The italian De:TALES

Now in our hands.
Published by Comma 22, our books keep speaking more languages than we ourselves have learned.

It's a wonderful feeling, like having a bastard foreign baby.

PIXU interview and preview.

We're focusing on drawing some pages,which is what we need to do right now. We want to work a little faster, and a little longer, and we want it to look its best, so we'll keep quiet for some days (or weeks). All for the sake of comics.

Two links related to our beloved group project, PIXU:

An interview with the four creators about working together and creating a complex horror story

A 17-page preview of PIXU, so you know what's in store when you have this beauty in your hands.

We just saw the design of the hardcover, and it will be awesome. It already is. We're so very proud of this story and we're thrilled it will be collected and in hardcover. Nothing says horror book more than a hardcover. Only maybe a dusty hardcover, but that will happen in time when you have your copy of PIXU in your shelf, and the years pass and you never open the book because you'll be scared of what is inside.

TOYS, sweet toys.

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.

Wizard names PIXU Best Self Published comic of 2008

The indie collective of Becky Cloonan, Vasilis Lolos, Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon upped the ante on the self-publishing end with this minicomic chronicling the lives and deaths of the residents of a haunted house. With each horrific chapter created by a different artist, PIXU (Pee-shoo) holds together incredibly well and has us salivating for the second volume.

-Wizard #207

PIXU is still available at Khepri.com, so get'em while they're still around!

New Umbrella Academy series starts TODAY!

The first issue of the new Umbrella Academy series hits the stands today.
I've been working on it since May and it will finally be seen. There's a lot of crazy stuff on this series, much more than the first one.
Go grab your copy NOW.



And take a look at the most amazing thing Paper Action Figure Man sent me:



And while you're at it, what about pre-ordering the PVC Figure Set, due to hit the stores on April 2009?

Sketch

Faces

Looks.

Watercolor studies is about all I have time to do these days besides drawing our awesome new comics. It's a good break from the daily routine of the pages, and a good way to warm up as well as cool off.

When

PIXU and 5 at Floating Wolrd!

Floating World Comic, in Portland, will host this amazing exposition of original art form all the awesome creators of the Eisner Winner 5 and the new face of terror, PIXU!
Can't miss this event!
And if you haven't ordered PIXU yet, do it while you can. Our very limited 1000 copies print run WILL END FAST.
Click HERE and guarantee your copy!

PIXU 2

Click HERE and order your copy TODAY!

Watercolor at the garden.

automatic Cafard

Done today while teaching some brush techniques.

layout

My page layouts are the size of a postcard, and Bá and I solve all the storytelling and design "problems" of a page right there and then.

We used to do them smaller, the size you expect a "thumbnail" to be (hence the name), but doing them slightly bigger allows us to really see the story flow and imagine the layouts as smaller versions of the page instead of doodles.

PIXU 2 is coming

With some delay, the art is done. When you read it, i hope you agree it was for the best. We self publish this thing, we do it because we love comics, we love to tell stories and we really believe in the work we do. At the end of the day, we are not a big corporation filling the monthly market of comic books, where the most important thing is to hit the scheduled slot on the comic-book shelves. At the end of the day, we do this because we love it and we want to share it with as many people as we can, and to better express our love we have to give it our best. Sometimes, our best takes more time than we anticipated, but it's something we'll be proud of. We already are.

The printer people are our pals (we have been using the same guys for three years now), so we'll try to get it done faster, so it's just a matter of time now. The hard work, the good work, the "I still can't believe I do this for a living" work, it's done.

And it's coming.

If you haven't ordered your copy, you can still do it online at Khepri.com ( click here). It's your safest bet to grab you PIXU, so hurry to get it before the PIXU gets you.

Doodling

The drawings above were made on the actual pages of my script yesterday while Bá and I were talking with Grampá and Rafa, who were visiting (by visiting you can read "using our scanner"). These fast sketches, the kind you draw while you're talking, are good studies, and good fun. Seeing Grampá's new pages was also great fun, and following the more than 100 pages Rafa had to show was mind blowing. It's great for an artist to see other artist's works, there's a mutual inspiration, an energy that we don't get only looking at your own work. When you see greatness, you want to do great things.

Bá and I are always talking that we don't sketch often enough anymore. Simple drawings are delicious and we should fit them into our daily breaks.

Yesterday, we were on a meeting and there was paper and pencils on the table. It was just a talking kind of meeting, but I grabbed a piece of paper and started doodling. I drew the woman who were doing most of the talking, who had a big ring on her right hand, and who smoked a lot. It was cold, and her coat looked warm. For woman's standards, her hair was short.

After the meeting, I folded the piece of paper and put it in my pocket. When we came back to the studio, I saw the sketch again and decided it was okay. It felt nice to do it, because I did it for kicks.

We should all do some things just for the fun of it.

our iGoogle

Here's a video about our iGoogle theme. Also featuring another Brazilian artist's theme, Gustavo Rosa.



