Siamese

I had more fun drawing this preliminary sketches than drawing the cat on the actual story, which was just a one page story. Now I want to think of other stories, even if just as short, and make the cat appear again just so I can draw him some more.

Why comics - the preview

Today, we finished the breakdown of one issue of Daytripper. Bá is already moving on his Umbrella chapter, and we're trying to get as many PIXU pages done as we can before things get crazy once the BPRD 1947 arrives and we have to do it all at the same time.

When we're this busy, working like crazy, staying awake around the clock, we sometimes wonder "why comics?" Why do we have this need? What drives us? What drives anyone to go out there and do comics, out of all things?

We started thinking.

And then we started asking around.

Vote for the Harvey Awards!

Dear Comics Professionals,

Deadlines for voting for the Harvey Awards are due to August 15th.

The ballot is available as an Adobe PDF document or text from www.harveyawards.org.

The detailed links for the ballots are :
PDF: http://www.harveyawards.org/2008ballot/Harvey_2008_final_ballot.pdf
Text: http://www.harveyawards.org/2008ballot/Harvey_2008_final_ballot.txt

Email ballots, using the text file, can be emailed to pjcjmc3@sbcglobal.net. Paper ballots can also be mailed via US Postal Service or sent by FAX to those without Internet access - please call the Baltimore Comic-Con, host of the awards banquet and ceremony, at 410-526-7410 to make a request.

Final ballots are due by midnight, Friday, August 15, 2008.

We got 3 nominations for the Harvey Awards 2008.

BEST ARTIST
Gabriel Ba, Umbrella Academy, Dark Horse Comics

BEST CONTINUING OR LIMITED SERIES
Umbrella Academy, Dark Horse Comics

BEST NEW SERIES
Umbrella Academy, Dark Horse Comics

You can see the full list on http://www.harveyawards.org/. Winners will be announced at the Baltimore Comic-con, September 27.

There and back again.

Home. Here we are, and we're safe, and we're happy.

And busy. We've been busy for a long time. We were very busy during the convention, as we were on previous years (maybe more), and being busy is a good sign, is a sign we're working, we're building something that hopefully will stand the test of time as worth of the reader's time. We work because we feel this need to tell stories, and being busy is a way of knowing that stories are being told. This year, above all, I felt that not only stories were being told, they were being read as well.



We work our best, but the job is only done when we find our readers, when they do their part, when they get the books and read the stories. Maybe they'll like it, maybe they won't. Every year, as we work more, I think it becomes easier to find our stuff and to read our stories. Having a body of work certainly makes it easier to be seen in this sea of artists and that's something most people don't realize. Doing comics is not easy and more often than not there are no overnight successes. It takes a long time, it's a long road, and you have to love it.

We do love it.



I still can't believe we won. It's overwhelming, it's flattering, it's unbelievable and, at the same time, undeniable. I remember well that, during the ceremony, I completely forgot to thank anyone, so say anyone's name, or to express my gratitude for these awards. I was holding myself from bursting into tears, I was high of happiness, and I was pumped by my love of Comics.

From that moment on, all I could think of was how bad I wanted to do more comics, and I hope that's the effect these awards have on people: this is it, you won, now get back to work and do it better, do it harder and do it for as long as you can. No words can really say how it feels, or how it felt for me, so I just want to work an keep doing what I love, and what it seems people also love, and have the work be my way of saying thanks.



It's great to belong. It's great to have friends. Nobody is an island, we were not made to be alone, and it's great to find people who can take this great trip along with you, people who share our love for comics, people who also want to do their best, who don't settle, don't give up and they always want to do more, and do it better.

These are great friends to have and I wouldn't have it any other way.

On the plane back, I started drawing. I couldn't help it, I couldn't wait any longer and I just did it, between the first and the second movie on the second and longer leg of my trip, and it was great. It's great to draw, to create and to share. I inked the drawing when I arrived home, 'cause the plane was too shaky. I knew this drawing world need good inking, 'cause these are friends you have to treat well. They're great, and I miss them already.



We have a second PIXU to finish now, and just too much more to list at the end of this narrative, and we just can't wait to get to it. We love comics, and we thank all of you for your tenderness and support.

Meltdown Signing TODAY!

5:30pm, All Eisner winning creators of PIXU will be today at Meltdown Comics, 7522 W Sunset boulevard, for a signing you may never forget.
For more info, access http://www.meltcomics.com/blog/2008/07/15/pixu/.

