The Girlfriendless Dream-Boy Mystery

On Andreu Martín and Jaume Ribera’s El diario rojo de Flanagan (“Flanagan’s Red Notebook”)

In 1987 a new hero showed up in the world of Spanish young-adult fiction: Juan Anguera, commonly known by his nickname, Flanagan. A high-school amateur detective, his investigations usually start in his own school or in his working class neighborhood in Barcelona, and then lead the way to actual hardboiled adventures. Despite his youth, Flanagan stoically endures punches and beatings from the typical sour-faced villains, as well as he lives impossible romances in a series of hugely entertaining mystery books.

However, in 2004 Martín and Ribera got their creation embarked on a quest for something different; El diario rojo de Flanagan means quite a personal, intimate adventure for our teen sleuth. After a misunderstanding with Carlota, a young girl whose wallet Flanagan gets recovered in an attempted robbery in the subway, they both will experience a feverish infatuation (like dogs in heat, if I may say so), taking them to explore the always fascinating territory of sex.

Hope the reader is not now thinking of the novel as an erotic book—The approach by these two brainy, thoughtful teenagers will be done from the researcher’s perspective. They purchase a red notebook each[1] where they will take down anything related to the world of sexuality: statistical data (such as teen pregnancy annual rate), explanations on sexual organs functions, mixed feelings experienced by adolescents in their first sexual intercourse. . .Nonetheless, this is not all a cold chain of listed data; as I have previously noted in my canine & meteorological expression, Flanagan and Carlota live a passionate romance which will reach its highest point in their first sexual relationship. A relationship full of doubts, surprises, curiosities, insecurities, and—no wonder—some dissatisfaction.

In the meantime Flanagan is (as usual) undertaking one of his high school investigations. Classmate Jorge Castells is consumingly jealous of Jenny Gómez, who does not seem to be interested at all in him but has it bad for Guillermo Mira (a.k.a. El Mirage, a nickname given by his naughty female classmates, implying he is so tall that looking at his face is just as looking at a plane up in the sky, as well as a reference to his distant attitude towards them all; quite a snub, as we are talking about the most sought-after hot guy in the whole school). Apparently, Mira seems to want nothing but a simple friendship from Jenny. But Flanagan—at suspicious Castells’s request—tails Mira through the city of Barcelona, and finds out that he usually visits trendy restaurant owner Yolanda Cabanach’s apartment at night.

Flanagan gets shocked at first that Mirage may have an affair with a woman older than him (a funny teen remark, don’t you think?). Eventually, Mirage’s object of affection does not happen to be Mrs. Cabanach, but her son. Flanagan catches Mira hooking up with Cabanach Jr. at their surprise (not only Mira and his partner’s, but also the teen detective’s). Then Mira asks his spying classmate to keep it a secret; a promise Flanagan will certainly fulfill.

How come a 21^st century European young citizen anxiously wishes to keep his sexual orientation a secret from his fellow classmates—this really is a thought-provoking question.[2]

This wonderfully written novel is not only a good, delightful reference book for all those teenagers curious about sexuality, but also a helpful tool for parents to talk openly and honestly about sex with their children. As educational as enjoyable. Flanagan hits the target once again.

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[1] Carlota’s own view on this same story is told in Gemma Lienas’s novel El diario rojo de Carlota (“Carlota’s Red Notebook”). Carlota, as Flanagan, leads her own literary saga: a series of books where Carlota writes down her experience and reflections on various topics—particularly women’s— in notebooks, a different color each. Needless to say that the obvious inspiration of Lienas’s creation is Anna Wulf, the unforgettable protagonist of Nobel Prize-winning Doris Lessing’s 1962 novel The Golden Notebook.

[2] In the abovementioned Lienas’s book, Carlota also has a homosexual classmate, Gabi. As opposed to El Mirage’s case, Gabi’s male classmates make fun of him because of his mild, unmanly attitude—Let’s say Gabi’s homosexuality is an open secret—. Anyway, when he admits it to Carlota, he will ask her to keep it a secret as well.

Interview with Rosana Briel

Spanishgayfiction.blogspot.com offers the reader an interview with “Como un torrente” author Rosana Briel (Barcelona, 1966). Universal topics such as love, sex, masculinity, literary creation, the art of narration, or the role of the author are discussed in Briel’s amusing, enjoyable conversation. Sure the reader will think so.

SPANISH GAY FICTION: When did you write “Como un torrente”? Do you remember what led you to write a story of love and sex between two men?

ROSANA BRIEL: I remember this perfectly: a challenge. This must be 7 or 8 years ago, and I was discussing with a couple of friends whether a novel series author would make up her mind and tell the homosexual story that she was suggesting in every novel; then one of my friends (a very nice one indeed) defied me with the typical challenge: Would you dare?…The truth is that I just cannot be bothered with this kind of challenges, but this one attracted me right away, so I wrote the first line the very next day, and then, for whatever reason, all the rest sprang forth just the way you can read it. I think that this is the fastest piece I have ever produced; Seth and James were born just in two days.

SGF: Did you write the story with intent to post it on a literature forum or blog? The reaction of the readers in those media is immediate. What was the response?

