Wednesday, September 29, 2010

ATELIER and the time machines


It's hard to keep secrets. What's the fun of knowing something only you know? You gotta tell someone, let somebody knows how special you are for having a secret, and how special the other person is if you decided to share that secret with him/her.

At the same time, we do comic books and, as such distinguish creators, we practically live in a cave when we're working, so while we're actually working, it's very easy to work and keep it secret. Comic book artists are crazy scientists creating time machines or interdimentional portals inside their studios, and at some point in the story, we reach the moment for that surprise turnaround scene where we see the scientists actually built two machines instead of one.

We've reached that moment.

We started doing this two months ago, when we were thinking about our convention trips to NYCC in New York, CRACK BANG BOOM in Rosario, Argentina, and Rio Comicon in Rio de Janeiro. We realized we didn't want to go to three conventions in three different countries where three different languages were spoken and have nothing that could be presented, read and understood at all three. We travel to talk about comics and to meet the readers, sure, but the primary point of interest in the comic's world is the work, and we wanted to have work to show (we always want to have work to show and stories to tell). In the spur of the moment, we decided that, in one month, we could crank out a new comic that by the power of comics could work in three different languages, and if we could finish it in a month, we could send it to the printer and have in ready in time for our first stop: New York.

One month later, we were calling the printer to check out if they got the files.

What else can I say?



It's at the printer, and should be ready any moment now. And then it will be real, in my hands, and soon enough. in yours. That's how's supposed to work, and it's the beauty of it. We've just built another time machine and it's time to put it to work. Can you feel the turning point coming?

Now, it's great to have friends, specially if they're in the crazy scientist profession like ourselves, because it's always better, when you're alone at night drawing endlessly and with little to no hope, to know that, if you look through the window at the tower of your friend's castle, lightening bolts and explosions can be seen, heard and felt, and you know that, by the time you finish your monster, there will be a monster friend to keep it company.



As we pack and get ready to travel with our new comic, we know that we'll be in great company as we saw our friend Gustavo Duarte produce his second comic, also in the dead of night, also in secret (not really, but let's keep playing our roles), and also in time for NYCC, where he'll share a table with us to present the world TAXI, his brand new thing. Let me tell you, it's beautiful, but don't believe me and go see for yourself.

We'll be at table F4-F9 on a giant booth at artist's alley, along with Ivan Brandon, Rafael Albuquerque, Ariel Olivetti, Andy MacDonald, Leandro Fernández and the incredible Becky Cloonan. we'll have copies of ATELIER, CASANOVA, and stuff. Fun stuff. Check it out.

See you in a week, or in another convention, or soon.

4 comments:

Nicci said...

Sounds brilliant!! ^_^

Hee, and I'm the same. I always end up with something extra when I'm jazzed on all that creativity... ^_-

Noute said...

That sounds like a great book. I can't wait to meet you in NYCC and tell you how much I love your work. Daytripper is probably the most touching comics I read in a long time.
See you there!!

CasinoGrande said...

Will you be distributing copies online after the shows?

I have a softcover version of De:Tales, but I'll buy the hardcover if that means I can get Atelier without having to go to New York, Argentina, or Brazil. (Nothing against them. I'm sure they are wonderful places. Just a bit out of the way.)

Chelsey said...

I love how you guys come up with the most original and fascinating ideas! I can only come up with a few pages and then I don't know what to do from there. Super excited for this one!