A fabulous portrait of Blueberry by the great Miguel Quesada Ramos...
Miguel Quesada Ramos is a versatile Spanish cartoonist based in Valencia, active since 1979. His name is linked to the return of the mythical "Guerrero del Antifaz" comic in 2016.
©Miguel Quesada Ramos
But Miguel has a long career behind, which includes works in European comics, some of them in Germany as Connie, Spook, or Gespenster, developed until the early 90's, when he enters the world of animation, with jobs as a Graphic designer, colorist or storyboards, in titles such as El Cid.La leyenda, Gisaku, Libelulas, Excalibur, Pedro y el Robot o Comandante Fly.
©Miguel Quesada Ramos
©Miguel Quesada Ramos
As soon as this blog contacted Miguel, he did not hesitate to offer us a collaboration and to accept to answer to our classic interview:
Mario: Aside from the direct influence of your father, what has been your greatest artistic influence and how has your drawing style evolved?
Miguel Quesada: There have been many and varied influences, but basically I've always liked the classics like Al Foster, Alex Raymond, Jose Luis Salinas etc. I remember at the age of eleven or twelve spending hours copying figures from the first numbers of Flash Gordon to learn how to move figures.
Mario: Do you have any "thorn in the flesh", like working with a specific artist, or working for any new editorial, or in any professional field that you haven't explored yet?
Miguel Quesada: Not really, thanks to drawing I have worked with valuable people from whom you always learn. I grew up as a child in a house where there were always cartoonists such as Luis Bermejo or José Ortiz, and especially during my years working in animated feature films I had the great luck of collaborating with great professionals and keeping many of them as friends even if we live in different countries. The truth is that I consider myself very lucky.
Mario:What is your favorite drawing and coloring technique?
Miguel Quesada: I usually prefer to color digitally because it has the great advantage that you can fix your mistakes without any problem...although the smell of the Chinese ink, the gouache or the watercolors is very addictive and drives me crazy.
Mario: If you have to choose, what would you pick...animation or comic?
Miguel Quesada: These are different loves. The animation has the advantage of working as a team and usually in a studio where you can see what others are doing, comment the works done, share ideas and your responsibility is reduced to your small part of the work. In comic and illustration all responsibility is on you but, as Paco Roca says, it allows you to work in pyjamas and decide the work schedule by myself (which is usually ten to twelve workload hours a day).
Mario: What do you think of the digital format in the comic, (with the constant threat of massive pirate downloads) and how will it affect the survival of authors and comic industry?
Miguel Quesada: I guess it's the future and that we have to preserve the forests but I'm addicted to the smell of paper,the older, the better. I think it was Stan Lee who said, "comics are like the breasts of a woman. They look wonderful on the computer screen but there is nothing like having them in your hands"
Mario: At what point in your career did you feel more comfortable working and with more creative freedom?
Miguel Quesada: Probably when I have collaborated in the preproduction of some featured film, although it is a shared creativity. When there is harmony and good vibes is when I am more at ease.
Mario: What can you tell us about your current job, and/or any clues to your upcoming projects?
Miguel Quesada: Now I am doing, without any hurry, "The new adventures of Buffalo Bill" with Diego Rosales Galiñanes as writer and for the moment I have nothing else to do apart from a couple of ideas that have been in my mind for some time but they never get concreted
Mario: What memory / relationship / influence do you have with Jean Giraud and his work?
Miguel Quesada: I discovered him at nine years old, one of those glorious Sundays in the Plaza Redonda of Valencia that were filled with books and second or third hand comics. Then I suddenly saw the cover of an album that I fell in love with. It was Fort Navajo. When I opened it I realized that all the pages were on the head and I told the clerk to sell it to me in 35 pesetas. I still have it 45 years later. His transformation into Moebius caught me with 15 or 16 years and I'm still assimilating it, he was an absolute genius with a creativity that mortals can only admire in the distance.
