Paco Roca

Costa fer un comentari d’aquesta obra sense que soni pompós o sensibler. Però és que feia molt de temps que una lectura no m’humitejava els ulls.
Clar exemple d’història petita, quotidiana i personal que s’acaba convertint en la teva història personal i , alhora, en una història universal. Exercici de memòria sentit, pausat i emotiu. D’aquelles lectures que acabes amb ganes de rebre una abraçada mentre deixes que els teus records surtin agredolçament pel llagrimall. show more
Preciós. Paco Roca segueix en estat de gràcia. show less

I'm about 50/50 with Paco Roca projects. I loved the geriatric misadventures of Wrinkles, but this excursion into memoir disappoints with its blandness.

The first section, from Memorias de un hombre en pijama, are all one-page strips with lots of jokes about dating, being a cartoonist, and working from home -- or rather, wandering around one's apartment while procrastinating. Each page is pretty dense, usually with 12 panels, setting up and paying off what are pretty mild or cliched gags, show more including some about running out of ideas for the strip, which was apparently appearing in some periodical in Spain.

The second section, from Andanzas de un hombre en pijama, revives the strip with a 12-page time-travel epic before settling back into 2-page gags -- now with nine panels per page -- about being a cartoonist and family man. It gets a bit meta at one point as it examines the many ways Roca's avatar in the strip -- the "man in pajamas" of the title -- is a fiction.

The third section, from Confesiones de un hombre en pijama, bookends 2-page strips with a couple longer stories. Having used up so much the slice-of-life material, Roca gets political, creating essays about economics, colonialism, anti-capitalism, and universal healthcare.

None of the above is bad, but it didn't do much to stand out in a field crowded with graphic memoirs about cartoonists and their home life. Being set in Spain didn't bring as much of a new slant as I thought it would. And Roca's tendency to include dozens of celebrity cameos -- Groucho Marx, Superman, the Pink Panther, Alfred Hitchcock, etc. -- didn't actually do much to enliven the pages.

FOR REFERENCE:

Collects three volumes of the Memoirs of a Man in Pajamas series: Memorias de un hombre en pijama (2011), Andanzas de un hombre en pijama (2014), and Confesiones de un hombre en pijama (2017). show less

A fairly engrossing historical fiction about World War II from the perspective of Miguel Ruiz, a Spanish Republican who flees Spain at the end of its civil war only to enlist with the Free French army in order to continue the fight against fascists in northern Africa and France. Half of the book is set in the present day with Paco Roca inserting himself into the story as he tracks down and interviews the elderly, grumpy and taciturn Ruiz. It's a nice reminder that the allied forces in Europe show more and Africa consisted of more than just Americans, the British and the French and a dark reminder of how the Spanish people were left to suffer under the oppression of Francisco Franco at the end of World War II. show less

This sedate yarn of sunken treasure and political intrigue is classified as a thriller, but only under the loosest of definitions for that genre. What little action there is mostly happens off-screen, with the exception of the shortest and least exciting car chase ever.

Ostensibly, this is the story of treasure hunters finding a treasure trove of gold and silver coins that has been on the ocean floor for centuries. But we skip the search and discovery and jump right to the legal wrangling of show more who actually owns the treasure. The tale is told from the perspective of a low-level Spanish cultural ministry official who becomes involved in the legal filing and paperwork to stake Spain's claim, and -- in an unexpected twist for the genre -- he never really does anything but paperwork and administrative tasks. Mostly, he serves as an audience for anyone in the story who needs to make an exposition dump.

This is a roman à clef by a former Spanish diplomat who was involved in similar circumstances during his career. If he had written this as nonfiction, I think I would have been interested in the details, but as a work of fiction it's just too dull to win me over. show less