Lovely interview on A Comicbook Orange!

Awesome Casey McKinnon interviewed us during this year's San Diego Comic Con. Here's the treat!

Harvey!!!!

At our last day at the brazilian festival, after a night of heavy partying at the rock bar, we discovered that I WON AN HARVEY AWARD for best artist yesterday.There's no better way to celebrate it than to have your friends with you, and there are not anyone we want to tell this more than our fans.

Thanks for being here and supporting our books.

Brazil keeping us busy.

Dash Shaw came to Brazil last month (and he talks about it here and here) to promote Bottomless Belly Button and we ended up participating in two panels with him. After one of them, I drew this sketch of him while he was signing (above). the publicist from the publisher took a picture while I was doing the drawing



This week, we're busy (when are we not?). Bá is working on the third Daytripper cover, I'm drawing interior pages and we're getting ready for FIQ, a festival that happens in Belo Horizonte every two years. Ivan Brandon, Craig Thompson and Ben Templesmith are some of the guests this year besides us. Also, we're releasing the brazilian edition of The Umbrella Academy this week, and also the brazilian edition of PIXU. Vasilis and Becky are coming for the party, and they're staying so we can cook something up while we're here.

I hope that, before the end of the year, we'll have plenty of news to share of the possible future projects, but right now we're very excited with the projects we're currently working on, and we just want to focus on making Daytripper as great as we think it can be. From now until December, make sure you make your retailer order Daytripper, 'cause you won't want to miss on this ride. Two issues left on BPRD 1947 for the readers, so that's probably the Moon/Bá art fix until Daytripper hits. And the end of BPRD is totally worth it. It's AWESOME! Don't miss it.

Daytripper 1 solicited!

Finally, we're soliciting DAYTRIPPER. You can check out a preview of the first pages clicking here. Like it says, it will be "a Brazilian slice-of-life limited series, featuring beautiful women, friendships, family and complete unpredictability". That, and so much more, we hope. The solicit reads as follow:

DAYTRIPPER #1
Written by Gabriel Bá & Fábio Moon
Art by Fábio Moon & Gabriel Bá
Cover by Gabriel Bá
They were two of Entertainment Weekly’s Top 100 stars to watch. They’ve won multiple Eisners and have worked with the top names of comics and pop culture from Joss Whedon (Sugar Shock) and Mike Mignola (BPRD: 1947) to Gerard Way (Umbrella Academy) and Matt Fraction (Casanova).

Now, Brazilian wonder twins Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá are back writing and drawing in a hauntingly lyrical series set in their native Brazil. With DAYTRIPPER, they follow in the tradition of Craig Thompson, Paul Pope and David Mazzucchelli – cartoonists at the top of their game making comics about the quiet moments that ask big questions. Brás de Oliva Domingos is an obituary writer with a famous father, a career he hates, and tons of questions. How does a person become a successful writer? How does a man get out of his father’s shadow? But those concerns will dwarf the surprise he’ll find in the first issue – a twist both he and readers will never see coming, which will grow into a mystery about the meaning of life itself.
On sale December 9 • 1 of 10 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • MATURE READERS

Astronaut

sketch for an astronaut we had to do in a story for a brazilian anthology.

More and less

Two characters I never used for one of the stories Bá and I created that never left the ground. Someday I might still use the characters in another story. I liked their names.

Four panel sketch

I was testing this new brush pen Bá bought. Good tip, but it's not waterproof. Because of that, I can play with it and pretend I'm doing cool ink washes, but it's not what I would trust my art on if I'm doing story pages. Definetely an improvement when it comes to sketching and designing stuff, because regular pens, or even pencil sketches, are very different from what I do with brushes.

Let's see what this new tool will do to my sketchbooks.

Back to the pages now.

night sketch

Yesterday I did this doodle on the table paper at a bar. I think he'll be in a page next week.

Bá and Hazel

We're no longer safe, not even in Brazil. I expect Cha-Cha with the briefcase and the atomic bomb.

Always exploring.

Last week of August is upon us, and the work never stops. The pile of work never diminishes, the bubbling mind never quiet, the hand never content, the eye always open, always searching, always thinking.

Creating has no on and off. To create is to be, and while we are, we're working.

We just did a pin-up for an artist we admire. It wasn't on our schedule, but we can't always plan every single step of our days ahead of time. It's an improvisation, constantly changing, and you need a constant so you won't get lost.

You must love something or you'll get lost.

Love someone, love your work, love your family. This will help you to navigate through the storms.

I love storms. Couldn't live without them.

I dream of calm seas, and these dreams make me want to sail to distant corners of the world chasing storms.

