Ana Oncina: “It is difficult for me to consider myself an artist: I tell life in vignettes” | Culture | EUROtoday

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She arrives on the EL PAÍS Editorial Office straight from the prepare that brings her from Alicante, the place she lives and works together with her associate, the illustrator Álex Giménez, whom she met 10 years in the past whereas each had been finding out Fine Arts in Valencia. Shy, type and a bit of nervous earlier than the interview, which she shouldn’t be used to, Oncina brings a present of a canvas bag and a pocket book of notes from Croquette and empanadillathe saga impressed by their experiences collectively, with which she started to face out, and promote comics like hotcakes in 2014. Today she lives off of them, delivery them in bookstores and on her personal subscriber channel to an viewers that awaits her subsequent installment as she anticipated that of her favourite authors when she was a baby.

She is the primary Spanish to be awarded for her comics manga in Japan, the cradle of manga How does it keep?

It has been a complete shock. I additionally didn't consider that Croquette and empanadilla I used to be going to love it a lot. It was what my boyfriend and I known as one another, a personal joke. I draw and write what I want to learn, and I’m nonetheless amazed that folks prefer it.

Woman, your work may have one thing once you bless it.

The work factor sounds too huge to me, it's laborious for me to contemplate myself an artist. I’m a storyteller. I like to inform tales, however I can't think about telling them with out illustrating them. I inform life in vignettes.

Why did you select to do manga if you end up from Alicante?

As a baby, I used to be a giant manga reader, particularly by feminine authors. I cherished the fantasy and romantic genres. And once I began making comics I adopted that path naturally. I wish to create atmospheres, sensations, that the reader will get into my world. My work defines me lots. She's trustworthy, and that's what I feel attracts her. 90% of my readers are girls as a result of they really feel mirrored.

Compared to the extra sexualized manga, its {couples} are very romantic, nearly corny.

I’m corny. When I began, in my twenties, I used to be much more so. But beneath that corniness there are different issues. My characters have grown with me and every age has its experiences and vicissitudes. Now different issues occur to them. Croquette and empanadilla It is, let's say, my consolation zone, however I’ve been exploring different matters for a very long time. In F*cking 30I speak in regards to the age disaster, in Just Friends of friendship and variety and in Planetpsychological well being, which is one thing that additionally drastically impacts my era.

What is the life-long 30-life disaster like now?

I see a number of frustration round me. We are the pissed off era. There has been a really huge generational leap heavy with our dad and mom. They had been capable of work and earn respectable wages. Now many very well-educated folks should not have well-paid jobs and that’s very irritating, as a result of life retains shifting ahead and you might be caught in everlasting indefinition.

But you might be doing very nicely.

I’ve already stated that I’m fortunate to have the ability to make a residing from this. Before I additionally needed to work on different issues. But, even so, you take into account whether or not or to not purchase an residence, whether or not or to not be a mom. And you additionally put the strain on your self to consider that it’s a must to have already executed issues that you just haven't thought-about when you actually wish to do. It's advanced.

Ana Oncina, the first Spaniard to be awarded the Japan International Manga Award.
Ana Oncina, the primary Spaniard to be awarded the Japan International Manga Award.Bernardo Perez Tovar

What sources do you draw from in your tales? Do you watch the information?

I look lots inside myself, and at others. I get a number of nourishment from speaking to pals. Before I ate with the TV information on, it was like I wanted it, however there has come some extent the place I run away from that. It creates nervousness for me. I discuss it with my pals and it occurs to them too. Too many disasters, too many crises.

How is your vanity?

I've had my ups and downs, however now it's higher.

Was it dangerous earlier than?

Well, I've had that disaster of not believing I'm ok, of being an imposter, of asking for lots of forgiveness, of justifying myself for every thing.

Has the award helped you?

Yes, being instructed that you’re value it, with out anybody having given you something, helps. But typically you are feeling such as you get issues by a stroke of luck, and that it gained't occur once more. You should not conscious of the variety of hours and the laborious work that goes into it,

That's very female, isn't it?

Yes and no. It can also be a query of character. I’ve very empowered colleagues, maybe with much less achievements than me, and I envy that approach of being. I wish to be like that, however I can't fairly consider it. I'm on it.

PROPHET IN JAPAN

When she was a baby, Ana Oncina (Elda, Alicante, 32 years outdated) couldn't wait to gather her weekly pay to go to the Excalibur bookstore, the one one in her city, and purchase an journey or romantic manga comedian, her favorites. This is how she went by means of her specific euro disaster at age 10 or 12. “My parents made the exact transformation of my payment from pesetas to euros, and as the prices increased, I had to wait two weeks to be able to buy my copy,” now remembers this illustrator, with a level in Fine Arts, who has simply gained together with her comedian Just Friends the silver medal of the award organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan to acknowledge the most effective worldwide illustrators of the style and to which greater than 500 authors participated. In March, the writer of the profitable collection 'Croqueta y empanadilla', impressed by her experiences as a pair and the vicissitudes of her era, will go to Tokyo to gather the award. The bronze medal went, by the best way, to a different Spaniard, Ana C. Sánchez from Murcia, which speaks of the vitality of the style in Spain.

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https://elpais.com/cultura/2024-02-04/ana-oncina-me-cuesta-considerarme-artista-cuento-la-vida-en-vinetas.html