Eisner Award Winners!

We won for best Anthology with 5. AWESOME!
We won for best limmited series with Umbrella Academy.
We won for best digital comic with Sugarshock.

Thank you all.

We love comics and we love you.

Daytripper

10 issues mini-series by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá.
VERTIGO - Spring 2009.

Umbrella interview and more from SDCC!

The Comic Con has been great and crazy at the same time. PIXU is going really well and people really like hat they see. The ones who got issue #1 can't wait to issue 2 to come out.

On a panel about the horror line at Dark Horse, they announced that "following up on this year's BPRD 1946, BPRD 1947 will be written by Mike Mignola and Josh Dysart with Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon on art. "For this story we needed two different styles of art for two different styles of scene," Scott Allie said, and indicated that the artists were big fans of BPRD".


There's an interview with Gerard about Umbrella Academy on Comicbook Resources. Click, here to read it.

OOOOHHHHHH!! And check the Wall Street Journal today, there's a big feature on Fábio and I, our carreer and lots of interviews about us and what to come. Reallly cool stuff! Read it online here.

We have a big announcement happening today. Water divider for us, that's for sure.

And the Eisners at night, which we're are very confident.
Stay tuned!

Now we have to go have breakfast with Mignola.

One day, lotta work! Off to the Comic Con!

Last day of work before leaving for San Diego. We're all set.
- We're gonna sell original pages of Umbrella, Casanova, Sugar Shock;
- We have PIXU!!
- We also have CASANOVA vol.1 softcover, CASANOVA vol. 2 set(issues 8-14), Ursula, Rock'n'Roll, the Eisner nominated 5 and the Eisner nominated De:TALES.

we'll be on booth 2729, from Wednesday 'till Sunday.

We'll be signing at:
Thursday - Dark Horse - Fábio and Bá - 1pm-2pm
Saturday - Dark Horse - Umbrella Academy - 4pm-5:30pm
and at CBLDF at some point.

And now here's a video of my last day of work, penciling 2 and a half pages and inking 5, in order to travel to San Diego in peace.

Original art for sale at SDCC - UMBRELLA.

Do you like The Umbrella Academy and have this inner desire to have an original page from the series? Hey, this is your chance as we'll be bringing original pages from the first series to San Diego for SDCC. We won't have EVERY SINGLE PAGE at the con, so if you have a favorite, please let us know as soon as possible, because we leave on Monday.

And if you need a reminder of how great this series was, click on the images below for bigger versions:



We all loved Dave Stewart's colors on the series because he's the best, but this pages are just phenomenal in black and white.



By each issue, the art was getting better, moodier, more graceful.



Bá loves the Kraken because he can play on the most iconic super hero themes, like being mysterious like batman or athletic like Daredevil. And the last issue was just phenomenally out of this world.

Yes, Bá will bring the original art from the TP cover.

Drop us an email if you like a particular page, or if have any questions about the artwork and, if you're going to San Diego, I'll probably see less than a week.

Original art for sale at SDCC - second call.

We're almost done finishing up all we need to do before our trip. Two or three sleepless nights and we're set to go. If you're going to San Diego and has that inner desire to buy some original art from either Casanova or Sugarshock, this is your chance, as I'm bringing the pages to SDCC.

I'm not bringing EVERY SINGLE PAGE, so if you have any particular one you'd like, let me know. If you need a hand, click on the images below for a bigger image:

Casanova
Looking at the pages again, I realize I really like the work I've done on this series.


I loved to draw this sex sequence.

The last issue has some of the best pages I've ever done. It was a very nice farewell to this characters, and I miss them as much as you all.

Sugarshock


Pages 1, 3 and 6 are real favorites of mine, and I had no idea where the story was going when I started drawing the series. I thought it would all take place on Earth, for starters.



Action! Fights! Space! Who knew I would draw that some day, with all the down-to-earth relationship stories I like to tell? I really like the way the characters move and behave throughout this series.

I'll bring all pages from issue 3 as well, and a lot more pages from Casanova, but I wanted to give you guys a taste and a reminder of the pages before you can decide to hang some art on your wall.

We'll be at the Image Island booth at SDCC, which is booth 2729, so come look for us there, and don't forget: GET PIXU WHILE YOU CAN.

PIXU IS HERE!

PIXU 2

Coming out in September, the mystery continues.

