Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá's blog

TCAF in May

2012-01-28T16:29:00.000-02:00

We've been invited as special guests to TCAF, Toronto Comic Arts Festival, that will take place on May 5th and 6th, at the Toronto Reference Library. Other guests include Jeff Smith (Bone), Alison Bechdel (Fun Home), Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet) and Bryan Lee O'Malley (Scott Pilgrim), among many others (full guest list here).
And they've asked us to do the art fot this year's poster, so we were extremely happy and honored. I hope you've liked it and also hope to see a bunch of people there and have lots of fun.
And let's hope it's not too cold in May.

Inspired by fashion

2012-01-26T19:42:00.002-02:00

Fashion week just happened here in São Paulo and I did a sketch inspired by some of the outfits.

Super models.

Cool clothles.

I like it.
Don't you?

Daytripper gets a 5th printing!

2012-01-24T14:30:00.000-02:00

Thanks, everyone, for all the love we've been getting for Daytripper. It's beyond our highest dreams.
And all the international editions (Spain, Italy and Brazil already; France, Poland and Denmark on the way) keep adding more excitement to this wonderful party. Once again, thank you!

We're working hard on all our other projects to keep making amazing, challenging comics.

ffff

2012-01-12T14:27:00.000-02:00

Self Portrait

2012-01-12T14:25:00.001-02:00

The new year is here.
Let's look ahead, and be adventurous.

FCBD Serenity story

2011-12-22T11:30:00.001-02:00

That story I did I just wrote about on the last post? It's a Serenity story, written by Zack Whedon, and it will be one of Dark Horse Free Comic Book Day's offerings. Yes, FREE!
The interview I did about it? It here on this link so you can check it out. If you want, you can also check it out what the writer has to say about the story on this other link, and than you'll discover my book will actually be a flipbook, and the flip story is a Star Wars story with Han Solo and Chewbacca! How cool is that?
the month of May can't arrive soon enough.

1. You can see how my thumbnail sketch looks like when I'm showing it to the editors and writers. This is how I get pages aproved.
2. The final panel.

Almost time

2011-12-20T20:46:00.002-02:00

My drawing board can almost rest for a few days at this year's end. Bá and I are working on a poster, and then all I have to do is to start planning for 2012.
I just finished a new short story. I already answered an interview about it.
Bá is kicking ass on new Casanova issues, and after that I'll take over once more for the forth arc.
We've been having new ideas, but we know ideas might take a long time till they're stories, so we preffer to wait until we have a book to talk about the book. Ideas are like a girl who smiles at you: you feel warm inside, you feel special, but then it takes a lot of work to win that girl over. Lets first do the work before we introduce anybody to our new "girl".

Still, I think 2012 will be awesome.

Life drawings

2011-12-09T16:30:00.001-02:00

Some of the drawings Bá did this year at the live drawing class. Not one took more than 10 minutes, but these range from 1 minute to 5 minutes each.

Matt Fraction in Brazil

2011-11-18T14:49:00.001-02:00

It was great to have Matt and Kelly Sue in Brazil, even if only for a little while, and even if we didn't see each other all that much with us having to handle our booth and Matt and Kelly Sue writing and reading and walking around the cool parts of the city.

Back to drawing comics now. These puppies don't get made all by themselves (or, how I would have said to Kelly Sue, "and that's why we have Mario").

Look for this on November 23.

2011-10-31T11:09:00.000-02:00

I'll have a new story on the sixth issue on the Dark Horse Presents anthology, out this month. Also, I did the cover, which looks like this:

The two new stories I did this year were for traditional anthologies. One for DHP. The other story, a three pager, I did for a traditional Argentinean anthology which now has a brazilian incarnation.

X-Men in Rio

2011-10-17T23:08:00.000-02:00

We've been busy here in Brazil, Daytripper has just been released here and we're having a blast with the "national" response, but I decided to stop by and put these two images up. We're heading for Rio de Janeiro later this week for the Rio Comicon and, since one of the internaitonal guests is long-time-all-star-X-Men-writer Chris Claremont, I took some time to pay tribute to a part of the history of the X-Men, and of comics, which deeply influenced both Bá and I, and I colored these two pieces we made in July as part of the CBLDF that took place in SDCC this year.

We'll meet up with our friends Bob Schreck and Paul Pope while there, as they're also guests of the show (the festival in Rio is amazing), and we'll try to show them a good time, brazilian style.

Floating world of original art.

2011-10-05T15:12:00.001-03:00

Last month, the comic book store Floating World hosted, in Portland, an art exhibit of original Casanova art (which you can check out on this link of Matt's release of Casanova: Avaritia #1 on the store), and now it's time to celebrate the release of Habibi, Craig Thompson's new book, and again Floating World will have a great art exhibit of Habibi-inspired pieces of artwork from several artists, and Craig invited both Bá and I to contribute.
We felt honored and pumped up with the challenge and, if you find yourself in Portland this month, don't miss the chance to check out the results. And buy Habibi while you're at it, it's a wonderful book.Casanova: AVARITIA #2 is also out in stores today, so lucky you, Casanovonaut who is craving to know what happens next.

Lots of different stuff and a São Paulo pinup

2011-09-29T15:59:00.000-03:00

We've been busy with new projects, lots of drawings and conventions here in Brazil. I'm working on the new CASANOVA: AVARITIA issues, we're adapting a Brazilian novel into a Graphic Novel, we're working on a illustration book and we're also trying to put new ideas together. All that while we tour around the world to spread the love for comics.
Well, this is one of the illustrations I just did for a poster of a concert, a simphony about São Paulo.

Initial sketch was made on a notebook, 3 inches tall.

I don't usually do this, but this time I have printed the sketch bigger and used it as the skeleton for the pencils, just because I liked the composition so much and it would be very hard to get it right on the bigger size artwork. I'm working on a A4 size here, not that big in fact.

Inked version, using Micron and Staedtler pens.

Since I have scanned the pencil, I noticed how nice the paper texture turned out to be and how it would dialogue well with the city. I decided to incorporate that into the final artwork.
The pattern on the sky is a tile pattern typical of São Paulo, with a very clever use of tiles forming the shape of the state.

It's kind of my homage to Katsuhiro Otomo as well. I always loved how his cities are more than just backgrounds and are treated as characters, his light and shadows and the use of zipatone and patterns in the black and white art.

Well... Back to work.

Pug loves you

2011-09-21T11:08:00.000-03:00

Casanova, strip and stuff

2011-09-14T20:59:00.001-03:00

I know we're already twins and we can do double the amount of work, but sometimes I could use an extra pair of hands. We've been busy.

Bá is going strong on Casanova Avaritia pages (thumbnails shown above) and I just finished our weekly strip (we publish a weekly strip in Brazil's biggest newspaper). It's weird how some of our world will take a long time to be published worldwide, and at the same time other works of ours, being done at the same time, will be puvblished in the US fast and will take a long time to be published in Brazil. It's like we can't please everybody, which sadly I think is true.

The Scream Awards! You can vote for us until October 18th, but why wait? VOTE NOW!
(Our comic doesn't have vampires or zombies, but it's ver cool anyway.)

Habibi, which is Craig Thompson's new book, is awesome and it comes out next week. Check out the book's website to see if Craig is doing a signing near you and go get his great book. Bá and I will have some Craig-related news soon.

Back to work.

Daytripper nominated for SCREAM AWARDS!

2011-09-08T10:51:00.000-03:00

Our beloved Daytripper has been nominated to the Scream Awards on the "best Comic Book or Graphic Novel" cathegory. Please give it a shout and vote here.

CASANOVA is back... AGAIN... FINALLY!

2011-09-05T17:05:00.000-03:00

On September 7th, the wait is over. Even people who have not been waiting will have not to wait any longer, because that which they did not know will be known at last. Yes, confusing. But yes, amazing.
The new CASANOVA : AVARITIA series starts this wednesday, a four issues series, each chapter with 32 pages filled with crazy, sexy, complicated and fun sci-fi stuff for people who really give a shit about comics. Written by super-star Matt Fraction, art by humble me (yet, awesome art by humble me), hand lettered by Dustin Harbin and colors Cris Peter. Published by ICON!
And if you're one of them, you might like to know that Floating World in Portland has an exposition of original Casanova pages during September, pages ranging from Luxuria, to Gula and the freshly started AVARITIA. Go check out the amazing black and white artwork, just to compare to the great color work Cris Peter is doing on the series.

Well, what are you waiting for?

