Amazon's Best of 2011

Daytripper has been selected as one of Amazon.com's Top Ten Best Books of the Year So Far on the Comics and Graphic Novels category.




This has been an amazing year, full of rewards that only refuel our love for comics and make us want to keep creating new stories forever.
So let's do it.

Solstice

Summer solstice at one side of the world, Winter solstice at the other. Both ways, there are stories to be told, thus work to be done.

I just finished a cover, which the editor liked and have already been sent off, and so off I go to this short 8 page story which I've been planning since April, when the idea was born. It's a strange thing, going back to short stories after the 220 pages of Daytripper, but in a refreshing sort of way, I think it's just what I need. These days, it's easy to get carried away and only come up with big epic ideas, ideas which will take many pages - and many years - to get done, and there are some periods in your life, and in your work, where a smaller story is just the right size to fit that moment in which you want to work and, at the same size, still have time to gaze at the world and see what the tides might be bringing my way.
I hope that the next time I have something to write about in here, this short story will be over, and I hope this happens in the next two weeks.
Back to work.

Solicitation for Casanova Avaritia #1

The wait is over - or almost - as Casanova is once again solicited! This is the moment all of you - or at least many of you - have been waiting for: 100% new Casanova issues. No reprints. No old material. New story! New artwork! New color palette!
Our new arc, avaritia will start in September, and the solicitation goes like this:
CASANOVA: AVARITIA #1 (of 4)
Written by MATT FRACTION
Penciled by GABRIEL BÁ
Cover by GABRIEL BÁ
From the writer of Marvel's smash hit FEAR ITSELF and the artist of the best-selling book Umbrella Academy comes the FULL-COLOR rebirth of the coolest comic of all time -- CASANOVA IS BACK and NOW YOU can see what everybody's been talking about. THIS ISSUE: The world's sexiest and savviest superspy kills his way from dimension to dimension in a high-stakes, action-packed adventure that cannot be described in a mere human "solicitation." !!! 32 ALL-NEW FULL-COLOR PAGES. PREORDER THIS BOOK! IF YOUR RETAILER CAN'T READ YOUR MIND, YOU CAN'T READ 'CASANOVA.'
40 PGS./Mature …$4.99

CASANOVA- AVARITIA 1 cover revealed!

In September, everything in the Casanova universe will be new. New storyline, new artwork, new mood. And here's the first brand new cover!

If you like the cover, wait until you see what the interiors look like.
All the best, and back to work.

Daytripper gets two Eagles

Over the weekend, during the MCM Expo London Comicon, took place the Eagle Awards ceremony, and we're very happy that Daytripper won in TWO categories.

Yes, we're happy. And honored. And we feel blessed, and it's incredible to think how far this story of ours is going, how many people are reading it, and how it appears they like it. This story means a lot to us, and it's great to see how much it means to others. This overwhelming feeling only inspires us to keep going, pushing ourselves harder and telling new stories.
Thank you all so much for this worldly support, and let's get back to work.

Sketch

Thinking about a new strip, the sketchbook by my side.

Casanova GULA trade, coming in July

CASANOVA: GULA TPB
Written by MATT FRACTION
Penciled by FÁBIO MOON & GABRIEL BÁ
Cover by FÁBIO MOON
Casanova Quinn is a secret secret agent, and a pawn in a game of espionage-chess played by his father Cornelius and the forces of E.M.P.I.R.E. against alllll the bad guys in the whole wide world. When a mission goes haywire and Casanova disappears, all hell breaks loose across the span of the space-time continuum itself. As archrival Newman Xeno conspires to break both the laws of man and physics, the fabric of all-that-is begins to fray. Clearing the way for that delightful little Armageddon is Casanova’s twin sister, Zephyr, killing her way through a blood-soaked hit list that ends with their father. All this as a super-vixen from the future scrambles to unravel the mystery at the heart of it all: WHEN IS CASANOVA QUINN? The sex is sexier and the violence is violent-ier in this, the second breathtaking volume of CASANOVA, the comic that Entertainment Weekly calls “Sexy... gripping and darkly funny.” Collecting CASANOVA: GULA #1-4.
160 PGS./Mature ...$14.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4863-0

Figure drawing

Here's Bá training.
A little practice never hurts anybody, even if you already "know" how do draw. There's always something new to learn, to think about, to consider.
Most of this poses were just one minute poses, some were three minutes long, one or another, five minutes long.

