Interview with Gitrop (Blue Skin - Ottocervo)
CulturaPop's interviews with the protagonists of Lucca Comics and Games 2022 continue: this time, it's the turn of Gitrop, a young cartoonist who comes to the festival with his debut graphic novel, Blue Skin, published by Ottocervo. At his debut in the world of comics, Gitrop immediately demonstrates that he possesses talent and sensitivity, qualities that are not always taken for granted among the authors who are part of this field, as confirmed by the cartoonist Giulio Rincione, who presented Blue Skin on the occasion of the event. We therefore had the opportunity to take part in the meeting and to interview Gitrop directly, who provided us with some insights into his first work as a complete author.
Gitrop and Blue Skin
I love art, I love drawing. Then one day I discovered that comics are not just manga or Marvel heroes (thanks to Paperi), so I said to myself “Let's try to make comics”. | adding zone: tag crm_srl-th_culturapop_d_mh3_1 slot id: th_culturapop_d_mh3 "); } A test that Rincione himself has defined largely outdated, also by virtue of the number of pages that Blue Skin presents: how has Gitrop managed such an articulated narrative since its debut graphic novel?
La mia philosophy is: “If there is something to do, let's do it”. If that certain story requires a certain number of pages, I think we need to leave it the right space it needs.
But what is the idea behind Blue Skin and the story it tells?
Three things inspired me. The first was the idea of the ending, which I do not tell here for obvious reasons. The second was having started making some illustrations of this blue boy, the protagonist. The third, on the other hand, was a dream, in which there was a cowboy bicheco (the one then present in the pages of Blue Skin with the name of Manny, editor's note) who told me he was an evolution of the walruses!
And what about processing times?
About two years. There have been moments of downtime, sometimes I've been stuck for a couple of weeks, but I've always been committed to Blue Skin because I wanted to finish it and I've always believed in it. I also received many corrections along the way, which prompted me to move forward, to find new ideas to solve various problems.
Blue Skin also features some sequences that break the fourth wall, an element that can be very interesting and fun within a comic. But why do we often play so much on this "gimmick"?
I think it is a sort of little "outlet" for those who work on a comic, a way to say something that otherwise they would not be able to say. Thus the author can talk about the more technical aspects, such as saying "In this comic I wrote this character like this because ...", elements that in short, are a little bit outside the plot.
The interview with Gitrop at Lucca Comics and Games 2022
CulturePop also had the opportunity to quickly meet Gitrop and to learn more about the working of Blue Skin with the author. First of all, we asked Gitrop to tell us about his graphic novel:Blue Skin tells of a blue boy who lives in solitude, in the tranquility of his house. Until this calm is abruptly interrupted, and he finds himself engaged in an adventure that will lead him to discover aspects that he did not know about his past.
Given the rather original nature of the drawings and character design in general, we also asked what were the references that inspired Gitrop for his illustrations:
Surely an author who helped me a lot was Mathieu Bablet, especially as regards the volt and body shapes. As for the Moebius colors. While for light effects or explosions, definitely manga like Dragon Ball and Naruto.
Blue Skin, in addition to being a proof of great graphic talent, also presents a plot that demonstrates a strong inventiveness, in which the animal creatures we know (be they real or mythical), take on new contours and new identities . What was the choice behind the inclusion of the phoenix Marla and the porso Goni among the protagonists?
These are two characters from my imagination that I inserted because I did not want Ardus, the protagonist, to have too many human shoulders on his journey. And each of these characters has particular characteristics, a story that, if they were human beings, would not have made sense. Each of them has a reason to be that particular creature, which wouldn't have worked if they were humans or other types of animals. And it's funny because they talk!
