The first time Jordi Pastor, still a child, held a comic in his hands, something changed forever in him and marked a path he would travel for the rest of his life. "At that moment I wasn't aware, but that was a before and after for me," explains this incorruptible early riser at the bar, who, first thing in the morning, enjoys his first coffee of the day and eagerly reviews the pastries.
There would not be such a clear turning point in his existence again until the birth of his son. Only, by then, he would be more aware of all the changes that entailed.
--- Should I leave the radio on or do you want to listen to something specific?
--- If you put on Nick Cave, you make me happy.
"I'm a comic artist, I've worked as an illustrator in different fields and now I combine comics with teaching at the Joso School," explains this forty-something from Barcelona, author of notable works such as Padre, Reacción, Encuentro, Vaquero, Transcrepuscular or his very recent Pulp, los Tiempos Heroicos (Planeta Cómics).
As an illustrator, he has illustrated works such as Catálogo de Bunkers, with a script by Marcos Prior, Khalid, with a script by Damián Campanario, La Chica del Templo, con Kidoo, and has adapted Tolstoy's Hady Murad and Voltaire's Cándido, hand in hand with Marcos Prior. He even ventured into cinema, with some short films such as La Victoria de Félix, which was a finalist at the Sitges International Film Festival in 2008.
An unstoppable activity that makes him proud of "the certain regularity with which I publish," in addition to that characteristic fact in authors and storytellers of all kinds and stripes: "Knowing that my work can provoke some reaction in those who read it, whether good or bad."
A Pulp Story
In 2013, Francesc Caudet passed away, leaving behind a body of work with thousands and thousands of titles that elevated him as a pillar of the Pulp fiction manufactured in this country: that generation of storytellers who, at a book a week, satisfied the voracity of readers of all classes and conditions, who tirelessly devoured genre adventures printed in small volumes, familiarly called bolsilibros and published by editorials such as Bruguera, Helios, Toray or Fórum.
The friendship that the late Caudet maintained in life with Jordi was the trigger for him to embark on the task of telling, through the rich and eventful life of the all-rounder writer, the history of that popular, universal, pocket-sized literature, which did so much to alphabetize this country.
Thus was born Pulp, los Tiempos Heroicos, Jordi's brand new graphic novel which is in the launch and presentation phase, while, calmly and slowly, its author works on several projects, such as "the second comic adaptation of Emilio Bueso's novels, which I am already finalizing for the Gigamesh publishing house".
Each neighborhood, a folklore
Like so many other Barcelonans, the cartoonist and artist abhors "real estate speculation" that so affects the habitability of a city with which, however, he remains in love: "It is the city where I was born and raised. I love getting to know it, I never stop doing so."
--- Do you always discover something new?
--- As I have lived in different neighborhoods of Barcelona, I always try to learn the folklore of each one.
And he then fondly recalls when he lived for a season in Barceloneta. "I fell in love with the figure in Barceloneta square, the figurehead El Negre de la Riba. I even dedicated a short story to it in the compilation Barcelona TM".
Jordi silently sips what is left of his coffee and concentrates, eyes narrowed, completely still, on the notes that Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds dedicate to the legendary figure of the Texan bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson.
Finally, he speaks:
--- Wait for Cave's song to finish playing and then you can turn off the transistor.