of being immediate, they can’t be considered neither a narrative book nor a catalogue of mute images to admire.

They ingenuously blend the image with the word just to tell stories to people who don’t have the age yet, or the inclination to fantasize. Comics have a simple language and they are addressed to a young public; that’s the reason why their credibility as a form of art has been compromised from the beginning. They have always been looked with despise by the adult world which sees them as a shelter for indolent people who don’t want to face anything serious, but in spite of all, comics remain extraordinarily immortal. Their soul is the inexorable popularity which every time makes them rise from their ashes and regenerate through the revealing force of painting. Going to the past

Tell me your idols, your inspirations

Of course in the field of comics, but also movies, literature, other arts, personalities…There are a lot of authors that I have loved over the years. I hope not to forget anyone of them. Scarpa, Cavazzano, Carpi, Jacovitti, Magnus, Franquin, Quino, Nine, Uderzo and Pazienza for the humoristic/grotesque biais ; Romita, Milazzo, Manara, Breccia Senior, Mandrafina, Zaffino, Bernet, Moebius for the realistic one. Not for all of them my love stood the test of time. But I am grateful to each one in the list. They   have all contributed,   even if involuntarily, to spark off my curiosity. Going to the future

Where do you want to go personally, what do you want to achieve?

I hope I will keep the freedom that I enjoy today. What I find amusing is that I can continuously change my register and experiment each time new ways to tell my stories. When you seat at your working table happy about the day you are going to face, it means that you are going in the right direction. In the next future I hope I will be able to work more continuously   to stories with a wider engagement in both activities of drawing and scenario. I have already two projects with the publishing house Les Humanoides Associés that I would be very glad to carry out.

And what do you believe will be the future of the medium of comics?

It is not a good moment because of the bad economic situation that Italy is undergoing and also because of the multitude of distractions, play-stations, DVD, VHS, role-plays that can affect the life of a child today. But I believe that comics are a medium that will keep a position of privilege in the young public, thanks to its uniqueness. The release of a multitude of successful full-length films linked to American super-heroes comics such as X-men, Spiderman, Devil, Hulk, Hellboy…is just a small aspect of the enormous potentiality that hasn’t be expressed yet. I can’t deny that the worrying lull in the Italian situation has lead to productive cliché on the wake of successful albums; however, there are phenomena in France, in the U.S.A., or the one in Italy called the W.I.T.C.H., which confirm that young people are still very fascinated by high-quality products. The current trend is that comics will be addressed always more to a small number of funs willing to spend more money than now.

And now: How do you work? Inspirationally or with an exact day schedule?

I plan my work schedule according to the time I have been given by the publisher I’m working for. Joking apart, I use to establish regular and methodical work rhythms ( from nine in the morning to eight in the evening, every day Saturday included, like a proper Stakhanovite employee) in order to keep up with all works that pile up onto my working table. With all the traffic jam due to scenarios, sketches, model-sheets   I would probably feel more comfortable dressed up like a policeman.

How long do you work on a single page?

From a minimum period of a day to a maximum of three days. It depends on the inspiration, but above all on the quality standards I must comply with. If you collaberate with other persons

Who has “the last word” in the creative process?

In France the last word comes to the author. In Italy, to the publisher or to the person who’s responsible for that.

Are you watching the market and do you actively read other comics?

Of course! I never stop looking around. I think that curiosity is the spur to a young brain. If you repeat a tried and tested scheme until its exhaustion, the drawing will be likely to become trivial and banal, and the work will probably become a sterile graphic complacence. I like being stimulated by a publication especially if it is far from my style and manages to surprise me, seduce me, and perhaps even influence me in some ways.

And on which project are you working right now?

I’m currently working as an illustrator for the covers of the monthly comic Magico Vento by Bonelli and Blek , Miki by IF Publishing House . I’ve been working for two years on "Texone” (a maxi-Tex released once a year here in Italy)(220 pages!) and I made a little bit more than half of that album. However, in addition to the second book Elias il maledetto for the French Publishing House Les Humanoides Associés which is already in progress,   I’m preparing a humoristic project together with Stefano Intini untitled Le Petit Pierre of which I’m going to take care of the scenario only. Finally, for the Edizioni Interculturali I worked to a renewed and reworked version melted in a unique story called Buzzer & Todavia which also appeared two years ago in the pages of ComicArt and L’Eternauta .