Dark Horse Presents 6

2011-08-30T18:31:00.001-03:00

September is right across the corner and, while we're really producing several new stories, most of them are still very far away from any clear publication date, except for Casanova-AVARITIA, the new arc which starts coming out NEXT WEEK, but Bá is drawing this arc, not me. So, with that in mind, I'm doing a story for issue 6 of the new Dark Horse Presents anthology. This is the only new story I'm writing and drawing which will be published this year in the US, and it's only 8 pages long. I gave my best to make each page count.

I received the invitation to create a new story shortly after I did the variant cover for issue 2, so I can say the original inspiration for the story came from that cover - or from the idea which inspired that cover - but it went on a completely different direction. A better one, if you ask me.

I thought it was very nice of my editor to invite me to do another cover, this time for the issue my story will be in, and what I came up with is the image below:

I never forget how important Dark Horse Presents was for my brother and I, how in it we discovered Sin City and Hellboy, how in its digital rebirth a few years back I did Sugarshock with Joss Whedon (for which I got an Eisner Award) and how it still publishes and celebrates creators with a personal voice. I'm thrilled to think that in this issue my story is in there's also a new Jill Thompson story.

This issue only comes out in November, but it never hurts to give people the heads up.

A new face

2011-08-29T22:46:00.001-03:00

We've been meaning to change the visuals of our blog for quite some time, and today we decided it was time to skip working on what we were supposed to be working on - a three page story for a brazilian anthology, the script for one of the new things we're now writing, new Casanova pages from this new script Matt sent and some other things - to write a little code, choose some images and give our site, its blogs and our web presence a face lift.
This is the forth time, in more than 8 years, that we changed how this blog looks, and I hope we can keep it the way it is now for another good chunk of our lives, as we're getting further and further away from the modern and current web-design technology, and it's getting harder and harder to do this all by ourselves.
In the past few years, we ended up dividing our web presence in all these several social medias, from Flickr to Youtube to twitter and facebook, leaving around images, videos, other links and several words and thoughts born on the heat of the moment (and only written in these other virtual places), so I hope the links on the side bar are helpful for those trying to keep track. I'll be happy if it makes it easier for me.

I fished these images from 2004, when we redesigned the blog for the first time. I still like how simple and effective these animated gifs are, and maybe I'll put some new ones on here from time to time.

Just before I go, I like to leave here an update I think we already said in all those other social medias: since they cancelled the Wizard World Los Angeles, we won't be traveling to the US this year anymore. We, like many, had made plans for that convention, for another chance to get to know L.A a little more and maybe see some of our friends who live there, but I guess this will have to wait. The positive side of this is "more time to write and draw new stories", which I think it's what we all should focus on.

Harvey Awards winner

2011-08-22T10:12:00.003-03:00

Thanks once again for another moment of unforgettable joy. This has indeed been an amazing trip.

Happy together around the world.

2011-08-06T20:15:00.001-03:00

After our great time in San Diego this year, crowned by the Eisner Award we received for Daytripper, we returned filled with the creative energy contained in all works of love, and it was great to come back home with that feeling that the stories we tell are being read. We had a great time inside the convention on our super booth with the always great company of our talented booth babes - Becky Cloonan and Jill Thompson - and our faithful and hilarious brazilian companions Rafael Albuquerque, Gustavo Duarte and Marcelo Braga.

Outside the convention, the great hang out place and creative outlet was of course the Tr!ckster store and bar, where the new generations met the old, where comics were praised, studied and respected, and where we created art in all its forms. In all our 15 years of SDCC, it's always this kind of energy that keeps us coming back, and this time the Tr!ckster was the place to find that energy - and to pass it around.

Back in Brazil, there's always a lot to do, and right now the final preparations for the release of the brazilian edition of Daytripper are being made, but already we are on a new trip - to AFRICA. We're in Luanda right now, capital of Angola, as guests of Luanda Cartoon, an international comics, animation and cartoon festival, and it's great to see how our work is understood in other portuguese-speaking countries. We crossed the Atlantic and yet, here we feel somewhat at home, sharing the same dreams, the same inspiration and the same difficulties. We still have some days here in Angola, let's see what else we can discover as every day here is an adventure.

In the end, every day can be an adventure, no matter where you are, if you have the spirit and the heart for it.

Daytripper - Eisner Awards 2011 - Best Limited Series

2011-07-24T08:05:00.001-03:00

DAYTRIPPER!!

2011-07-23T12:39:00.001-03:00

THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!

FODA!!

SDCC auction for the CBLDF

2011-07-18T15:04:00.003-03:00

As explained here and here, once again we're participating in the CBLDF auction that takes place every year during SDCC in San Diego. We were thrilled to be able to use characters we grew up reading, and by the scenes we did, you can see when we got hooked up on super heroes.

Both our booth (1320) and the CBLDF booth will have signing cards of those images, but imagine how great would the original look on your wall.

See you in San Diego!

SDCC MADNESS!!

2011-07-13T19:48:00.003-03:00

SDCC is around the corner and we're running like crazy here. But that's the way to go.

We'll be sharing booth #1320 once Again with Becky Cloonan, Jill Thompson, Rafael Albuquerque, Gustavo Duarte and Marcelo Braga. We'll have ATELIER, CASANOVA: LUXURIA TP and fresh copies of the CASANOVA: GULA trade. We'll have some copies of the DAYTRIPPER TP, but not many. Well, maybe we'll have more comics in small quantities.

We'll bring some original pages to sell as well.

And we'll have POSTERS!

We'll put our signing schedules here next week.

See you then.

Harvey 2011 nominations

2011-07-04T15:05:00.002-03:00

The nominees for the 2011 Harvey Awards have been announced and there's a lot of good stuff in there, lots of friends nominated!

And we're really happy to be nominated for the Harvey Awards on two categories: Best Contunuing or Limited Series and Best Single Issue or Story.

Thanks once more for this year full of good vibrations for our beloved story. We never knew we'd come this far and we don't really know where we're going next, but we had a great time telling this story and all this feedback has only been showing us we might be going the right way.

Killjoys

2011-07-02T13:29:00.001-03:00

On July of 2010, during breakfast on the hotel inSan Diego, Gerard was showing me the concept images for My Chemical Romance's new album, "Danger Days: The true lives of the fabulous Killjoys". I got so excited with that, and considering that the same concept would turn into a comic he's gonna do with Becky Cloonan and Shaun Simon, I told him I'd make a drawing when the album came up, that could be used as an alternate cover for the comic or a poster or something.

Well, the album came out last november and my drawing ended up being a promotional poster on their U.S. tour, so I hear.

Here's a step-by-step production process of the drawing.

Amazon's Best of 2011

2011-06-28T11:22:00.002-03:00

Daytripper has been selected as one of Amazon.com's Top Ten Best Books of the Year So Far on the Comics and Graphic Novels category.

This has been an amazing year, full of rewards that only refuel our love for comics and make us want to keep creating new stories forever.
So let's do it.

Solstice

2011-06-21T15:59:00.000-03:00

Summer solstice at one side of the world, Winter solstice at the other. Both ways, there are stories to be told, thus work to be done.

I just finished a cover, which the editor liked and have already been sent off, and so off I go to this short 8 page story which I've been planning since April, when the idea was born. It's a strange thing, going back to short stories after the 220 pages of Daytripper, but in a refreshing sort of way, I think it's just what I need. These days, it's easy to get carried away and only come up with big epic ideas, ideas which will take many pages - and many years - to get done, and there are some periods in your life, and in your work, where a smaller story is just the right size to fit that moment in which you want to work and, at the same size, still have time to gaze at the world and see what the tides might be bringing my way.
I hope that the next time I have something to write about in here, this short story will be over, and I hope this happens in the next two weeks.
Back to work.

Solicitation for Casanova Avaritia #1

2011-06-14T15:53:00.000-03:00

The wait is over - or almost - as Casanova is once again solicited! This is the moment all of you - or at least many of you - have been waiting for: 100% new Casanova issues. No reprints. No old material. New story! New artwork! New color palette!
Our new arc, avaritia will start in September, and the solicitation goes like this:
CASANOVA: AVARITIA #1 (of 4)
Written by MATT FRACTION
Penciled by GABRIEL BÁ
Cover by GABRIEL BÁ
From the writer of Marvel's smash hit FEAR ITSELF and the artist of the best-selling book Umbrella Academy comes the FULL-COLOR rebirth of the coolest comic of all time -- CASANOVA IS BACK and NOW YOU can see what everybody's been talking about. THIS ISSUE: The world's sexiest and savviest superspy kills his way from dimension to dimension in a high-stakes, action-packed adventure that cannot be described in a mere human "solicitation." !!! 32 ALL-NEW FULL-COLOR PAGES. PREORDER THIS BOOK! IF YOUR RETAILER CAN'T READ YOUR MIND, YOU CAN'T READ 'CASANOVA.'
40 PGS./Mature …$4.99

CASANOVA- AVARITIA 1 cover revealed!

