Vi intervjuar mannen bakom The Nice House on the Lake

Om du läser DC:s kanske främsta Black Label-serie, The Nice House on the Lake, är du redan väl bekant med dess medskapare Álvaro Martínez Bueno. Den spanske tecknaren har varit avgörande för att göra serien till en modern succé, och nyligen fick vi chansen att prata med honom om hans tankar kring återkomsten av det klassiska förlaget Vertigo, vilket The Nice House on the Lake ska fungera som ett lanseringsprojekt för.

Under ett samtal på San Diego Comic Con Malaga förklarade Martínez Bueno den känslomässiga förändringen i att gå från Black Label till Vertigo och hur det är en stor sak för honom, även om övergången egentligen inte påverkar hur han vanligtvis arbetar kreativt:

"Emotionally, a lot. Because Vertigo means a lot to me, means a lot to a lot of readers worldwide. So at first, it was like I was in New York for the presentation of the imprint. It was announced that Vertigo was coming back, and it was the excitement all around the panel and in the floor, it was overwhelming. But in the end, I'm working with the same people, with the same editors, same... So whenever I sit in my desk, I do my job as I did when I was Black Label. I have a lot of creative freedom with this series. That hasn't changed, and that's the thing that matters to me the most."

Vi frågade också Martínez Bueno om framväxten av europeiska - och särskilt spanska - tecknare i serievärlden, och han gav sin bild av varför så många kreativa från regionen hittar framgång:

"Well, to be honest, I think we deliver something else to the table, because Spain has a lot of... Many people will say that. Probably my colleagues share this opinion with me. We have influence from the US market, from the French market, from the Japanese market, also our own heritage, artistic heritage in Spain, which is strong for centuries. So, we have no... We feel no restraint about delivering...

I mean, if you look at Jorge Jimenez's work, it's perfect superheroes, distilled to the perfect shape. But if you scratch a little bit, there's a lot of manga there, there's a lot of European artists as well there. And then, if you look at Pepe [Larraz]'s work, it's the same. Pepe's influenced by many, many, many French artists. Pepe has a degree in history of art. He knows a lot about art. So, you can see that it brings something else to the table. And it's really curious, because there's a couple of thousand artists, Spanish artists working in the US market, and nobody looks the same. So, we bring a lot of personality."

Du kan se hela intervjun (svenskt textad) nedan.