RB: As I said before, I wrote it for my friends, just for fun; but one day the same friend who defied me—hi, sweetie! I love you lots!! [laughs]— encouraged me to post it on the romance fiction forum we belonged to, claiming that I was selfish if I did not share the babes—as she called them—, that I needed to show all the others my writing, and bla-bla-bla…In short, I followed her suggestion and posted it, and guess what…I was really shocked by their response: They loved it all!

SGF: Although nowhere specified throughout the story, the names of the characters (Seth, Aidan, James) suggest an English-speaking environment. Why did a Spanish writer want to impose that foreign touch to her story? May it be a nod to the American M/M erotic literature written by female heterosexual romantic authors, very popular in the USA, as a model for your story?

RB: What you say about American literature is true, but there is nothing about it in this case. I chose Seth because I like it, I love its taste; Aidan, just because I loved it alongside Seth, and my friend chose James. All of them were chosen with no specific location, origin or whatever else in mind—just the feeling that they were the proper names for them.

SGF: The feature which might make “Como un torrente” so unique is that the main character, Seth, is constantly attracting his muses' attention. Besides the fact that this is a direct, enjoyable technique to get the reader’s complicity, did you have in mind that women would be, mainly or solely, the target audience when you wrote it? To what extent can be said that “Como un torrente” is a story about gay men for a straight female audience?

RB: I guess Seth somehow wanted to involve my friends at first. Later, when the story was published, it turned out that the character’s calling attention spread out to each and every reader, making them Seth’s mates. And of course, this was aimed at a female audience; after all, women are the main audience in romance fiction.

SGF: The description of Seth as a lonely man, a kind of rough, with uncertain background and a long dark hair, reminds me of Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. What was your source of inspiration for Seth? Would you say that he represents the physical description of your ideal man, tattoo and shaved skin included?

RB: To be honest, and at the expense of seeming a kind of nuts, sometimes I also wonder where some characters come from, since I am positive that I really do not know where Seth does come from. He just did it, period. And I love the way he is—By the way, I also love Heathcliff, he is an extraordinary character.

SGF: In the story there is a funny comment about the fake six-pack abs that the actors of a popular film about Spartans exhibit thanks to the magic of cinema.[1] Seth also describes himself as well-built with no need for gym workout. And, according to the description, it could be said that Seth’s and James’s clothes are very basic, simple and traditionally masculine. Can your story be understood as a defense of the natural, genuine man, far from false impressions, affectation or up-to-date fashion trends?

RB: They themselves decided the way they are; if they feel easy in jeans and T-shirts, I will not be the one who opposes.

SGF: There is a moment in the story in which Seth notes about James: “It is curious that there is so much tenderness concealed behind such a masculine man.” Is masculinity a synonym for tough self-sufficiency lacking of tenderness as for Rosana Briel too?

RB: Rosana Briel is pissed off at macho men acting thug, so she was pleased when she realized that Seth felt that about James as something positive. He shows that masculinity does not need to be at odds with tenderness.

SGF: It was Aidan who instilled in Seth the notion of being strong and independent, as nobody would care about him; and it is James the man who eventually gives him affection, tenderness, and love. Could it be said that, as for Rosana Briel, Aidan added to James equals the formula of the perfect man, that “toughness + tenderness” pattern of the previous question?

RB: This worked with Seth and James, so it must be a good combination. [laughs]

SGF: Regarding Seth’s melodramatic past, did you need that his story with James were something more than a one-night stand, as a way to redeem him and mend his broken heart? Just as if something deep inside made you give your character a happy ending?

RB: Well, romance genre structure somehow comes into play here, which means: a happy ending, no matter what. However, they went their way. I just watched them and, though it might seem a bit weird that a feeling could just come out of nowhere, that is what really happened. As far as I know, they still do well together. [laughs]

SGF: The way these two strangers who have just met fall in love is while having sexual intercourse, what seems to be their starting point as a couple. I find this a very romantic idea but, do you think that such a thing can come true in fiction only, or in real life as well? Let me be a bit nosy: this situation, has Rosana Briel herself experienced it?

RB: No, Rosana herself has not experienced it, but I do think that this can actually happen in real life. Love just shows up without notice or permission, and in spite of your shortcomings many times.

SGF: Why did you remember Casablanca at the end of the story? Do you feel there is a gay subtext in the fact that Bogart lets Ingrid Bergman fly away and stays beside the gendarme with mustache instead?

RB: No, the final scene in Casablanca is perfect, nobody change it! I just tried to introduce a touch of fun at the end of the story and that sentence seems spectacular to me, so I allowed myself to use it regarding Seth’s love for movies by the way.

SGF: Now let me criticize the characters...I do not understand why Seth and James use a condom when playing anal...if they ejaculate in each other’s mouth when playing oral. In this age of prevention of sexually transmitted diseases campaigns, I invite you to use this opportunity to defend your artistic choice.

RB: Oral sex undoubtedly implies certain risks at different levels, and I believe fiction can also be another way of education and information but, as this is fiction and at the risk of being simplistic—Should I have denied such a very intimate moment to Seth and James?

SGF: In my review of “Como un torrente” I praised your narrative art, as you are constantly playing with the reader expectations. There are so many tone changes that seems to be several stories within the story, making it a rich, varied, and entertaining read. Is this a recurring feature in the rest of your work?