Google has invited artists of all mediums to collaborate with them and we were pleased to be part of such a cool pack.

Watercolor drawing.

Sometimes I forget what we can draw while listening to somebody talk. Given the right tools, it's amazing how freeing these "loose" drawings are. Every artist should try it at times, in bars, in school, at conventions.

The "capture the moment" kinda drawing sometimes says more about you than about the person you're portraying.

Umbrella won!

Umbrella Academy just won the Harvey Award of Best New Series.

Vasilis won for Best New Talent!



To see the full list of nominees and winners, click here (Thanks Heidi).

Who will survive?

Some times, the pencil art is almost the same as the final inking, but sometimes it's so loose, and there's so much left only for the pen, for the brush and for the cruel mistakes that we make once we're using tools we can't erase.

Who will survive the PIXU?

You can pre-order both PIXU 1 and PIXU 2 at this link here.

Finally, original art for sale!

Ever since we started working on high profile projects like Casanova, Umbrella Academy and Sugar Shock, we've been getting mail about selling original art. Since we live in Brazil and it's not an easy task to deal with shipping and money transactions, we only have done this sort of thing personally when we go to San Diego.

Well, we're very glad to announce that we have some pages available for sale with the nice folks from Beguiling, in Toronto. They have some pages and art cover from all the projects above. If we like how this goes, maybe it's the way to make everyone happy after all.

For pages of Gabriel Ba:
http://www.beguiling.com/artproductlist.asp?ID=79

For pages of Fabio Moon:
http://www.beguiling.com/artproductlist.asp?ID=80
 

'Daytripper' on Newsarama

There I was, in San Diego, going to the DC booth to check with Bob Schreck what time was the Vertigo panel I was suppose to go to announce that Bá and I were doing a series for Vertigo. As I arrived, to my surprise, Bob had printed copies of the first issue of Daytripper in hand, and he was showing it to a girl. A woman, actually, but I call women girls all the time.

Turns out she was a reporter and she was asking him questions about the series, and since I turned out at that time, I was interviewed as well. Call it fate, I call it strange. It's okay, I'm used to strange. Have you met my brother?

Anyway, the article is up at newsarama, and it's the first time we (I) had to talk about what the series was about and how was it working on it. I think I did pretty good right there on the fly, and I'm sure I was a lot more nervous twenty minutes later on the Vertigo panel. Bob made me look good, though.

So, click here on the link and read alway.

Back to the drawing board.

The girl you'll meet.

It's coming.

Have you pre-ordered PIXU 2 already? You should. The story unfolds, the characters interact, everything comes together and the story ends. It's coming and when it arrives nothing will ever be the same.

In case you're not following us on twitter, here's the latest:

-Finishing an issue of Umbrella Academy tonight (which means inking several pages), and doing a cover tomorrow.
-Working on Daytripper script over the weekend, and going back to drawing pages during the week.
-Reading the BPRD 1947 script. Read it once already, and it's good.
-Thumbnailing the "one page a month" story we do for a brazilian magazine so we can draw it tomorrow.
- We started a weekly comic strip in one of Brazil's biggest newspapers and the first was published today.

And you know what? That's just the beginning.

It's time to do it and it's up to you.

We'll be falling off the face of the world for a few weeks. New comics must be made, and written, and drawn, and it's up to us to do it (our part, at least). A good artist creates art and the art is a reflection of his world, and so we must live in this world and interact with people, but at the same time we must learn to respect the attention that is required to produce new work, and to pay attention, there are times when we must focus. Imagine if we lose this window of opportunity?

We love comics. To be able to draw and write comics every day is amazing. To be able to communicate with others with stories you tell is the best job in the world.

While we're at the drawing board, send your email to us and we'll answer them the best that we can, but if we don't, it's just because we're making new comics and that is what everybody wants, right? Updates will continue when we have something important to say (or to show), even if we have to twitter it.

Some important news:


-Pre-order PIXU 2

Khepri is already taking pre-orders for the conclusion of our little PIXU saga. Don't miss out on this internet bargain, and your best bet to acquire the limited edition of the second volume of this horror curse.

-Eisners:



Since we've been making the Why comics videos, we also meant to show our little participation on this year's Eisner Awards, but when we we're enthusiastically winning the award for best anthology with 5, we didn't film it. Now, more than a month later, we discovered that someone did, and we're finally able to remember what we said up there when we were already high on the happiness of it all.

It's up to all of us to make more, and make it better, and keep going.

Until we're back, behave. And let's make great comics.

Why Comics? - part 2

Why Comics?

answers by:
Gerard Way (Eisner Award winner, writer of The Umbrella Academy);
Gabriel Bá (Multiple Eisner Award winner, brazilian storyteller, author of De:Tales, 5 and PIXU , artist of The Umbrella Academy and Casanova);
Dave Stewart (Multiple Eisner Award winner colorist of BPRD, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cut, Hellboy, Lobster Johnson, The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse); The Spirit (DC))