Forse e perche siamo gemeli...

Our stories are told to the world. As much as we think about our life when we create our tales, our life isn't that much different from the life of others, no matter where they live and what language they speak, so we know that, as long as we deal with people, feelings, emotions and relationships, our stories will travel far and find someone who likes them in every corner of the world.



This week, we received our italian copy of Autobiographix. Slightly bigger in shape than the american edition, the book of real stories from this great team of cartoonists has now a new language, and the same characters have now learned new words.

24seven.

My brother and I love New York. It is, by far, the closest we found that feel like Sao Paulo, our hometown. A city that never sleeps, where you can find the most different people, from the most unusual places, and where people work hard and meet and make things happen. Our kind of place, that's for sure.

When we were asked to be a part of an anthology of stories set in NY, we were really excited, and then we heard there was a bonus: NY with ROBOTS. How could we say no to that? Even if we could find some impossible reason to decline the kind offer, there was still the company in which we would be in case we were to be in fact part of this work. And, as much as it was an honor to be in the same book with Frank Miller and Will Eisner in Autobiographix, so it is now to be in the same book with Becky Cloonan and Eduardo Risso, the most talented artists working today, and also our friends. There's no saying no to that.



Today, the first official press release went out at Newsarama, offering as an preview one of the short stories from the book, and what was my surprise as I discovered which story it is there for the world to see. Click here for the Newsarama preview of the book, which features none other than our robot story.

This sweet baby will be out in July, in time for the San Diego COMICON, so grab your copy and go to San Diego to get it signed by us.

Together.

The best thing about working with my my brother is exchanging ideas all the time. The excitement we're always getting when we have a good idea is doubled as the other also likes the idea one has.

We have been coming up with a lot of new stories and it feels great to create.

I now remember why I want to do this for the rest of my life. Sometimes, I forget.

But I remember now.

Women on the cover sell more books.

So...

Fabio tells me I'm not contributing a lot with this blog. He tells me I gotta say more things, write more texts, show more images. Fabio tells me I'm gonna be a star and people will come here to see what I have to show. Well, I don't know about that, but lets try to show some stuff, then.

As you might have seen all over the web now, the cover for the second issue of Casanova is out there. So I decided to show 3 steps of its production.

1. The layout - I did a small sketch and scanned it to try on the colors and the logo. Note the resemblance with the first cover: purple figure, with orange elements over a white background.



2. The B&W art - I just love black and white. Don't you?



3. The final version - so, those "feathers" on her back were not working and the white cover has already been done on issue #1, so I tried the black background and it actually worked a lot better, making the main character pop up. Black is your friend, it is what I always say.



I am keeping my palette restricted to the oranges and purples for now, because I want all these covers to have this unity. Although the covers have to work for every single issue, I want people to realize it is all part of a bigger story.

So, I hope you like these images, 'cause I don't know when I'll be back here again.

Who's reading?


I often think about who reads what is in here. Chances are that, after the first issue of Casanova comes out, more and more people will end up here, but still we already have some visitors and they - you - are quite shy.

Don't be.

Here's a question: From what you already heard, saw and read, what do you think of Casanova?

A present for a friend.

A just made this drawing for a friend, and since I did the water-colour version on a different sheet of paper, I had various stages (three, actually) of the same image to show. So I'm going to show them here.

First, there's the thumbnail, where the idea just born in put down on paper so it won't get lost.

After that's done, and after the idea is approved by my brother (just because we were going to share the present), I went to pencil it. I usually do very loose pencils, but not completely messy. If I were going for just a black and white piece, I would ink it on top of the pencil, using the same paper, and then later I would just erase the pencils that were still visible.

This being a coloured piece made me use my light-box to "clean" the pencil on a different piece of paper.

I coloured the drawing first, then I went over the colours with my brush and inked it. I something ink before colouring, but I find it that, this way, the colours end up leaving the black "less" black. Dirty black, so to speak.


We (my brother and I) are huge fans of black and white comics. However, I have to admit that sometimes it's very nice to play with colours. Specially if your making a drawing to give as a gift to a child.

Small fiction.

"Do you know what day is today already?" , the brother asked his twin.

"I know. we're taking too long", replied the twin.

"We're probably gonna blow our chance", they both thought at the same time, in silence, afraid that, if they said it out loud to one another, they would be done with and all would be over.

"It was a nice day", one of the twins thought. They were both looking at the sky, and they were walking close to one another, so it was really hard to tell their thoughts apart. "Today's a good day for new stories" was something that came out from one of the twins heads. "That girl coming our way is kinda cute" was another. Many other ideas were thought that afternoon, and for a moment they were good ideas, but somehow, by the end of the day they all seemed silly. The twins called it a day when a dog barked at them from a fence. It was such a small dog which considered so little of the two brothers that they realized they weren't in very good shape to impress anyone.

"We'll think of something tomorrow", said the brother to his twin.

"But... Do you know what day's tomorrow already?", replied the twin.

Working.


Sketchbook drawing to leave this place alive while I'm still working on some boring storyboards.