RB: Every time I face up to a new story it seems as if everything previous does not exist. I start over, and just the very story and its characters trace the path that I try to follow. This is like a very sane insanity.

SGF: Concerning your only novel so far, Sin remisión (“Hopeless”), this seems to be an erotic novel peppered with BDSM elements. It was published in 2010, just one year before Fifty Shades of Grey. Could it be said that you were on the cutting edge earlier than E.L. James? Or, including BDSM elements in romance books, was it usual before the Fifty Shades trilogy super-hit?

RB: When Sin remisión was born in my mind I had no idea about how this was going to flow out; I was just moved by the stimulus to tell the story of two people who find love in a BDSM background. The only thing that I know is that I needed to write it whatever happened, with all the flaws, achievements, uncertainty, inexperience, emotions—It was awesome to get in touch with people from that world and find out their trait, being well aware that it would be impossible to reflect just the slightest part of what this entails, and in the frame of romance fiction by a long shot.

SGF: What are you working on now? What are your most immediate projects?

RB: My head is plenty of people that I try to keep at bay in order that they grow up and think over along with me, though sometimes I have no idea where things spring from—That is nonsense, isn’t it? Every story is different. I need time and so do they—the last thing I have produced has took me two years of research as my knowledge on the topic was very superficial and I had to find out many things, from simple (people’s treatment) to complex (an eye drops recipe)—, so I go step by step. There will soon be news, but I still cannot speak about it.

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[1] If you still have not guessed the name of the film, do not worry. In the meanwhile, you can keep yourself entertained by trying to solve the following arithmetic operation: [(7 + 8) / 5] x [(49 - 24) + (15 x 5)] = …

The Lonely Heart Is a Hungry Hunter

On Rosana Briel’s “Como un torrente” (“Like a Torrent”)

Months ago, during an interview with Bésame y vente conmigo author Olivia Ardey, she stated that one of her favorite Spanish M/M romance fictions is this short story by Rosana Briel. Once you have read it you can surely agree.

Seth, an orphan, self-sufficient guy on his 28^th birthday, recalls his life so far. Very wild in his teens, his past can be summed up as a constant moving from foster families back to orphanage over and over again. He only could find peace in his sole friend Aidan, another orphan. Painfully, a lethal leukemia took him away from his side too soon. Aidan was not only the love of his life, but also his big brother, his mate, the one who taught him the most important lesson: Nobody cares about you, so do it yourself.

Years went by and Seth could make his living. Now he is a successful professional illustrator, as well as a 6’3”, long wavy dark-haired, amazing green-eyed lone wolf who is sure of one thing: he will never ever love again—

This unsatisfying exposition could make the reader feel we are dealing with a sad story…By no means! From this moment on, Seth is keeping a conversation throughout the story with a group of women (his “muses,” as he calls them) that he is agitating, teasing, joking with..., while they—together with the reader—are playing the role of witnesses in his vivid account of his birthday celebration. A hot celebration, indeed.

Instead of a pleasant party with friends (if any), our stand-alone hero plans to club tonight to have some fun, probably to wipe away those sad memories from the past. That is why he turns down an invitation from a mild guy who looks like an absent-minded teacher. No way. Tonight he really needs an extra-challenging stimulation. And Seth the hunter will eventually find it close to the bar.

There, an irresistible wave of Davidoff’s “Cool Water” invades his nostrils. A picture of the scented prey, you ask? Dark eyes. Thick lips. Short hazel hair. Strong arms. Powerful thighs in tight blue jeans. A hunky trunk wrapped up in a raw lumberjack shirt. The name: James. Or, the perfect chance for a sex & drugs & alcohol night in a hotel room.

By now, you are presumably expecting a swinging series of meticulously described sex sessions starred by this charming pair who do not believe in underclothing. Well, you are truly right—and will be overwhelmingly satisfied! Anyway, what the reader might not imagine is that tonight will turn crucial in Seth’s destiny.

Like Scheherazade in Arabian Nights, we find unarguably true that Rosana Briel is an amazingly skillful storyteller. Reading “Como un torrente” is like being on a rollercoaster: The first paragraphs make us think of a weepy, heartbreaking narration; all of a sudden, the whole thing becomes a light ironic comedy—until the plot slides into the realms of eroticism…But Briel has kept an ace up her sleeve, and what could be another witty-but-idle story about two horny beefcakes enjoying a big time turns into something deeper. Love at first (torrential) ejaculation, could be said? Paraphrasing Warner Bros. all-time screen classic Casablanca, though changing the last word (as Briel does at the end of her story): “This is the beginning of a beautiful love.”

You can read the original text in Spanish here.

My Best Gay Friend’s Wedding

On Olivia Ardey’s Bésame y vente conmigo (“Kiss Me and Come with Me”)

What would be of gays and lesbians worldwide without our times’ bestselling literary subgenre which is helping so much in the question of visibility—? Of course, I am talking about chick lit!

We are so familiarized with this ultra-entertaining fiction that frequently skip the point that it may be the most recurrent genre in LGBT themes because of the usual presence of gay characters. For instance, I remember the well-known Bridget Jones saga (by Helen Fielding), where a gay man—a 1980s one-hit music wonder—is one of the heroine’s best friends, and a young, extremely beautiful colleague of Mark Darcy’s is a lesbian ardently mad about our favorite soppy, hopeless, foul-mouthed Brit girl.

