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●INTERVIEW● BLAI!




Interview for BLAI! a radio show presented by Maddi Castro and Ana Iruretagoiena broadcasted from Monday to Friday from 12 to 1pm in summertime in Euskadi Irratia.

SHOW DETAILS 

Broadcaster: EiTB
Air date: 2018-VII-30
Language: Basque
Show duration: 53min 13s
Interview duration: 7 min 45s


AVAILABILITY

Listen on demand: https://bit.ly/2ElwdPQ (interview starts at 32:35)



INTERVIEW by Maddi Castro & Ana Iruretagoiena

When we were kids many of us read comics such as Mortadelo y Filemónand Asterix and Obelix. Apart from comics translated to Basque there are also comics written in Basque, Ioannes Busca, Ian Nose, good morning.

Hi, good morning.

Good morning, you are in Philadelphia?

Yes.

Why "Ian Nose", why that nickname?

Well, I was looking for a nickname and if you look closely, Ian Nose is my name with the letters moved around (laughs).

So you are playing, huh? Playing with the letters and the name. Ioannes, you are in Philadelphia but you are from Oñati.

Yes.

Would you define yourself as a cartoonist? Cartoonist, designer, illustrator, we've read many things about you...

Well, I started studying architecture... I went to Madrid to study architecture and then I finished in Puerto Rico, but I ended up in the Humanities School there so... When I draw comics I guess I'm a cartoonist and when I do other things, well, something else.

As we said, you are in Philadelphia but your works can be seen in the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Yes, that's correct.

Have you been there, have you been to Venice?

Yes, I've been to Venice. The thing is that apart from my comics, I also worked in the audiovisual shown on the Spanish pavilion.

And we can see your comic works there, I think the one displayed is Antxintxiketan, right? Antxintxiketan: The Democratic Race.

Yes, they printed the first 25 pages of Antxintxiketan: The Democratic Race on the walls. This year's proposal in the pavilion is to show the works of architecture students and all the works are organized by different hashtags; mine is in the space dedicated to 'narrative'.

So yours is under the 'narrative' category, Antxintxiketan. You mentioned that there's only a fragment on display. How many issues does this book have?

To this day I've published two issues, but it's an unfinished work, so this summer I will release the third issue and I hope to finish it in seven parts.

So there will be seven Antxintxiketan, Ian or Ioannes?

Ioannes is fine.

Apart from that, your work EdFramed is also shown in the Venice Architecture Biennale, have you seen it?

Yes, EdFramed is a daily comic strip I started back when I was in Madrid... So then after, I've collected and published it as booklets, so they also printed that on the fire emergency exit door. Forty-something strips.

So you are now in Philadelphia, your works are on display in Venice...how long have you been outside the Basque Country?

To be honest, many years. I left for Madrid when I was 18, and since then I come back for vacations and to visit the family, but since I was 18 so...now I'm 34...

In how many countries have your works been on display?

I like comics but I'm not very into the art scene. I prefer to make things that can be enjoyed by many, so I'm usually not looking forward to exhibitions. Since they're comics they can be seen anywhere, you can buy them or read them online.

And then you also have them on your website and we've seen you on Instagram under your nickname Ian Nose. You also lived in Puerto Rico, have you had any inspiration from your time there?

Yes, the last comic I published is a little bit about Puerto Rico, it's called It Also Rains in Puerto Rico. After I had settled in Philadelphia, a friend of ours came to visit -I'm married to a Puerto Rican- and one of her friends came to visit us, and she was working on an exhibition there and invited me to participate, so I did something about that, about the experience of living through the hurricane.

Ioannes the signal is weak, but let’s see if I understand...In which languages do you usually publish your works? In which languages do you write, Basque, Spanish, English...?

I usually try to do all my works in Basque first. For example, Antxintxiketan: The Democratic Race, is lightly based on the Spanish elections, so sometimes I write in Spanish first, but usually, I write and publish in Basque first and then translate to Spanish and English. If I get the chance, also to other languages.

Apart from comics, you've tried to translate some, I don't know...some audiovisual. I was told you're a fan of Dragon Ball.

Well yes, a long time ago...in 2011 we started a web project called Laino Mehe. We wanted to see what it'd be like to read Dragon Ball in Basque. So that's where it started, with me and my brother. We translated 2, 3 or 5 -I don't remember- chapters and other comics too... To be honest, the result was really satisfying, but since we don't own the rights of the works, we didn't want to keep going...it's not the proper way.

You also have a publishing house, Ioannes?

