LAST DAY OF THE YEAR AT THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY

It's been a hell of a year.
I've never made so many comics in my life. I'm actually exhausted and I really need some rest. But it was totally worth it.
Worked on Christmas and I'm gonna work tomorrow and the day after, but it's all worth it.

Comics are great.

I believe we've done something special with The Umbrella Academy. I feel really proud of it. And that kept me working all these times.

Last night I was finishing it, alone in the studio, late at night, and I felt like registering it. Fábio wears suits on his last days on each project. Well, I'm not the fancy one.



It's no great movie, but it's just to say that I've done it. I went all the way, and I'd do it again anytime. So let's do it again next year.

Oh yeah, I couldn't help putting the song as the soundtrack. It's actually one I like.

Happy New Year to all of you.

new journeys.

My bags are packed and I'm ready to go.
The new year awaits.



For good things to happen, we have to make it happen. Here's wishing next year brings a lot of good things for us, and for everybody. When midnight comes, on the 31st, I'll be watching fireworks with my feet buried in the sand of a beautiful beach, the sea gently breaking against my ankles, and I'll throw flowers and say thank you, and I'll make wishes and enjoy another good year.

Hopefully, I won't be alone, and we will all have new stories to tell.

Online interview about Umbrella Academy

A Couple of months ago I gave this interview to Fanboy Confidencial about Umbrella Academy and comics in general and it's finally online.

It's a good way to close this year with something that has been so much talked about.
Click here to listen to it.
Enjoy.

lost Picasso.

In the middle of the night, today, two paintings were stolen from one of the most important museums in São Paulo. One of the pieces was a Picasso.

Gone.

Now, everything changes.

Before the year ends, the apocalypse begins.

Or so it goes on the new issue of the Umbrella Academy. As I write this, Bá is working on the the final issue, on it's final pages. Issue six promises to be one of the best from the series, and the artwork is just mind blowing. Wait for it and you'll see.

While you wait, issue four is out, on comicbook stores everywhere. Go get your copy and let us know what you think.

More umbrella next week.

Roaring city.

David Lloyd is in São Paulo this week for the release of his new book about the city. As part of a series, each book by a different artist and portraying a different brazilian city, his was one of the most difficult for the publisher to put together, since São Paulo is such a huge city and demanded a lot more time and research than the other cities.

Four years ago, when the publisher started talking about the book with the mayor's office (in order to get financial and logistic aid), Will Eisner was in talks to do the book. He liked São Paulo quite a lot, and had visited many times

As I flip through David's book, I wonder what kind of book Will would have made. I close my eyes and I almost can see it. While David Lloyd began with the airplane he arrived, I think will would have begun with the rain that fell all that month during the research period, and the people that had to go to work anyway, running on the wet river-like sidewalks, or waiting for the bus at the crowded bus stop. São Paulo doesn't steam like Eisner's New York, and it isn't foggy like Lloyd's London (it's really Brighton, but London is cooler). It is just her own monster, roaring to her visitors, inviting them all to see the wonders, and dare them to survive.

Washington Post.

This past Sunday edition of the Washington Post published their A List for Titles that earned the top grades from their reviewers, which, in their comics section, included Luxuria: Casanova, Vol 1, by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Bá.

Works at the end of the year tend to pile up around here, and December is usually one of our most busy months of the year. It's nice to see little things like this while you're working. Makes it feel that, while we're very isolated when working, the work we do in getting seen, and read, and remembered.

Back to work.

But also, before I go, here and here you'll find reviews of the most recent Casanova issue.

Now back to work.

Casanova 11 in the stands today.

I just received my copies. Just read it in my hands. I'm so used to the strong blue by now that I think it will be impossible to go back to a lighter color on the next albums.

Anyway, this is probably my favorite issue, artwise. From my issues, of course, 'cause Bá rocks in another dimention entirely.

I even liked my bit on the backmatter. I think I'm getting good at this "where does my ideas come from" thing.

Black tie.

I mentioned in the backmatter of Casanova 10 how it felt right that I was doing the secret cinema people at the same time Bá was also drawing another group of well dressed black tie individuals, right?

I guess it's pretty obvious now what I was talking about.



Now, the storylines from Umbrella and Casanova are moving very far apart, and we're drawing completely different things.

Bá, his cars and his cities 1.

the Casanova 14 cover.

This will be my final issue drawing Casanova. Acconding to the cover, all characters will move to Cuba, join the revolution and shoot crows.