 

 

 

 

 

DIGITAL TWINS!

We love comics. And we consider ourselves old school, because we like comics made by hand, on real paper, to be printed on paper and read on book format by people. Although we will keep making our comics to be printed, digital comics are here and the tablets and readers are also becoming a growing reality that we can't oversee.

Every publisher is putting their comics out there to be read on digital readers, and our books are among them. So now you can buy and read our comics online or on the device of your preference, and take them with you whenever you go.

Now you can get Daytripper on Comixology here.
You can read Daytripper #1 for free.

You can browse Dark Horse Digital and get all the awesome comics they publish.
Regarding our comics, you can now get Umbrella Academy series 1 and 2, our Eisner nominated De:TALES, or our horror comic PIXU, made with our good friends Becky Cloonan and Vasilis Lolos.

The important thing is that people can read our work. We'll keep writing, drawing. We'll keep telling stories.

We love comics.

Slim and shorty

Slim and shorty.
That's how I think about Cyclops and Wolverine. Maybe over the year Cyclops might have gotten a little stronger, it's possible, but Wolverine should have stayed short. Adamantiun bones don't stretch.

The wild hand.

"Do you want to hold them?", asked the little girl in the floating house docked in the middle of the river.

I hesitated. That was a very big snake, and even the alligator, which was only a baby they caught earlier that day, had a big enough mouth to do some damage to my hands.

The snake skin was shiny and beautiful, but slippery. and seemed almost detached from the muscles, so I had to hold tight while the girl cautioned me "not too tight". As my hand touched the snake, she started moving, slowly at times, but steady, and I could feel just how strong she was. She could crush me, I thought as I put her around my neck and over my shoulders, and this could be it. She wouldn't hold still, which made me nervous and made it difficult for Bá to take a picture, but how could I prove to the twenty years old me, who swore he would never try to hold a giant snake, that I was in the middle of the Amazon river (called Solimões river right there before he meets the Negro), alive and well, holding that sucuri (Anaconda for the gringos) and that baby alligator and looking at trees wide as a street and tall as a building?

This was one of the highlights of our trip to Manaus,capital city of the state of Amazonas here in Brazil, which included research for a future book. This, alongside our recent trip to Machu Picchu in Peru, made us want to create stories as impressive and astonishing as the experience of travelling to incredible places.

I returned home wanting to tell about the things I did and saw to my friends, and I wrote some of them, only to discover that my friend Craig Thompson was packed and ready to leave on a trip to China, so I'm sure an equally impressive experience will inspire him the same way I was inspired by these trips. Safe journeys, Craig, and see you in a bit.

Back to work, it's good to be back.

Nominated

Yesterday, the nominees for the 2011 Eisner Awards were announced and we were nominated for best limited series with Daytripper. We're happy.

The ceremony will be in July 22nd, during SDCC. There's a lot of work ahead of us before that, but it's nice to have this to look forward to while we work.

Thanks for all the support, and congratulation to all the other nominees.

Coordinates challenged

Just as we returned from our trip to Peru, one of our computers seemed dead. It didn't turned on any longer, and it looks like it won't turn on ever again. We had almost everything in back-ups, and we can still retrieve information from the drives, but while we don't do that, I remember one email that is stuck in there about a guy who sent his picture for the Daytripper Challenge from Russia, but I don't remember his name anymore, and the city he was from. Once I retrieve the email info on my hard-drive, he shall be named. I tthink he was the only one stuck in there, but I'll only know in a little while, so let's carry on with all the other emails we received.

German Torres wrote from Barcelona, having bought his copy (the spanish copy, not the english one) of the book online.

Jack Leask bought his copy at Blue Moon Comics in Novato, near San Francisco.

Liliana Vera comes from Sonora, in México, but bought her copy at a graphic novels and boardgames convention in Monterrey, Nuevo León, México. She wasn't sure she would find a copy, and was very happy when she did.

Rebecca Hawkins is a cruise ship musician, and bought Daytripper in Brooklin just before leaving for another period overseas. She emailed us from Grenada, West Indies, and send us a picture from her travel journal.