Yes, that's correct, to publish my works we came up with a publishing house and we called it Ahabi. So, yep, comics by Ian Nose and the publishing house: Ahabi Comics.

Ahabi Comics, Ian Nose, it's not easy or evident that you are behind it. When the Venice Biennale ends, do you have any project to which you're looking forward?

Yes. What I want now is to finish Antxintxiketan, because I don't like leaving things unfinished...but yeah, it's going to take me a while until I'm done with that. I'm already working on a project for 2019, another comic, but this time it won't be based on anything, so everything is going to be stuff I come up with. So I think it will flow more smoothly. I say smooth in the sense of making it monthly...my plan is to make a monthly comic.

You want to make a comic every month?

Yes, that's what I would like to do.

Well... Ioannes Busca, Ian Nose, thanks a lot and good luck!

Alright, thanks for having me!

●INTERVIEW● ORTZADAR



Interview by Etxahun Gonzalez for ORTZADAR newspaper supplement that is published on saturdays in various basque newspapers of Grupo Noticias.

PUBLICATION DETAILS

Publisher: Editorial Iparraguirre S.A.
Release date: 2017-VII-14
Language: Basque
Number of pages: 8
Size: 28.4 x 37 cm
Retail price: 1.4€





AVAILABILITY

Free Digital edition: https://goo.gl/nRzqUk



INTERVIEW by Etxahun Gonzalez


Ian Nose - Cartoonist

“With respect to comics, 
everything is yet to be done in the Basque Country.” 

Antxintxiketan: The Democratic Race comic by the Oñati cartoonist Ian Nose is being exhibited in the Biennale of Venice until November 25.

Behind the pen-name Ian Nose stands Ioannes Busca born in Oñati in 1984. He studied Architecture in Madrid and today he is a cartoonist and designer. He first moved from Madrid to Puerto Rico and he's currently living in Philadelphia where he works as freelance. One of his comics, Antxintxiketan: The Democratic Race is being exhibited in the Venice Biennale. It's a collection of cartoons about the Spanish general elections in witch the protagonist are Rajoy, Sanchez, Iglesias and Rivera.

Your work Antxintxiketan: The Democratic Race is being exhibited in the Spanish Pavilion of the Architecture Biennale of Venice until November 25, how come?

Before the opening, I was in Venice for a week because aside from the comic works, I also work as a video editor and I was in charge of the auidovisual of the Pavilion. I usually write the comics first in Basque and then translate them to Spanish and English, but this years curator, Atxu Amann thought it was a good idea to show the original Basque version and that is how it's displayed. This year's curators have done a great work, there are around 120 projects  exhibited and my comic looks great on the space dedicated to the narrative. I was very glad to be able to show the comic in Basque.

Did you receive any feedback from the readers?

Apart from being in Basque, my comics laugh at the Spanish politicians. One day, a Venezuelan higher up that was visiting the pavilion asked: "How did you manage to make such a pavilion with the fascist government you have?" I think that is the best feedback we've had.

It's the first time that a Basque written comic is exhibited in the Spanish pavilion, so you're a pioneer...

The merit is for the curators, you have to be brave to do that nowadays. I don't know if it will happen again. Having a comic in an archiecture biennial is not easy, and even less in Basque. But I hope it happens more often from now on. Honestly very little comics are being published in Basque, and it's so sad. The website Komikipedia.eus says last year only 29 comics were published in Basque. Now that we've started to publish my comics under the name Ahabi Comics, we're looking for ways to get the rights of the comics we liked so much when we were kids and see if we can publish them in Basque. With respect to comics, everything is yet to be done in the Basque Country.

Is this why you started LainoMehe with your brother?

We started that site, if not to fight back the scarcity of comics in the Basque publishing scene, then to translate some chapters of our favorite authors and share them with Basque readers. We took the first steps in March 2011, adapting the basque version of Dragon Ball animation series that was broadcasted in the Basque TV to the original manga work. When we saw that they fit, we transcribed the first five chapters and posted them on a web we called: laino.me Although they were very successful in our circle of friends, it didn't seem good to us to keep on translating copyrighted content and even though we tried different ways for doing it correctly, we haven't found away to do it properly yet.  It's an ongoing project.

You wrote 'It Also Rains in Puerto Rico'. This country where you were living was hit by Hurricane Maria...

I lived there for five years and I stayed there for two months after the hurricane. Then we moved to Philadelphia, the three of us: my wife, my cat and myself. On Christmas time a friend came to visit us and she was organizing an exhibition about skate called FASST! and invited me to participate. I wanted to write something about the experiences lived in the island so I got involved. I haven't used reference photographs while drawing, I tried to put the images that stuck to my mind in the comic, that's why they're not too realistic. I still have a lot to improve too.

