ATELIER and the time machines

It's hard to keep secrets. What's the fun of knowing something only you know? You gotta tell someone, let somebody knows how special you are for having a secret, and how special the other person is if you decided to share that secret with him/her.

At the same time, we do comic books and, as such distinguish creators, we practically live in a cave when we're working, so while we're actually working, it's very easy to work and keep it secret. Comic book artists are crazy scientists creating time machines or interdimentional portals inside their studios, and at some point in the story, we reach the moment for that surprise turnaround scene where we see the scientists actually built two machines instead of one.

We've reached that moment.

We started doing this two months ago, when we were thinking about our convention trips to NYCC in New York, CRACK BANG BOOM in Rosario, Argentina, and Rio Comicon in Rio de Janeiro. We realized we didn't want to go to three conventions in three different countries where three different languages were spoken and have nothing that could be presented, read and understood at all three. We travel to talk about comics and to meet the readers, sure, but the primary point of interest in the comic's world is the work, and we wanted to have work to show (we always want to have work to show and stories to tell). In the spur of the moment, we decided that, in one month, we could crank out a new comic that by the power of comics could work in three different languages, and if we could finish it in a month, we could send it to the printer and have in ready in time for our first stop: New York.

One month later, we were calling the printer to check out if they got the files.

What else can I say?



It's at the printer, and should be ready any moment now. And then it will be real, in my hands, and soon enough. in yours. That's how's supposed to work, and it's the beauty of it. We've just built another time machine and it's time to put it to work. Can you feel the turning point coming?

Now, it's great to have friends, specially if they're in the crazy scientist profession like ourselves, because it's always better, when you're alone at night drawing endlessly and with little to no hope, to know that, if you look through the window at the tower of your friend's castle, lightening bolts and explosions can be seen, heard and felt, and you know that, by the time you finish your monster, there will be a monster friend to keep it company.



As we pack and get ready to travel with our new comic, we know that we'll be in great company as we saw our friend Gustavo Duarte produce his second comic, also in the dead of night, also in secret (not really, but let's keep playing our roles), and also in time for NYCC, where he'll share a table with us to present the world TAXI, his brand new thing. Let me tell you, it's beautiful, but don't believe me and go see for yourself.

We'll be at table F4-F9 on a giant booth at artist's alley, along with Ivan Brandon, Rafael Albuquerque, Ariel Olivetti, Andy MacDonald, Leandro Fernández and the incredible Becky Cloonan. we'll have copies of ATELIER, CASANOVA, and stuff. Fun stuff. Check it out.

See you in a week, or in another convention, or soon.

Hello Kitty

Come out, come out and let us play.

I love comics.

First I'd like to thank all the attention and love we've been getting about Daytripper. This comics really has gone further than we predicted and we couldn't be happier with it.

And I couldn't be happier with the projects I've been working on. Each one different from the other, the creators are exciting to work with and I learn new things about our craft every day. Casanova is coming out in color and it looks amazing, the new letters look great too. I've begun working on the new material and it's like time travel back to crazy land.

But the most exciting thing about the upcoming days is actually we will stop working for 3 weeks just to do the only thing that give us as much joy as creating a new story: going to comic conventions and meeting the public.

Our entire carreer has been filled with a lot of trips to comic conventions, waiting in lines, watching panels, meeting creators and talking to the fellow authors we admire. And the more we produce, more we have to talk about, so the last conventions have been a full plate. And that's the way we like.

Two weeks from now, we'll go to New York Comic Con for the first time and we're really excited about that. We'll be sharing a huge set of tables with IVAN BRANDON, BECKY CLOONAN, ANDY MACDONALD, ARIEL OLIVETTI (Argentina) , LEANDRO FERNÁNDEZ (Argentina), RAFAEL ALBUQUERQUE (Brasil), and GUSTAVO DUARTE (Brasil). We'll be on Artist Alley on tables F4 through F9. Can't wait to talk to whoever stops by.

Two weeks after that, we cross the globe to go to CRACK BANG BOOM, the first international comics convention of Rosário, Argentina. That will be awesome! And finally, in november we have Rio Comicon in... well, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

We have a lot of books on our bags, we'll have original pages and we'd really like to talk about comics and stuff, be it in english, portuguese or spanish. But the language that unite us all, that has been taking us all over the word, that has no frontiers or boundaries is the one of panels and balloons.

