Last smoke.


another picture over at Larry's.

It has been a long month, filled with long days and long nights of hard work. Every day is work day, and all energy is used to push harder towards this dream I had that one day I would be done, I would be ready, and I come keep going.

This day was yesterday, as I went to work, wearing my best suit, to do the last page of Smoke and Guns.

I'll be talking about this month for years to come. This is the month I started looking at comics in a brand new manner, where everything is possible and any dream can come true.

Next week is my birthday, and I just gave myself the best present I possibly could:

I gave myself a shining bright future.

Let's get to it.

Words.

It's completely different. It's like a brand new story. The blend of the images and the text creates this poetic thing we call comics.

There's nothing more exciting than seeing the story you drew with balloons and captions. With words that tell a story to go along with your images.

Together, image and words tell the complete story and none really works without the other. Not entirely, anyway.

Doing comics is great


artwork by Gabriel Ba for the Gunned Down anthology.

41 pages in 25 days!


On the 26th of April, my brother set himself on a journey: 41 pages to be completed before the end of May. He had just finished doing the thumbnails and nearly a month was ahead of him.

Little did he know he was destined to greater things.

Greater like finishing before the month was over. Greater like doing the best pages of his life.

Greater because he did it on his own.

When you're an independent comic-book maker, you're your worst enemy. Only you can stop yourself from achieving your dreams. Only you can stop yourself from telling your story.

My brother is unstoppable.

He's the main reason I started doing comics, and remain the most important aspect of comics in my life.

Mostly talking about others.

My brother is on his last two pages of his western story. When people see the story, nobody will believe he did 40 pages in less than a month. I still don't believe he was this fast, and specially that he was this good.

Watching him draw is one of the reasons I love working in comics.

As far as my story goes, I'm a little behind, but I'm certain I'll finish it in time. I have to. And I'm confident I'll also like the way it looks in the end. Right now, it's more of a humming in my mind than a music, but soon it will be over. As will Smoke and Guns. I'm less than 20 pages close to the end, and already I feel the story is on non-stop-action mode.

I received an e-mail from Becky Cloonan today, and she told me a little about her new projects. I'm amazed how good she is, and how much she improves every new work she does.

She's fast, too. Faster than a speeding bullet, some say.

I wonder if she can see through walls.

Not really about apples, but fruit related for sure.

It's one thing when you realize you won't draw any more men on your comic book. They were not the main characters, most didn't even have names.

But today was different. Today one of the main characters' last page began. I really enjoyed drawing this particular girl (if you can call her that, which I can, since I call all women girls) and this last page of hers came faster than I imagined. I want this page to be special. I want it to be a blast.

For the next page certainly will be.

THE LAST MEN.

I'm on the final round of Smoke and Guns pages and, suddenly, I realized I just did the last men in the story, who were running, in the dark, silently. They were angry, they wanted blood, but it was not about them.

Those fools.

It was all about Scarlett.

Smoke and Guns interview

Newsarama has an interview with the creators of Smoke andGuns. Kirsten and I were questioned about the book, the look and the cigarrette girls state of mind.

Check it out and don't miss the book when it comes out!

Working with others.



My excitement only grows s the other artists from the western anthology start to send in the pages they're doing. It makes me want to do my best work, which is the whole reason you look for collaboration: working with others makes you think about what they're doing and about what you're doing, and thinking is the most important part of the creative process

Tipping my hat


Look out for Gunned Down, an western anthology, to be release in July. It's going to be really something to watch out for.

I wanted to tell more about the book, on a more regular basis, but I'm really busy right now doing comics! It's great to vanish from the world, sit on your drawing board and see an story unfold. It's well worth the isolation.

Next month I'll be back.

A matter of pride.



I'm not ashamed to say to myself: beautiful.

I'm really proud of my work on Smoke and Guns, it's very nice to be able to do what you like and feel satisfied by what you've acomplished so far.

It's going to be a very log month, a lot of things will change.

Until June, enjoy the cover.

More will come later.

THINGS TO COME - part two.

Here are two preview pages we just did yesterday to talk to publishers and editors about the project. The first two "real" drawings we did for this new book. The first one is mine and the one below is my brother's.


This is going to be a blast!

Things to come.

This is the very first image for a new story. We have been thinking about this for a bit, but just last week the idea struck and we set what this story would be about. Maybe it's true what they say, that good things come for those who wait.

We waited, and the idea came.

Now it's doing it time. It's drawing every page, it's talking with editors, it's talking with everyone involved with this new project. Tomorrow is our first group meeting, and all is rolling now towards July.

San Diego in July, a new anthology will be released at the Comicon, called Gunned Down. Lots of stories, 200 pages long. It won't come unnoticed, I'm sure, but it's always good to start spreading the word when you can. I'm doing a story, my brother is doing another, and that's not even the beginning.

Only one first image, and I'm already excited.

That's really what's great about doing comics.

Ballet.

Third movement: the fall

Falling is inevitable.
Aching is inevitable.
Loving is inevitable.

We have fallen into the world,
Waiting for someone that
Will catch us and will ask if
We want to dance.

ROLAND.

Do you already know about Roland?