You now live in Philadelphia.

Yes, I work as a Freelancer there on my own. After the biennial I have taken time for my own projects. I've updated my website, I continue drawing comics and thinking of how to bring up new projects to life. We're really happy in Philadelphia, we can walk around everywhere, something that's not easy in America. In Puerto Rico we needed a car for everything, we didn't even bother to bring it here. We move everywhere walking and by bike.

●INTERVIEW● PUNTUA


Interview by Aitziber Aranburuzabala for PUNTUA magazine, a publication delivered every Friday to the subscribers of the Goiena newspaper in Debagoiena, one of the seven regions of the Gipuzkoa province of the Basque Country.


MAGAZINE DETAILS 

Publisher: Goiena Komunikazio Taldea
Release date: 2018-VII-6
Language: Basque
Number of pages: 48
Size: 17x24.5cm
Retail price: -







INTERVIEW by Aitziber Aranburuzabala


FROM PAPER TO THE WALL

Ioannes Busca, editor and cartoonist.

The work Antxintxiketan: The Democratic Race by the cartoonist Ioannes Busca (Oñati, 1984) is being displayed in the Architecture Bienale of Venice. It's the first time that a Basque written comic is shown in the famous Italian exhibition. It's in the Spanish Pavilion, until November 25. "There are over 100 works in the pavilion and mine is one more, but I was really glad that a Basque written work was selected, especially in the Spanish Pavilion, payed by the Spanish government." said the artist.

The works exhibited in this year's Spanish Pavilion in the Venice Biennial are all by Architecture students. There are works of all kinds. Busca for example, has filled the walls with his comics and  images.  "While I was studying Architecture in Madrid I moved to Puerto Rico with a kind of Erasmus scholarship and while I was there on December 2015 I started to draw this story I've yet to finish. The curators of the Spanish Pavilion thought it was an interesting project and they put me on the space dedicated to the narrative."

COMICS UNDER THE PEN-NAME IAN NOSE

He makes videos, design works and comics, these last ones signed as Ian Nose. "Ian Nose was born at the same time as the comic EdFramed, and I'm the editor. In August I will return with new EdFramed strips in Instagram, Frozeen, Facebook... this will be the third season. That's what I'm working on now."Apart from those stories, in March, he also published the one-shot It Also Rains in Puerto Rico, about hurricane Maria hitting the Island and the experiences of two elder women.

POLITICIANS RUNNING

He says Antxintxiketan: The Democratic Race is a comic with a political-humorist nature. "In the story, the candidates for presidency in the 2015 Spanish general elections are literally running as in a marathon, one tripping over the other, in a race to life or death. I've never followed political issues too much, but when I was in Puerto Rico, the general elections were taking place and it seemed like a change was coming and I thought it would be a funny idea."

It's being serialized in paper and digital by Ahabi Comics. "I drew the first four pages in a hurry. The idea was to finish it together with the elections, but it never happened... I started doing four pages one day, the next day another two, in a couple of days three more... I started to publish it like this in Facebook in Basque, Spanish and English. But it was too tiring to keep on like this so I thought I'd publish them as 20 page booklets. In the walls of the pavilion, the first 25 pages of the comic are printed in a huge size, but I drew them in DIN A4 size with ink and later I added some screentones and the texts with a computer."

AHABI COMICS

In 2011 you started to publish a daily web strip: EdFramed. It is also on display in English in the biennial, on the fire exit door of the showroom. "I've always liked comics. When I was a kid I tried to write a short story every Summer. In 2011 I bought a drawing tablet for my computer and that's when I started EdFramed."

He says that behind a work there's always an author and a publisher, and they named Ahabi Comics the publishing house he and his brother founded while he was living in Puerto Rico. He would like to, but he's not making a living out of comics. "I sell them for 4 euro, so I will have to sell a lot of them to make a living out of that..."

They publish all their comics in three languages - Basque, Spanish and English- the catalog is available in ahabi.net and the paper editions are available in Amazon. The digital editions are available in multiple platforms such as Kindle and iBooks. They can also be read for free in Frozeen.com.

GLOBETROTTER AND PRODUCTIVE

Busca says he decided he would go to wherever opportunities were. So after living in Madrid and Puerto Rico for a while, this Oñati boy now lives in Philadelphia. He told us he has a lot of things on his hands. "I recorded a kind of making-of documentary in the Venice Biennial and I'm giving it some last touches. I'm also working on the new episodes of Antxintxiketan..."