Come meet us on one of these conventions and discover what we have to say about that.

Hello, kitty girl

Every girl loves her Hello Kitty bag.

Dynamic duo

Cute

A little cross-eyed, I guess, but still cute. Cute enough, and fun enough, for a warm up exercize. I wish every warm up doodle would come out like this one.

Casanova preparatory sketch

Everybody still looked weird and out of character as I was warming up for the short back-up on the new first issue of Casanova. My hand was cold, stiff. I later also learned that paper I was using wasn't helping, it didn't slide smoothly enough, it didn't erase properly, it made drawing a painful experience.

We're now thinking about the cover for the first Casanova trade. Then, on to the covers of the second arc. This time around, I think I'll jump onboard for the second arc's covers. Let's hope I can do as good a job as Bá.

Also, I'm starting to play around with the colors for the second arc, because soon enough Cris will start on it. How will it look? That's our challenge.

Dream come true.

My brother and I have been wanting to tell stories in comicbooks for as long as we can remember. At first, we just wanted to copy what we were reading, as a way of being part of that magical universe of super-heroes, barbarians, space guardians, street punks and pirates. But soon the need to tell stories became stronger than the simple act of drawing.

We have told lots of stories – well, a few – from princes and fairies, to young people in love, to robots and waitresses. All these stories came out of our need to tell them, without any requests, any pressure, straight out of our heads. All those stories were building the ground for us to be finally able to tell Daytripper.

Daytripper is not a project we have had for a long time. It came from an idea I had some 8 or 9 years ago, but it was not more than that. It was one of the ideas we pitched to Vertigo when Bob Schreck asked us for ideas. It was the one they liked.

However, ever since we started actually working on this comic, it has become the story we have been waiting to tell our entire lives.

Issue 9 just came out, one we're really proud of, and next month brings the conclusion of our story. This has been a terrific journey. This is what comics mean to us. A real dream come true.



Daytripper 9
Written by GABRIEL BÁ and FÁBIO MOON
Art by GABRIEL BÁ and FÁBIO MOON
Cover by GABRIEL BÁ
Brás is going through one of those days that seems like a lifetime; when so many things happen and change so fast and so dramatically that he can't keep track of what the hell is going on. In this penultimate issue to the acclaimed miniseries, can he figure things out before it's too late?

BLOG WAR - peaceful ending

Both Craig and I worked on this last piece together. I inked a little bit he pencilled, he inked a bit I pencilled, but for the most part we just passed the paper back and forth as we kept working on the panels. This was fun.

A did a lot of other incredibly interesting things in Portland, but there's only so much we could put on paper in the time we had. There was also a lot of things I could have done but didn't because of time constraints, but that was not my point when I decided to go. You'll never see and do everything, but you can enjoy everything you end up doing. And I certainly enjoyed my time in Portland, seeing all those Dark Horse people I only see within the crazy rules on the San Diego Comicon, meeting new artists, talking about art, life and everything inbetween.

Time to go back and start all over again. Time to go home, happy, ready for more.

BLOG WAR - part 3

We could see it from very far away, from inside the car, still some twenty minutes before we really got to the beginning of the trail. It was massive, it was strangely alien and different, and it was this one thing in my trip that would actually also be new for all people involved (except for Dan, Craig's friend and our guide for the day).

Have you ever been to a volcano? Have you even stood inside it's crumbling interior partly rocky, partly ashy surface? Have you ever seen a waterfall with hot water?

We stood there, got ready, and went for it.

To be continued on Craig's blog, which includes the full contribution from Dan Attoe (I'm only showing the detail below).

BLOG WAR - part 2

Both Craig and I agree that maybe Blog War isn't the best title (too violent, too macho), but we were just excited to work together on something, so...

This is actually part 2 of our little collaboration, part 1 being on Craig's blog. Check it out to know what we did before we went to dinner.

...

So... Cool, no?

Let's continue.

Mike Allred and Laura Allred joined us right at the end of the music concert, and off we went to this incredible wine bar called Kir. We were greeted by Joe Sacco on the way in, and after a couple bootle of wine, he eventually found his way to our table.

