Flavita Banana, cartoonist: “I take antidepressants. There are still people who do not see that 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 copies of her new tome,

(Wow!), are transported to the room where she will sign them and welcome her readers, she croons, exultant: “Fat books, fat books, 19 boxes of books.” fat”.

Contrary to what could be deduced from the titles of her cartoon collections (

Archives ,

Archives ,

), this cartoonist based in Barcelona does not focus on astronomical matters, but delves into everyday and current issues to comment on contemporary reality, almost always underlining their absurdity, sometimes their hypocrisy and sometimes their delight.

More information

Feminism according to Flavita Banana

As a child, being a cartoonist had never crossed her mind: “I had 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 masculine job, because I was contrary.

But I didn't even know that cartoonist was a profession.

And note that it has ended up being fulfilled, because this is a rather masculine trade ”.

It was at an open house at the university when she considered studying something related to illustration: “At that time I was doing my scientific baccalaureate and I was good at getting good grades.

But that day I realized that I had to choose something for the rest of my life.

I got into a psychology class to try and I rubbed myself.

But suddenly, I entered a small classroom, where they were giving a talk on arts and design.

It was all so quaint!

The college building,

Since the Escola de la Massana in which this degree was taught was private, her mother could not pay for her studies, but she did not give up: “I told myself: 'Well, I'm going to work, it's okay!

A challenge, come on!"

Doing "unthinkable juggling", she completed the four years of her degree and then three of a higher degree in Illustration working "everything".

“Now I think about it and I think it was quite noticeable that I paid for the race.

I tried to get the most out of each class because I felt every euro in every hour, ”she recalls.

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

Since 2021, she has published day in, day out in EL PAÍS, but when she was first hired by the newspaper for

magazine in 2014, she was working in a computer company.

“The Pacheco sisters, who were doing the strip for the magazine, decided to leave it and proposed my name.

Suddenly, after Forges passed away, everything was replaced in the newspaper and I started to be there on Sundays.

And recently they made me a little hole without necessary deaths in the Opinion section, ”she recounts.

At first she 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: “If you draw to fit in with a certain audience, the deception doesn't last long.

I think we've experienced a mutual evolution: before I touched on more everyday topics and now I've opened my sights a bit, I've started to talk about the world, politics, society.

And I have also met older people who like my work.

For example, the man from the tobacconist in my neighborhood.

They kind of look at me like I'm a unicorn, you know?

Because someone who works for the newspaper that they like drawing pictures seems to them something very mystical”.

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

In addition to talking about feminism, in

the illustrator addresses the issue of dependence on mobile phones, social networks, and technology.

“I started criticizing that we were so addicted, but I am starting to get a little more involved with those who complain that we are addicted, because this is going to continue like this, and it will last a long time.

If you want to live bitter, scandalized with the use of mobile phones, it's up to you! ”, She exposes.

There are also quite a few cartoons about the pleasure of reading and the imagination of children.

“As a child I was very pedantic, a know-it-all.

In my house reading, study, everything that had to do with culture was encouraged.

Since I was lucky, I try to show children and women who read in the cartoons, so that the people who do it without that support from the family do not feel so alone, ”she clarifies.

How would you define your style?

-Rough.

Rough.

Dirty, ink level.

More a means than an end.

What is something about you that people don't expect?

I take antidepressants.

And I think I'm going to take them for a long time.

There are still people who do not see that relationship between humor and sadness or depression.

Sometimes, with the cartoons, I try to give life advice to be better.

And there will be those who say: 'How lucky she is!

She can give them because she's okay.'

But I'm fine for a process.

Lunar Archives

begins with a note from the Catalan comedian Andreu Buenafuente.

In it, he writes: “I consider Flavita an advantageous relative (and a lot) of what we will call the 'comedy family' or 'people who, with the shield of laughter and irony, defend ourselves from an increasingly hostile, unfair 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 to her.

And from there she all gushes out ”.

When the interview is over, the illustrator rushes to hug more people who just arrived.

Flavita Banana in 10 cartoons

The cartoonist comments on some of the best cartoons from her new volume

.

1. Accept our body

Cartoon by Flavita Banana from May 18, 2022

2. Travel reading

3. Espionage

4. All Saints Day

5. Refugees from Ukraine

6. Reduce plastic

7. 'Co-workings' and retirees

8. Mobile addiction

9. God does not listen

10. Productive education