The Sock Thief publishing house was born in 2021 with the idea of making books so beautiful that you feel the need to have them and give them as gifts, that cause a pleasure similar to finding the lost pair of a sock. Last month he published his fifth title, The revolution only has you, a compilation of texts by the illustrious Ceferino Galán, who for more than 35 years publishes the oldest fanzine in Spain, The shipwreck. Nacho Casanova is in charge of the illustrations, also editor, with whom we have spoken to learn a little more about this atypical publisher and its new artifact.
In addition to being an illustrator, you are the editor of The Sock Thief. Where does the publisher's name come from??
Almost all the names of my projects contain a story. And I like that they lead to starting a conversation in which I can make up a lie that's funny enough for everyone to have a good time.. In this case, more than a story, I was interested in a sensation. And it is true that that unexpected, extremely pleasant and simple feeling of recovering something lost – even if it is as irrelevant as the pair of a sock – is very similar to the feeling that I want to evoke with my titles..
In May the publisher presented its fifth title, The revolution only has you. The revolution, love or passion are some of the themes that appear in it, treated with humor and some bitterness, cynicism even. What else will we find in it?
We will find knowledge in the form of pearls. Phrases that are jewels, pieces of wisdom that will help us find happiness in the midst of this morass of hopelessness and darkness. We will also find extremely minimalist and cryptic drawings., that contain stories that are somewhat more complex than they seem at first glance.
Ceferino Galán signs the texts, author since 35 years the oldest fanzine in Spain, The shipwreck. What can you tell us about Galán as an author?? What do you have The shipwreck to have been awarded twice by the Barcelona Comic Fair as best fanzine?
Ceferino Galán is a wise man, repository of what he himself calls The Manual, a container of doctrines and truths with which to navigate life with –relative– success. Not much (no need to draw attention) not a little (It is not easy to live with frustration). What I have told you should make him the winner of the Barcelona Comic Fair Award absolutely every year and there would still be few..
In this sense, Ceferino explains that the fanzine has to be successful for it to continue publishing, but relative, so it doesn't become just another post. Does that explain why The Sock Thief makes runs of only 200 specimens?
Well yes. Many of the pearls of wisdom of The Shipwrecked have been applied to The Sock Thief, hence the relative success of our titles. There are more things, like the gifts on the back cover of our first editions, that make them almost unique objects.
And what about numbering them by hand as if they were a silkscreen?? Are you looking to cover them with the aura that a work of art or an artist's book gives off??
Indeed, continuing with previous answer, That is part of the experience we want to offer our buyers.. We want to involve you in a very special project, making you feel very special..
Failure is very present in Galán's fanzine, Is it also somehow in The revolution only has you?
Of course. Everyone who makes the revolution knows that, win or lose, another new revolution is coming. Our success – and our failure – will always be temporary. This gives us peace of mind to face it..
Galán affirms that a fanzine always has to surprise. Will it surprise us The revolution only has you? Because?
Surely you are still not aware of how necessary it is The Shipwrecked and our Revolution. No problem, Start reading and you will see this question answered naturally.
In addition to illustrating and editing this book, For fifteen years you have been publishing simple and poetic drawings on the back covers of The shipwreck. Collaborate with The shipwreck has influenced your way of illustrating? In what sense?
All the work I have developed for The Shipwrecked has been shaping visual codes that today I recognize as mature and solid. Working from texts by Ceferino Galán has made me reach places that I would not have been able to reach on my own..
Do you have fetish objects that appear recurrently in your creations?? What is special to you??
Not so much fetish objects as recurring iconography – yes –. Some as obvious as the snake (the revolution), life (the paper boat), love (the water), humanity (the globe)…All of them are my hieroglyphics, the words with which I build my visual sentences.
You draw objects that do things but are not anthropomorphic and your people appear objectified and reduced to the minimum expression, It is not known if they are men or women, whether they have long or short hair, if they are dressed or naked. Because?
Because they are generic concepts, never concrete. A person walking with a goal – or any other circumstances – is all of us: some will be men, other women; some will wear glasses or not; either they will be intelligent or not... and so on. It is the best way to universalize concepts: strip them of all specificity.
How did you manage to bring Isabel Coixet on board for the prologue of the book? Did you know Galán's work as editor of The shipwreck?
Ceferino Galán told me that Isabel Coixet buys him shipwrecked and ArsLibris, a self-publishing and artist book fair in Barcelona. What follows is a somewhat anticlimactic story: We wrote to his office offering him the possibility of writing the prologue for this title and his assistant told us that she would be happy to do it and that by when we wanted it and in how many words. We gave him this information and on the appointed day we received what was promised.: a more than deserved revenge against the figure of Cupid. Someone had to do it and she was the one who took the bull by the horns. We couldn't be more grateful.
Until now your books have had a very marked style: square format, Cloth binding on hardcover, title and author stamped with a tap on the cover… Why in The revolution only has you you have broken with this scheme?
I have opened the format because Ceferino asked me to do so with arguments. Although I think we could have done it in my format, I also didn't see it necessary to get stubborn just because.. In this case, The editorial project has been in the hands of two people, and we've both given in this and that. And we are both delighted with the result, that although it is not square, It is tremendously special to the touch..
Within an oversaturated publishing market, you dedicate six months to the preparation of each title. Lack of time or militancy in doing things slowly and for pleasure??
The second: we only work with love. With a lot of love. and like love, You have to do it slowly and with full concentration. We are not capable – nor do we want to learn – of doing things differently..
