Back at the studio

Indeed, we're back at the studio after a woderful time in Peru. The Lima Comics festival was wonderful, the people were great all around, and we met old friends and made new ones. Gracias a todos.

And then there was the rest of the peruvian trip, to Cusco and Machu Picchu and all that it entails, which I can't even try to write about now, in the little time I still have today to write, because this was a incredible life-changing experience. I just hope I can channel all the energy and all the amazement I felt while there and create new and exciting stories, stories where I will look and feel as curious and puzzled and hungry to know more as I was when looking at man-made places with 7 metres tall rocks like the ones we found in Saqsayhuaman, where I took this picture of Bá.

Challengers before Peru

We leave tomorrow for the Lima Comics Festival in Lima, Peru. Before we finish packing, I wanted to put our latest entries on the Daytripper Challenge.

Elisio da Costa wrote from France. He stopped at Album Comics in Paris on his way out of the current Moebius Exhibition and bought his copy there on a Saturday. Apparently, he also bought the first Casanova trade that day, and these two books came home to keep company with the first two Umbrella Academy trades.

J.E. Latosa is yet another Phillippino fan and got his copy at the National Bookstore at the Sangri-La Plaza mall in Manila. He joins the shy rank of challengers, but we like him anyway.

So, here we go again on the road. We'll be part of two panels in the Lima Festival, one on the 19th and one on the 20th, so if you're in Lima, come check the festival out. More informations on their facebook page.

See you there, or somewhere along the way.

Challengers no hablam inglês

It's strange that these last three Daytripper Challengers do not have english as their first language (but I guess I'm exaggerating if I consider that one of them found the book in Washington). Also, all three of them know us personally or have met us before.

Loris Z. is an argentinean artist from Buenos Aires. We met him at the CRACK BANG BOOM convention in Rosario last year. He has a very strange project regarding a book about sex, written by a priest many years (centuries) ago, and people draw on its pages inspired by what is written on that particular page, and both Bá and I have contributed to the project.

Natasha, a brazilian friend of ours who went to university with Bá a long time ago, was traveling and found a copy of Daytripper in a Barnes&Noble in Washington, DC. It was on the "new releases fiction" stand, alongside other "regular" books and in prominent position, and not hidden in the sometimes obscure Graphic Novel section of some bookstores. I hope this placement worked for our book and for Barnes&Noble. Thanks, Natasha.

Carla Rodrigues sent her picture from Portugal. I'm not sure if she lives in Lisboa or other portuguese city, but she met us also last year during our stay at the Beja Festival. She hasn't read the book by the time she sent the email, so I hope she likes it when she does read it.

For the third week now, Daytripper has been on the New York Times Best Sellers list in the graphic novel category, and for the third week, it appears on the list at #1. We're very happy and grateful, and hope that many more people still have the chance to discover our story and, maybe, send us more pictures.

Back to work, we all want more comics, right?

A sketchy girl

This was my warm up sketch this morning. I got a little carried away, so it took me the entire morning.
I liked it, though.

Figure drawing 2011

Every chance we get, we go back to figure drawing sessions. It always helps, no matter what style you have. We have been fortunate to have found a great group that gathers every week, and with a great and diverse rotating team of models.

These are from some of the latest sessions.

International women's day

GULA inking and the DHP variant

I love inking.
I made a video of some of the inking on my new Casanova GULA cover.
I hope you like it.


Also on the cover front, the folks at Dark Horse Comics announced my variant cover to the second issue of the new Dark Horse Presents anthology. I'm thrilled to do a cover for this comic book. I still remember how hugely influential it was to me to buy Dark Horse Presents when Sin City just appeared on the anthology, or when I read a Hellboy story in it. And then, when the anthology relaunched online, I was super happy to be part of it with Sugarshock, and now it seems the anthology's path crossed with mine once more. I really like the fantasy and science fiction feel of this cover, an homage to some of the greatest things to explore in comics form.

Here's the sketch and final version side by side, to show how much I really saw on the initial idea, and before that doing the final version was way easier.