15000.

We just hit 15000 visitors.

This is the time to say some final words for this year.

Thanks for the readers who discovered us in 2005. And to those who remained from the previous years. and for those who are yet to come, thanks in advance.

I'm six pages into the zombie story, Ba is in full swing doing Casanova. Since it's the first time we try anything in a monthly schedule, we're yet to find out how it will affect the final look of the pages. So far, it looks great and it's only getting better. Not without it's bumps on the road, but that's pretty much every story. Creating is a complicated thing.

We never made so much comics as we did in 2005. And so far, 2006 looks like a pretty busy one.

One can hope, at least.

Thanks for watching and see you all next year.

Opinion.

Here's a quick opinion about someone who read ROCK 'n' ROLL. Scroll down a little, this guy reads a lot of comics.

Run down for the next two weeks.

We have been working crazy around here. On an feature animation project. All to be delivered by the end of the week. It's a lot of work.

And then there's Christmas.

And in between Christmas and New Year's, there's that zombie story I was warming up to do. The script was a little late, but it came, and I"m having fun doing the thumbnails. The actual pages should be equally interesting.

And then it's 2006.

Kind of sad looking.

More new characters. That's the only thing we seem to be doing these days. At least, that's how I feel. And the hardest part of it is to make sure all these characters - regular people, all of them - don't look generic. They're not the crowd, they're it. Once you see them surrounded by other people, they're the interesting ones, the ones you're suppose to look at, the ones who actually have something to say, even if it's something uninteresting and boring.

Because boring people say boring stuff.

No sitting around.



We have been really busy. Which is good, if you ask me. I rather have one hour of free time every day than just one hour of work done. I can really enjoy my free time if it's a rarity. And I really love my job.

So we have to finish some pages for next week. Ba has, not me. But we're a team around here, so I'm using the plural to keep him happy. To keep us happy.

Also, a cover needs doing.

Out of thin air as of right now.

I'll try to help as much as I can, but it's his show and I'm only enjoying the show from a safe, yet near, distance.

We're planning on drawing some 80 pages before the end of January, between him and myself, and some of it in color!

Right now, we're just happy that ROCK'n"ROLL is out and about in this world, meeting new friends. It's like we had a big baby to go with our smaller brazilian baby, and now we have twins. One is a bit bigger, but they're both beautiful.



It's a nice way to finish the year, and a great way to start on the next one. About the latter, it's going to be a killer.

It's time to face the music.

Let's Rock and Roll.

This is the proof that we can make our dreams come true. We wanted to make comic books, and here's one. We made it on our own and, just by looking at it, the publisher decided to publish it.

Maybe if you look at it too, you'll decide you must have it.

From sad to happy in one day.



I guess this one looks kind of sad, but sometimes you're not always feeling your best, are you? Yesterday was a sad day, for me, so I liked this one for that.

I saw the Image version of ROCK'n'ROLL today. Had to approve the printing for the final binding thing to happen.

It looked beautiful.

It arrived early this morning from Canada, so it was just a great way to begin my day. I actually woke my brother up and showed him the comic book. If he was having any second thoughts about getting up early, they were instantly gone at that time.

Beautiful.

Now I have to go back to my sketch book, and Ba has to get back to Casanova.

Look around.



I really like to create the background for my stories. It's fun to build the world, imagine the houses, the streets, the cars and everything else I might want to ad to it. I don't need to draw every little detail of it on every single panel, but I know it's there and I can choose what to show and what to hide.

As much as I can, I like to plan ahead, and do all this creating before I actually have to start on the pages.

Some panels are all about the detail. All about the background. Others might be about one gesture, and no background is needed. Balancing this is what creates a good page, and a good story.



I want to create words when I tell stories. I want the background to be as much a character as the people living in this world. Every place has a history and the way we portray this world let the reader know where they're going.

A want to create characters people will like to meet in real life, and so I want to create places people will like to go and visit.

And then be back again.



Today I received word that ROCK'n'ROLL will be in stores on December 7th. Our wait is almost over and soon we'll see what the impact, if any, our little comic book will have. But that's now the talk for next week. This week, it's all about reading.

I have three scripts on my hand. One that I want to draw but I'm not sure if I can, and another that I know I'll draw and I'm excited about it. And then there's the third one, which I don't want to draw, but I'll wait until I finish it to decide (even if, in my mind, once you think you won't do it, you won't no matter what).

And I'm expecting another script this week for some work for hire experience.

Show your SFist.


Mimi, our beloved Ursula and Smoke and Guns editor, looking good.

The SFist finds out Smoke and Guns was written by a local, which means there's another batch of nice words on the net about the book, and about the art as well, even if I don't live, or never visited, San Francisco.

Out of character.



So, this is pretty much what it looks like when I'm creating a character. I make a bunch of drawings of him, and none look alike. This is the plague from the days when I did not know how to draw, this "unevenness" in my sketches. The problem of course is the fact I like it this way. It has this "drawn from life" quality, where you're always a hostage of your own state of mind and your emotions, hence never really knowing what will come out of your hands.