The comic book creators are explorers.

Let's explore.

BPRD 2 is out.

The second issue of BPRD 1947 is out, and we're working hard on the last two issues. If you liked how the story is going, it only gets better.

Simon and Katharina are my favorite characters. Lucky for me, they're the ones I'm drawing. But that's all before I started drawing the whole Hecate festival. Now, that's fun. This is the kind of story where the artist can play around, and the festival is the kind of scene we wait in a story like this. And it only gets better.

Back to the drawing board now. It only gets better, but not by itself.

taking the spotlight.

It was great to have a spotlight panel at this year's Comic-Con. I have always learned a great deal about making comics by listening to the story of other artists, and so it was great to have this opportunity to basically talk for an entire hour about the way we love to make comics, even when it's not easy, and what we learn every day.

We have to get back into "making comics" mode, so I'll leave you with an excerpt from the spotlight.

At the end of another day, we remember.

Going to San Diego is great. We see our old friends and we always meet new ones. We have a great time, even with the long hours working at the booth. We were tired every night, but away we went at dinners and bars, because that's when you have time to relax and talk to the people you know you never see during the convention because everybody is busy working.

Every morning, we were early eating and getting our strength back, for another day of awesomeness was waiting for us.



Now it's time to get back to work. All of you, go! Let's make more comics! Let's be great, let's succeed, fail, make mistakes and learn. Most of all, let's tell more stories.

Let's continue.

SDCC, BPRD and Daytripper at the Vertigo panel

We're having a great time at the Comicon this year. Had a awesome signing (thanks to everyone who stop by) with people bringing Roland, Casanova, De:TALES, Umbrella Academy and BPRD. It really show that people are starting to follow our work. It shows we have a work.



We were on the Vertigo panel about the new series and the crime line.
Here's a little of our share of it.

SDCC 09

We won't have a booth this year, which means we'll be everywhere. Look for us, stop us on the street, be friendly. You'll have plenty of chances to find us. If we're not on a panel or not signing, chances are we're hanging around at the coolest booth of the con (#1322) with our friends Becky Cloonan, Jill Thompson, Brian Wood and Cliff Chiang, so make sure you stop at their booth, 'cause they have the coolest looking books out there!

!! EDIT !!
WE WILL HAVE A BOOTH!! And it is exactly booth #1322 with Becky Cloonan, Vasilis Lolos, Jill Thompson, Brian Wood and Cliff Chiang. We won't be there all the time, but now it is much easier to find us!!

We'll be bringing new originals (from Umbrella Academy, Sugarshock and other projects) to sell, but we're still not sure how or where we'll do it. After the convention, online sales and shipping of originals will continue with the nice folks from Beguiling (link for Bá's originals and link for Fábio's originals)

We think we have all the information about our panels and sigining schedule, and they go as follow:

THURSDAY, July 23rd

- 4:00pm-5:00pm - Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá signing at the Dark Horse booth (#2615)

- 6:00pm -7:00pm - Vertigo New Ongoing Series/Crime Line (Room 5AB)

It's a new beginning for Vertigo with the launch of new ongoing titles such as The Unwritten, Greek Street & Sweet Tooth. In addition to these titles we will be launching the highly anticipated Vertigo Crime Line with some of the top talents in the industry. Hosted by Senior VP - Executive Editor, Vertigo, Karen Berger and Senior Editor Will Dennis, this panel is not to be missed, especially considering the talent present: Peter Gross (Unwritten), Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, The Nobody), Jason Starr, Chris Gage, Gabriel Bá, Fábio Moon and others!

FRIDAY, July 24th

- 12:30pm-1:30pm Spotlight on Fábio Moon- (Room 10)
Meet Eisner Award–winning Brazilian cartoonist Fábio Moon (Sugar Shock!, 5) as he shares his love for comics and talks about working with his twin brother Gabriel Bá (Umbrella Academy), collaborating with high-profile creators Matt Fraction (Casanova), Joss Whedon (Buffy), and Mike Mignola (Hellboy) and what's next. Lots of images to show, with a fun Q&A to follow.

I think I'll have a signing right after the panel, somewhere, somehow. I'll update this space as soon as I know more.