2011-06-03T15:04:00.000-03:00

In September, everything in the Casanova universe will be new. New storyline, new artwork, new mood. And here's the first brand new cover!

If you like the cover, wait until you see what the interiors look like.
All the best, and back to work.

Daytripper gets two Eagles

2011-05-30T11:38:00.003-03:00

Over the weekend, during the MCM Expo London Comicon, took place the Eagle Awards ceremony, and we're very happy that Daytripper won in TWO categories.

Yes, we're happy. And honored. And we feel blessed, and it's incredible to think how far this story of ours is going, how many people are reading it, and how it appears they like it. This story means a lot to us, and it's great to see how much it means to others. This overwhelming feeling only inspires us to keep going, pushing ourselves harder and telling new stories.
Thank you all so much for this worldly support, and let's get back to work.

Sketch

2011-05-15T14:38:00.000-03:00

Thinking about a new strip, the sketchbook by my side.

Casanova GULA trade, coming in July

2011-05-13T16:42:00.000-03:00

CASANOVA: GULA TPB
Written by MATT FRACTION
Penciled by FÁBIO MOON & GABRIEL BÁ
Cover by FÁBIO MOON
Casanova Quinn is a secret secret agent, and a pawn in a game of espionage-chess played by his father Cornelius and the forces of E.M.P.I.R.E. against alllll the bad guys in the whole wide world. When a mission goes haywire and Casanova disappears, all hell breaks loose across the span of the space-time continuum itself. As archrival Newman Xeno conspires to break both the laws of man and physics, the fabric of all-that-is begins to fray. Clearing the way for that delightful little Armageddon is Casanova’s twin sister, Zephyr, killing her way through a blood-soaked hit list that ends with their father. All this as a super-vixen from the future scrambles to unravel the mystery at the heart of it all: WHEN IS CASANOVA QUINN? The sex is sexier and the violence is violent-ier in this, the second breathtaking volume of CASANOVA, the comic that Entertainment Weekly calls “Sexy... gripping and darkly funny.” Collecting CASANOVA: GULA #1-4.
160 PGS./Mature ...$14.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4863-0

Figure drawing

2011-05-05T12:30:00.001-03:00

Here's Bá training.
A little practice never hurts anybody, even if you already "know" how do draw. There's always something new to learn, to think about, to consider.
Most of this poses were just one minute poses, some were three minutes long, one or another, five minutes long.

DIGITAL TWINS!

2011-05-03T16:33:00.004-03:00

We love comics. And we consider ourselves old school, because we like comics made by hand, on real paper, to be printed on paper and read on book format by people. Although we will keep making our comics to be printed, digital comics are here and the tablets and readers are also becoming a growing reality that we can't oversee.

Every publisher is putting their comics out there to be read on digital readers, and our books are among them. So now you can buy and read our comics online or on the device of your preference, and take them with you whenever you go.

Now you can get Daytripper on Comixology here.
You can read Daytripper #1 for free.

You can browse Dark Horse Digital and get all the awesome comics they publish.
Regarding our comics, you can now get Umbrella Academy series 1 and 2, our Eisner nominated De:TALES, or our horror comic PIXU, made with our good friends Becky Cloonan and Vasilis Lolos.

The important thing is that people can read our work. We'll keep writing, drawing. We'll keep telling stories.

We love comics.

Slim and shorty

2011-04-25T09:58:00.001-03:00

Slim and shorty.
That's how I think about Cyclops and Wolverine. Maybe over the year Cyclops might have gotten a little stronger, it's possible, but Wolverine should have stayed short. Adamantiun bones don't stretch.

The wild hand.

2011-04-20T19:24:00.000-03:00

"Do you want to hold them?", asked the little girl in the floating house docked in the middle of the river.

I hesitated. That was a very big snake, and even the alligator, which was only a baby they caught earlier that day, had a big enough mouth to do some damage to my hands.

The snake skin was shiny and beautiful, but slippery. and seemed almost detached from the muscles, so I had to hold tight while the girl cautioned me "not too tight". As my hand touched the snake, she started moving, slowly at times, but steady, and I could feel just how strong she was. She could crush me, I thought as I put her around my neck and over my shoulders, and this could be it. She wouldn't hold still, which made me nervous and made it difficult for Bá to take a picture, but how could I prove to the twenty years old me, who swore he would never try to hold a giant snake, that I was in the middle of the Amazon river (called Solimões river right there before he meets the Negro), alive and well, holding that sucuri (Anaconda for the gringos) and that baby alligator and looking at trees wide as a street and tall as a building?

This was one of the highlights of our trip to Manaus,capital city of the state of Amazonas here in Brazil, which included research for a future book. This, alongside our recent trip to Machu Picchu in Peru, made us want to create stories as impressive and astonishing as the experience of travelling to incredible places.

I returned home wanting to tell about the things I did and saw to my friends, and I wrote some of them, only to discover that my friend Craig Thompson was packed and ready to leave on a trip to China, so I'm sure an equally impressive experience will inspire him the same way I was inspired by these trips. Safe journeys, Craig, and see you in a bit.

Back to work, it's good to be back.

Nominated

2011-04-08T12:34:00.000-03:00

Yesterday, the nominees for the 2011 Eisner Awards were announced and we were nominated for best limited series with Daytripper. We're happy.

The ceremony will be in July 22nd, during SDCC. There's a lot of work ahead of us before that, but it's nice to have this to look forward to while we work.

Thanks for all the support, and congratulation to all the other nominees.

Coordinates challenged

2011-04-03T18:02:00.000-03:00

Just as we returned from our trip to Peru, one of our computers seemed dead. It didn't turned on any longer, and it looks like it won't turn on ever again. We had almost everything in back-ups, and we can still retrieve information from the drives, but while we don't do that, I remember one email that is stuck in there about a guy who sent his picture for the Daytripper Challenge from Russia, but I don't remember his name anymore, and the city he was from. Once I retrieve the email info on my hard-drive, he shall be named. I tthink he was the only one stuck in there, but I'll only know in a little while, so let's carry on with all the other emails we received.

German Torres wrote from Barcelona, having bought his copy (the spanish copy, not the english one) of the book online.

Jack Leask bought his copy at Blue Moon Comics in Novato, near San Francisco.

Liliana Vera comes from Sonora, in México, but bought her copy at a graphic novels and boardgames convention in Monterrey, Nuevo León, México. She wasn't sure she would find a copy, and was very happy when she did.

Rebecca Hawkins is a cruise ship musician, and bought Daytripper in Brooklin just before leaving for another period overseas. She emailed us from Grenada, West Indies, and send us a picture from her travel journal.

Michael wrote from Barnaul, in South-West Siberia, Russia (or 53º17'27"N 83º38'52"E, as he described it). He got the book through Amazon and likes the idea of putting books from tropical creators through the very different climate of Siberia.

Back at the studio

2011-03-29T21:57:00.000-03:00

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

2011-03-15T19:41:00.000-03:00

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

2011-03-11T19:44:00.000-03:00

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

2011-03-09T17:28:00.000-03:00

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

2011-03-09T17:00:00.000-03:00

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

2011-03-08T13:44:00.002-03:00

GULA inking and the DHP variant

2011-03-03T18:14:00.000-03:00

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.

Monday challengers

2011-02-28T13:06:00.000-03:00

Way to start a monday, right? Comics to read, comics to write, comics to draw. And, all around the world, the notion that something you did is being read.

Hubert Pacheco (or Hub, as he signed his email) is a photographer from Manila, and gets his comics at the same Planet X comics store that Danry, our first Challenges, goes to. Because he already had all the individual issues of the mini series, he decided to improvise on the challenge picture. Nice work. The comic he's reading in the picture is a printed version of the webcomic he's doing with his friend Teddy, called Work in Progress, so I'm including the link for those curious to check it out.

Alan Hess got his copy of Daytripper, and mostly all of our previous work. He's a fan from Boston, so he might be glad to know we'll attend the Wizard World New England Comic Con in September 17-18th.

Ryan Claytor got his copy at 21st Century Comics in East Lansing, Michigan, right on the first day it hit the stands. For someone so fast on the draw that day (look at his flash-like pictures), he sure took his time to send us a picture, but I'm glad he did.

Finally, Taylor Pithers sent this from London via twitter. A pure act of unthinkable impulse, typical of twitter.