The eternal duality confused straight girl/understanding gay friend has been carved out through the years. In this novel, we find a curious situation: Nico, the name of this time’s gay friend, is both a woman’s (Celia) and a man’s (Álvaro) most coveted supportive confidant. The three of them have been friends since their childhood, and share the same godfather. After his death, they find out that this dark, reclusive man’s last will states that all his possessions—which include an appealing vineyard—would belong to the one of them who gets married first. Just think that this same situation, years ago, would instantly get the gay character out of competition—unless he were ready for a big cheat, indeed!—Nowadays, the gay character can hit the jackpot as fairly as the others. Normalization is the rule in here.   

Far from the marginal pattern, Ardey presents her character in a completely social adaptation. In fact, his description is just mouth-watering: Nico is an attractive alpha male type (at last in appearance, for I would say your gaydar may detect certain irony, quite revealing, in his speech—), successful workman (he is one of those popular in cooks on TV shows), into sports (he devoted his healthful, athletic body to play amateur soccer—yes, that rough, manly activity)…, nice, funny, helpful, charming man—So then… why is Nico still single?

As it happened in the cloak and dagger drama of the Spanish Golden Age, no positive character can eventually end up unmarried, so the author has saved for Nico a fairy godmother in the shape of Celia’s good natured grandpa: the only one who can see through Nico’s flawless façade just to find a concealed broken heart. Nico could never forget a love from the past, and his godfather—you can guess this old man stands out as the forces of the most archaic tradition—secretly ruined any chance of reconciliation.

And this time it will not be the straight girl who will lend a helping hand in Grandpa’s plan to make her gay friend happy, but Álvaro. He will be in charge of bringing Nico’s beloved, Max, together with him. If you want to figure out how Max is like, just imagine a dead ringer for Nico—but with a delightful French accent! The existence of these two perfect affectionate alpha men proves Heaven does not want angels to be alone—And, of course, the wedding bells toll for this cute, desirable gay minor characters. 

A step forward would have these two guys as the main protagonists of an erotic-romantic novel—but that would be another novel. Let’s be content with the lovely little village Olivia Ardey has created for us in the Eastern part of Spain, her own Innisfree,[1] where Celia and Álvaro, the straight leading characters, finally melt—after a series of misunderstandings—in each other’s arms, and a gay couple can make the vast fruitful vineyard their own private Paradise and live happily ever after.

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[1] Innisfree: A fictional small town in Ireland, the idyllic setting for John Ford’s superb masterpiece The Quiet Man (1952). If you still have not seen the film, do it! John Wayne along with Maureen O’Hara show love is really a battlefield—and how!

Interview with Sebas Martín

Sebas Martín (Barcelona, 1961), the author of Aún estoy en ello, has talked to spanishgayfiction.blogspot.com about his work, same-sex marriage, comics, politics, love, sex, life, and so on. I will always appreciate this plentiful, interesting interview he has granted.

SPANISH GAY FICTION: What did you do the day of the same-sex marriage law approval? Did you live a huge celebration on the streets such as Salva and his friends do in Aún estoy en ello?

SEBAS MARTÍN: Almost… I was somewhat less expressive, but I do remember me and my circle of old friends joining for a home dinner to celebrate it. Along came institutional and associational events I was invited to, where we all congratulated one another. It was a great day and a great achievement for people like me, who still had experienced the customs of the Francoist regime in its death throes: peepholed-door gay clubs, social dangerousness law, and so on. I have no intention to get married (at least for now, LOL), but the right to do so puts me on the same level than the others.

SGF: The final sentence of your comic is: “After all, it did seem things were changing…” Nine years (it seems like it was just yesterday!) after the same-sex marriage law approval, do you really think things have already changed? Is there still a lot to do?

SM: Things have changed because laws have to be like the mirror of the current society. Firstly, a law must make a righteous deed legal, and then it is a matter of time that society in general makes it normal. Let me paraphrase my own comic and say: we're still on it. While it is true that the LGBT fact can be seen as something ordinary in the big cities (a law considering homophobia as a crime has just been approved in Barcelona), you cannot say the same in the question of smaller cities or rural communities. And these rights are, apparently, in constant danger of being abolished. We must not forget that one of the election promises of the PP[1] during their last campaign was to abolish same-sex marriage. There are still not only pending issues, but we also cannot drop our guard about the work done.

SGF: I am totally ignorant about the status of the Spanish gay-themed comic domestically… Is it a rising value? Do you have multitude of followers? Or is it a minority, selective audience?

SM: The number of followers is constantly increasing, though it is still for minorities as it may be considered a genre comic. The problem with gay comics is the same as mainstream comics. In Spain, the comic has always been considered a second-rate literary genre, and it was only until very recently that it has attracted attention from the world of culture. If a comic book artist is like a pariah (sorry for the comparison) in the literary creation world, then a gay-themed comic book artist is a female pariah. However, I cannot complain: While it is true my target audience is more limited than others, it is also really devoted.

