INTERVIEW CORNER #92: Έκτορας

Those who know me (and some who don’t know me – besides, I never miss a chance to declare it…) know that I’m a fan of the absurd and the surreal in all their forms, especially when the absurd and surreal are combined with humor; I then let myself go completely, even when I’m trying to share my enthusiasm with someone else who stares at me as if I’m a moron and I’m left there standing and snickering like a moron (c’mon, this has happened to you too – just admit it).

Naturally, there are some works falling in that category and there are many out there appreciating their surrealism. An example of the above is FEATHERS, Hector’s comic strip (who happens to be this week’s guest), a strip that was awarded with the Audience and Best Comic award at the recent Comicdom Awards. This means that there are many of you who appreciate FEATHERS in the same way, considering that it’s a strip featuring bizarre animals, absurd situations and dialogues that appear to have escaped from the hidden diaries of surrealists. Moreover, this strip’s success is also evident from the fact that FEATHERS always find a home to accommodate it.

It all started with 9, the comic magazine published the newspaper ELEFTHEROTYPIA where that this bizarre strip was first published and where it remained until it moved to the newspaper’s Saturday edition and “Komikodromio”. Later on, in 2011, Giganto Books published a collection of these strips. And just yesterday FEATHERS returned, this time in online format! Hector’s surreal strip will be published weekly on the website of Comicdom Press, and having friends in high places over there, I (as usually) didn’t miss the chance to chat with him and find out more.

So, read this week’s interview with Hector, as we talk about FEATHERS, his collection of novels titled THE FURRY ENVOY, and also his future plans:

It seems like every one of your works is dominated by the bizarre. How did this… style came out?

Once upon a summer I found a dried-up starfish in the beach and put him in my pocket. I gave him a name and a place to live. A week later he disappeared. Maybe that’s how.

Can you tell us about your experience with ELEFTHEROTYPIA’s 9?

I was fortunate enough to be offered space in the magazine by Aggelos Mastorakis (9’s editor-in-chief). I am very grateful to him about the freedom and the encouragement he gave me. Thanks to that magazine I was able to come in contact with other comic creators and had the opportunity to develop my drawing skills with the advantage of this very public platform.

What’s the story of your collaboration with Comicdom Press?

I met with the guys from Comicdom Press during the recent festival (when I was honored with the awards and felt awkward by not knowing what to say) and I suggested we work together. I’m very glad that FEATHERS will be hosted on the website.

How hard is it to find inspiration for a new humorous strip on a weekly basis?

Not so much – you’ve got plenty of time to return to the world of the strip with a new idea or another.

What can we expect from your new strip?

Creatures with intense transitions from euphoria to concern. I hope to be able to play with new themes and forms, and to keep my drawings fresh.

In the multitude of subjects we’ve seen in FEATHERS’s strips, is there a subject you have to struggle with in order to approach it, but you’ve yet to find the proper way of doing it?

Yes, plenty of them actually… There are things I’ve yet to touch and new images I’d like to create.

Can you talk to us about your book, THE FURRY ENVOY?

THE FURRY ENVOY is a collection of short novels published in 2009 by Topos publications. These novels are also in the spirit of the bizarre and the absurd that you’ve mentioned earlier and attempt to play a game with language.

Thanks to this book we are aware that you can write longer stories. Have you ever thought of creating something similar in a comic?

I really like long narrations and I’d like to do something that will extend to a bigger space. I have various thoughts and I hope that one of them will soon be realized. The whole thing with being awarded by Comicdom Awards definitely pushes you to do something new.

Do you have any other plans for the immediate future? Are you currently working on something else?

I’m preparing a book in English on the subject of music, but I’m a little superstitious and will therefore refrain from giving out more details. I hope that it’ll soon be on its way.

[Translated by Alexandros Tsantilas]