We're three weeks away from out first big trip, our convention trip to the Lima Comics festival, in Peru, so we'll need to focus more on the working and less on the blogging to get all this stuff that needs doing done in time for the trip. February is over, and it's time to switch gears in our production speed.

Thanks for all of you who sent pictures, or who reads the books or who love comics. All of the above, separately or together, are enough reasons for us to keep doing what we do. We like to tell stories and we're happy to have people to tell them to.

Back to work.

Out of the ordinary challengers

2011-02-25T11:20:00.001-03:00

We had an incredibly diverse week here at the Daytripper Challenge centre, receiving letters from all over. Some of them included details or stories of the wheres and the hows and I'll do my best to incorporate it in here somehow.

Rémi Gérard-Marchant sent his picture from Paris. He ordered it online, so he decided that the perfect setting for a picture would be in front of the Centre Pompidou because, in his own words, "it would be perfect to have a contemporary art-form together with a contemporary art centre". It made for a really graphic picture, and the blue on the pipes goes really well along with the blue on the cover.

Andreas (on the left) and Sebastian are brothers and they ordered it online through Amazon.com. Andreas had to wait 23 days for his copy to arrive to Sweden, so he already read it several times to make up for lost time, and then he made his brother read it as well (as a form of punishment?) and now they agree it's one of the best comics they've ever read. I like when brothers agree on something.

Rana is still waiting for her copy of the Graphic Novel, but decided to take a picture in front of Mega-City Comicon, in Camden Town, with her copy of issue 10 of the mini-series. Good luck with your mini-series, Rana, and continue to have fun doing comics.

Melissa Evans lives in Adelaide, Australia, where she said that every comic book store in town (there are three) had sold out of Daytripper. She made a reservation on one of the stores for the next batch of books, to make sure she wouldn't miss another chance.
The day came and she got her copy at Pulp Fiction Comics (and she wanted to mention that she would like to thanks Adelaide Comics Centre too, because she bought the single issues of Daytripper there, and that's where she buys most of her collection), but you'll notice in her picture she's holding two copies of the book, so there's another story to go along with the second copy.

She bought a second copy to give away, and not to a friend, but to a total stranger as an out of the ordinary act. Quite the romantic. As she wandered around her small city, she found this young man sitting under a tree, eating his lunch. She went to him, said hi, he said hello back. When asked, he told her he didn't read comics (which is what she was hoping for), so she asked if he would consider reading one and, when he accepted, she said "Well, I have a comic for you" and gave him the second Daytripper book.
He asked if she was the author.
"No, it's just a really great story and I'm hoping you'll enjoy it", she answered. They both smiled, he said thanks, and she left, leaving me (yes, me) and everybody reading this curious to find out what will the mystery stranger guy find of the book he so kindly got.

Here's the picture of the stranger. I hope you'll enjoy it, too.

It's great to see our books in places we've never been. It's the power of stories. Hopefully, one day I'll go to Sweden, Australia, or back to London or Paris. For now, as long as my books get to travel, I'm happy.
And thankful.

The Buddy challenger

2011-02-21T15:10:00.001-03:00

The Daytripper Challenge continues. We're happy that our book is getting in everybody's hands, and we're thrilled people keep sending us pictures.

Jeremy Holt sent us his multi-picture-tale of how he got is copy of Daytripper via Amazon.com, and that he was greeted with it by his girlfriend and their dog, Buddy. As he tells on his email, Buddy is also a great fan of the story and hears it with great attention as Jeremy reads it out loud on the sofa. As the picture show continues, Jeremy reminds us that he also met us in NYCC, where we gave him great advice about self publishing and creator owned comics. I'm happy to see that the interaction with fans and creators in conventions is still a great way to keep people inspired and hungry for more.

Back to work around here. I just finished a new cover, and now I'm on my way to do another one. Bá is making some magic on his new Casanova pages, but there are so much to do that it might be a few days before we have enough time to post again.

A first.

2011-02-19T16:52:00.000-02:00

Yesterday we were informed that our Daytripper album debuted in first at bookstores, according to the New York Times Best Sellers list. We were so happy we didn't even mind that they spelled the name of the main character wrong. This is just wonderful news.

This is our book, about a regular guy in Brazil without super powers, that's not a zombie and that have not been turned into a major motion picture. It's just our book, and apparently people want to read it.
To all of you, thank you.
It's been quite a trip, one day at a time.

The challenge to inspire

2011-02-18T10:54:00.002-02:00

The Daytripper Challenge continues. After an entire week receiving pictures from our readers, I can't help but think that comics, being such a personal reading experience, should inspire an equally personal reaction and response, and I think anybody who can lose a little bit of the day to take a picture and send over the internet across the world when they didn't have to, and to somebody they never met, is creating this wonderful aura in which we can all appreciate comics and the power that stories have to make us want to do something, do better, and do more.

Jamie Heron bought Daytripper in a Kinokuniya bookshop in Sidney, Australia. Apparently, he liked the book so much that the tried to smile. Do you think he was successful? Thanks anyway, Jamie.

Dave Trendell lives in Buckinghanshire, in the UK, and was bummed that there wasn't a Hard Cover edition of Daytripper, but he was happy when he discovered Gosh! Comics, a great comics store in London, had an exclusive bookplate edition, so he ordered his online. And he works on a school and will, according to his words, "make sure all the English Teachers at the school I work at get a chance to read a copy!", which I think is awesome. You're awesome, Dave.

Back to work, then.

Have a great weekend.

The amazon challenger

2011-02-16T10:15:00.000-02:00

Yeyé Agudelo lives in East Hampton, NY, and sent a picture of her Daytripper book, which she ordered through Amazon. As you can see in this black and white picture I included to go along with the picture she sent, she's friends with Ana Cristina, one of our earlier challengers, and we had met them both at NYCC last october, but since at that time they were disguised as Umbrella Academy kids, it took us a little while to put two and two together here. I look at their pictures in NYCC and the pictures they sent us and them I start to think if only a mask can really change somebody's face and appearance so much as to protect their secret identity.

What do you think?

Valentine's challengers

2011-02-14T19:04:00.000-02:00

Today is Valentine's day, day for lovers and for love in general. When we came up with our Daytripper Challenge, we did it to spread the Daytripper love, to make people curious about our book and, maybe, curious about other comics in general. You never know what you'll discover when you go looking for new things.

There was no better way to celebrate our fun challenge in Valentine's day than to receive another picture, one that is actually two, and that came from a lovely couple.

Rose and Eric took this picture at a Barnes and Noble somewhere in sunny California, and I'm really happy they decided to send it together. Even with a shy out of focus Eric in the background, don't you think they make a cute couple?

In a more mysterious answer that came via twitter, Timmy Fisher apparently got his Daytripper as a side dish for his omelets and bloody marys at the La Guardia airport, on his way back to KC (Kansas City?)

Do something romantic tonight. Buy somebody flowers, smile at a stranger, give your girlfriend a naughty blink of an eye. Tomorrow, grab your camera or your phone and come join us on the fun.

Challengers all around

2011-02-13T14:04:00.000-02:00

This is fun, and interesting. We put the first picture of our Daytripper challenge up, and then we got three more pictures. None of them come from the same city, state or even same country. That's the daytripper love spread all over the world.

Ana Cristina Muñoz sent us a picure from her favorite store, Showcase Comics in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

Paul Hardaker sent us his picture from his local comics shop, Destination Venus in Harrogate, England. And he has the cutest kids.

Michele Foschini, from Italy, sent us a picture of the Italian edition of Daytripper, for which I believe he was the translator. A shy guy, he kept himself away from center stage and shot only the shelf, which make us appreciate that the italian edition has a nice hard cover. And he sent his picture via Facebook, and so can you if emailing sound too complicated.

Thanks to all of you who have sent us pictures. You're beyond great.

So... Anybody else?

The first challenger

2011-02-12T14:28:00.003-02:00

Some times we get more than we asked for.
As this week saw the release in book stores of the Daytripper trade (that has been available in comic book stores since Febuary 2nd), we decided to have a little fun and we made our Daytripper Challenge video, inviting people to take a picture of themselves at the place they found and got the book and email it to us. We would put these pictures here on the blog.
Fun, right?
Well, we got our first picture.
It came from the Philippines!

Danry Ocampo took this picture on his local comics store, PlanetXComics at the Trinoma Mall. I have never been to the Trinoma Mall or anywhere else in the Philippines, but it's great to see our books have crossed oceans and one very distant fan got us really excited sending us a picture. And how cool is it to see a copy of Casanova:GULA #2 on the shelves behind him? It's a bonus.

Thanks, Danry.

Well, who's next?