SGF: And how does the Spanish gay comic work beyond our borders? In your case, are you an internationally-recognized author?

SM: The places where comics work best are, generally, French-speaking countries, since they consider comics a very important part of their culture. However, it is also true that these countries are suffering a wave of conservatism, and that does not help too much if you are gay-themed work author. Regarding the Spanish gay comic abroad, it is almost completely unknown. Well, I would even dare to leave out ’almost’. I think some work by Nazario[2] was translated long time ago to some other language, but I have no news about more Spanish gay-themed comic authors having their work translated (I may be wrong, anyway). I think Ismael Álvarez and David Cantero[3] have done something, but I am not sure.
I took my first steps internationally---with modest results, I must confess. Some of my work has been translated into French, English, German, and Italian. Eve my contribution to the comic album Historia de Sitges ("The Sitges Story"), which was Machos al sol ("Machos in the Sun"), was translated into Croation, since I gave the copyrighs to an LGBT association in Croatia for a very underground publication.
In addition, I have been invited to comic conventions in Angoulême and Helsinki, and given lectures in Berlin and Paris, and I am still surprised to be the speaker or guest of honor beyond the Pyrenees.

SGF: In the very first pages of Aún estoy en ello we can see a manifestation against gay marriage, where you portrayed a series of characters, all of them representing the most conservative population of Spain, giving their reasons why they do not admit it. One of them bears a suspicious resemblance to Rouco Varela, a member of the Catholic Church in Spain who has shown his opposition to this law in the most emphatic way. Did you have fun working on these two pages of the comic? Or, were you in an enraged mood and the result was a kind of settling of scores?

SM: Well, it was a settling of scores and I was enraged---but it was very funny, LOL. I believe these suspicious resemblances came from deep inside my guts. And the ‘pearls of wisdom’ the protesters let out are taken directly from actual statements that I read in the press or heard on the TV news. I had a very good time working on those pages, but it was also a kind of little catharsis.

SGF: The stable, long-term relationship is represented in Salva's parents in the comic. However, these characters do not show any complicity or affection for each other. What is your opinion on LTRs? Do you believe in them? Or, do you think, as Rafa says, that marriage is an outdated, anachronistic institution?

SM: See... my characters express opinions which can be far from matching mine. Each one of them thinks in a different way than the others. Salva's parents represent those typical elderly couples based on an affection that has gradually turned into monotony, as many people of their generation. In addition to this, if things between them did not go well, they even could not divorce as a means of escaping. Rafa's remarks about life as a couple are very libertarian, but he eventually asks his boyfriend to marry him in the last pages of Aún estoy en ello. Rita and Salva believe in the GREATEST love and do not find it...There is not a general rule to measure for everyone. Love can last for ever or not. But I do not believe in marriage as an excuse to make it last. You must stay with your partner just because you want to, because all your body asks for it. If not, turn the page of your life story. Years ago, one of my characters said this: “Love is like a butane bottle: When it is out of gas, you have to replace it.”

SGF: Salva is a fervent follower of Sex and the City, a TV series which has usually received criticism due to its gallery of somehow stereotyped characters. Salva's friends seem to represent, each one of them, a cliché linked to the gay universe: Rafa, the bear; Oriol, the drama queen; Rita, the fag hag... Take this opportunity to stand up for stereotypes.

SM: Well, I defend the use of stereotypes because they do exist. You only need to go out and see the people on the street. Society compels to define one’s self by clichés: bears, gym queens, hipsters, tops, bottoms... Perhaps we are generally not so stereotypical (well, the people you can see in a circuit or a kedada[4] are reliable evidence of the existence of stereotypes--and how!), but clichés are useful tools that help tell stories in a way that characters are more defined and you can develop a very specific feature in them. Let’s just say it is a literary license that works very well.

SGF: During the Christmas shopping episode, Oriol defies an old man who talks disparagingly about homosexuals. Oriol defends his attitude, despite his friends' warnings, stating this is the way to earn popular respect. Do you agree with Oriol's behavior in similar situations, or do you think it is better to conduct yourself otherwise, even ignoring the provocations?

SM: You cannot confront anyone who says things you do not like or agree with. It is neither necessary nor worthy. But there are times you hear such nagging things that you can hardly shut up. I do not use to be a troublesome guy--just the opposite! But I am very proud of being the way I am, and if someone questions this by forcing me to listen to their opinion---Well, I am afraid that person will have to listen to mine, like it or not.

I think you should not go the agitators' way, but you cannot let them humiliate you.

SGF: With your permission, I would say that your generosity with Lucas (when you give him such a beefcake as a boyfriend at the end of the story) is so excessive that sounds just like a tall tale--really hard to believe. Were you carried along by the celebration moment of positivity, or do you know of any similar case?

SM: Curiously, things seeming more unreal are, many times, based on true stories in my comics. I know of three very similar cases--handicapped guys, unattractive guys, or both--and they are dating real stunners. And up to this point I remind the popular Spanish saying: ‘La suerte de la fea, la guapa la desea.’[5] (Quite true, by the way… LOL)

SGF: One of the aspects I find most interesting in Aún estoy en ello is the way sexuality is portrayed: You show it bluntly, but without falling into pornography; you do not judge, although there is clearly a rule breaking in the conventional game of monogamy. There are no fixed roles with respect to the top/bottom positions. Do you think homosexual relationships can be too shocking in the eyes of the heterosexual population?

