Pajama Geeks

One rainy night before I was born, my dad came home early. Before my mom arrived he found a good place to hide. She came in totally oblivious to his presence. She dropped her bags and headed for the kitchen where she fixed herself some tea. My dad emerged out of his hideout and moved quietly into the kitchen. My mom took a sip of tea while still facing the sink, and my dad took the chance, came up behind her and grabbed her shoulder. The fear didn't let my mom turn around. Her knees gave in and she passed out before knowing who was behind her. My dad became hysterical trying to wake her up and called an ambulance. My mom's family's history of heart attacks probably hit him just then. Mom's an extremely nervous person but she was fine and she forgave my dad because she knew he probably got the biggest scare. He is even more panicky than her.

There's nothing scary about Halloween except the fake boobs on parade. Then again, who's to judge? As a kid I used to put red underwear over blue pajamas and wrap a red flag around my neck to impersonate the Man of Steel. And not for Halloween either. I hope I was very little.

The flag was red because I borrowed it from my dad's leftist party (a pacifist political group, in fact), and here I was using it to embody a patriotic symbol of the capitalist empire. Too bad the irony was lost on me. You see, I was very young when I first fell in love with superheroes. In Colombia they used to print tiny 50 cent translations of the most famous US heroes. And then the day came when my dad took me and my best two buddies to see Richard Donner's Superman. After the closing credits we ran out of the theater with our arms outstretched in front of us, "flying" through the downtown Manizales as we trumpeted John Williams' catchy theme.

Batman used to duke it out with Supes for my favorite superhero spot. When my dad brought me a Batman costume from Japan I put it on and took to the streets (actually a porch in front of my building) and attempted to "scare" a couple of "old" teens. They were amused, to say the least. It wasn't Halloween either.

With time, European comics such as Tin Tin, and Asterix and a greater variety of comics began being published in Colombia. Traveling for me was mainly a chance to bring back those fantastic worlds where two of my passions, writing and drawing, were united.

It was third grade when I first decided I should try to draw comics myself. A few goofy characters I created like Rayman (an ex-military adventurer) and the superhero group "Union Z" (an xmen knock-off, obviously) , were soon followed by detectives and spies on whose adventures I'd spend many a math class. When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I invariably answered: comic book creator. I can still see all their eyes rolling.

A few years back a French journalist started conducting a very in-depth interview that juggled my memory. His questions forced me to pinpoint the sources of many of my inclinations and I discovered that my fascination with art started very early with Asian children's books; beautifully painted volumes my dad brought from his travels and which I cherish to this day. Maybe those books influenced my somewhat manga-ish style of drawing, and contributed to my later fascination with Otomo, Miyazaki and Satoshi Kon. I have no idea if that particular interview was ever published, but I remain grateful to the journalist. Because of his questions I dug into old boxes and rescued private treasures that were about to be lost forever.

As I entered my teens I fell in love with philosophy, specially idealism and a path I traced from the Taoist Chuang Tzi to Descartes, to Hume, to Berkeley, to Kant and Witgenstein and went from reading adventure yarns to other types of literature such as the great Borges, Cortazar, Kafka, Eco, Calvino and Kundera. But those comicbook sensibilities still pulsed inside me and all these different sources became intertwined in mind to later give rise to my comic Vana Espuma. By now, although I still liked Batman, specially what Frank Miller was doing in Dark Knight Returns and Year One, I felt that the character could be darker, more menacing. I hated Robin, and something as superficial as the impracticality of Batman's cape truly bothered me. At the time I felt there was something darker, more primal and affecting in the creatures found in the gothic and horror genres. I had always loved Poe, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Their tales, the developments in genetic manipulation, and the philosophical and scientific ideas of multiple universes and alternative realities influenced the creation Shade, my Vana Espuma character. The same character I impersonated this Halloween, fifteen years after his inception. Not many might get it but hey, it beats borrowing other people's creations.

At sixteen, I was very wary of social rituals and ceremonies, but in retrospect maybe winning that grant and award for creating that comicbook at that time was an important incentive after all. Deep down I think I needed some reassurance that I could make these popular arts the basis of my professional life. For a moment, it seemed there was a chance that it hadn't all been just a childhood fantasy after all.