Au revoir, and hello Cass

2011-02-11T19:02:00.000-02:00

Above, the last page of my sketchbook. Below, a sketch Bá did this week as a preparatory study for a scene on Casanova. It's good for us to be drawing at the same time, even if in completely different things.

Daytripper links

2011-02-09T20:00:00.001-02:00

There have been great reviews and interviews about Daytripper all over the web, and we couldn't be happier about the response from everybody. Over at the Vertigo blog, Pamela Mullin gathered most of the links in one nice post, and one of the links even includes the wonderful introduction by Craig Thompson, a treat all in itself.

Also at the Vertigo blog, in order to celebrate the release of the Daytripper trade, Bá and I wrote some blog posts, telling a little about the influences, the process and the some of the events that inspired our little tale, and we also showed a lot of sketches. So, click on the links if you want to hear about a trip that inspired and guided one chapter of the book; or if you want to see sketches of the characters and the settings; or maybe if you rather hear about how characters getting a life of their own.

I read a nice write up about Daytripper on a NPR blog here. We gave more interviews recently, so more of these things should pop up here and there. I hope I remember to link to them, but if I forget, I'm sure Pamela will.

So, back to work in here, hoping a lot of people are discovering Daytripper, and curious to see how many will really answer our Daytripper challenge and send us pictures of the bookstores and comics stores and friends shelves and school libraries where they found our book.

CASANOVA

Today, Casanova: GULA #2 comes out in comics stores. It's one of my favorite covers, featuring that crazy couple, Zeph Quinn and Kubark Benday. You have to pay attention in this issue, as important information is shared that relates to the brand new Casanova stories Bá and Matt are working on right now.

Daytripper challenge

2011-02-08T13:15:00.001-02:00

Last week, the Daytripper collection came out in comic book stores, for everybody to find, buy and share with their loved ones. Some people ordered it through Amazon, and then they saw that it was only going to be available on February 8th. In the same fashion, regular bookstores would only get the book and start selling it on the same date.

Today.

So, the direct market gets a one week head-start, and we should take care of our direct market and the comic book stores, but now there are a lot more venues where you can find Daytripper. Now, people who doesn't usually buys comics - or who at least usually doesn't go to a comic book store - can bump into our book and discover it for the very first time. I believe there are a lot of potential readers in bookstores, in movie theaters and everywhere in general, and they just don't read comics because they don't know the variety of stories that are being told in comics form, some of their liking for sure, so the more we can have our book along with other books, the better.

I think that that's what Steve Niles called "reaching out of our bubble" on this blog post, and I couldn't help but agree with him that there must be a more positive approach to our support to Creator-Owned stories than just complaining.

That's one of the reasons I made this video.

I also made this video because it was fun, and it reminds me that making comics is also fun, and it's supposed to remind readers - and specially those who venture themselves to bookstores with their cameras and phones in hand (I trust you, guys!) - that reading comics and discovering new stories is also a lot of fun.

The challenge has been set. I hope a lot of people join in.

So, what do you think?
Are you ready?
Go!

Odoyá, Iemanjá. Thank you for Daytripper.

2011-02-02T13:05:00.002-02:00

February 2nd, Iemanjá's day.
It is also the day that the collected edition of Daytripper comes out.

There's not much left to say about the story, about the book. People love behind the scene facts and informations, and that's why we keep this blog, but I don't feel good about explaning the stories, telling my reasons for doing this or that, because I believe it weakens the story. I tried to say the least I could before the series started in December of 2009 and I didn't want to keep talking about it during the series. Today the book will be at the stands of comicshops throughout the USA, a few days later on every major bookstores of the country and soon enough world wide.

I'd like to think the book can speak for itself. That's what good stories do.

I hear about authors who don't read their own stories once they're ready, directors who don't watch their movies. I love comics and I look back to everything I do. I love what I do. It helps me keep track of where I came from. If I do these books I do today and tell the stories I do, it's because of all this other stuff I've done before and I can never forget that.

If you have read the series and liked it, tell a friend about it, or even give it as a gift to someone you know. If you haven't read it, I hope you do. This story represents our love for comics and I'd love if you could help us spread this love. All we need is love.

And then...

2011-01-28T21:04:00.000-02:00

I'm writing something for another blog that I could have easily written for this one. It's about our work and about our love for comics, and about our inspirations and influences for Daytripper. We've said something about it in here before, and I guess we could talk about it for days, months, even years. We love what we do and, if we're not careful, we talk about it ALL THE TIME.

Kinda boring if you're in a conversation circle and it's not a hot topic.

Luckily for us, since Daytripper is coming out next week as a trade in comic shops, we had the opportunity to talk about work a lot in half a dozen interviews, so we're more than satisfied in that area. Let's turn our attentions to another area, then, called "future projects".

I did this sketch at the beach while thinking about this "future projects" area.

It's a nice area.

A secret area.

Kind of like Area 51, you know. Secret. If you think that 51 is the brand of strong pinga here in Brazil (not the best one, I'm afraid), then I think we have the perfect mix of influences to try to start to explain our future projects.

Except that we're not going to explain our future projects.

No.

That would ruin the fun, now wouldn't it?

We're just going to go back to work.

Right.

Disclaimer: the picture above has nothing to do with the so called "future projects". I just thought it looked nice.

Work awaits

2011-01-27T16:14:00.000-02:00

A quiet picture.
The calm before the storm, almost.

The Sandman

2011-01-21T21:24:00.000-02:00

I remember when I first read a Sandman comic. A girl in my class at freshman year of College lent it to me when I told her I wanted to do comicbooks. I had a huge crush on that girl, so I would have read anything, I guess, but I'm glad she had the entire Sandman collection up to that point to lend me.

To think that I have, in recent years, met Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean, became friends with Jill Thompson (who I have shared a booth with at SDCC in the past two years, but have met and admired since 1998), all that makes something inside my chest go warm and happy.

Dream big, dream always, and go after your dreams.

Who knows where life will take you.

Reading

2011-01-19T15:16:00.000-02:00

When you're writing a script, it seems you only read and write all day long. And, after you had spent so much of your time over the past few years drawing page after page in a frenetic pace, this new routine appears to me to be a deceivingly easy. Writing is not easy at all, and when you have to read for research, it's not as relaxing as reading for fun, but just the lack of drawing makes me feel I'm not working.
It's a silly thought.
A recurrent silly thought.
A daily one.
...
Back to work.
Or back to reading and writing.
Whatever.

CASANOVA-2006-2007-2008-2010-2011

2011-01-18T12:12:00.004-02:00

Well, CASANOVA is back on full throttle. The marvelous LUXURIA TP is out and the brand new edition of GULA 1 is out there to show how awesome Fábio is and how he managed to kick my ass on the art – AND ON THE COVERS!!!. New interviews, new back-up stories, new mind blowing colors and handwritten letters.
What are you waiting for?

Oh, and yeah. New material is coming out this year. You won't wanna miss that.

And to start the new year with the coolness expected from the realms on the Quinn family, here's the cover of GULA 4. Pa-ZOW!

Our big book arrived

2011-01-12T15:23:00.000-02:00

It's beautiful.
Craig Thompson's introduction is also beautiful.

Happy.

Lima Comics, PERU!

2011-01-11T11:41:00.004-02:00

Our first international commitment of 2011 will be Lima Comics, in Lima, Peru, on March 16th 'till the 20th.
Other international guests include Horacio Altuna, Eduardo Risso, Ariel Olivetti, Gustavo Sala and Martin Canale from Argentina, José Villarubia from Spain, and Vertigo editor Will Dennis.

See you guys there!
More information on the festival's Facebook Page
---

Nuestro primer compromiso internacional del 2011 será Lima Comics, en Lima, Perú, el 16 de marzo hasta el día 20.
Otros invitados internacionales son Horacio Altuna, Eduardo Risso, Ariel Olivetti, Gustavo Sala y Martín Canale de Argentina, José Villarubia de España, y el editor de Vertigo Will Dennis.

Nos vemos allí!
Más informaciones en la página de Facebook del festival.

Going... Bang bang!

2011-01-11T11:11:00.003-02:00

2010

2010-12-21T18:19:00.006-02:00

2010 has been an amazing year for us. It's really awesome to see how much has changed in the last 10 years of our career, everything we have accomplished. Also, how the comic book world has changed in that time. We're feeling really good about comics right now, about our profession, our market, our peers, and it's a heart warming sensation to realize we are part of all this process of changes.
2010 can't really be summed up on a list, but here we go:

- Daytripper is a reality. One that we are really proud of, one that shows what we really want to do with comic books.
We couldn't be happier and it's still calling the attention of everyone on several "best of 2010" lists (When Words Collide, Weekly Crisis, TIME and MTV Geek for example). If more people end up reading it because of these lists, we'll be more than happy. I can't wait for the collected edition to come out next February.
- Casanova is getting the chance to freak out more people through ICON now, in amazing full color and skillful hand-lettered glamour.
- We have been to several conventions and fairs all over the place. Beja, Porto, London, San Diego, La Paz, Rosário, New York and Rio. It's always incredible to get in touch with our readers, meet new authors, see the how different the world can be and how much the alike we all are.