SM: Well, they first make much fuss--and then they confess they work the same. There are very active women and very passive men, and also straight people who live their sexual life openly. The Gay Kama Sutra I created along with Diego J. Cruz has been more successful among straight girls than gay men. Even they ask for my personal dedication! Some confess it is always good to learn new things. You can find very timorous heterosexuals, that is true---but also very timorous gays.

SGF: The episode of the beefcake of Naples in the trattoria seems taken directly from an erotic film. It is now when you shut me up and say it is based on a real experience…

SM: TOTALLY REAL… but my lips are sealed.

SGF: The story of old Román is my favorite. It could well deserve a comic book itself. Have you ever met someone who has lived a similar story in those times during Francoism? Did you do some research? Was the gay-hunt as ruthless as you depict it?

SM: I did research, I met with a group of gay elderly... charming all of them!!! And I have a drawer full of notes to do something set in that period in the future. I am really willing. I also admit it is one of my favorite chapters. It is a humble tribute to all those who lived in a much harder time, when you risked your job and even your life just for loving someone of the same gender. We owe the situation we are in now to many of them, thanks to their struggle and courage.

SGF: Now let's talk about the way you depict the young homosexuals in the comic. Aitor, the cunning, hypocritical young student, makes Salva get fired from his job since he could not get what he wanted. Xicu is eventually (Poor Salva!) a complete nightmare. Both are selfish, manipulative characters. Aún estoy en ello may even be understood as a warning for middle-aged gays to act warily with the younger. Do you feel there is a big difference in attitude between young gay men and gays of Salva's generation?

SM: It is not exactly a question of generation. In the gay universe (and in the hetero universe many times also), youth is a rising value that seems to override any other. The other day, when discussing a political issue with someone ostentatiously younger than me, he replied I am a "fat, ugly old lady"...Weight reasons in political issues, don't you think?---In the gay universe (not always, but often) the young tend to domineer the older...now and 200 years ago. In the case you mention, the different attitudes between Salva and his friends and young people are that the latter do not value what they have, since they found it all done, and the point of defending LGBT rights seems to them a thing from the time when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

SGF: Salva is a huge Corto Maltese fan. I can see in Xicu certain features similar to Corto’s. Was it on purpose?

SM: Absolutely. Everybody searches for their fantasies. Unfortunately for Salva, although Xicu may look like Corto just in appearance, he lacks of the romantic, adventurer nature of Hugo Pratt's creation. Never mind...

SGF: I find priceless Xicu’s explanation on people’s outlooks about the difference between a gay tourist and a gay resident in Ibiza. Do you think there is still such a hypocritical attitude?

SM: I heard this statement from a guy of Ibiza. Not someone living in Ibiza in that time, but a lifelong resident, someone whose surname is Marí or Tur, the most popular, traditional family names in the island. And now I recall one of your first questions, where you asked me if there was still a lot to do. Keep in mind that there are tourist places where the only aspect the residents consider in gay visitors (no matter if they have been crowds for decades) is their money. However, they do not like the idea of having gay relatives. It is amazing to know the large number of citizens in Sitges, one of our first national gay destinations, who still denies this situation and claims “there are just a few clubs for people like this, and that is all.”

SGF: Talking about Xicu, he is quite an irritating character. The fact that Salva, a homosexual going through a midlife crisis, could withstand all the humiliations just for sex and fear of solitude reflects a certain masochistic aspect in relationships. To what extent does the story of Salva and Xicu represent your own view of relationships?

SM: I have seen things like this in several couples. When I broke up with the partner I lived my longest-lasting relationship with (12 years), an acquaintance told us he did not understand why, since it is better to be in bad company than alone in this world. And there are many people who think so. Sometimes, gays seem to be women of the 1940s: Society instilled in them a dreadful fear of being single. Life as a couple is wonderful, but only if it is fulfilling. You live and share with that someone, you do not put up with. If so... out! And if your love dies ’of overuse’, as Jurado[6] sang, then try to find another...or not. You have to learn to be okay with yourself in order to feel comfortable with someone.

SGF: Anyway, I think that, despite Xicu's annoying behavior, you are not too harsh on him. He is a repressed guy ready to conquer the big city, get the most out of a freedom he has not enjoyed in his small town; but his immatureness will cost him dear, and he will finally have to give up his constant-party dream and go back home with his tail between his legs. I have the feeling that you somehow feel affection for him, understand him...

SM: Yes, because he is just an immature guy. He is not a vicious son of a bitch: He just cannot do better. Xicu is one of those guys (and we all have met lots of them) who are very true and loving when you meet them in the loneliness of their town, and then they come to the big city and see so many hot gay men on the street. And as they do not want to miss a thing, then you cannot stop the inevitable… In a dialogue finally deleted in the script, Oriol said to Xicu: “Okay, so you were not a slut in your village just because you didn't have the chance.”

SGF: What are your current projects? What are you working on?

SM: I am ending up the second part of Kedada, the new adventures of Peluche, and making a cookbook to win over beefcakes, LOL. Meanwhile I make flyers and posters and take part in all the collaborations I can make some money with. I am making exhibitions from time to time. I do not know how I can find time to do it all...

