We first asked Peretto to introduce himself, share where he lives, and explain how art became part of his life: “My name is Anselmo A. Peretto. During the day, I work in software development; at night—though not every night—I put on my cartoonist mask. I am Italian-Brazilian and live in Dois Vizinhos, in the state of Paraná, a city known as Brazil’s National Chicken Capital. And no, we do not eat chicken for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”
“I realized that art had become part of my life while I was still at school: I was always the last person my classmates picked in P.E. class, but the first one they chose in art class. I think that is probably why I still do not like soccer to this day…”
Peretto also explained whether a cartoon usually begins with the joke or the drawing: “Until fairly recently, I spent 80% of my time on the drawing and only 20% on the humor. Today, I spend 80% of my time on the humor; during the other 20%, I usually end up getting distracted by some other silly thing… But I like to challenge myself. Sometimes, for example, I draw a pig and start from there.”
When we asked where he finds the inspiration to turn familiar situations into something unexpected, Peretto said that much of it comes from his own experiences: “Oh, I have plenty of material: for the ordinary situations, I find inspiration in my own life; for the unexpected ones, I do too… So much so that, quite often, I need to do more curating than creating.”
“I must confess, however, that I have a soft spot for nonsensical things, characters, and situations. Sometimes, I have to keep myself in check so that I do not turn into some kind of ‘Hieronymus Bosch of cartoons’—I love his work—and end up creating something that very few people would truly understand.”
Peretto then reflected on whether any seemingly simple cartoon had received a much stronger response than he expected: “Great question! Yes, and that happens much more often than people might imagine, especially when we draw for ourselves, as Bill Watterson used to do—or at least, so the legend goes.”
“Besides that, my sense of humor is a little offbeat, but I am gradually learning how to make my target audience laugh—although I still do not know exactly who they are…”
Finally, we asked what changed most in his approach to humor after he moved away from comic strips and began creating single-panel cartoons: “Pragmatically speaking? I gained more time to think more carefully about the humor.”
“What began as a curiosity—most likely a small seed planted when I read some of Gary Larson’s cartoons in an old issue of Reader’s Digest—eventually became my new passion.”
“But the responsibility toward the reader also increased: it is as though I had a revolver with only one bullet. I have a single shot to kill the reader with laughter—or with boredom.”