Or become crows.

And their passports will have Casanova Quinn stamped on them on the way in.

Quiet, little girl.

How much color!

Until last year, 90% of our work was in black and white, which we love, but now we're producing more and more in color. If mayve Dave Stewart wasn't doing these glorious colors, it would be easy to continue just doing black and white.

The third Umbrella will be out in two weeks.

World cup 2014 in Brazil.

We imagined how would the mascot look like.
Thank God we don't do this for a living.

rainy sunday.

Summer rain falls all the time since yesterday. It's a shitty weather, today, and working seems inadequate. I still need some sort of work done, so it doesn't matter if it doesn't fit the way the world looks from my window. Right now, I wished it wasn't such a big window, which accounts to such a big shitty weather.

But, hey, it's summer. When it's not raining, the days are very hot. It's hot while it's raining, even.

That's summer. That's nice.

But I'm working. Still working. Always working.

I wish I didn't love work so much on sundays. I wish sundays looked like sundays to me, but they don't. They look like mondays, or tuesdays, and I work on mondays and tuesdays.

I love doing comics, and it's hard to do comics all the time in the summer.

The rain makes it easier, even with the shitty weather.

Where????

I've been drawing the Casanova comic book without Casanova Quinn since I did the sketch below on May 5th. I did the other charactes afterwards, but the damage was already done.

See today what's out tomorrow!

Newsarama has a preview of Casanova 10, which comes out tomorrow. Check it out and see for yourself how strange and bizarre this story-line is turning out to be, which throws me into a different place artistically.

I'm not changing my style or anything, but there are certainly scenes I never thought I would have to draw in a comic.

Here's the first page of said issue:



This is the first issue I did after I started doing Sugarshosk, and I guess the more fluid and somewhat cartoony aspect of Sugarshock went into this as well. One thing is for sure, with every new issue, Casanova is getting more graphic and "designy". Issue 12 should be a blast in that sense.

Wait and see. But, first, go buy Casanova 10 and let me know what you thought of it.

Another umbrella on the air.

So, the new Umbrella Academy, issue two of the first series, has arrived. Have you got your copy yet? Tell us what did you think of it. We really want to know, even if it's bad. But, if it's bad, why is it bad, and how would it be good (if you didn't think it was good).

I really liked issue two, but what I can't wait is issue four. December is far away for all the regular readers, and Bá is just doing pages I never imagined possible.

Anyway, it's late here, and tomorrow morning we're leaving for a brazilian convention. We're releasing a new book here, and we'll have a panel on Sunday. Before that, we'll hang around with Eduardo Risso, Giancarlo Berardi and many other fine guests of the festival (such as ourselves). It's the best festival in Brazil to meet the independent artists, and it's a great way to see the fans of comics at large. We'll have our copies of 5 (which are not that many, and we might sell out of our stash), as well as our other cool books.

There are french guests, argentinean guests, american guests and even japanese guests. It's a very good festival, and we hope to meet a lot of new people, and see old friends.

I haven't seen Eduardo in three years.

To sleep now.

Next week, Casanova enters it's countdown as I officially enter "the last three issues" period. (By the way, issue 11 of Casanova is my best issue yet. I'm having a lot of fun with that crazy blue).

I've seen the future.

Bá finished another Casanova cover, two issues from the issue I'm still at. hopefully, less than two months from now (or just two months from now), I'll be drawing what we talked about when he had this idea.

This is the my future, happening right now, and it's strange how that's the way things work in comics.

All over the net.

Man, I'm late.

I'm still finishing issue 11 of Casanova. I'll finish it this week, and then go right into 12, but still I feel I'm late. Even if I'm my own colorist, my own inker, and so mostly the art is all up to me, still I feel like I'm late.

It sucks to feel like that.

Meanwhile, have you already read the last Sugarshock chapter at DHP? It's online, waiting for you. (as well as the previous chapters and Bá's umbrella story on the first issue of DHP)

Also, you can read the entire Casanova issue 8 online as well, so there's no excuse for anyone if you have no idea what I'm drawing at the moment.

Since the robot story I did for the second 24Seven was also previewed at MySpace, this year all the books I'm currently working on had either previews or entire runs on MySpace.

This is so weird. I like paper. I like to turn the page. I like to read comics in the bathroom. Suddenly, all of my work is primary online. Weird.

Also, it seems the internet sales of our work are starting to grow, as we keep showing up over at the Khepri top 5 list almost every week.