I don't get it.

When it comes to doing what you love, it doesn't help trying to explain how things work, even if they do, to people that only want to know how it ends. They'll always miss the important bits.



New things are moving. Slowly, but forward. We still have a lot to do (don't we always?), but this week and the next hold the promise to be the busiest from the entire year.

Maybe I'm wrong, and let's hope that this is the case, for we certainly need to keep working to get things moving.



Anyway, Eric Stephenson asked for four pages of the first thing we'll be publishing with Image to go in the next PREVIEWS. Or something like that. Off they went, and soon we'll see how that goes. Considering that Smoke and Guns will be out in the stores by September, I hope people's awareness of my work will be higher for when the first Image comic book arrives in November (or is it in October?).

Back to work, shall we?

At the space station.

Over at the AiT site, there's now all the info on how to order Smoke and Guns, on a page all it's own. It also already has some nice things said about the book.

Fast forward, present time.


sketch made on Becky Cloonan's sketchbook.

Back to work. Back home.

If the trip to San Diego (and then New York) didn't make us any richer, it made us healthier. After two weeks of heavy walking around, almost always carrying heavy bags, I feel like I'm a completely different person from the weak thin guy locked inside his basement drawing all the time. Now, I just need to keep up with the walking and somehow do that at the same time as I stay at the drawing board.

Some things move slowly, but they move forward. One of these things is our collection of stories coming out from Dark Horse next year. It's finally happening, and it's all ours: our stories, our words, our artwork. It's all our fault, and we wouldn't have it any other way. Much more will be said about this on the next months, as our job is far from over.

Now, back to work. Back home.

Cigaretters and Ice creams.

Over at the Jim Lee's blog, Jim himself talks a little about his time at the Isotope Comics Store and Lounge, where he got to read a certain fun little tale of Scarlett and the other cigarette girls.

Variety review
It appears that VARIETY has the first review of Smoke and Guns. My "terrific inky art" really enjoys the compliment.

The last words of the con.

watercolor by Fabio Moon.
Like an image from the past. Like a dream come true. That's what this year's convention was like.

A Dark Horse deal.

An Image deal.

Actually, two Image deals.

A lot of fun.

A lot of friends.

A lot to look forward to...

... And a lot to do.

The look from the inside.


From left to right: F‡bio, B‡, Kako, Shane e Bruno.

It is just great to do what you love. It is great to do comics. And it is great to see your comic in your hand


this is the italian Ursula in my hands.

I've been doing some watercolors at the AiT/Planet LAr table every time I sit there for autographs. They are simple but they look nice. Here are some of them:





It's great to have the book out.

My brother us also doing sketches at the convention. He took a picture of one of the nicest ones he did.



Tomorrow is the last day at the convention. We'll actually have a lot of new stuff to tell. Dark Horse, Image, Portugal, you name it.

But that is tomorrow.

Off we go.


Good things start with a nice cup of coffee. And so it's with a cup of coffee that we shall start yet another trip to the Comic book convention in San Diego. It's the ninth time we go. Yes, the ninth.
Sometimes we think we're already getting tired of all this convention business, but we go anyway. Even if we think we have seen it all, every year we see and do something new.

We just had to learn how to look, and there it was.



We go to the comic book convention for the people. There are lots and lots of them, and most surely never heard of us, and we believe that we can help them get to know what kind of work I do. There's so much out there, so many booths, so many independent artists, so many comic books that look just the same as yours (well, not the same, ours is cool, but people don't know that yet) that you need to talk people into looking inside your cover. Let them decide if they like what's inside, but make them know you exist.

Let them look for it in the crowd, and see if whatever they see smiles at them.


To look the part we're playing...



It's simple and we like it that way. It has some strange portuguese words that only our brazilian fans will understand, but that's our card and it serves it's purpose. Anyone interested in sending us e-mail, just click on the card. We probably won't answer before the convention is over, but eventually we'll get to it.