Original pages at the Comic-Con - first call

So, ever since we started doing high-profile projects as Casanova and Umbrella Academy, from time to time we get emails asking if we sell original pages. Since we live in Brazil and we don't want to deal with international shipping and paypal and stuff (not right now), the only time we actually get to sell our pages is when we go to San Diego for the Comic Con International.

If you're going and you're interested, now is your chance to let us know.

Well, the convention is 2 weeks away and we will be bringing original pages to sell. Next week we'll post a page with all the pages we'll bring (yeah, it's impossible to bring a year's worth of pages of 2 monthly series).

Stay tuned.

The theatre.

Sometimes, in order to avoid losing the movement of the free hand drawing, I use reference photos on the sketches. This way, you can copy the boring angle of the picture in the sketch just to learn how that building works and to learn its details, but when you're doing the actual page, you're free from the reference photo and you can just draw like you like.

Soon

New online Umbrella

Click here and read the brand new Umbrella Academy short story "Anywhere but here".

Monday comics.

Monday, we got together with two friends, Grampá and Rafa Coutinho, and at dinner we made a fast crazy comic at eight hands on my sketchbook. One would ink the other's pencil, and then the next had to continue the previous panel.

Nothing that makes sense, but great fun.,


First panel is Grampá inked by Bá, second panel is me inked by Rafa.

Then, it's Bá inked by Grampá, and Rafa inked by me.

Now, it's Rafa inked by Grampá and Ba inked by Rafa.

Finally, Grampá inked by me and the last panel is Rafa inked by Bá.

Less than a month before San Diego, and we're all so excited.

Cover print test

PRE-ORDER: PIXU #1
(streets 07/23)

part 1 of 2
Becky Cloonan, Fábio Moon, Gabriel Bá, Vasilis Lolos
Special limited edition, 1000 copies numbered and signed by all 4 authors.

Part one will be released on the San Diego Comic Con International. Part two will be out in September.

This is not going to be distributed by Diamond. If you're not going to San Diego and you want to save your copy of PIXU, it will only be available through KHEPRI.COM. They are already taking pre-orders.

http://www.khepri.com/16.html#pixu

PIXU is upon us.

PIXU
2 part mini series
by Becky Cloonan, Vasilis Lolos, Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá.
special edition, 1000 copies, numbered and signed.

part one will be released on the San Diego Comic Con International. Part two will be out in September.

This is not going to be distributed by Diamond. If you're not going to San Diego and you want to save your copy of PIXU, it will only be available through KHEPRI.COM. They are already taking pre-orders.

Harvey Awards 2008!

We just got 3 nominations for the Harvey Awards 2008.

BEST ARTIST
Gabriel Bá, Umbrella Academy, Dark Horse Comics

BEST CONTINUING OR LIMITED SERIES
Umbrella Academy, Dark Horse Comics

BEST NEW SERIES
Umbrella Academy, Dark Horse Comics

You can see the full list on http://www.harveyawards.org/. Winners will be announced at the Baltimore Comic-con, September 27.

Special shout for our own Vasilis Lolos for his nomination as Best new Talent and Best Cartoonist!!

Front

TOMBO

Warm up for the day. Pencil with TOMBO brush pens. When we discovered TOMBO pens, we were fascinated by the brush pen, and all the different colors. We bought a bunch of pens years ago. Then we realized they are not waterproof, and if you draw with your hand touching the paper, you're going to make a big mess of your drawing.

We don't use these pens for any professional job anymore (maybe for some quick storyboards), but we still have a bunch and doing early warm up sketches is all I can think of so we don't waste them and throw them away.

Life drawings

PIXU is coming.

PIXU, our new self-published comic, will be ready for San Diego Comic Con, special 1000 copies numbered and signed. The PIXU crew is Becky Cloonan, Vasilis Lolos, Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá.

It's gonna be a 2 part mini-series and the second one will be out in september.
If you're going to MOCCA this weekend, find Becky at table A69 and find more about our new project.

And If you're not going to San Diego or if you already want to save your copy of PIXU, you can pre-order it at KHEPRI.COM.

Will you still miss me when I'm 64?

A self-other-self portrait done by Bá this week, which I colored, to celebrate our joint 64th birthday today. We have a lot to celebrate this year, and heavy celebration will occur soon, but for now we must focus on the work, the new work, the different work, and all the variants in between.

iGoogle

Everyone knows Google, but not that many know iGoogle, their enterprise on the "Web 2.0" world, with everything you want on one single page, full of gadgets that let you read news in RSS, the weather, Orkut, Myspace, Gmail, sports, Google Maps, whatever you think of.

