How did we get to India?

Here's a video with our full presentation at Comic Con India, in New Delhi, last February. We talked about all the choices we've made throughout our careers that led us to this point.



Even though we have now a very successful international career (quite unbelievable, really), the core of what we do remains very much the same from where we started almost 20 years ago.

We had a great time at the convention and we learned a lot with everyone we've met there. We can't wait to go back.

Tour de France 2013 - the video

The final chapter of our great adventure in France, now with images, sounds and a lot of traveling around.



Thanks to everyone who came to our signings. Thanks for the stores who opened their doors to us: La Bulle, Expérience, La Parenthèse, Bulles en Tête and Apo(k)Lyps.
And thanks for Urban Comics for everything they did for us. It was amazing.

DAYTRIPPER!!

THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!

FODA!!

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?

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

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.

God Save the Queen - Brazilian comics in the UK

We had our share of traveling (nowadays mostly business trips) and we always come back home with the certainty that we will never leave Brazil. Not that there's something wrong with other places and Brazil is certainly not perfect, but it's our home. And we're glad to notice that for the foreign eyes turning their attentions to our home, even with all the flaws and things we're not happy about, Brazil has never looked so good.

The Southbank Centre in London, UK, will be holding Festival Brazil, a celebration of the country's cultural heritage, including music, visual arts, dance, literature, debates and food. It will begin in June 19th and it will go until September 5th. Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes, Tom Zé, Sócrates, Milton Hatoum and lots of other artists on one big event. Here's the promotional video, only a little taste of all the diverse talents that will be part of the festival.



And if Brazil is on a good phase, the same can be said about comics, getting a lot of attention and recognition all around the world, proving itself to be more than just pretty pictures, but one of the most fresh and inovative forms of art and storytelling of our times. With that in mind, among the literay attractions of the festival, there's going to be a panel with Fábio and me on July 5th at 7pm, where we'll talk about comics in general, our work and what Brazil has to do with all of that.

You can get all the information about Festival Brazil on their website. You can learn more about our panel and also book your ticket for one of the 250 seats here.

On our most recent work, Daytripper, we are telling a story different from all the others we have told before. We are showing this Brazil that no other comic has ever shown. Let's all meet up in London and talk about how we can always be surprised by people, what they do, the places we know and the ones we are yet to discover.

Script/Layout

I had this one-page story to do and I usually draw a thumbnail and think just on the key sentences and dialogues. But I realized this one would have so much text that I needed the full text in order to see how much space I'd have left for the art.

So first I wrote all the text for the story. After that, I divided it in small blocks that would end up being the captions and balloons (that column on the left).

Then I started laying them down on the page. At first I wanted to do big panels, some "narrative panels" only with text (just like in Casanova), but I decided it would be best for the story if I did lots of small panels, even if a little art just to make it a real comicbook, you know?

I drew some panels there for guidance and now I'm gonna print this and draw on the remaining space.
I really don't do it like this very often, but sometimes you gotta go with what you get.

I gotta finish it by tomorrow. I'll miss the All-Star game to do it.

Gemelli di Meraviglia

De:TALES in Italian, published by Comma 22.
But I want it in my hands. This doesn't feel real enough.