Inside detail - Late for coffee

De:TALES comes out on wednesday. Because of that, I'll write something about some of the stories, and why this book exists.

I think that personal contact is important when you're trying to sell your work, your story and your art, but the story is, in the end, the most important point of the equation. No matter how many conventions I go, how many editors I meet, how nice or good looking I am, it's the quality of my story that will get the job done.

And that's exactly what happened.

My brother and I had met Diana Schutz when we finished Roland, as we gave her a copy of the story for her to read - and then for her to give to Frank Miller, who had also just finished 300. That was back in 1999 or 2000 (my brother remember these things better than me, but anyway).

A year later. we had Ursula to show, and she noticed how much better the art had gotten, but since it was only the artwork we were showing, the conversation could go only so far.

Back in Brazil, in 2001, after meeting her and so many other editors, we started working on other stories, and trying to come up with more serious ones. At the time, we were contributing to an brazilian anthology, and we focused our efforts into stories for the anthology. Out of that effort, we did Late for coffee.

I'm very proud of that one. It was probably the only time we completely divided roles, as I wrote everything without Ba's help, and he then drew the entire thing himself. We talked a lot during the process, which is one of the advantages of working side by side at the studio, and we found the best angle for every scene.

After we were done, we translated it and, alongside with the next story we did (Other Words), we sent it by mail to Diana Schutz. Some months later, we received an email from her

She had read it, and, aside from how much the art had improved, she was impressed about how much she liked the story.

The story.

That's the most important point of the equation, in my opinion.

But the art in this story is one of the most beautiful things Ba have ever done.

Makes you want to fall in love and makes you want to cry.