Or hand.

Left hand, to be exact.

Whatever.

happy little fellow.



Here I am, stretching my artistic skills for the lovely undead. I have a friend who love zombies, and I immediately thought of him when I did this.

. . .

Ba is working on Casanova today. It looks good, but so far I'm the only one who can see it. I hear my villainous laugh echo on the distance as the puny little humans desire something only I can achieve.

And then I fall from my pedestal and go back to work.

The real Kelsie.



This is Kelsie, the lovely character of ROCK'n'ROLL, the one-shot coming out this month by Image Comics.

I created Kelsie in 1997. She was an homage to a Kelsie I knew that year who was the kid sister of a friend of mine, about 10 years old at the time. She lived in a very small town in Minnesota called La Crescent, just across the river from La Crosse (which was the nearest town with an airport). I actually created another character inspired by my friend, Annie, but in the story I told Kelsie and Annie weren't sisters at all.

As time went, we kind of lost touch, and the last I heard Annie (who was the Apple queen that year) went to college. She probably graduated already.

Now, my comic book is coming out in the United States and I remember I never told then they became characters of my stories.

Maybe I should track them down and let then know the good news.

Looking ahead.



So, the script I was writing began with a church bell. That's a very graphic way to start a story, if you ask me. I had the entire first page in my mind and I only had the sound of the bells written down.

Then, I wrote a page of dialogue and decided that was not the story I wanted to tell. The dialogue was not bad, neither was the beginning with the church, but that's the beginning of a story which I don't want to finish right now.

Why?

I think I might rush it. I want to do a story in a certain amount of time, and for that purpose I need the script as soon as possible, and for that I either have a great idea that's pretty much complete, or I will just ruin good beginnings with crap endings just to have a story.

"That story will have to wait." I concluded.

Then, later that night, I had another idea. It had a beginning, a middle and an end. It was visual, it had a lot of room for dialogue, and it dealt with a subject I wanted to address on the story: the future.

And the future became the present became now.

It looks promising.

Today's dream.



I had another dream with Diana Schutz. Again, we were talking about the new Dark Horse book, and this time around we were talking about the cover I just did for it.

As most of my dreams about serious conversations regarding professional matters, it took place in a bar. We were all drinking heavily, and there was smoke on the air.

We were both very pleased with the cover, so I woke up with a smile on my face.

I was late for work, of course.

Red light means STOP.

Today, I'm writing a script. I should have finished it some months ago, but other things kept calling my attention and, when you see, all this time have passed and you've done nothing.

Well, you did a lot of things, actually, but not the script. And if there's no script, there's no story.

I keep telling myself that, after I finish the last touches on the projects I already finished (which still require so much attention after I'm done drawing it), I'll focus only on the writing.

Yeah, right.

The ideas keep coming, but I just don't seem to have the free time to sit for hours until I can organize and write everything down.

Maybe I should do it now, I often think, but then I remember I'm already skipping some work I should be doing (drawing) to write something here.

Pulsing in our veins.



Jennifer Contino loves rock 'n' roll, but then, who doesn't? It's such an international language of music, one that attracts the young and the bold. Just like comics, right?

Anyway, she did an inverview with me at the Pulse, to know more about our ROCK'n"ROLL one-shot being published by Image Comics this month. If you're not sure yet if you want this comic book, check out the new preview pages at the interview and get excited.

Get very excited.

Self portrait.



I guess I can blame art school for that. All through history, artists have made portraits of themselves.

Then there's this very strong autobiographical tradition in brazilian comics, one that certainly influenced me while I was growing up. The fact that, at a very early age, the first characters my brother and I created were various versions of ourselves is a proof of that.

How much of yourself do you discover when you do a self portrait? What is the image you have of yourself? How much of it represents the image and how much, the personality?

Girls in comics are sexy.

Hey, do you want to know more about woman in comics? Diana Schutz talks about her new anthology, Sexy Chix. You can check out some artwork from the female authors, and try to learn something about this very strange job of bringing the girls to the world of comics.

When I was doing my fanzines in college, I had a lot of girls reading it, because art school is full of girls. But the girls were also the ones who gave more feed back regarding the work, what they had liked and what didn't work for them. Maybe that made my work go to a more girly direction.

That, and the fact that I tell love stories.

Progressions on Fell.

For those interested in the process of making comics, Ben Templesmith shows how he approaches the covers and the pages of Fell, his new comic book with Warren Ellis. And, as he is behind all the art, from pencil to color, it's a good example of how an artist leaves a lot of stuff out of the initial penciling to keep the work from getting too repetitive, and how it changes from one step to the next.

Sketching and warming up.



Sometimes, I miss the exchange of e-mails from Larry Young while I was doing Smoke and Guns. The fact that I did two thirds of the book in one month resulted in one very intense month, with two pages a day, e-mails late at night and some "behind the scenes" pencils I'd send him every now and then because I just had to share the progress of the book. I was so excited.

Compared to that month, I'm now sailing on very calm seas.

And today I missed the storm.