It was an incredible night. The conversation was inspiring, the company was lovely, and we were so jazzed by it that we just kept on drawing. Joe Sacco got the best sketches, I think. We left in high spirit, and we had some challenges ahead of us: could we do this night justice in ours sketches?

And more importantly: could we top this experience on our next adventure?

to be continued...

San Diego bound!

We had a wonderful time in London. The weather was incredibly sunny and everybody that we met were adorable. I joked I brought the sunny weather over from Brazil, but the warmth from the people was the nicest surprise of the trip. We certainly left wanting more, so thanks to all of you who we met, who we talked and who we touched during the past two weeks. The fact that I finished the very last page of Daytripper on my last day in London made the whole experience all the more special.



Now, the time has come again for that crazy thing (which I love) called SDCC. Many people are going, and once again we're excited and ready to rock it brazilian style. We'll share the same booth we had last year, booth #1320, with our usual pals Cliff Chiang (artist on the recent Greendale graphic novel) and Jill Thompson (the über talented artist of the recent Beasts of Burden series), and this year we'll be joined by Rafael Albuquerque (who's really showing some artistic skills on American Vampire) and Cris Peter (our colorist on our revitilized Casanova series).

We'll be there most of the time, signing books, selling copies of the new first issue of Casanova, and selling original art from series we've been working on, such as The Umbrella Academy, BPRD1947, DMZ and Sugarshock. Come around and look at all the lovely things everybody from our booth will have this time around.

Also, we'l be selling a limited signed giclée print that I made on our recent trip to Portugal, which comes in three sizes and looks like this:



Here's a detail. The prints come in small, medium and large sizes (come by the booth, they look sweet):



Our signings and panels schedule is quite full this time, jumping around all publishers we're currently working with. Here's the complete rundwon of where to find us when we're not at the booth:

Wednesday
6:60-7:30 - the EXCLUSIVE all-in Casanova signing with Matt Fraction, Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon

Thursday
11AM-12PM- PIXU signing with Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá at the Dark Horse booth
2-3PM - Signing at the DC booth
6PM - BPRD meet-up for BPRD members (at the Hilton Gaslamp - Terrace Foyer)

Friday
11AM-12PM - Signing at the DC booth
12-1:30PM - Hellboy and BPRD signing with Mike Mignola, Duncan Fegredo, Gabriel Bá, Fábio Moon and Patric Reynolds
5:30-6:30PM - Vertigo: on the Edge panel (room 6DE)

Saturday
11:15AM-12:15PM - Spotlight on Gerard Way with guests panel
1-2:30PM - Umbrella Academy signing with Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá (ticketed event: See Dark Horse employee for details)
3-4PM - Signing at the DC booth

Sunday
1:30-2:30PM - Signing at the DC booth

So, here we go again. I hope to discover a lot of new books, new artists, new people. This trip, for us, is always about discoveries. Are you ready?

London Calling for Daytripper 8

Comicbooks have brought us to London, to be part of Festival Brazil, a big cultural event taking place on the Southbank Centre. We feature both as attractions of the London Literature Festival 2010 and Festival Brazil, which is twice as cool. And to make thinks better, we've been experiencing a lovely summer in London, full of hot sunny days and happy people everywhere.

Fábio and I do all our PR and stuff, so when anyone asks for a promotional picture, we choose it and send it. We were really surprised, though, to find this picture on the cover of the Festival's program, spread out everywhere around the Southbank Centre. It also astonished us to see the cover illustration we've done for the Literature Festival all over the place and in all shapes and sizes. It was kind of overwhelming to bear such an important role on a festival of this proportions.

After some interviews and momentarly tension, our panel on Monday night at the Udderbelly was great. With a terrific participation of Jamie McKelvie as the mediator and a full croud of interested people, we did what we know how to do, which is tell stories and explain why we love comics and Brazil.

On friday we had another challenge ahead of us, and it didn't get any smaller. We were invited to paint a mural and we took this opportunity to tell stories to an audience unaware of our existence. It's not really what we do, but in a similar way on a different setting, we created this big Wallstrip with lot's of tiny bits of dialogues and ideas and reflexions about the world we live in and how we relate to people around us, a mater we usually tackle on our stories as well.

