How and when did your interest in drawing and storytelling arise? Was there an early experience, perhaps in childhood or adolescence, that marked you and led you to the world of comics?
I am Carlos Fresno, and I am responding to the interview first because I am three years and four months older than Luis, and when my interest in drawing and stories began, he was very young. Our older brother, Ricardo, who is four years older than me, bought Capitán Trueno and Jabato and always complains that I cut up his comics to have «cut-out soldiers» and prepare adventures. When I was a bit older and received my «allowance,» I never spent a penny on candies, lollipops, licorice, or other treats; I invested everything in books and comics; I primarily bought books from the HISTORIAS SELECCIÓN series by Editorial Bruguera and the CINCO SECRETOS collection by Enid Blyton. By the age of ten, I had read the vast majority of the works of Jules Verne and Walter Scott—Ivanhoe, Quentin Durward, …—or Dan Jones’s The Wars of the Roses and even The Iliad.
Luis really liked the kitten Pumby.
All of this was happening alongside drawing, copying comic strips of Pantera Negra or Capitán Miki from Editorial Maga. During that time, while I was taking my entrance exams for high school, my drawing teacher, the painter Joan Pla, told my parents not to worry that I could make a living from drawing. I don’t know why he said that; I was not like Benito Boniato; I got very good grades.
What comics or authors inspired you most in your early days? Was there a particular reference, Spanish or international, that you admired and that perhaps influenced your style or narrative?
Initially, and in a very special way, we liked TINTIN by Hergé. Why? Essentially because of the well-crafted story, the recognizable backgrounds—scénario, as the French say—that provide continuity to the action. We loved the realistic style of Harold Foster and his Prince Valiant. At that time, we bought magazines from Editorial Maga, Flecha Roja, and Pantera Negra; they included chapters of Crispin chofer particular, drawn by the Belgian Berck and with a script by the «master» René Goscinny, which had very clean artwork and recognizable backgrounds.
«By the age of ten, I had read the vast majority of the works of Jules Verne and Walter Scott… I invested everything in books and comics.»
Later, we were introduced to Uderzo for the first time with the adventures of Umpa-pá the Redskin, also written by Goscinny. By the way, we read it in Catalan because it was included in the magazine Cavall Fort. We later found them in French.
We were always influenced by Franco-Belgian bandes dessinées. Especially André Franquin with his unbeatable Spirou et Fantasio and Gaston Lagaffe.
At some point, how did you decide that comics would be your profession or at least an important part of it? Was it a joint decision or did each of you arrive at it separately?
There isn’t a decisive moment when we said: «let’s dedicate ourselves to comics…». It has all been a matter of chance. In 1970, with just a few months’ interval, we sent comic samples to La Revista Vida y Luz of the Brothers of La Salle (Editorial Bruño) and Editorial Bruguera. Apparently, Brother Juan Blasco Cea liked what we proposed, and in February 1971, in issue 50 of Vida y Luz, the first of a varied series of comics appeared, which lasted until January 1982, with issue No. 148. At that time, our production volume for Bruguera reached such a level that we had to stop collaborating with Vida y Luz after 99 consecutive months.
Also in 1971, Rafael González from Burgos, the mastermind behind Bruguera at that time, must have seen something valuable in the comic samples and gave us the opportunity to edit