As a marketing maneuver to spread the world about iGoogle, they've invited several artists from different fields from all around the world to create themes for this page, that the user can pick and have on their own personal pages. Bands (like Coldplay and Beastie Boys), fashion designers (Dolce&Gabbana e Oscar de la Renta), athletes (Lance Armstrong), cartoonists (Osamu Tezuka e Robert Mankoff), among many others.



The invited us to create our theme and we're very glad to be part of such a incredible project.

If you don't know iGoogle yet, just go to Google, click on the top right on iGoogle and give it a try.

Fragile

The last drops of ink on CASANOVA

Here's a video that shows Bá and myself inking the last pieces we did for Casanova.
I'm inking the last page and he's working over the image on the back cover.
I'm left handed and ink with a brush, Bá's right handed and uses pens.

Hope you enjoy it.

Casanova is now.

this was the first drawing of Casanova I did when we decided I was going to draw the second album.

Check out a preview of Casanova 14. This is the issue I'm most proud of, the end of the second album, the "go out with a bang" issue, the farewell, the issue to answer your questions.

I was drawing the last pages of issue 9, and reading the first pages of issue 10, and I asked Matt "is this what I think it is?" and he, in his "I'm the writer and I know stuff before any of you" pose, said "yes, but don't tell anyone".

Bá learned a lot working on Casanova, and so did I. This was never an easy comic to draw, and I tried to make it look simple (to do) and complex and rich as a world.


This was the second drawing, two days later, when I think I got it right.

Best CASANOVA EVER written.

"Towards the end of the book there is a real stand out tableau where two characters appear reflected by glass -- and they look like a painted blue Sin City scene. That is the image I would isolate to sell people on the power of the Moon. "

"Even if you have never read a single issue of this title, go get Casanova 14. Volume two may be better than volume one, and issue 14 is better than any Casanova issue before -- and there ARE no bad or even middling issues of Casanova out there."

From Geoff Klock's Blog, about CASANOVA 14, which may be out as early as next week.

Interview! Eisner! Voting!

There's a new interview with Bá about his work on Umbrella Academy. It has been on the Dark Horse site for over a month, but we just noticed it now. Check out for some insights on Bá's impressions on the series.



Also, the voting for the Eisner Awards have begun, so if you're a professional in the industry elligible to vote, and you might have liked Umbrella Academy as best mini series, Sugarshock as best online comic or 5 as best anthology, go ahead and place your vote at http://eisnervote.com/.

Pixu thumbnails

In an independent project like PIXU, you have to establish your own deadlines, and than break these deadlines into smaller deadlines. This way, you won't get behind on your self-imposed schedule and you'll be able to balance doing it at the same time as your other projects.

Since we did 5 last year, we have been talking about what to do next, and we seriously decided to do another ensemble comic around january.

We'll be set up at the Image big booth in San Diego, just like last year. As soon as we decided to do another book, we knew we would need a booth, because our strong independent sales were always done directly with the reader, so we needed a place to tell the reader "this is where you'll find us and buy our book".

We spent at least two months working out the script part, talking in the internet with each other, some times from three different continents. The fact that a project like this is only possible because of the internet is an understatement.

Right now, we're doing the thumbnails. Becky is always the fastest one and, since Bá is already drawing more Umbrella Academy pages, I'm second on the thumbnail count.

Here are two pages from my thumbnails:

Choosing the time.

If the day was longer, we could do so much more. The way that is is, we have to choose the projects we'll do and hope to do others later. The choosing is tricky when you have lousy options, as you have to see which one you think you can salvage or reinvent, but it's even more difficult when your options are all good.

The opposite applies then: look at the projects you can't leave for later, the ones that are exploding in your brain and need to be put on paper, look at the people you most want to work with, and really see what you want to do right now. These are the projects you must do, and you do them to keep the fire burning so you'll shine when you do every other thing.

nominations for the Eisner Awards

Today is a really special day. They've just released the list of Eisner Awards nominees and Fábio and I have been nominated for a couple of awards.