We had the help of young people working aside with the Southbank Centre, as well as pass byers and whoever wanted to chip in. It took us 10 hours to get it done and we couldn't have done it without their help.

After we finished painting it, the whole thing was hung on the wall of the Queen Elisabeth Hall building and it will be there until the end of august, so don't miss the chance to check it out live.

And just like our life never stops surprising us, a new issue of Daytripper hits the stands today and I'm sure you will be surprised with what you will find on this issue as well.


Daytripper 8
by GABRIEL BÁ & FÁBIO MOON
Cover by GABRIEL BÁ

Brás is constantly on the road, but that doesn't stop a caring husband and loving father from having a big role in his family's daily life. Do they miss him? Can they manage well enough while he's away? And how large a hole would he leave if he weren't there anymore?

Daytripper going #1... and flying to London!

CBR's Tim Callahan talks about his top 10 comics of 2010 so far (also discussing the topic on Splash Page Podcast 21 with Chad Nevett). A lot of good comics there. Demo: volume 2, by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan; Scalped;Viking, by Ivan Brandon and Nik Klein; American Vampire, by Scott Snyder, Stephen King and Rafael Albuquerque; 2 Grant Morrison books.
But guess which one is number 1? Daytripper.
I won't pretend I'm not happy. We are really glad with all the feedback our series is getting. With only pages away from the end (readers still have 3 issues more to wait for), we're working with our chest filled with pride.



And that pride is also carrying us (and we're carrying it) to London on next friday, to be part of Festival Brazil on the Southbank Centre. We will give a lecture/panel on monday, July 5th, 7pm inside the Udderbelly (tickets still available), with the mediation of Jamie Mckelvie. Don't miss out on that one! After that, I believe we'll have a signing session on the Southbank Centre book store. And on friday, July 9th, at 9am (yeah, in the morning) we'll be painting a big-ass mural artwork, our Wallstrip, on the ramp alongside Queen Elizabeth Hall. We'll have help from young people and other artists (including our new friend Rufus Dayglo) and it's going to be lots of fun.



There's a lot to be done before we go, so I'll just go back to work. But I'm sure as hell will be working happier for the rest of the week. My plane leaves only on friday, but my feet are already off the ground.

A stranger, always watching.

I'm always watching.
Always searching.
Everywhere you go, there's something to see, to find, to learn.



You can rest by escaping the world, but you can also rest when you dive right into it. Find strangers in your world, or be a stranger in somebody else's world. In the end, it's just one world, one boat, and we're on this boat together.

Daytripper 7, their best work to date.

We are on the second, most intense half of our story. The rules have been set, the players are all there and one might think it's all figured out.
But the beauty of life is it's unpredictability, it's capacity to surprise us at any moment.



Daytripper 7 hits the stands on June 7th, and we're only going forward with this. There's a nice preview over at the Vertigo blog. Check it out.

You don't wanna miss this journey. And it's almost over.


Written by GABRIEL BÁ & FÁBIO MOON
Art by GABRIEL BÁ & FÁBIO MOON
Cover by GABRIEL BÁ

What's life without your friends, right? The good ones will stick with you through anything, won't they? Find out here why Brás' best friend has given that up and how far Brás is willing to go to get him back.

"This latest from Bá and Fábio is surely their best looking work to date. In DAYTRIPPER, they give us a glimpse into an exotic yet believable world. It makes you want to be there with them...!"
-- Paul Pope

And there he goes.

Way and away. He gathered all his courage and deep he went, searching to take a little breath.

Portugal

We just finished Daytripper 9 and Daytripper 10 is halfway done. We leave in a few hours to Portugal for the VI International Comics Festival of Beja. We couldn't be more excited to our first european comics festival. We'll have an exposition of originals at the festival, and will do a signing and a panel. Check out the festival's site for all the info.

And that's not all.



We're also opening another exposition in Porto, another portuguese city. We'll be at the opening on June 1st, and I did a new painting for a exclusive Giclée print at the gallery. The images illustrating this post are two details of the print, and you can check out the full print at the Gallery's blog



We love comics, and every chance we get to spread this love around the world is welcome. We'll bring along some of the comics we made in Brazil for our portuguese fans. Let's see what happens.