SGF: And finally, a doubt... In the last panel there is a man with a camera. Who is he?

SM: Oh! It is the photographer Guillem Medina, a good friend of mine, who asked me to appear in and helped me in several works. He was one of the first cameo appearances I made. Now all my friends ask to appear in, LOL.

---

[1] PP: Partido Popular (“Popular Party”). It is the political party which won the last general election. Thus, it forms the current national administration in Spain.

[2] Nazario (b. 1944) is considered the father of the underground comic in Spain. His most popular creation was Anarcoma, a transvestite detective.

[3] Ismael Álvarez (b. 1978) and David Cantero (b. 1972) are two of the most outstanding, celebrated Spanish gay-themed comic authors nowadays.

[4] Kedada: a gathering arranged through the net.

[5] Sorry, but I do not know any equivalent expression in English. It could be said: ‘The beautiful covets the luck of the homely.’

[6] Rocío Jurado (Chipiona, Cádiz, 1944 – Madrid, 2006) was the perfect example of the Spanish popular folk singer. Her fans used to call her “The Greatest” because of her powerful, over-the-top performances. Sebas Martín mentions here a line from “Se nos rompió el amor” (“Our Love Broke into Pieces”), one of the most popularly demanded songs of her repertoire. 

A Sentimental Journal of the Approval Year

On Sebas Martín's Aún estoy en ello (I'm Still on It)

The main situations gay writer/illustrator Sebas Martín's comic book is about happen the year prior to the legalization of same-sex marriage in Spain (June 30, 2005). It therefore may be logically inferred that this is not a randomly-chosen year. However, the fact that Martín honors this major event in his work does not mean the reader is going to be a pleased visitor in a kind of Idyllicland, as a spectator for a series of delightful panels praising a supposed total tolerance. As a matter of fact, the story begins a few days before the Spanish Congress vote, when a huge protest against gay marriage took the streets. Martín displays all his talent picturing ferocious though funny portraits of the protesters.

But let's leave all these political issues aside for the moment. This comic deals mainly with the story of Salva, a teacher/illustrator in his forties, and also about his boyfriend, close friends, family, acquaintances…

At the beginning, Salva is smitten with Xicu, a younger man of Ibiza he met on holidays. Xicu is quite an attractive, easy-going, sexually-vivid guy. His unexpected, unilateral decision of living with Salva in Barcelona both stuns and excites his submissive flatmate. It will not take long before Salva feels sorry. Xicu brazenly shows himself as a messy, cheating, immature, promiscuous man. So---why does Salva turn a blind eye to it all? Can sex neediness and lonesomeness exert such a strong influence over one's will? In Salva's case, we can positively say, or even exclaim, HELL YES! Being a witness of Salva's slow though unstoppable descensus ad inferos is one of the most interesting points of the whole book. Before hitting bottom, Salva will experience a series of weird, funny, humiliating episodes.

1^st. After two weeks living together, Xicu acts sexually disinterested in Salva. When Salva complains, Xicu suggests him to have sex with other men (as Xicu seems clearly open to follow his own advice).

2^nd. Salva forgives Xicu for having sex with another guy thanks to his attentive justification: Xicu has got two flight tickets to Naples to spend a long weekend together. There they will visit a Caravaggio exhibition Salva has been eager to see long since. By the way, that other guy was a travel agency clerk and Xicu (who was jobless at the moment) got the tickets for free, so---tutti contenti!

3^rd. When Salva finds himself unjustly dismissed from his teaching post, Xicu not only shows no sensibility about his situation, but also asks Salva to leave his apartment. Xicu’s parents are coming to Barcelona for Christmas to visit their dear sonny, and their dear sonny has not told them yet he is gay. Salva must vanish so that Xicu’s parents do not suspect, and also because Xicu has told them life is treating him so good he can afford an apartment for his own. Xicu sweetens his story to make his parents proud in spiritual terms and generous in financial ones, and this way he could finally buy a super fast moped---Once to this point, if the reader still has any liking for Xicu, wait and read on…

4^th. Xicu is almost missing on Christmas holidays. The only moment Salva can meet him privately, Xicu announces his parents’ decision to extend their stay in Barcelona (remember, in Salva’s place). Furthermore, Xicu is still repeatedly unfaithful to Salva in saunas, despite Salva’s purposely lost opportunities of having sex with other sexy young guys…so far, as Salva was feeling so needy and horny and furious that he reluctantly decides to enjoy the carnal pleasures of a sauna.

5^th. Two days later, a low-spirited version of Salva asks Xicu to let him get in his own apartment as he needs some stuff. He secretly finds a present box with an expensive watch inside. All of a sudden he gets happy again, as he thinks Xicu tries to make up for his sacrifices. All that joy, as the reader can easily guess, will not last forever. On New Year’s Eve, Xicu will text Salva too late that they are not starting the year together since he will not attend his friends’ party. On Three Kings Day, not long after Xicu’s parents have left the apartment (at last!), Salva finds out the watch was not the present Xicu had planned for him. Some days later, he will discover Xicu kissing another man who is---Guess what? Wearing the watch!