I hope we have a safe trip. And a fun one, while we're at it.

Where, when and why.

Larry Young put the signing schedule for the AiT booth #2001, where you'll find that we'll only be signing there starting Friday at 1 p.m., then Saturday at 5 p.m., and finally Sunday at 12 noon, which only goes to tell you that Larry really thinks we're sloppy drunks who won't EVER get up before noon.

He's not that wrong, actually.

All in all, I'm sure he just moved us around to accommodate the scheduling of his big star artists and writers, all of which have very important meetings to attend and panels to deliver. My brother and I, we'll just enjoy our time in the Space Station as much as we can, and everybody's more than welcome to bring your copies of Ursula or Smoke and Guns for us to sign.

If we're not there, we'll probably be at the Terra Major table (R16) at the 1900 aisle, where we have also brand new artwork on the Gunned Down western anthology they just released.

If we're not there as well, we'll then be in very important meetings of our own, as we're also hard working twins and we have high hopes for the coming months.

C'era una volta una storia d'amore.



Clicking HERE, you'll see another good review of the italian version of Ursula. This one is a little longer, shows a little more of the story, it's pictures, it even has a very grumpy portrait of the brazilian wonder twins.

It feels strangely familiar to have a love story published in italian.

Sitting, drawing, talking and pizza.

I'm doing a new story. My brother is doing another story. We're both working at the same time, as we have already learned that we work better if we're doing it at the same time.

If you're a comic book artist, you'll find that you spend a lot of time alone, sitting on your drawing board, away from the outside world and from more pleasurable things, like sun, fresh air and the company of your friends. It's very easy to get lost on your own thoughts when you spend so much time alone, with no one to talk to, no one to show your daily work. That's the reason it's so good to work with my brother, who's my best friend and is the best bouncing board I could hope for.

Feedback is the key to a better tomorrow. You learn from your mistakes and it takes somebody else to tell you what they are. You could find out on your own, of course, but most of the time you're just to close to the problem to see it, and you need an distant look.



Next week, we'll be gone to San Diego. Before that, we're running like crazy, and that mainly consist of sitting in front of a blank piece of paper thinking of new pages to do and show.

We could use more coffee in the process.


It seems this is the first italian review review I've found in italian for Ursula. Reading very slowly, I was left with the impression that it is a good review and that the person who wrote it liked the book very much.



Brian, the khepri.com uber internet retailer, just let me know that those who want to order Smoke and Guns online can do it HERE. Great price, Brian.

Self-delusions of the artist - part 2.

The possibilities are many.
You can do whatever you want.

Some people think comics are too connected to super-heroes. Nowadays, manga is also spreading like a virus on everybody's shelves. Well, maybe not everybody, but surely on most kid's shelves, since manga has already arrived linked with a variety of "brothers": the video game kids are playing, the cartoon kids are watching and the clothes kids are wearing. It's very easy to get the attention on kids when you surround them with all this different products and they all look alike. You start a trend and it spreads.

But comics are not just super-heroes or manga. They're not only for kids, even if some of those supposed to be for kids have forgotten that and are trying - and failing - to appeal to grown ups.

Comics are just a window of possibilities. You can open this window and you can see anything on the other side. Just like books, just like movies, just like plays, comic books should - and will - go in every direction and tell all sorts of stories.

If it's not there yet, just wait.

And keep your eyes on the ball, as you don't want to be left behind.

Self-delusions of the artist.

You feel you can do anything. Doing comics, you feel like you can do anything. That's how powerful is the joy of the storyteller, of the guy who will create worlds for others to live in.

You think you can fly.

You believe you can be faster than a speeding train.

You can't see through wall.

It's even better.

You can see through people's souls.

A new look.

You can identify an artist by the way he looks at the world. Every story begins with a single look, which is the artist's, and it's his vision that will translate whatever world he sees fit to us, readers.

The images are words the artist will use to describe this world.

To tell his story.