Santiago Bara was very nice and agreed to talk about himself and his works with Bored Panda, and here's what he had to say: "My name is Santiago Bará. I’m from Moaña, a little town on the Atlantic corner of Spain. I've always loved comics and drawing, but around 2010, I decided that I wanted to make the effort to do long-form comics. In order to achieve this, I started making these little cartoons as a practice for bigger jobs. Kind of a side thing. Since then they've become something more than that, though.
As for what moves him and inspires him to make comics, he said "I think about that often, in order to try to find if there's a method behind it. And I don't think so, each idea comes from a special situation. But I do believe that there is a common element to all of them, and that is that they usually come when there is a clash between the expectations that one has of the world and what one then finds. When we see everyday situations that we take for granted from a distant point of view, they can seem very strange. That can be a good starting point."
Santiago was nice and gave a few tips for the upcoming generation of comic creators. "I would recommend starting small, without high expectations, but steadily. And don't despair because it takes a long time. As you gain experience, the times get shorter. We often make the mistake of extrapolating that cost of time and effort we have at the beginning of the learning curve to our future forecast."
Bara's been busy as of late. "I have two comic books and one cartoon compilation published, but for the moment they’re only available in Spanish and French. I am looking forward to the time when they can also be published in English. My first comic book would be called something like 'Hardcore Misanthropy.' It's humorous episodes in the life of someone having trouble fitting in socially. My second book, 'Encounters,' just came out last September. It's a series of 10 short stories, each set in a different place and time, with the only common link being that they deal with an encounter between two characters."
The artist gave a sneak peek into his whole creative process. "Well, the process starts with notes that I make on my cell phone, with ideas that come to my mind. But they are usually just the beginning of an idea, then I keep turning them around and changing them. Sometimes it takes months before I hit the key. One of the things I give importance to is to leave the text as clean as possible, I look for ways to say things in fewer words. Then, for the drawing, I usually take references that I have in front of me. Often the models are my friends or relatives. I would say that what I find most difficult is to put the color. Although I think I've been improving, I don't consider myself a good colorist and every time it's a struggle for me."