- 5:30pm-6:30pm - Vertigo: View of the Future
 (Room 5AB)
Vertigo, DC's edgiest and most provocative imprint, returns to San Diego! Come and discover what's going on at the imprint that birthed The Sandman, Preacher, Y: The Last Man, Fables and more? Wait 'til you hear about what new projects the Vertigo team is going to thrill us with next! Hosted by Senior VP - Executive Editor, Vertigo, Karen Berger, Group Editor Shelly Bond, and Senior Editor Will Dennis, with Jason Aaron (Scalped), Mike Allred, Mark Buckingham (Fables), Josh Dysart (Unknown Soldier), Peter Gross (Unwritten), Amy Hadley (Madame Xanadu), Jeff Lemire (The Nobody), Chris Roberson, Matt Sturges (House of Mystery), Matt Wagner (Madame Xanadu), Bill Willingham (Fables, House of Mystery), G. Willow Wilson (Air), Brian Wood (DMZ, Northlanders), and others (WE ARE THE OTHERS)!

- 6:00pm - 7:00pm - Umbrella Academy signing with Gabriel Bá and Gerard Way at the Dark Horse booth (#2615)

8:30pm - The Eisner Awards
Lots of friends were nominated, and Bá was nominated, and here we go again to see what will stand out in the middle of an outstanding year for comics.

SATURDAY, July 25th

-12:00pm - 1:00pm - signing at the Vertigo booth (#1915) (maybe?)

-5:00pm - 6:00pm - signing with Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá at the Comic Relief booth.

SUNDAY, July 26th

-12:00 pm- 1:00 pm - PIXU Signing at the Dark Horse booth (#2615)
Fábio Moon, Gabriel Bá, Becky Cloonan, Vasilis Lolos

Paraty sketches

We had some time to sketch during our weekend at the Festival in Paraty. No pressure, no worries, no plan. Drawing is fun, you know, and some times we can forget that part.

Recent mirror

photo by Tomás Rangel, taken this past weekend during the literary festival in Paraty.



photo by Sergio Fonseca of our talk (which opened the festival's program).

July has begun with horror!

Our new enterprise into the helms of horror will hit the stores this week.

PIXU: Mark of Evil!, the collected, hardcover edition of our Harvey nominated mini-series done last year with Becky Cloonan and Vasilis Lolos. Beautiful book!
And BPRD: 1947 part 1 of 5, the dream of every cartoonist, working with Mike Mignola on the Hellboy-verse, and there're Vampires!

As the publishers start to announce their panels on the San Diego Comic Con, we start to have a notion of how busy (or not) the convention will be for us this year. Since we won't have a table anywhere, if you want to find us you better go to these panels.

So far, That's what we know:

Thursday, July 23rd:
- 6:00 -7:00 Vertigo New Ongoing Series/Crime Line
It's a new beginning for Vertigo with the launch of new ongoing titles such as The Unwritten, Greek Street & Sweet Tooth. In addition to these titles we will be launching the highly anticipated Vertigo Crime Line with some of the top talents in the industry. Hosted by Senior VP - Executive Editor, Vertigo, Karen Berger and Senior Editor Will Dennis, this panel is not to be missed, especially considering the talent present: Peter Gross (Unwritten), Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, The Nobody), Jason Starr, Chris Gage, Gabriel Ba, Fabio Moon and others! Room 5AB

Friday, July 24th
- 5:30-6:30 Vertigo: View of the Future
Vertigo, DC's edgiest and most provocative imprint, returns to San Diego! Come and discover what's going on at the imprint that birthed The Sandman, Preacher, Y: The Last Man, Fables and more? Wait 'til you hear about what new projects the Vertigo team is going to thrill us with next! Hosted by Senior VP - Executive Editor, Vertigo, Karen Berger, Group Editor Shelly Bond, and Senior Editor Will Dennis, with Jason Aaron (Scalped), Mike Allred, Mark Buckingham (Fables), Josh Dysart (Unknown Soldier), Peter Gross (Unwritten), Amy Hadley (Madame Xanadu), Jeff Lemire (The Nobody), Chris Roberson, Matt Sturges (House of Mystery), Matt Wagner (Madame Xanadu), Bill Willingham (Fables, House of Mystery), G. Willow Wilson (Air), Brian Wood (DMZ, Northlanders), and others (that's us)! Room 5AB

Ther'll be the first ever, awesome Spotlight on Fabio Moon
Friday, JULY 24
12:30-1:30pm
ROOM 10

We'll have some signings as well, and we'll post them here closer to the event.

2009 Harvey Award nominations!!

The 2009 Harvey Award nominees were announced and we're on the list:

- Best continuing or limited Series - Umbrella Academy
- Best Artist - Gabriel Bá
- Best Anthology - PIXU #1 (by Becky Cloonan, Vasilis Lolos, Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá)

AWESOME!!!!
FODA!!!!

Voting is due August 28th.

The ceremony and banquet for the 2009 Harvey Awards will be held on October 10th, at the Baltimore Comic-Con.

Sketchbook frog