Best Limited Series - Umbrella Academy (Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá)
Best Online Comic - Sugar Shock (Joss Whedon and Fábio Moon)
Best Anthology - 5 (Becky Cloonan, Fábio Moon, Gabriel Bá, Grampá and Vasilis Lolos)



If you haven't seen 5 yet, you can order it online from Khepri, or look for Becky and Vasilis at the upcoming NYCC.
Congratulations for all the other nominees, including Ivan Brandon and his 24seven (also running for best anthology), Dave Stewart for best coloring, Matt Fraction and the crew of The Immortal Iron Fist (best new series) and Sensational Spider-Man Annual (best single issue), Brian Wood (best writer) and Chuck BB (special recognition).

Also on the nomination news, Umbrella Academy has just been nominated for 2 Eagle Awards, as Favourite new comic and Favourite Cover (for issue #1).

Réveillon

Yesterday's work felt good, and it felt right, and soon enough it was over. Plans for different kinds of celebration were held, and the day went as any other. However, I like to believe yesterday was a special day.

It feels like the year ended, and in some ways it has, a little late, like everything here in Brazil that waits Carnaval is over for the year to really start. I feel like Carnaval is finally over. I lighted a candle during dinner as we should do in the last day of the year, and I wished for the best. I spent a year working in Casanova, helping create and shape a world, and now this year is coming to an end. A new year approaches and a very different journey is about to begin.

Happy new year.

Beautiful day

"Today is a beautiful day to finish a story", I thought as I walked to the bakery in the morning to buy some bread. Yesterday, as I went to bed, I knew today I would have only one page left to finish my last issue of Casanova, and so today was to be a special day.

Today is suit day.

The sun, the birds singing and the breeze coming from the open window of the studio only make this day a more pleasant, more peaceful and more special one.

As I turn this page, one story ends. It's time to start another.

Doesn't say much, I know. But...

That's all I can say... for now.

Another day, another page

Casanova 13 is out in the open, and I'm basically all that stands between the reader and Casanova 14, since I'm still drawing our double-sized last issue. When all is said and done, I hope people forget the issues that came out late and focus on the quality of the work, which should be the only concern.

I wonder if peole will notice the change of styles midway through the last issue, but I rather think the story will keep the reader busy enough that nobody will even pay attention to the art.

I'm on page 22, by the way, so it shouldn't be long now.

Panel 2, page 19

Panel 2

On Ruby B. and Seychelle. Ruby gesticulates, concerned. Seychelle checks the data on a floating computer.

Ruby B: Are you sure it's him? Have we found him?

Seychelle: Just give me one moment.


. . .

New style

For the past four months, I can't find the brush I use to buy anywhere in the city. It's sold out. I've been treating my brush real nice and it's lasting a lot of time, but there's just so much I can take. The time has come for DESPERATE measures!

I'm changing my style, and from now on I'll only draw like this:

Inking with a brush

Bá caught me inking one of the most recent pages in video. We were talking to a young brazilian cartoonist who was here at the studio, and he's the one dong most of the talking at the beginning of the video, then there's the silence I fall into every time I ink, and then there are the small talk Bá and I exchange when we're drawing, which can be very confusing to the outsiders in its half finished sentences and inside references.

But the inking is nice, I guess, and maybe we could do these video things more often. Maybe when I'm not drawing the last issue with a lot of surprises, we could show me inking a more interesting portion of a page.

Page 16 today.

Matt has some preview art of Casanova 14 on his Flickr. Check it out if your into the whole teaser thing.


I just finished a page. If issue 14 of Casanova was a regular issue, with 16 pages, I would have finished it today. It's not, so I barely passed halfway point. Bá is loving the pages, so I guess this is a good sign. Matt seems to like it too, but he says little praise. He saves the praise for little Henry, who I'm yet to meet. I wonder if he will visit San Diego for the first time in July, or if Kelly Sue will skip this year, or if Matt will stay at home during the summer.

Today was a beautiful day, and I spent most of it working in the shade, in the studio. I also got my Sugarshock/MySpace poster framed after all these months, and I already hung it on my wall.

Putting art in general on the wall makes you want to do more art.

And so I did.

Drinking it strong.

I'm currently listening to a 14 track album while I draw the 14th Casanova issue. I'm making an effort to keep listening to this album repeatedly as long as this issue lasts, it only seems fitting that I do that since Matt sent me this album, which is actually a "mix-tape".

I refill my coffee mug and notice that there's actually an extra song in the mix. I'd call it a bonus track since I grew so found of the "14 issues and 14 songs" connection.

The bonus track is called "Casanova".

I drink my coffee, which is very good.