Michael wrote from Barnaul, in South-West Siberia, Russia (or 53º17'27"N 83º38'52"E, as he described it). He got the book through Amazon and likes the idea of putting books from tropical creators through the very different climate of Siberia.

Back at the studio

Indeed, we're back at the studio after a woderful time in Peru. The Lima Comics festival was wonderful, the people were great all around, and we met old friends and made new ones. Gracias a todos.

And then there was the rest of the peruvian trip, to Cusco and Machu Picchu and all that it entails, which I can't even try to write about now, in the little time I still have today to write, because this was a incredible life-changing experience. I just hope I can channel all the energy and all the amazement I felt while there and create new and exciting stories, stories where I will look and feel as curious and puzzled and hungry to know more as I was when looking at man-made places with 7 metres tall rocks like the ones we found in Saqsayhuaman, where I took this picture of Bá.

Challengers before Peru

We leave tomorrow for the Lima Comics Festival in Lima, Peru. Before we finish packing, I wanted to put our latest entries on the Daytripper Challenge.

Elisio da Costa wrote from France. He stopped at Album Comics in Paris on his way out of the current Moebius Exhibition and bought his copy there on a Saturday. Apparently, he also bought the first Casanova trade that day, and these two books came home to keep company with the first two Umbrella Academy trades.

J.E. Latosa is yet another Phillippino fan and got his copy at the National Bookstore at the Sangri-La Plaza mall in Manila. He joins the shy rank of challengers, but we like him anyway.

So, here we go again on the road. We'll be part of two panels in the Lima Festival, one on the 19th and one on the 20th, so if you're in Lima, come check the festival out. More informations on their facebook page.

See you there, or somewhere along the way.

Challengers no hablam inglês

It's strange that these last three Daytripper Challengers do not have english as their first language (but I guess I'm exaggerating if I consider that one of them found the book in Washington). Also, all three of them know us personally or have met us before.

Loris Z. is an argentinean artist from Buenos Aires. We met him at the CRACK BANG BOOM convention in Rosario last year. He has a very strange project regarding a book about sex, written by a priest many years (centuries) ago, and people draw on its pages inspired by what is written on that particular page, and both Bá and I have contributed to the project.

Natasha, a brazilian friend of ours who went to university with Bá a long time ago, was traveling and found a copy of Daytripper in a Barnes&Noble in Washington, DC. It was on the "new releases fiction" stand, alongside other "regular" books and in prominent position, and not hidden in the sometimes obscure Graphic Novel section of some bookstores. I hope this placement worked for our book and for Barnes&Noble. Thanks, Natasha.

Carla Rodrigues sent her picture from Portugal. I'm not sure if she lives in Lisboa or other portuguese city, but she met us also last year during our stay at the Beja Festival. She hasn't read the book by the time she sent the email, so I hope she likes it when she does read it.

For the third week now, Daytripper has been on the New York Times Best Sellers list in the graphic novel category, and for the third week, it appears on the list at #1. We're very happy and grateful, and hope that many more people still have the chance to discover our story and, maybe, send us more pictures.

Back to work, we all want more comics, right?

A sketchy girl

This was my warm up sketch this morning. I got a little carried away, so it took me the entire morning.
I liked it, though.

Figure drawing 2011

Every chance we get, we go back to figure drawing sessions. It always helps, no matter what style you have. We have been fortunate to have found a great group that gathers every week, and with a great and diverse rotating team of models.

These are from some of the latest sessions.

International women's day

GULA inking and the DHP variant

I love inking.
I made a video of some of the inking on my new Casanova GULA cover.
I hope you like it.


Also on the cover front, the folks at Dark Horse Comics announced my variant cover to the second issue of the new Dark Horse Presents anthology. I'm thrilled to do a cover for this comic book. I still remember how hugely influential it was to me to buy Dark Horse Presents when Sin City just appeared on the anthology, or when I read a Hellboy story in it. And then, when the anthology relaunched online, I was super happy to be part of it with Sugarshock, and now it seems the anthology's path crossed with mine once more. I really like the fantasy and science fiction feel of this cover, an homage to some of the greatest things to explore in comics form.

Here's the sketch and final version side by side, to show how much I really saw on the initial idea, and before that doing the final version was way easier.