Flavita Banana, Cartoonist: “I Take Antidepressants. There Are Still People Who Don't See This Relationship Between Humor And Sadness.

The arrival of Flavita Banana (Oviedo, 37 years old) is a wave of energy that floods the Teatro del Barrio in Madrid. Hug the event organizers and order a beer. As they transport copies of her new volume, Lunar Archives (Wow!) to the room, where she will autograph them and greet her readers, she hums jubilantly, “Big books, fat books, 19 cases of fat books.” what could be inferred from the titles of her cartoon collections (Star Archives, Cosmic Archives, Space Archives), the Barcelona-based cartoonist does not focus on astronomical matters, but delves into everyday and topical issues to comment on contemporary reality always emphasizes its absurdity, sometimes its hypocrisy, and sometimes its joy.

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Being a cartoonist had never crossed her mind as a child: “I went through many phases. I wanted to be a soldier, a nurse… Very strange things. The soldier thing came to me because I wanted to do a manly job, because I was against it. But I didn’t even know that cartoonist is a profession. And notice that it finally came true, because this is a rather manly trade. It was at an open house at the university that he considered studying something involving illustration: “I was doing my science Abitur at the time and I was good at getting good grades. But that day, I realized I had to make a choice for the rest of my life. I got into a psychology class to try and I rubbed myself. But suddenly I walked into a small classroom where they were giving a lecture on art and design. It was all so quaint! The faculty building, located in the Raval, looked like Hogwarts.”

Since the Escola de la Massana where this course was taught was private, her mother couldn’t pay for her studies, but she didn’t give up: “I said to myself, ‘Well, I’ll go to work, that’s okay! A challenge, come on!” With “juggling unthinkable” he completed the four years of his undergraduate degree and then three years of an advanced degree in illustration, working “everything”. “Now I think about it and I think it was quite striking “I paid for the race. I tried to get the best out of every class because I felt every euro in every hour,” he recalls.

Cartoon by Flavita Banana in EL PAÍS on December 19, 2022.

She has been publishing in EL PAÍS day by day since 2021, but when she was first hired by the newspaper for S Moda magazine in 2014, she was working in a computer company. “The Pacheco sisters who did the strip for the magazine decided to let it go and suggested my name. Suddenly after Forges died everything in the paper got replaced and I started going there on Sundays. And recently they made me a no-death hole in the opinion department, ”he recounts.

She initially wondered how her work, which could be described as feminist, would fit into the newspaper, but she explains that she had to quickly put that idea out of her head: “When you’re drawing, to cater to a certain audience fit, the deception doesn’t last long. I think we have experienced a common development: Before I addressed more everyday topics and now I have opened my eyes a little, I started talking about the world, politics, society. And I’ve also met older people who like my work. For example the man from the tobacconist in my neighborhood. They look at me like I’m a unicorn, you know? Because someone who works for the newspaper, that he likes to draw pictures is something very mystical for him”.

Cartoon by Flavita Banana in EL PAÍS on December 15, 2022.

In addition to feminism, the illustrator in Lunar Archives addresses the dependency on mobile phones, social networks and technology. “I started criticizing that we’re so addicted, but I’m starting to engage a little more with those who are complaining that we’re addicted because it’s going to continue and it’s going to continue. If you want to live bitter and scandalized by cell phone use, it’s up to you!” he debunks. There are also a number of cartoons about the joy of reading and children’s imaginations. “As a child I was very pedantic, a know-it-all. Reading, studying, anything related to culture was encouraged in my house. Since I’ve been lucky, I try to show children and women reading the cartoons so that people who do this without family support don’t feel so alone,” she clarifies.

How would you define your style?

-Rough. rough. Dirty, ink level. More means than an end.

What’s something about you that people don’t expect?

I take antidepressants. And I think I’ll take her for a long time. There are still people who don’t see this connection between humor and sadness or depression. Sometimes I try to give life advice with the cartoons to get better. And there will be those who will say, “How lucky she is! You can give them because it’s okay.’ But I’m fine for a process.

Lunar Archives begins with a note from Catalan comedian Andreu Buenafuente. In it he writes: “I consider Flavita to be a favorable relative (and many) of what we shall call the ‘comedy family,’ or ‘people who defend themselves with the shield of laughter and irony against an increasingly hostile, unjust world … and ridiculous’. We have a free, naughty, curious, young and unbreakable woman. She is generous, she has her feet on the ground, her head in the clouds and her friends are very close. And it all gushes out from there.” When the interview is over, the illustrator rushes to hug more people who have just arrived.