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Manuel no está solo
Recopila la historia larga "Manuel" (publicado en La luna de Madrid en 1983-84) que ocupa aproximadamente la mitad del volumen y da título al álbum, así como varias historietas cortas, publicadas en Hélice (en 1982 y 1983), El Cairo (en 1985), El Europeo (en 1987) y en Descubrir el arte (2005).
- GenresComics
134 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
49 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 26, 2017
Seguro que ese trazo virtuoso que imaginas está en este cómic. Es abrir sus páginas y quedar boquiabierto. El dibujo es realista, cada detalle cuidado al milímetro, todo tinta, nada de color, pero se sumerge en lo onírico. La composición de página, un collage virtuoso, produce envidia e "inalcanzabilidad".
Este volumen recoge la historieta Manuel no está solo y toda una serie de ilustraciones del autor que, si no me equivoco, completan toda su obra. Es una auténtica pena. De profesión arquitecto, Rodrigo abandonó los pinceles para dedicarse por entero al trabajo que le daba dinero.
En su interior se guarda el espíritu de liberación de España en los 80, esa alma después de la dictadura que aspiraba a una libertad a la que hace tiempo le pusimos el bozal. Especialmente indicado para los homofóbicos: les hará bien.
Este volumen recoge la historieta Manuel no está solo y toda una serie de ilustraciones del autor que, si no me equivoco, completan toda su obra. Es una auténtica pena. De profesión arquitecto, Rodrigo abandonó los pinceles para dedicarse por entero al trabajo que le daba dinero.
En su interior se guarda el espíritu de liberación de España en los 80, esa alma después de la dictadura que aspiraba a una libertad a la que hace tiempo le pusimos el bozal. Especialmente indicado para los homofóbicos: les hará bien.
December 27, 2018
La calidad del dibujo es impresionante. La historia una experiencia onírica.
January 2, 2016
It's proof of the limited rewards that comics can offer ambitious and highly-skilled artists that this book, a goddamn masterpiece of form, storytelling, and image-making, is almost entirely unknown outside of Spain, and even within Spain it has now gone out of print twice, because nobody gives a shit about art comics.
The (autobiographical) plot is simple: Rodrigo, a young artist in late-70s Madrid, meets a handsome man named Manuel and falls in love with him, but he's straight. So Rodrigo makes a sculpture about it. Which is straightforward and even, forty years later, a bit trite. (Every gay romance had to end unhappily before the 90s, didn't it?) But the intense graphic virtuosity with which Rodrigo attacks the story -- the graphic boldness, assimilating an astonishing variety of art history practices and spinning them out in entirely new ways, all while maintaining a very distinctive graphic identity -- is breathtaking.
It's as much picture-book as graphic novel, and while it uses some sturdy comics tropes like panel sequencing and exaggerated action, it dispenses with others, like word balloons (in fact, aside from some signage and a menu, there's no words in in at all). It's a gorgeous document of the era of the first wave of post-Franco enthusiasm that swept urban Spain, in which it seemed everything was now possible, as well as of the more personal hopes, embarrassments, and disappointments which every young person, in every era, experiences. It's also a magnificent work of gay art, unembarrassed about its adoring depiction of Manuel, of Madrid's bacchanalian pre-AIDS gay subculture, and of the vibrant complexity of Rodrigo's inner world, which spills out into his environment in surreal and abstract ways. Even though it's very interior, it pulses with life, and is remarkably free from the self-loathing which is such a trademark of North American autobiographical comics (thanks, Crumb).
I've been talking about the 1985 novella, "Manuel," which takes up most of the book, but there are also some short stories -- Rodrigo's complete comics output, in fact, drawn between 1983 and 1987, with a few pages from 2005, when this collected edition came out -- in the back half. I'd seen most of them before, and they're wonderful exercises in style; but "Manuel" is the really important work, one of the key comics of the 1980s, and deserves to be read as widely as possible.
The (autobiographical) plot is simple: Rodrigo, a young artist in late-70s Madrid, meets a handsome man named Manuel and falls in love with him, but he's straight. So Rodrigo makes a sculpture about it. Which is straightforward and even, forty years later, a bit trite. (Every gay romance had to end unhappily before the 90s, didn't it?) But the intense graphic virtuosity with which Rodrigo attacks the story -- the graphic boldness, assimilating an astonishing variety of art history practices and spinning them out in entirely new ways, all while maintaining a very distinctive graphic identity -- is breathtaking.
It's as much picture-book as graphic novel, and while it uses some sturdy comics tropes like panel sequencing and exaggerated action, it dispenses with others, like word balloons (in fact, aside from some signage and a menu, there's no words in in at all). It's a gorgeous document of the era of the first wave of post-Franco enthusiasm that swept urban Spain, in which it seemed everything was now possible, as well as of the more personal hopes, embarrassments, and disappointments which every young person, in every era, experiences. It's also a magnificent work of gay art, unembarrassed about its adoring depiction of Manuel, of Madrid's bacchanalian pre-AIDS gay subculture, and of the vibrant complexity of Rodrigo's inner world, which spills out into his environment in surreal and abstract ways. Even though it's very interior, it pulses with life, and is remarkably free from the self-loathing which is such a trademark of North American autobiographical comics (thanks, Crumb).
I've been talking about the 1985 novella, "Manuel," which takes up most of the book, but there are also some short stories -- Rodrigo's complete comics output, in fact, drawn between 1983 and 1987, with a few pages from 2005, when this collected edition came out -- in the back half. I'd seen most of them before, and they're wonderful exercises in style; but "Manuel" is the really important work, one of the key comics of the 1980s, and deserves to be read as widely as possible.
May 16, 2023
X rated, but fantastic fantastic art, mix of techniques and composition tools
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews