The zero issue of the TMEO magazine was presented in the Media Luna Park of Pamplona, a few meters from the bullring (halves! ), with the chords of Tijuana in Blue. It was published in the capital of Navarre during the first five years, and in Vitoria-Gasteiz since 1992, every two months, by Ezten Kultur Elkartea. They are based on a slope of the Casco Viejo, in Herrería Street, 54. We were surprised not to see any signs or logos at the door. “Before we had a hanging poster, but when Charlie Hebdo happened I took it off and until today,” says Joaquín Delgado Kini, a veteran of the TMEO: “Now it may seem silly, but I was scared. It blocked me, it was incomprehensible to me, it made me so angry.” Kini is accompanied by Iñaki Larrinbe Larry, one of the longest in the magazine. They have told us the 30 years of TMEO’s journey, making a little stop to talk about the role that humor plays.

30 years. What has changed all this time?

Iñaki Larrinbe ‘Larry’: I’ll tell you what hasn’t changed: we’ve worked quite chaotic from the start. We have a board of directors that works in an assembly, but today each member is in a city: Kini and I in Vitoria, Abarrots in Barcelona, Mauro Entrialgo and Álvaro Ortega in Madrid, Furillo in Zaragoza. We used to see ourselves more, but now with the Internet... The Internet, yes, is what has changed; it has facilitated relationships with collaborators. The first drawings were sent by everyone in their own way. Much progress has also been made in layout. As for the sale, the bar network has been important to us from the beginning, and it is true that before the atmosphere was more intense, more live concerts, fanzines...

Joaquín Delgado ‘Kini’: As Mauro [Entrialgo] says, “I found the inspiration before in the bars and now on the Internet.” A large number of mythic bars have been closed in Vitoria-Gasteiz, where a large number of TMEOS were sold. Almost every day the taverns were on the edge of the neck, and now they only open on Fridays and Saturdays.

Larry: That's why we've changed the journal's distribution system. We've seen that we have to be in the comic book shops, also in the newsstands, because the people of our generation don't go to the bar to buy TMEO. However, bars remain basic. Above all they and the small shops are the ones that put ads in our house by militancy. There are people who have been doing advertising for 30 years.

Kini: I don't know how many more beers will be served to announce...

Larry: We do not ask for subsidies or accept advertising from large companies, banks or political parties.

Kini: They never offered it to us... Let us hope, yes, something we put in the early days, that of the Government of Navarra. It was a drug campaign. We had a passionate discussion about whether we should accept it or not; at the end of the day we put it so funny that it seemed like a joke of Temeo. When institutions try to put them on the street level... [laughs].

They mention the distribution system. What has changed?

Larry: We used to spread it everywhere. Now, the kiosks of Euskal Herria are brought by one company, to the comic books shops of the Spanish state another, Elkar puts it in their stores… A few years ago we failed economically to try to distribute the magazine massively throughout the state. We received two awards [the prize for the best fanzine in Europe in 1988 in Grenoble and the best Spanish fanzine in Barcelona in 1989] and, of course, we thought we were the biggest. In 1991 we made that huge distribution, and in '92 we got a vacuum.

Kini: Well, we never had a penny. There are numbers that work better, but for the van you buy two wheels and you're done, the money is gone. That time he saved our socks.

Socks?

Kini: Yes, we didn't have money to buy paintings. Then, the guy who distributed TMEO in Pamplona told us that at home he had an average that had been in the laundry basket for some time, where he kept the coins and checks he had collected by the sold copies. He looked in the basket and picked up 40,000 pesetas. Well, thanks to that.

You mentioned bars. Do you attend the comic or book fairs? Durango, for example.

Larry: So far we have gone to Durango, but from now on we are considering what to do. The cost of installing the table is EUR 2,000, to which must be added the cost to the worker. We have MTDs at 4 euros. Whoever sells books for 15-20 euros has margin, but we... We have been in Barcelona, in Zaragoza, in Getxo – 25. When we were honored on the anniversary -- but it doesn't work. The audience at the comic book shows is not a reader of TTMEO.

Kini: In Durango we are a bit rare avis, all with products in Euskera and us there.

TMEO is presented in Spanish, except for some history. Do you intend to give more space to Euskera?

Larry: The problem is that it opens up to the state. It would be best to have two editions, one in Spanish and another in Euskera, but that requires a lot of work, translating, labeling… We are not going to ask for subsidies; we have raised it, but we do not want to insert the government logo because...

Kini: We also had internal discussions to put the barcode in. It was offensive to many. In this regard, some fanzines have maliciously told us: “With legal deposit!” Before, there were Basque people, Machas, Abarrots, Patxi Huarte… People from Pamplona. Now there's only Txako, but if two or three more come, we won't see you.

TMEO is very “male” if you look at the number of collaborators of women and men...

Kini: Yes. The comic book in general is a pretty male world. What's the reason? I don't know what to answer.

Larry: Just like in music, to give you an example, here we also have more boys than girls. That, of course, is reflected in the content. The hooligan character, the eschatology... symbolizing the journal, are surely more directed to the children. What were we ever going to happen? It's possible. In any case, when women have come to our house, we have taken for granted. Their view is, moreover, more savage than that of many men.

How do you choose from the comics that come to you?

Kini: We don't have a fixed criterion, although we have a score table to measure different aspects. It's about making it TMEO style and we like it.

Larry: If you're sent six pages of manga style, it's easy to decide.

Kini: Other times it's more complicated. Some people think that like TMEO, we're going to publish them with ipurdi-titil-pixa jokes. No, it's not that. Jokes should have a message. If they have beautiful drawings but they do not transmit anything, if they are not graceful… There are stories with two sketches that have a great content, but in other cases…

Larry: Gurea is a magazine of humor. This is the main filter. We make humor with a dose of criticism.

Do we have to put limits on humor?

Larry: A thousand times we've said, comics are the graphic representation of humor, an artistic expression. There are no limits, like it's not in a movie. Does a theater play, art, have to have limits? No. The law recognizes the rights to cartoon and parodia.Los comics are drawings, it's fiction, it's not real, no one has died by reading a comic book.

Kini: But it can offend her.

Larry: Yes, but there is no right not to be offended. It’s going to happen to you, it’s going to hurt you by a joke… But if you’ve censored an artist and put him in jail you’ve been offended... Don't bother because maybe you kill a gun fly. It is true, however, that in this country we have the National Hearing and that we cannot insult religious sentiments or victims of terrorism. You should be careful with three things: With the Crown, the Church and the victims of terrorism.

Do they play wisely?

Larry: No, we're ours. Insults to the crown? But what exactly is that of insulting the crown? Once we were in court [for drawings of members of the royal family], but the judge saw that it was nothing but a joke and had no consequences.

Kini: Some of the skins that we did in the past are enough to send us to jail. Those in power may not know PZY. I think so, but surely you know that we have stoned the whole Christ in these 30 years. Have we ever respected anyone? How against the crown? We have acted against everyone, and sometimes also for everyone. We've played many times with ambiguity, it's a smart humor. Political justice has bloated a lot lately; punishing someone for a joke about Carrero Blanco...

Larry: There's the police spying on what people say on Twitter. Go out, go out into the street and stop the men who are killing women! It's normal for you to be bothered by some things, a joke, or it rains, but the pain, the insult, is inside of you. What do we want, not to tell jokes? The key is to get the joke right, if you get it you can make humor with anything.
Which jokes work best?

Kini: It is difficult to respond, but perhaps those who laugh at authority, those of ETA. Well, ETA is not authority -- well, no, but it has [laughed]. The thing is, nothing else happens, you have about 4,000 jokes on the Internet. To make it work, you have to guess how to flip another round, which sets you apart from others, whether it's with the crown or with ETA.

Does disarmament play a role?

Kini: Yes, but in the new issue we have not brought the surface. It's the wolf's tale. We have three covers that show that ETA has left the guns. It is an important issue, and we have dealt with it on the internal pages, but ETA has already made us change the covers three times. To the devil with her!

In these times when living from the comic book is almost impossible, TMEO collaborators also work musutrus, with militancy. So I can stand for another 30 years? Who can pass the witness?

Kini: The future is the next issue, a special issue on the 30th anniversary [will be number 142]. We're a disaster whore, and what are we going to start planning?

Larry: We are chaos. I always say, “This number doesn’t come out,” and it comes out.