2010 was good for a lot of my friends too. Everyone is doing good. Comics are good, people. Let's make them better!

It's a long process in the making and it's far from being over. And that's the best part of it.

In Brazil, we draw in bars

2010-12-15T12:18:00.000-02:00

Convite Mercearia São Pedro from FILMA_FILMES on Vimeo.

Etrigan

2010-12-13T23:02:00.002-02:00

ATELIER online

2010-12-06T17:06:00.001-02:00

This year, we did Atelier, our new experimental indy comic, to sell at conventions and events around the world. It may take a while until we travel abroad again, since we have entered a new period of heavy production, so there's basically just one place you can get Atelier outside of Brazil right now:

At Khepri.com, clicking here.

With Khepri, you can even choose between signed and unsigned copies, and have your comic delivered to you at your own home. So convenient. We've been counting with Brian (Khepri's main man) to help spread the love for our indy work for a long time, and he never let us down. If you want good comics, he's the guy to go to get the best deals in the internet.

He also have our friend Gustavo Duarte's new comic, TAXI, so when you go grab your Atelier, get a TAXI as well. It's awesome. (I've talked about Gustavo's first comic here)

Daytripper in SPAIN!

2010-12-01T15:34:00.002-02:00

We are very happy to inform Daytripper has arrived in SPAIN, published by Planeta DeAgostini in trade format.
You can learn more about it here and they have put the entire first chapter online for you to have a taste of the story.

Casanova snapshot

2010-11-26T20:38:00.000-02:00

writing our way in.

2010-11-26T01:40:00.002-02:00

As I was looking how many posts we did on each year of our blog's existence, I noticed how much effort we put into getting ourselves noticed early on our career.

As the time passed, we got more work, eventually we had less time left and we started to try to focus on what was important and write on the blog only when we had something to say.

At our table

2010-11-22T22:35:00.000-02:00

As Bá dives very deep into the third story arc of Casanova, I oversee Cris Peter's color work for the second story arc. At the same time, we're finalizing the design choices for the Daytripper trade. I remember every other hour that I still need to write a commentary for the new Luxuria collection talking about our new colorful world, and about the handwritten quality of how we do things these days. I imagine all of this have to be done this week.

We just returned from a convention in Rio in which the main international guest was Milo Manara, and he had a huge exhibition of his originals at the show, and it was inspiring and breath taking. "I'm just learning how to walk" crosses my mind as I see the steps taken by this italian giant. Aim higher, mister Moon.

Convention season is over for us this year. The year is almost over anyway, but for us there's this feeling of a journey which is only beginning. New stories, new projects, new ideas we're already working on, ideas that cannot wait till Christmas or New Year's. We're keeping busy, and we're grateful for all the support we have from our friends and our readers. Every time we lock ourselves in the studio, we know you're out there, waiting for us, and happy to find out whatever it is we bring along as we emerge once more.

Casanova in 2011

2010-11-01T15:41:00.000-02:00

January will explode with Casanova as both the trade from the first series, LUXURIA, and the first issue of the new series, GULA, will come out and please the readers. In GULA, I step in as artist of the series, and the LUXURIA trade has super cool never before seen bonus material. 2011 is a good year to be a Casanovonaut, as Matt used to call our readers, and it al starts as early as January. This time around, don't miss the boat.

CASANOVA VOL. 1: LUXURIA TPB
Written by MATT FRACTION
Penciled by FÁBIO MOON & GABRIEL BÁ
Cover by GABRIEL BÁ
Meet Casanova Quinn: prodigal son of a law-and-order family hell-bent on keeping the world safe and sound, now blackmailed into betraying his father and the international law enforcement organization he controls. LUXURIA collects the first volume of CASANOVA as its titular star transforms from devil-may-care thrill-seeker into the most dangerous man in the world. What happens when the ultimate player gets played? Find out in this genre-bending sci-spy epic. Gorgeously re-colored and re-lettered by hand, this staggering psychedelic spy-fi epic is collected for the first time as it was meant to be made. By the Eisner award-winning team of Matt Fraction (INVINCIBLE IRON MAN, THOR, UNCANNY X-MEN), Gabriel Bá (UMBRELLA ACADEMY, BPRD: 1947), and Fábio Moon (DAYTRIPPER, SUGARSHOCK). With all-new, all-different, never-before-seen bonus material! Collecting CASANOVA: LUXURIA #1-4

CASANOVA: GULA #1 (of 4)
Written by MATT FRACTION
Art & Cover by FÁBIO MOON
CASANOVA is back. Or is he? Actually Casanova is gone. Gone from space, gone from time. The burning question WHEN IS CASANOVA QUINN hangs over the entire world as E.M.P.I.R.E. and W.A.S.T.E. alike race toward the horrible, inevitable, answer…The second staggering volume of CASANOVA starts here by the Eisner-laden team of Matt Fraction (THOR, UNCANNY X-MEN, THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN) and Fábio Moon (DAYTRIPPER, SUGARSHOCK) taking over art duties. Never before collected! Never before reprinted! Never before understood! In gorgeous full 4-D psychocolor! Worth a million in prizes! Change your shorts, change your life, change into a nine-year-old Hindu boy! Guaranteed!*
*not actually guaranteed
40 PGS./Mature Content …$3.99

BIENVENIDOS A ROSÁRIO!

2010-10-20T20:31:00.002-02:00

Here's our two scheduled events at the CRACK BANG BOOM convention in Rosario.

Thursday (Jueves)
19:00-20:15 Charlas de Café Parte II.
Rafael Albuquerque (Blue Beetle), Gabriel Ba (The Umbrella Academy), Rafael Grampá (Mesmo delivery), Fabio Moon (Daytripper), entre otros, cuentan sus proyectos personales y la actualidad de la historieta en el mercado brasileño. Bar del CEC

Sunday (Domingo)
17:00-18:20 Dibujando desde Brasil
Una mesa redonda fascinante con algunos de los mejores artistas brasileños de este momento: Rafael Albuquerque , Gabriel Ba , Rafael Grampá , Fabio Moon… Teatro Parque España

We'll also have a table to sell our comics, make sketches an talk to everyone who stops by. We've brought copies of our brand new self-published comic ATELIER, as well as CASANOVA, Gustavo Duarte's new comic TAXI and a few other things. As soon as we know more details about the table location, number, etc... we will put it here.

Hasta mañana!

Crack Bang Boom around the corner

2010-10-16T21:46:00.000-03:00

Here we go.

NYCC here we come

2010-10-04T18:00:00.001-03:00

Here we go. Our new monster arrived and we're almost ready to go. Not yet packed, not yet finished with half the Casanova pages Bá is doing, but we'll get there. We always do.

On the above image, I think I remembered all the information about our NYCC trip. Inside the Javits center, at least. I'm not going to list all the pages and covers we'll bring, stop at the booth and check them out (they look nice).
We'll be at the CBLDF welcoming party on Thursday night, and on a Dark Horse party at St. Mark's Comics on Saturday night.

Below, the basic info about our new comic:

ATELIER
by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá
40 pages
US$ 3

I'll leave you with some preview images from the book, and I'll see you soon.

ATELIER and the time machines

2010-09-29T16:25:00.005-03:00

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.

Hello Kitty

2010-09-24T21:07:00.001-03:00

Come out, come out and let us play.

2010-09-23T18:13:00.002-03:00

I love comics.

First I'd like to thank all the attention and love we've been getting about Daytripper. This comics really has gone further than we predicted and we couldn't be happier with it.

And I couldn't be happier with the projects I've been working on. Each one different from the other, the creators are exciting to work with and I learn new things about our craft every day. Casanova is coming out in color and it looks amazing, the new letters look great too. I've begun working on the new material and it's like time travel back to crazy land.

But the most exciting thing about the upcoming days is actually we will stop working for 3 weeks just to do the only thing that give us as much joy as creating a new story: going to comic conventions and meeting the public.

Our entire carreer has been filled with a lot of trips to comic conventions, waiting in lines, watching panels, meeting creators and talking to the fellow authors we admire. And the more we produce, more we have to talk about, so the last conventions have been a full plate. And that's the way we like.