Let's keep reading, creating and enjoying.

We'll be back soon, and will try to update our twitters on the way.

Daytripper and Casanova solicitation for August

Busy month for us. Exciting.



DAYTRIPPER #9
Written by GABRIEL BÁ & FÁBIO MOON
Art by GABRIEL BÁ & FÁBIO MOON
Cover by GABRIEL BÁ
Brás is going through one of those days that seems like a lifetime; when so many things happen and change so fast and so dramatically that he can’t keep track of what the hell is going on. In this penultimate issue to the acclaimed miniseries, can he figure things out before it’s too late?
On sale AUGUST 11 • 9 of 10 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • MATURE READERS


CASANOVA #2
Written by Mat Fraction
Art by Gabriel Bá
Cover by Gaberiel Bá
CASANOVA: LUXURIA continues! Strange, sweaty, naked things are afoot deep in the jungle metropolis of Áqua Pesada. A rogue E.M.P.I.R.E. agent has gone mad and, in between throwing the most decadent parties the world has ever known, spills his spy-guts out in the pages of a breathless, confessional, comic book... and Casanova Quinn is given orders by his father to bring the agent in... but Newman Xeno wants Casanova to kill him instead. Bloodshed, betrayal, a trial, an exile, a Paco Rabanne dress made entirely out of credit cards, and a shocking twist that sets Casanova irrevocably on a path of no return. 32 PAGES OF COSMIC COMIC SPY-CHEDELIA. All new back-matter! Soul-elevating colors! Staples and paper! READ!
32 PGS./Rated T+ ... $3.99

De:TALES hardcover

We're very happy to be releasing this again. When Diana called us and said they were doing a new edition, we were delighted with the idea of doing a new cover. We love the original cover and we wanted to preserve the same mood, but at the same time we wanted to try to apply all that we have learned in these years that separate this edition from the first.

If you never read this, this is your chance.

The solicitation reads like this:

DE:TALES
Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon (W/A)
On sale Oct 6
b&w, 112 pages
$19.99
HC, 6" x 9"

From the company that introduced American audiences to Brazilian twins Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá (Daytripper, Pixu) comes a new hardcover edition of Dark Horse’s out-of-print De:Tales, a collection of the twins’ breakthrough short stories!

After three Eisner Awards and a series of acclaimed projects with writers Joss Whedon (Sugarshock), Gerard Way (The Umbrella Academy), Mike Mignola (B.P.R.D.: 1947), and Matt Fraction (Casanova), Moon and Bá are now among the hottest artists in comics. De:Tales is the duo’s most personal work to date, presenting their work separately, together, and in tandem—as the twins trade off on the roles of writing and illustrating, share those roles, or fly solo. Brimming with all the details of human life, their charming tales move from the urban reality of their home in São Paulo to the magical realism of their Latin American background.

Featuring a brand-new cover, Moon and Bá’s seminal and sought-after work is finally back in this handsome hardcover packaging, proving once again that they are a talented pair to watch out for.

• Named by Booklist as one of the 10 best Graphic Novels of the year, Foreword Magazine gave it a silver medal on the Graphic Novel category of their “Book of the Year” award, and it was nominated for an Eisner Award.

Now available in hardcover!

Daytripper 6 and the trips around the world!

Time is ticking and our lives keep spinning like they never did before as we approach the last month of production of our beloved Daytripper. We've seen the white light and we're walking towards it.

We are halfway there and everything starts to make a little more sense on our story, as we know the characters better and begin to understand what their roles are and the reasons behind their actions. Next week, a new issue hits the stores. It relates directly to issues 4, 7, 9 and well... it's not going to be easy on Brás.



Daytripper 6
Written by GABRIEL BÁ and FÁBIO MOON
• Art by GABRIEL BÁ • and FÁBIO MOON
• Cover by GABRIEL BÁ
When life takes us by surprise and makes everyone want to close their eyes, Brás finally gains something he's been waiting his entire life to find. But he would trade it all to know what happened in Rio


These solicitation texts are so exciting to write.

