Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Interview: Gogue, The International Caricaturist by Emma Alvarez
Gogue is a Spanish caricaturist. Many of you may already know him, as he's the creator of Carlotta Cohen, from New York Movies Magazine. He also makes the banner of The Blush Blade, newspaper that is published in Alaska.
He has collaborated with a long list of publications in USA, like Clever Magazine, American Politics Journal...
He has also done many works related with cinema, for example the logo of Hollywood Shorts Film Festival,caricatures for the worldwide presentation of Terminator 3 in Internet, and different works for American actors and movies.
One of his latests works has been creating all the illustrations, caricatures and Flash animations for Jim Warddubbing actor, and radio presenter of one of the most important radio stations of Hollywood (http://www.apocryphalbuttrue.com/).
As a curiosity, the creator of this page is Lisa Coburn, daughter of the legendary actor James Coburn.
It's an honor for me to interview Gogue.
- Gogue, how did you become a caricaturist?
- Since I was a child, it has been easy for me to draw, and since then, I was always doing caricatures.
- When you make a caricature, what do you value most: the facial features, or the personality of the character?
- Both things are important, but when you don't know that person, you must work on the facial features. Because of this, it is always easier to draw someone famous, because you're always seeing them on TV and in the press.
- Did someone enrage against you because he didn't like his caricature? Tell us some anecdote.
- Oh yes, it was a woman. It was exactly this week. It was a work for a business present, and~like always, they send you photos that are a little older and without good resolution. I did it with all my good intention, but this lady and her friends said that she looked too ugly, that she had not such a big double chin... and as you may suppose, I just lose my money but preferred to stop worrying.
- Don't you think that it is harder to make laugh compared to make cry? Why do you think that, in some way, humor is undervalued?
- Sure, it's much harder to make laugh, and imagining myself during 20 years trying to make the readers of my comic strip laugh... I think that we are not valued as much as we're worth; for many people, the creators of humor, comic, cartoons, and caricatures are like daubers, as I am called since some time ago by a publisher of some media. How hard is to make a caricature (Artwork), deform it and make it carry the implicit personality of the person, and that at the same time it matches their appearance perfectly!
- Do you have some favorite character?
- Groucho Marx, Alfred Hitchcock, my grandfather Emiliano, etc. etc. I think it is unjust to name someone as favorite, because many people are left without mention. And if we speak of fiction, Batman, of course. I have a Batman figure in my bookcase, that was a present from my son Anxo 2 years ago
- What is your main source of inspiration?
- The atmosphere that you can breath in my study, surrounded by my creations, my books, my caricatures, my characters in paper, etc, etc.
- What's the best thing of working for Hollywood projects?
- That they value what you do, and your country they DON'T. It's hard to believe, but I am more known and more awarded in USA than here.
- What other drawers inspired you to create your own style?
- You can learn things, tricks, from everyone, but my style is my own and I created it at my will. I just have a doubt: WHY DO THEY CHOOSE ME TO MAKE THE COVER OF ONE OF THE BEST BASEBALL PLAYERS OF AMERICA: "RYAN HOWARD THE KING OF THE SWING" in 2007, when there are thousands and thousands of caricaturists in the world?
- What caricatures do you prefer to do: your own characters, politicians, actors...? And why?
- I have to adapt myself to what the different media in which I work ask me to do, but I'm a fanatic of cinema. I prefer the world of cin- Finally, thank you for giving me this interview, and a final question... what other projects do you have for the future?
- I have many projects, but my dream is to take my characters to animation movies. It seems that it will be the way to go... and in some days I'll be publishing my second cover for the Eastside Sun Magazine, whose head offices in Seattle and is published in all the West Coast of the United States.
