Life change at 50: from leading teams of 100 people to launching into Catalan comics

BarcelonaGlàfira Smith (Andrea Ferrando, Barcelona, ​​​​1973) worked as a director at Mediapro, directing series such as Veterinarians, documentaries such as The sewers of the Interior and international museum projects when he saw the announcement of the ARA comic contest in 2020, and decided to give it a try. The following year it received an honorable mention and in the third edition in was the brand new winnerThe impulse was so strong that she decided to hang up her cables and throw herself into the adventure of becoming an illustrator. She has just published her first graphic novel, a moving story about the relationship between a man and his dog, Truffle (Pagès Editors). One of the 15 best comics of 2024"I've gone from leading a team of more than 100 people to running my small project alone. I've heard a sense of terror about taking the plunge, but at the same time, it was a vital necessity, because time is running out now; it's now or never," Smith explains.

"I'm 50 years old, but I'm also very clear about what I want and I have a lot of experience defending projects," says Smith. This is demonstrated by the fact that he obtained the first translation of Truffle in Korean. "I had to go to the Mecca of comics," he thought last year. "When I pick up the book and tell it, I know I'm a success, and I had this habit of Truffle could be translated." She packed her suitcase and went to the Angoulême International Comics Festival at the end of January. "The first night in the hotel I started crying. Who told me to go there, alone, in that cold?" she recalls. But the next day she unleashed her executive skills, went to the professional rights market, and found that her comic was on display at the Catalan stand at the ICEC. "That's the advantage of being rare and small, because there are very few people who make comics in Catalan." French, and she immediately saw that a Korean agent loved it because she started crying with emotion. Not even two months later, and she already has the contract signed. "I love thinking that something so personal and so small can be so universal," she admits.

Unconditional love

If in his first comic published in the Vineyard ARA said goodbye to his mother through his recipes, Truffle It is a portrait of the father throughout the years he shares with his family dog. Ultimately, it portrays a generation of fathers who advanced socially, had successful careers, but were little involved in domestic problems. "My father is a charming, a seducer, is all vitality, perhaps also because he protects himself and tries to bathe himself in wonderful things, and he drives away the bad. For me, he represents this generation that flees from painful things because they come from a terrible, harsh world, a post-war era. heavy", says the author. The book follows two love stories, but doesn't hide the professional disappointments and the anguish in life, relationships, and health. "It's never fair when you judge something from the past through the prism of today. That's why I wanted to explain that complexity, the nuances and shadows, but without judging my father," says the author.

The comic plays with black and white when speaking from the human perspective, and instead uses a burst of primary colors when the dog is looking, "because it is the pure essence." Truffle is a tribute to the animals that accompany us and the bond that is established of loyalty and devotion. "I wanted to talk about that unequal relationship we have with animals. That unconditional love. A dog that lives eighteen years has always been by your side, that dog has seen everything about you," says Smith, while his dog Sushi spins around his feet. "He sees everything and doesn't judge," he admires. Only when Trufa becomes very ill does the father agree to live the end by her side. "The dog allowed him to make an evolution that he hadn't made with my mother's illness. Faced with the evidence, he accepts that grief is part of life and that, sometimes, to laugh you also have to cry," explains Smith.

In addition to the Korean version of Truffle and from her work as an illustrator –with one foot here and the other in the United Kingdom, the country where she studied and has personal ties–, Glàfira Smith is working on her first animated short film, Mother's secrets, based on the first comic strip he presented at the ARA Comic Award, included in Vineyard (Norma, 2021). "Life never ceases to amaze me, I am apoustufflé. It's counterintuitive, because at 50 you don't want to have to suffer for money, because the little girl He's an artist. It's absolutely wild and there's no rational explanation for it, but he had to do it. And it can be done; in fact, I'm already doing it."