Roland - days of wrath was the my first published work in the US. It was written by Shane Amaya, published by Terra Major and is available in the internet by our good friends at Kepri.com.

It was originally published as a four issues mini-series for which I did the first and third chapters. My brother did the second and final chapter. Working together with my brother always makes me try harder and give it my best, with our brotherly competition working out in the most positive way.

It was done in full color, and the colorist responsible for it was no other than Steve Oliff, better known for his work on AKIRA. I grew up enjoying his work on the Cosmic Odyssey, on that World's Finest mini-series Steve Rude drew, even on the first issues of Spawn. But his work on AKIRA just blew me away. The mood, the attention to detail and how much the colors added to the story, that will always be one of my references for colors in comic books.

Anyway, Roland is, above all things, a very good story. A really well told story. a story that I felt was so good that I agreed drawing it. The fact that we became friends with the writer during the making of the comic was only a plus to that story.

What is it about? Well, it's about Charlemagne's army. It's also about betrayal, about faith, about loyalty and revenge. It's a great story of sacrifice for a greater good, and of consequences upon times of war.

If you're interested, why not give it a try?

Ballet.

First movement: the waiting
She waits for him every night,
And every night he comes.
While he doesn't arrive
She suffers
thinking he's not coming anymore.



Second movement: the longing
After he left,
she couldn't
go back to sleep.

Her body missed
the touch,
the heat,
the embrace.

Without his tenderness,
the silence became
unsettling.

Sleepless,
she heard music
till dawn.

The tribute.

Only time will tell how comics will be now that Will Eisner is gone. The day will come when new artists won't have heard of him (as many already haven't) and when his name will only be one more among a lot of "those old guys from the early days". Still, for the time being, all of us have Will Eisner as the reference of the artist that believed in what he was doing and that never quit. He was not the for the glory. He was there for the stories.

His stories, for all the love and hard work he put into then, will survive most which will fade. They already have, and will keep on surviving, reaching new readers every year.

In the spirit of remembering the way he lived instead of the way he died, the Comic Book Artist magazine number 6 is dedicated to him, presenting tons of tributes from people from all corners of the comic book world. The solicitation for it is up at Diamond and and the press release is the following:



COMIC BOOK ARTIST (VOL 2) #6: The Will Eisner Tribute Issue
Edited by Jon B. Cooke

The CBA All-Star Tribute Honoring the Great Sequential Art Master,
Will Eisner. This double-sized memorial issue features remembrances,
art and essays by over 200 artists, writers, editors, friends and fans -- all
celebrating the man, his superlative 70-year career, and his
unprecedented impact on the art form. Behind a Dave Gibbons cover,
this mammoth special contains tribute art by an incredibly diverse group
of creators, including Mike Allred, Murphy Anderson, Gabriel Ba, Donna Barr, Frank
Cho, Darwyn Cooke, Geof Darrow, Jack Davis, Mike Diana, Irwin Hasen,
Gilbert Hernandez, Alex Horley, Everett Raymond Kinstler, David
Levine, Joe Linsner, Mark Martin, Mike Mignola, Fabio Moon, Eric Powell, Mike
Ploog, Trina Robbins, Spain Rodriguez, Alex Ross, Craig Thompson,
Tim Vigil, among many others. Included are interviews with Art
Spiegelman, Jules Feiffer and Scott McCloud, on their friendships with
Eisner and his influence on the future of comics. Plus testimonials and
anecdotes shared by a wide array of comic book pros, including Alan
Moore, Neil Gaiman, Stan Lee, Richard Corben, Joe Kubert, David
Mazzucchelli, Joe Simon, and many others. Join us to experience a
spirit of good will as the creator's legion of admirers celebrate the life
and mourn the passing of a true giant, Will Eisner. -- $14.50 (US), 192
pages (24 pages in full-color), Perfect Bound, Magazine, Diamond
Order Code: APR053289

Talk the talk.


Another one of my brother's great drawings. Simple, yet so complete, so real. You feel you're there, and those people are breathing, standing up not really straight, for they have flaws, just like us.

Sneak peek.

Haven't talked about Smoke andGuns around here in a while. Yes, that's true. But Larry has, and he's once more showing this great ad for Black Diamond, which features a very small bunch of very hot pages from Smoke and Guns. We still haven't decided which pages will be in this particular preview (the talked about Black Diamond book) and maybe those in the ad won't be in it once it comes out.

So, if I were you, I would go find myself some magnifying lenses and would enjoy that "BLAM".

Baby steps.

sometimes I think people have know idea how a drawing (or a bunch of then, for that matter) gets done. The picture is there and you just see the finished product. But how did it come to that?

Well...


From layout to finished art of some illustration work my brother and I did for a brazilian magazine.


We were kind of bummed we had to combine drawings and pictures, but the result did not end up like crap, I think.


Some images changed, some remained the same. It was all for the best, in the end.

New adventures.

Every new story is a new adventure, one that we must face head on and full of joy. If the story is drawn by my brother, than we are all going to have a blast. As I always say, he's the best artist in the world. Even if I'm exagerating, he's worth every word of praise he can get, and I can't wait for our next story together.

This is one image from his latest work. Enjoy.