After we cross that final line, we'll start the crazy tour around the globe, spreading the love of comics all around. As seen on the previous post, we'll go to Portugal to be part of the VI Festival Internacional de BD de Beja, then we'll open an exposition on the comic-store Mundo Fantasma in Porto.

After a short break, we'll go to London to participate on the massive Festival Brazil, where we'll do a panel about our work and how we take Brazil with us in it, on July 5th. We'll be there until July 19th and we're planning a signing on a store in London, since we'll have both Casanova and Daytripper fresh out of the oven. And, of course, we're gonna watch the World Cup finals there, drinking lots of pints and celebrating.

We'll leave the UK and go straight to the San Diego Comic Con International from July 21st till 26th. And let's have some fun while we're there, shall we?

Well, if that not enough, I'll go to Bolívia to be part of the 8avo Viñetas con Altura, in La Paz from August 2nd till 8th, then Santa Cruz from 10th till 15th.

We have a little more traveling to do, but I think I have to get back to work now. Don't miss Daytripper 6 on May 12th and we'll see you around... really.

May the future we have once planned come to us soon.

It all started in 2007 (actually, if we point towards accuracy, it was way before that) and it is a little more than 3 week s to see it's completion. From the first idea until this day, we have come a long way, a much welcome one that has no return.

As relieved I am to have finished the last Daytripper script yesterday, I know we still have a lot to do before our journey really reaches it's end. There's no stop, no weariness, no fatigue to slow us down. This is the most important project of our lives and we need to see it through.

Soon after we finish everything, we'll set sails to the old continent, to be part of the VI Festival Internacional de BD de Beja, in Portugal. We'll be there from May 28th until June 1st, when we go to Porto, to open an exposition on the comic-store Mundo Fantasma.

It will be strange to be far away on a different country, but speaking the same language.

Well, it's in fact the language of comicbooks that keeps us together, wherever we may be. Daytripper is just another proof of that.

Daytripper 8 in July in London and San Diego!

We were not born to be alone. Well, I have a twin brother, so I really take that seriously from very early in my life. The more people we can count on, the better our lives can be.

We're drawing the last two issues of the series, our journey is almost over. The end is near and it's hard to let go. Also, it's very liberating.

On the eighth issue of Daytripper, as readers, we already know Brás, we already trust him. We count on him to lead the way on another story. He already has a place in our lives, that's for sure.

Daytripper #8 comes out in July, on a week we'll be away from home, in London, during a big Festival. Soon after that, we're going to San Diego. Comics have been taking us a lot of different places and, sometimes, away from the people we love and care about.

Well, this is a very strong story and the cover adds even more intensity to it.

See you in 2 months in London, San Diego, and everywhere else.



Written by GABRIEL BÁ & FÁBIO MOON
Art by GABRIEL BÁ & FÁBIO MOON
Cover by GABRIEL BÁ
Brás is constantly on the road, but that doesn't stop a caring husband and loving father from having a big role in his family's daily life. Do they miss him? Can they manage well enough while he's away? And how large a hole would he leave if he weren't there anymore?

CASANOVA is BACK!!

New covers!
32 pages comics!
Re-colored by Cris Peter!
Re-lettered by Dustin Harbin!

Third arc ON THE MAKING!
At ICON!

Daytripper 5!

We're on full speed here, driven by all the good words and good numbers of our little tale. The story is only midway through for you, but it's reaching the end for us. The next two months will bring the last chapters of the story to life, and I'm dying to get there.

Meanwhile, Daytripper #5 is on the stands and it's the most beautiful of all so far. You don't wanna miss this one.



Written by FÁBIO MOON and GABRIEL BÁ; Art by GABRIEL BÁ and FÁBIO MOON; Cover by GABRIEL BÁ
At 11 years old, Brás's world was only as big as his house. But that changed when his family headed to his grandparents' countryside ranch. And there – at a place where the sun was stronger and the stars shone brighter – Brás would suddenly see everything under a new light!

Image of love

I read a lot of comics when I was a kid, mostly super-heroes, and all of them had a big influence on me when I decided to work with comicbooks. Certainly books like The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen and Moonshadow had a huge impact over me, even if I wasn't old enough to really understand it. I was just enjoying it and being dragged inside that world.