Two weeks from now, we'll go to New York Comic Con for the first time and we're really excited about that. We'll be sharing a huge set of tables with IVAN BRANDON, BECKY CLOONAN, ANDY MACDONALD, ARIEL OLIVETTI (Argentina) , LEANDRO FERNÁNDEZ (Argentina), RAFAEL ALBUQUERQUE (Brasil), and GUSTAVO DUARTE (Brasil). We'll be on Artist Alley on tables F4 through F9. Can't wait to talk to whoever stops by.

Two weeks after that, we cross the globe to go to CRACK BANG BOOM, the first international comics convention of Rosário, Argentina. That will be awesome! And finally, in november we have Rio Comicon in... well, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

We have a lot of books on our bags, we'll have original pages and we'd really like to talk about comics and stuff, be it in english, portuguese or spanish. But the language that unite us all, that has been taking us all over the word, that has no frontiers or boundaries is the one of panels and balloons.

Come meet us on one of these conventions and discover what we have to say about that.

Hello, kitty girl

2010-08-30T18:15:00.000-03:00

Every girl loves her Hello Kitty bag.

Dynamic duo

2010-08-26T18:55:00.000-03:00

Cute

2010-08-23T19:42:00.000-03:00

A little cross-eyed, I guess, but still cute. Cute enough, and fun enough, for a warm up exercize. I wish every warm up doodle would come out like this one.

Casanova preparatory sketch

2010-08-15T21:59:00.000-03:00

Everybody still looked weird and out of character as I was warming up for the short back-up on the new first issue of Casanova. My hand was cold, stiff. I later also learned that paper I was using wasn't helping, it didn't slide smoothly enough, it didn't erase properly, it made drawing a painful experience.

We're now thinking about the cover for the first Casanova trade. Then, on to the covers of the second arc. This time around, I think I'll jump onboard for the second arc's covers. Let's hope I can do as good a job as Bá.

Also, I'm starting to play around with the colors for the second arc, because soon enough Cris will start on it. How will it look? That's our challenge.

Dream come true.

2010-08-13T19:48:00.004-03:00

My brother and I have been wanting to tell stories in comicbooks for as long as we can remember. At first, we just wanted to copy what we were reading, as a way of being part of that magical universe of super-heroes, barbarians, space guardians, street punks and pirates. But soon the need to tell stories became stronger than the simple act of drawing.

We have told lots of stories – well, a few – from princes and fairies, to young people in love, to robots and waitresses. All these stories came out of our need to tell them, without any requests, any pressure, straight out of our heads. All those stories were building the ground for us to be finally able to tell Daytripper.

Daytripper is not a project we have had for a long time. It came from an idea I had some 8 or 9 years ago, but it was not more than that. It was one of the ideas we pitched to Vertigo when Bob Schreck asked us for ideas. It was the one they liked.

However, ever since we started actually working on this comic, it has become the story we have been waiting to tell our entire lives.

Issue 9 just came out, one we're really proud of, and next month brings the conclusion of our story. This has been a terrific journey. This is what comics mean to us. A real dream come true.

Daytripper 9
Written by GABRIEL BÁ and FÁBIO MOON
Art by GABRIEL BÁ and FÁBIO MOON
Cover by GABRIEL BÁ
Brás is going through one of those days that seems like a lifetime; when so many things happen and change so fast and so dramatically that he can't keep track of what the hell is going on. In this penultimate issue to the acclaimed miniseries, can he figure things out before it's too late?

BLOG WAR - peaceful ending

2010-08-03T11:34:00.000-03:00

Both Craig and I worked on this last piece together. I inked a little bit he pencilled, he inked a bit I pencilled, but for the most part we just passed the paper back and forth as we kept working on the panels. This was fun.

A did a lot of other incredibly interesting things in Portland, but there's only so much we could put on paper in the time we had. There was also a lot of things I could have done but didn't because of time constraints, but that was not my point when I decided to go. You'll never see and do everything, but you can enjoy everything you end up doing. And I certainly enjoyed my time in Portland, seeing all those Dark Horse people I only see within the crazy rules on the San Diego Comicon, meeting new artists, talking about art, life and everything inbetween.

Time to go back and start all over again. Time to go home, happy, ready for more.

BLOG WAR - part 3

2010-07-30T19:29:00.002-03:00

We could see it from very far away, from inside the car, still some twenty minutes before we really got to the beginning of the trail. It was massive, it was strangely alien and different, and it was this one thing in my trip that would actually also be new for all people involved (except for Dan, Craig's friend and our guide for the day).

Have you ever been to a volcano? Have you even stood inside it's crumbling interior partly rocky, partly ashy surface? Have you ever seen a waterfall with hot water?

We stood there, got ready, and went for it.

To be continued on Craig's blog, which includes the full contribution from Dan Attoe (I'm only showing the detail below).

BLOG WAR - part 2

2010-07-28T22:34:00.000-03:00

Both Craig and I agree that maybe Blog War isn't the best title (too violent, too macho), but we were just excited to work together on something, so...

This is actually part 2 of our little collaboration, part 1 being on Craig's blog. Check it out to know what we did before we went to dinner.

...

So... Cool, no?

Let's continue.

Mike Allred and Laura Allred joined us right at the end of the music concert, and off we went to this incredible wine bar called Kir. We were greeted by Joe Sacco on the way in, and after a couple bootle of wine, he eventually found his way to our table.

It was an incredible night. The conversation was inspiring, the company was lovely, and we were so jazzed by it that we just kept on drawing. Joe Sacco got the best sketches, I think. We left in high spirit, and we had some challenges ahead of us: could we do this night justice in ours sketches?

And more importantly: could we top this experience on our next adventure?

to be continued...

San Diego bound!

2010-07-20T12:00:00.003-03:00

We had a wonderful time in London. The weather was incredibly sunny and everybody that we met were adorable. I joked I brought the sunny weather over from Brazil, but the warmth from the people was the nicest surprise of the trip. We certainly left wanting more, so thanks to all of you who we met, who we talked and who we touched during the past two weeks. The fact that I finished the very last page of Daytripper on my last day in London made the whole experience all the more special.

Now, the time has come again for that crazy thing (which I love) called SDCC. Many people are going, and once again we're excited and ready to rock it brazilian style. We'll share the same booth we had last year, booth #1320, with our usual pals Cliff Chiang (artist on the recent Greendale graphic novel) and Jill Thompson (the über talented artist of the recent Beasts of Burden series), and this year we'll be joined by Rafael Albuquerque (who's really showing some artistic skills on American Vampire) and Cris Peter (our colorist on our revitilized Casanova series).

We'll be there most of the time, signing books, selling copies of the new first issue of Casanova, and selling original art from series we've been working on, such as The Umbrella Academy, BPRD1947, DMZ and Sugarshock. Come around and look at all the lovely things everybody from our booth will have this time around.

Also, we'l be selling a limited signed giclée print that I made on our recent trip to Portugal, which comes in three sizes and looks like this:

Here's a detail. The prints come in small, medium and large sizes (come by the booth, they look sweet):

Our signings and panels schedule is quite full this time, jumping around all publishers we're currently working with. Here's the complete rundwon of where to find us when we're not at the booth:

Wednesday
6:60-7:30 - the EXCLUSIVE all-in Casanova signing with Matt Fraction, Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon

Thursday
11AM-12PM- PIXU signing with Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá at the Dark Horse booth
2-3PM - Signing at the DC booth
6PM - BPRD meet-up for BPRD members (at the Hilton Gaslamp - Terrace Foyer)

Friday
11AM-12PM - Signing at the DC booth
12-1:30PM - Hellboy and BPRD signing with Mike Mignola, Duncan Fegredo, Gabriel Bá, Fábio Moon and Patric Reynolds
5:30-6:30PM - Vertigo: on the Edge panel (room 6DE)

Saturday
11:15AM-12:15PM - Spotlight on Gerard Way with guests panel
1-2:30PM - Umbrella Academy signing with Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá (ticketed event: See Dark Horse employee for details)
3-4PM - Signing at the DC booth

Sunday
1:30-2:30PM - Signing at the DC booth

So, here we go again. I hope to discover a lot of new books, new artists, new people. This trip, for us, is always about discoveries. Are you ready?

London Calling for Daytripper 8

2010-07-14T08:28:00.003-03:00

Comicbooks have brought us to London, to be part of Festival Brazil, a big cultural event taking place on the Southbank Centre. We feature both as attractions of the London Literature Festival 2010 and Festival Brazil, which is twice as cool. And to make thinks better, we've been experiencing a lovely summer in London, full of hot sunny days and happy people everywhere.