Don’t panic! This will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and, after a loudly dispute, Xicu and Salva finally break up. When Xicu goes back to Salva’s apartment for his belongings, he even tries to make up with him. However, Salva kicks him out the moment he realizes Xicu has been cheeky enough to come with the watch guy… And that puts an end to their (love?) story. But fortunately for Salva, his world is not so limited as to focus strictly on Xicu.

Rita is the helping friend who brings Salva home with her while Xicu’s family is squatting his apartment. She just seems happy enough to spend Christmas Eve drinking hot chocolate, sitting on the couch while involved in a cozy blanket, watching on DVD Vincente Minnelli’s Meet Me in St. Louis and hearing one-of-a-kind Judy Garland singing marvelously “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” together with Salva. Anyhow, do not think of Rita as the perfect spinster. She is a mature, heterosexual woman and, though she complains about how difficult is to hook up for a woman of her age, hot men usually put their eyes on her (for instance, a bodybuilder in a hair removal center waiting area). However, she soon gets tired of them. What’s wrong with her? Carmen, Salva’s sister, opens her eyes abruptly at the New Year’s Eve party: she makes Rita realize she is in love with Salva since her teens…, hurting herself for so long…, believing he will change some day… But do not worry about Rita: she is strong enough to rise easily from the ashes.

Rafa, another friend of Salva’s, is another middle-aged, love skeptic, promiscuous man. His philosophy of life turns round when he meets an attractive man at the New Year’s Eve party (hope the next New Year’s Eve party I’m invited to will be as enjoyable as this!). Rafa gets stuck on him. But when they are about to have sex at the other man’s place, Rafa finds out by chance the man is seropositive and flees away. Rafa soon regrets his childish, apprehensive behavior, so when he comes across the man again he asks for a second chance. This time the guy speaks openly about his current health, but now Rafa is okay. Things between Rafa and the seropositive guy will go so well that, during the brand-new same-sex marriage law celebration day, the couple gets engaged.

This engagement news will astonish Salva and Oriol, another member of this circle of friends. Oriol is used to an easy-going, uncomplicated life. For him, the only interesting point in getting married is to find a wealthy husband. He is really fussy, and makes a risky scene at the shopping plaza when an old man calls him fag. He also hosts the crowded, cheerful, gaudy, madly-gay New Year’s Eve party along with his beloved, indulgent mommy in mink coat. The father, surprisingly, does not know (maybe he does not want to know) his son is gay, so he is far away from the party.

At this party, by the way, Salva will meet Wili and Rico. Sebas Martín pictures a facetious caricature of a gay couple too self-confident of their ultra-modern style. They two find everything slapdash and in bad taste, but when Salva and Oriol are invited to their apartment, they find the place all shabby, messy and even dirty. Their landlord, Román, an old-aged homosexual, tells Salva the bleak, moving story of his younger days under Franco’s regime, when gay men could not develop their sexuality freely and a fearful Román let go the opportunity to start a better life abroad with, who knows, the love of his life.

I find Román’s and Lucas’s stories the most enthralling of the whole comic book. The latter, Lucas, is a disabled young gay boy in a wheelchair who needs assistance to go out. Rafa usually works as a volunteer worker but this time he cannot carry out his tasks, so he asks Salva to take his place. Salva gets shocked the time he realizes Lucas wants a ride to a male brothel. After Lucas has spent more than an hour with Sandro, a big black muscled prostitute, and Salva is driving Lucas back home, he can hardly hold back and tells Lucas he is too young to resort to prostitutes. Lucas pours cold water on his driver when he acidly replies nobody wants to have sex with an ugly disabled guy in a wheelchair for free---Oh, come on! Don’t sob your hearts out yet! Martín has saved for Lucas a bright, happy ending in the shape of a hot, muscular, affectionate boyfriend. Note the contrast between Román’s and Lucas’s outlooks towards life: Lucas is up to experience sex though he sourly knows he has to pay for it, whereas the young, frightened Román decided to repress his sexuality in the past, dark times of abuse of police authority. Avoiding the question of different periods of time, the opposite attitudes considering sexual life are clear.

Salva and his sister Carmen go home on Christmas Day. Mother is a hypercritical woman who does not want to know a thing about Salva’s homosexuality, whereas she is eager to get Carmen married to the perfect husband. She thinks her daughter can find her match in one of the two nice new neighbors, so she invites them home as well. These guys are in fact a gay couple (who, by the way, have experienced hard situations in the past due to their families opposition to their sexual orientation) willing to get married the moment same-sex marriage is finally declared legal. But nobody told Mother… Poor thing!

Time goes by and springtime finally comes. Salva and his friends discuss imminent gay marriage rights approval. There is a general feeling of repulsion towards the Church’s fierce opposition. They joke about a supposed ecclesiastic fear of priests marrying seminarists en masse; but, talking seriously, they agree to say same-sex marriage in Spain will attract more gay tourists and residents, resulting in employment increase (up to this point, it is interesting to note gay marriage was approved a couple of years before the global economic crisis). A drunken man insults Rafa and his boyfriend when they are kissing outside. But this disgusting affair will not tarnish their happiness, since everybody takes the streets to celebrate exultantly their newly acquired social equality rights.