The Comedian With X-rays In His Eyes

In 1904, Azorín explained in an article published in the newspaper El Imparcial that for centuries many farmers in Castile were bothered by trees, cutting them down and convinced that the water was not good for their crops. The cultural analyst Raúl Minchinela recalled this in the prologue of Ranciofacts’ first album, entitled Efectiviwonder (Astiberri Ediciones, 2014). And he added: “This is an example of the wisdom of the in-laws.” And what is rancid, wedged? “Outdated expressions, moderate behavior, tired clichés ad nauseam, musty situations,” says Pedro Vera, graphic humorist and author of Ranciofacts.

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Almost a decade after Efectiviwonder, it is clear that the rancid harvest is going well, because the Ranciofacts series has reached its sixth part: After My Puto Brother-in-Law (2015) and Rancio No, the Following (2016), Leaving the Comfort follows Zone (2018) and Here Suffering (2020), late October saw the release of The University of Life, an astonishing artifact that compiles unspeakable realities (with a photo as proof) from sports press headlines, advertisements, doormats, bad tattoos, and taxidermy worse . A comic that is second to none and will make you wonder whether you should die of laughter or just die.

“In the Ranciofacts there is a lot of laughing at others, but in the Rancio they all – we – have their place,” says Albert Monteys, influential cartoonist and comic artist. Monteys was – along with his fellow cartoonist Manel Fontdevila – one of the discoverers of Vera, who was called to work at El Jueves more than 20 years ago.

One of the vignettes from “The University of Life”Astiberri

And yes, in Ranciofacts you will find well-known, famous and super-famous people. From the trio José Luís Garci, Carlos Herrera and Arcadi Espada – according to Vera “the Valhalla of rancidity, champions of cholesterol” – to Isabel Díaz Ayuso, Bárbara Rey or Los Dire Straits to Cristiano Ronaldo, Yoko Ono or Antonio García Ferreras Leaders of the extreme right, to Tiktoker, to some tribes of Tele 5 or to Podemitas. But he also portrays anonymous people, and what he reflects is grotesque, without a drop of pity in his eyes.

“This is a generous thing. The Rancid understands neither social classes nor professions. I am democratic,” explains Vera in a telephone conversation. Sometimes he gets a complaint from a famous person – Carlos Latre and Pitingo blocked him on Twitter – but he doesn’t worry. He gives and receives wax. “Yes, I criticize, but I realized that sometimes I gave in to the stale. Maybe there is even a certain rancid pride in it,” argues the man from Murcia, born in 1967, who has been involved in comics and comics for as long as he can remember. Otherwise, he lives the life of what the singer El Fary would call “the gentle man”: he takes care of his son, goes shopping, cooks and draws when he has time.

“We are a modern European country and we like to believe that the Spain that Vera reflects has disappeared, but that carpet-ovetonic aspect still exists,” reflects Vilches, comic critic for whom Vera manages to do so with his drawings, this foolish one Joy to reflect Our opinion. Most things are boring and basic. “He achieves a great complicity with those who read him, and that is because he does not climb to the pulpit and point out our plight, because he treats us as equals,” Vilches said.

In times of extreme sensitivity and fictional victimhood, Irene Márquez, also a comic artist and graphic humorist, shares with Vera this biting look – in her case tending towards a very dark humor – on ordinary people and life on the streets, in houses and bars. Both make fun of “these seemingly neutral, harmless qualities that most people have.” Something as mundane as spending free time at the mall or watching Marvel movies,” Márquez reflects. “Maybe we’ve already made a lot of jokes about marginal or strange characters, and now it’s funnier to find the ridiculous in the normal,” he says in an email exchange.

In any case, it is clear that humor is omnipresent with Vera. He started at school, drawing with a classmate porn versions of “El hombre y la Tierra” by Félix Rodríguez de La Fuente or the series “Los gozos y lasshadows”, based on the work of Torrente Ballester “I have no idea about sex” , he remembers.