Fábio and I do all our PR and stuff, so when anyone asks for a promotional picture, we choose it and send it. We were really surprised, though, to find this picture on the cover of the Festival's program, spread out everywhere around the Southbank Centre. It also astonished us to see the cover illustration we've done for the Literature Festival all over the place and in all shapes and sizes. It was kind of overwhelming to bear such an important role on a festival of this proportions.

After some interviews and momentarly tension, our panel on Monday night at the Udderbelly was great. With a terrific participation of Jamie McKelvie as the mediator and a full croud of interested people, we did what we know how to do, which is tell stories and explain why we love comics and Brazil.

On friday we had another challenge ahead of us, and it didn't get any smaller. We were invited to paint a mural and we took this opportunity to tell stories to an audience unaware of our existence. It's not really what we do, but in a similar way on a different setting, we created this big Wallstrip with lot's of tiny bits of dialogues and ideas and reflexions about the world we live in and how we relate to people around us, a mater we usually tackle on our stories as well.

We had the help of young people working aside with the Southbank Centre, as well as pass byers and whoever wanted to chip in. It took us 10 hours to get it done and we couldn't have done it without their help.

After we finished painting it, the whole thing was hung on the wall of the Queen Elisabeth Hall building and it will be there until the end of august, so don't miss the chance to check it out live.

And just like our life never stops surprising us, a new issue of Daytripper hits the stands today and I'm sure you will be surprised with what you will find on this issue as well.

Daytripper 8
by GABRIEL BÁ & FÁBIO MOON
Cover by GABRIEL BÁ

Brás is constantly on the road, but that doesn't stop a caring husband and loving father from having a big role in his family's daily life. Do they miss him? Can they manage well enough while he's away? And how large a hole would he leave if he weren't there anymore?

Daytripper going #1... and flying to London!

2010-06-28T19:21:00.003-03:00

CBR's Tim Callahan talks about his top 10 comics of 2010 so far (also discussing the topic on Splash Page Podcast 21 with Chad Nevett). A lot of good comics there. Demo: volume 2, by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan; Scalped;Viking, by Ivan Brandon and Nik Klein; American Vampire, by Scott Snyder, Stephen King and Rafael Albuquerque; 2 Grant Morrison books.
But guess which one is number 1? Daytripper.
I won't pretend I'm not happy. We are really glad with all the feedback our series is getting. With only pages away from the end (readers still have 3 issues more to wait for), we're working with our chest filled with pride.

And that pride is also carrying us (and we're carrying it) to London on next friday, to be part of Festival Brazil on the Southbank Centre. We will give a lecture/panel on monday, July 5th, 7pm inside the Udderbelly (tickets still available), with the mediation of Jamie Mckelvie. Don't miss out on that one! After that, I believe we'll have a signing session on the Southbank Centre book store. And on friday, July 9th, at 9am (yeah, in the morning) we'll be painting a big-ass mural artwork, our Wallstrip, on the ramp alongside Queen Elizabeth Hall. We'll have help from young people and other artists (including our new friend Rufus Dayglo) and it's going to be lots of fun.

There's a lot to be done before we go, so I'll just go back to work. But I'm sure as hell will be working happier for the rest of the week. My plane leaves only on friday, but my feet are already off the ground.

A stranger, always watching.

2010-06-22T19:28:00.000-03:00

I'm always watching.
Always searching.
Everywhere you go, there's something to see, to find, to learn.

You can rest by escaping the world, but you can also rest when you dive right into it. Find strangers in your world, or be a stranger in somebody else's world. In the end, it's just one world, one boat, and we're on this boat together.

Daytripper 7, their best work to date.

2010-06-08T16:44:00.004-03:00

We are on the second, most intense half of our story. The rules have been set, the players are all there and one might think it's all figured out.
But the beauty of life is it's unpredictability, it's capacity to surprise us at any moment.

Daytripper 7 hits the stands on June 7th, and we're only going forward with this. There's a nice preview over at the Vertigo blog. Check it out.

You don't wanna miss this journey. And it's almost over.

Written by GABRIEL BÁ & FÁBIO MOON
Art by GABRIEL BÁ & FÁBIO MOON
Cover by GABRIEL BÁ

What's life without your friends, right? The good ones will stick with you through anything, won't they? Find out here why Brás' best friend has given that up and how far Brás is willing to go to get him back.

"This latest from Bá and Fábio is surely their best looking work to date. In DAYTRIPPER, they give us a glimpse into an exotic yet believable world. It makes you want to be there with them...!"
-- Paul Pope

And there he goes.

2010-06-06T09:51:00.002-03:00

Way and away. He gathered all his courage and deep he went, searching to take a little breath.

Portugal

2010-05-27T02:39:00.002-03:00

We just finished Daytripper 9 and Daytripper 10 is halfway done. We leave in a few hours to Portugal for the VI International Comics Festival of Beja. We couldn't be more excited to our first european comics festival. We'll have an exposition of originals at the festival, and will do a signing and a panel. Check out the festival's site for all the info.

And that's not all.

We're also opening another exposition in Porto, another portuguese city. We'll be at the opening on June 1st, and I did a new painting for a exclusive Giclée print at the gallery. The images illustrating this post are two details of the print, and you can check out the full print at the Gallery's blog

We love comics, and every chance we get to spread this love around the world is welcome. We'll bring along some of the comics we made in Brazil for our portuguese fans. Let's see what happens.

Let's keep reading, creating and enjoying.

We'll be back soon, and will try to update our twitters on the way.

Daytripper and Casanova solicitation for August

2010-05-17T21:22:00.000-03:00

Busy month for us. Exciting.

DAYTRIPPER #9
Written by GABRIEL BÁ & FÁBIO MOON
Art by GABRIEL BÁ & FÁBIO MOON
Cover by GABRIEL BÁ
Brás is going through one of those days that seems like a lifetime; when so many things happen and change so fast and so dramatically that he can’t keep track of what the hell is going on. In this penultimate issue to the acclaimed miniseries, can he figure things out before it’s too late?
On sale AUGUST 11 • 9 of 10 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • MATURE READERS

CASANOVA #2
Written by Mat Fraction
Art by Gabriel Bá
Cover by Gaberiel Bá
CASANOVA: LUXURIA continues! Strange, sweaty, naked things are afoot deep in the jungle metropolis of Áqua Pesada. A rogue E.M.P.I.R.E. agent has gone mad and, in between throwing the most decadent parties the world has ever known, spills his spy-guts out in the pages of a breathless, confessional, comic book... and Casanova Quinn is given orders by his father to bring the agent in... but Newman Xeno wants Casanova to kill him instead. Bloodshed, betrayal, a trial, an exile, a Paco Rabanne dress made entirely out of credit cards, and a shocking twist that sets Casanova irrevocably on a path of no return. 32 PAGES OF COSMIC COMIC SPY-CHEDELIA. All new back-matter! Soul-elevating colors! Staples and paper! READ!
32 PGS./Rated T+ ... $3.99

De:TALES hardcover

2010-05-14T10:47:00.000-03:00

We're very happy to be releasing this again. When Diana called us and said they were doing a new edition, we were delighted with the idea of doing a new cover. We love the original cover and we wanted to preserve the same mood, but at the same time we wanted to try to apply all that we have learned in these years that separate this edition from the first.

If you never read this, this is your chance.

The solicitation reads like this:

DE:TALES
Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon (W/A)
On sale Oct 6
b&w, 112 pages
$19.99
HC, 6" x 9"

From the company that introduced American audiences to Brazilian twins Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá (Daytripper, Pixu) comes a new hardcover edition of Dark Horse’s out-of-print De:Tales, a collection of the twins’ breakthrough short stories!

After three Eisner Awards and a series of acclaimed projects with writers Joss Whedon (Sugarshock), Gerard Way (The Umbrella Academy), Mike Mignola (B.P.R.D.: 1947), and Matt Fraction (Casanova), Moon and Bá are now among the hottest artists in comics. De:Tales is the duo’s most personal work to date, presenting their work separately, together, and in tandem—as the twins trade off on the roles of writing and illustrating, share those roles, or fly solo. Brimming with all the details of human life, their charming tales move from the urban reality of their home in São Paulo to the magical realism of their Latin American background.

Featuring a brand-new cover, Moon and Bá’s seminal and sought-after work is finally back in this handsome hardcover packaging, proving once again that they are a talented pair to watch out for.

• Named by Booklist as one of the 10 best Graphic Novels of the year, Foreword Magazine gave it a silver medal on the Graphic Novel category of their “Book of the Year” award, and it was nominated for an Eisner Award.

Now available in hardcover!