Guess

Guess what came in the mail today?

ballpen sketches

Gang sketch

Rocker girl.

From the sketchbook, done on a very busy weekend. The starting point for something cool that's starting next week in São Paulo.

inbetween

Umbrella Academy: DALLAS #4!

There's a preview of the fourth issue of Umbrella Academy: Dallas at the Comic Book Resources. You can check it out clicking HERE.
Below is the cover (DUH!).



Bá is making the best pages of his life and he's just begun drawing the last issue (as well as BPRD:1947 and God knows what else).

We've been very busy and very late here, but things have never seen better. We look ahead and I gotta say this: Looks good.

grape juice visit.

Yesterday at the end of the day I went to Rafa and Grampá's studio to see their current work and to meet filmaker Michel Gondry and his cartoonist son Paul, also there to visit.

Talking about comics is good, but what I really enjoyed last night was talking about art in general, from street art to animation to painting to art school. It's more of a talk of what catches your attention and what makes you think than just of what you do or are planning.

I drank grape juice and did this sketch.

Opinions of a doodle

Are you doing anything new?

FAT.

If you thought drawing the strong Spaceboy was hard, try to make the fat one. It's even harder to make it look as cool as the way Bá draws it.

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.

PIXU, Buffy, and the fight.

We love comics, but they can be brutal. Working against the clock, racing deadlines, juggling everything we're currently doing, nothing is easy separately and together they're particularly difficult.

But that's the fight. That's the life. You can't expect everything to be easy, specially when you won't settle for the ordinary, for the most common road. You can't expect the bumpy road to come without bumps.

Our dear friend Becky Cloonan was interviewed at CBR during the NYCC weekend, and she talks about two very exciting news regarding Buffy and, most importantly, our PIXU story being collected in hardcover by Dark Horse. We do our independents projects because our love for the comics world not always fits with what the publishers might want or need at the time, and we believe every good story can become a good comic. It's nice to see that sometimes our love projects can be appreciated and understood by bigger publishers, and it's great that these projects get the support and the chance to be found by a much bigger audience.

Like the entire comics, the new PIXU cover was a collaboration, this time between Becky, Vasilis and me.



The two individual issues of our independent limited run are still available through Khepri.com, and they contain material that won't be collected (plus they are rare, limited and the first issue is signed), and Becky will be around during the convention season selling it as well, so for those who like the specialness of our original PIXUs, you're not too late to catch on the PIXU train.

Now, let's go back for another round. Our comics are looking at us fiercely.

I think they want blood.

Gemelli di Meraviglia

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

Casanova cover doodle

I today ran into the script I had for the first Casanova issue I did the artwork, and on its cover page, I found this first cover doodle for the idea Bá and I were talking about.

Neil Gaiman loves Umbrella Academy

Neil Gaiman, who needs no introduction, was being interviewed on NPR yesterday and said his favorite comic at the moment is Umbrella Academy, from Dark Horse comics.

Here's the link to the interview. Go to time marked 10 minutes and 25 seconds.

Quote: "I loved Umbrella Academy, which I enjoyed [to] no end."
- Neil Gaiman

This is pretty awesome.

Dallas #3!

While I'm deep in the jungles of issue #5 (yeah, I'm kinda late), Umbrella #3 comes out this week.
There's a preview here.
this is the cover. It's one of the covers I like.

Fight sketch

2009

Let the season begin.

Let us all find more time to work on what we love, to spend time with our friends, family and lovers, let us read more and learn every day something new. Let us all start the new year in a new way. Let's just make something we're proud of.

Let us all do something that matters.

Let's hunt our dreams with our art, let's put down our fear with our love for challenges. Let's challenge ourselves. Let's grow.

Dallas 2 preview, and the guest.

There's a preview of Umbrella Academy - Dallas, issue 2 at CBR. Here's the link. Check out one of Bá's great sequences in terms of character acting, "carema placement" and page layout. All that enhanced by Dave's suberb coloring and Nate's sharp lettering.



In other news, I've been invited to be a guest at next year's San Diego Comic-Con, which will happen from July 22nd to July 26th. You can view the current guest list at this link. I was asked to provide a picture of myself or a self portrait to include in adversiting programs and sites and such, and I couldn't resist the opportunity to do a new drawing so, even swamped in work, I did this watercolor to send them. I even liked this one, and I like it much more than any picture I have here. Once I have more news about that, I'll post them in here.

Back to work, and thanks for reading.

BOOM!

Counting down and looking ahead.

This past weekend, surrounded by the dearest of friends in the comic world, we talked about our work and what drives us forward. Our little circle was surrounded by a bigger circle, of interested fans, and during two hours we were in a bubble of greatness.

I left certain I'm on the right path, and that I'm not alone in believing in what I do.

This year's countdown has begun, and soon we shall celebrate another year well spent, working hard and opening doors. We've been working more and more, as we should, and the work never felt more gratifying. If this is what my life will be, working in comics 24/7, writing and drawing and creating and putting out great stuff, than I look forward to the future. If the future is like now, it will be glorious, but we should always aim a little higher, so I expect the future to be even brighter. And so should you.

It seems like ages ago since the last issue of Casanova hit the stands (even more since I finished drawing it). It also seems like forever since we finished PIXU. Bá finished the first Umbrella series almost one year ago, and the new series just started one weeks ago. This notion of never-ending work leaves little room in our lives for our work to breathe and exist, as we very fast have to turn to the next project. And then, when we're working on several projects at once, the ones recently finished have to vanish from our routine as fast as we have to keep producing pages. Some projects come back to mind every once in a while, and those are the ones I think are not over yet. Those are the stories I think are still incomplete, and sometime in the future these stories shall continue.

We are still searching for our place in this medium, telling our stories and drawing other's, and our quest has taken us to very interesting places. The future points to new and exciting ones, and some familiar ground.

Back to work, and thanks for reading.