Illustrations by Pedro Vera in “Ranciofact”Astiberri

As a young man, he began contributing to the newspaper La Verdad de Murcia, winning several awards and, from 1998, with the help of Monteys and Soldevila, he began publishing in El Jueves. In this magazine, characters like Nick Platino and Ortega y Pacheco grew up, “the Starsky and Hutch of the national scale, in the constant battle against hipsters and modern stupidity in general,” as it was advertised at the time with titles like Where Are You Going? ? I bring potatoes or sex, racing and cassettes of El Fary. “It was wild humor that I couldn’t do now because they would put me in Alcatraz,” said the cartoonist.

And it was in 2012 when Vera published her first Ranciofacts in El Jueves, until today. But before Twitter existed, this network — now called X — was barely six years old. The lightning came with his friend Pepe Colubi, writer and comedian: “We were talking by email and then he wrote that he had left something out and when he read that expression a laugh arose because he thought: ‘How stale this is.’ And that’s when I clicked and ran to Twitter to post all the rancidity I had mentally accumulated,” he explains.

At first he focused on the media’s slogans in his Ranciofacts – “Madrid’s Puerta de Alcalá or incomparable frame”, which is already meta-ranciocity,” he says – but then he went all out and published cartoons on all aspects of everyday life, from Summer holidays to sales, from city festivals to bachelor parties, from urban clubs to postmodern scholars.

Vera represents what she knows or perceives, but she is clear that what is rancid or new is not limited to Spain but represents a universal category. “It’s innate to human beings, whether you’re from Albacete or North Dakota,” he reflects, adding, “In fact, I think the epitome of in-lawdom is Dean Norris, the actor who plays Hank Schrader in Breaking Bad.” From the photos he posts on networks It seems that he is much more clumsy in reality than in the series. A thoroughbred of rancidity, come on.”

Monteys, who considers Vera to be one of the best cartoonists in the country, sees two main influences in his work: popular comics like Jack Kirby and more underground comics from the fanzines of the eighties and nineties, from magazines like Mad or Robert Crumb himself. Vilches on the other hand, highlights his legacy of self-parodic Spanish humor that focuses on the satire of everyday life, similar to what was the case in the magazine El Papus or in Berlanga’s later films. “It is a humor so direct that it works in a single moment, without the need for a classic response, and that is complex,” emphasizes Vilches, who also highlights in Vera’s work that “beyond the script is the grotesque. “already there.” in the lines of his drawing, especially in the eyes of his figures.”

One of the vignettes from the latest episode of “Ranciofact.”

“The interesting thing about Vera is that she mixes a lot of pop with cañí and rags. “With Ranciofact, he reaches out to the public because of the cathartic part of the punishment, but above all because of his hypnotic encyclopedia,” reflects Monteys. According to the man who was director of El Jueves between 2006 and 2011, Vera looks like someone with antenna and the ability to separate the wheat from the chaff, two essential qualities of humor to convey what makes us unhappy but also people .

Márquez, author of This is not okay, also highlights Vera’s abilities. “It has a highly trained radar to detect the hackneyed and hackneyed platitudes that make up the rancid.” They are a kind of x-rays in the eyes, a gift for detecting the strangeness of situations, moments or expressions that occur every day happen.

Vera’s Ranciofacts are not only the definitive guide to Cuño culture, but also have another special feature: it is, in a sense, a collaborative effort in which hundreds of people actively participate. They were born with Twitter and that network, now X, continues to feed off of it. Vera admits: “I created something like the Stasi of rancids, the pararancial police. Sometimes, when I’m short of ideas, I throw the rod away and they send me plenty of rancid stuff. About situations, I don’t know, at weddings, baptisms and communions.” And he realizes that things have gotten better since he started. It never ends. “The Twitter Pond is my AI (artificial intelligence). They don’t stop sending me rancid stuff and they’re filling me up. I can’t cope. I will die leaving my stale work unfinished,” he warns.

The comedian with x-rays in his eyes

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