We're loving comics right now.

The future looks bright. Comics lie ahead.

Ba and I have been talking like crazy about the new projects we'll be doing next year. Some have already started, some are about to start, and some we just started talking about.

Talking about is fun. That's when the energy is all there, in the creating stage of things, when our only limits are our imagination. After that, our imagination will have to go through our hands and our deadlines, and that's when the monsters will be born.

The belly is getting bigger, so surely it won't be much longer now.



Our box of Casanova 5 arrived only yesterday. We had some problems with customs and the box got held up for a week or two. And now we're rereading the issue and enjoying it immensely. We can't wait for the reaction of the reader about issues 6 and 7, though, as Ba is once again doing stuff he's never done before in order not to repeat himself.

He's working on issue 7 right now.

Suit day.

Today is the day I'll finish drawing the new book, "The Alienist". It's going to be a long day, but it will be worth it all the while.

One step back.

Taking one step back, here's Ba drawing the panels I put on my last post, using his regular pencil and his very loose pencil lines.

Note how much Xeno is just a box with glasses.

Leave a message.

artwork by Gabriel Ba for Casanova 6.

We hardly talk on the phone. Maybe I'm too much of a close personal contact kind of person, but I don't like phones all the much. They're fun to draw (specially if they're very old, or just don't exist yet), but boring to use.

Anyway, our phone doesn't even ring that much. We're working so much that we don't call anybody, and everybody knows we're working, so they don't call us.

Also, phones are distracting. Sometimes we want to be distracted, but more often than not, we're working, and the phone takes us of our working mood. I know some people who can work and talk on the phone at the same time (I know an awesome inker who inked with a brush, talked on the phone and watched TV all at the same time), but that's not for me. I pay too much attention on my very loose pencils, and then I leave to much to decide and have fun on the inking, so there I can't talk also. Maybe if I didn't have to hold the phone, but alsothat feels funny (CRAZY, more like it).

I'm ten pages alway from finishing the new story, so probably friday will be another suit day. Pictures will be taken, and maybe I'll make a short film of it. I guess this time around I'll even wear a tie, but it might get in the way of the inking.

No man is an island.

Here is the latest interview with Matt Fraction about Casanova. He talks more about how difficult it is to write the book. And how rewarding.

Ba also thinks it's very difficult to draw the book, with so much going on, so much to show, and to make it all look easy and clear.

So far, Ba have done an incredible job making it look good, and making it look easy.

This week, Casanova 5 hits the stands. Go read the "Island" issue, go get lost in it.

Ba's drawing amazing pages this week. My jaw is on the floor. And I'm drawing in this situation. It's not confortable.

Best shot of this morning.

Michael C Lorah did a very nice review of De:TALES here at the Best Shots article of the week, at Newsarama. It's nice to see the book still finding it's way into people hands, and to find a review even in the middle of a bunch of mainstream comics (and next to a Neil Gaiman reviewed book).

And, down on the comments section, a reader also chips in his two cents about the book.

Thanks for the numbers.

HERE, we see that Casanova is now climbing it's way on the top 300 comics of the month, going from the 200th spot of issue 3 to the 175th spot with issue 4. Thanks for all the Casanova readers for supporting the book, and enjoy the last three issues of this season, as Ba is drawing like crazy and he's doing it just so you have fun.

Too much to think about.

When you put all your books side by side and realize they're pilling up, you need to start taking yourself more seriously.

I always think about "What have I already done?" when I'm coming up with a new story. Also, I think "What haven't I done yet?".

"Am I saying something different with this new story, or it's just more of the same?"

"Am I saying anything at all?"

Maybe I think too much about comics and worry too much about what the story is about, and maybe that's why I'm not the perfect candidate to only draw other people's comics.

I had fun drawing the stories others have written, I've learned a lot, and i drew stuff I would probably never have drawn in my own stories.

I'm a better artist because of these stories.

But are the stories better?

Do they say anything I can believe and relate?

I think too much, I guess.

And that's not a bad thing.

Tipical.

I often start a story like this: an idea, a sentence, an image. More of an attitude than a specific look.

Happy birthday.

birthday card I made for my mother today at three in the morning, after I finish inking a page.

In-between.

I've been looking for something to write about. From the distance, I thought I had nothing new to say, but it's when, slowly, I got a closer look at my current life that I realized what a joy it is to create comics.

I'll write about that.

It's wonderful to create a sequence of panels and make them work together. Alone, each panel can be a nice image, but it's when they work together that you see the story that happens in-between them.

Characters think from one panel to the next.

We zoom in.

We build up the tension.

What will happen next?

This are tools used in comics that can enhance the reading experience, but if they also enhance the drawing experience, bringing to the artist the same joy they bring to the reader, that's when this artists feels he's in the right track.

That's when we are reminded of the kid in us, that little shy boy (or girl) who sat for hours reading comics trying to guess what would happen next.



I miss the world, being at the drawing board every day (and night). No one to talk to, no strange things to see. Well, if you count the city light poles fighting late at night, and the explosions they cause in result, you might get something interesting to talk about later. But still, I miss the world.

I hope the world misses me too.

Rest in peace.

strip by Gabriel Ba.