As the 80's were coming to it's closure, I began to pay attention to the creators behind the comics I was reading, not only the characters and the stories. Claremont and Byrne on the X-Men, Jim Aparo on Batman, John Romita Jr., Walter Simonson, Peter David, George Perez. I noticed something was changing, I just had no idea how big this change would be. It was only on the early 90's that seven of these "names" I had been starting to follow took me by surprised and changed the world of comics forever. They were Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Marc Silvestri, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino and Whilce Portacio. Yes, I'm talking about Image.

I know we really repeat over and over how much the story is important to us on comicbooks, more important than the art, but we were 16 and Image Comics was the best thing on Earth for us back then. It was beautiful, it was fun, it was new (even if they used old formulas). Wildcats, Savage Dragon, Spawn. The Maxx, Gen 13, Pitt. At that time, all we wanted to do was work at Image Comics.

I have done my share of portfolio reviews and artwork submission here in Brazil and like many others in the 90's, I did walk the path of the "Jim Lee's mimics". Stiff and unnatural, (luckily) it didn't work out for me.

Back in 1996, on my first trip to California, with a handful of deskjet prints of color samples, I tried to visit Wildstorm and Extreme Studios. Found the post office in La Jolla and got stood up on my hotel in San Diego, but I did go to Extreme studios and showed my pages there. I was supposed to send more samples, but I never did.

In 97, everything changed for us when we went to our first San Diego Comic Con and we discovered a whole universe of comics we had never heard of, never imagined that existed. Image was there, all the creators were there (in person!), but even if we have been reading their books for years, we suddenly identified ourselves more with independent and alternative creators. Image was too big for us, too mainstream and there was too many deliciously unknown stuff for us to discover.

Our road on the comicbook world turned to a new and unknown direction with Roland: Days of Wrath and the all new connections we made during the following years, hanging with creators like Jeff Smith, Terry Moore, Jill Thompson and talking to editors like Diana Schutz and Bob Schreck. Every new book we published in Brazil, we took the artwork to portfolio reviews in San Diego year after year and showed the stories to Diana. We hanged out mostly on the Small Press area of the convention, where Shane had his Terra Major table, and we walked the floor following the creators we admired, showing pages to editors and buying new comics by the hands of strange authors.

In 2004 we did a self-published comic called Rock'n'Roll (with Bruno D'Angelo and Kako), a silent comic that we could sell at the convention. We were fed up of only showing pages on portfolio reviews. In 2004, we also got our first story published in the US, URSULA, by Ait/Planet Lar, a publisher we had discovered the year before and that had published a book called Last of the Independents, by Matt Fraction and Kieron Dwyer. It was at the AiT booth in San Diego that we also met a tiny little shy girl called Becky Cloonan. And it was with AiT that we would make our first really commercial comic, Smoke and Guns, written by Kirsten Baldock, with high hopes that it would be turned into a movie.

Smoke and Guns didn't turn into a movie, but it called the attention of a guy called Eric Stephenson, who was an editor at... Image Comics. He saw some pages of it online and looked for what Fábio had done before. He found Rock'n'Roll and liked it. And just like that, he contacted us.

He wanted to publish Rock'n'Roll at Image and he had this project pitched by a writer called Matt Fraction that he thought Fábio's artwork fitted the bill. It was called Casanova.

Like a work of magic (and more than ten years later), we were where we wanted to be in the first place. It was only then that we discovered that Image had changed a lot from the last time we checked. It was no longer Wildcats, Youngblood, Cyberforce, Spawn and Witchblade all over the place, but now it was more like a "big independent publisher", full of new creator-owned projects like Powers, Invincible, Pirates of Coney Island, Walking Dead and anthologies like Flight, so we felt right at home.

All at once, our efforts started to pay off and everything began to happen in our freshly started careers. Image published Rock'n'Roll and Casanova and we did a little story for an anthology called 24seven, also published by them, organized by Ivan Brandon. We ended up doing another story for the second volume of 24seven on the next year (nominated for an Eisner of best anthology).
As we were publishing new and interesting comics, we shared tables on the Image booth for 3 years in a row, an important move to look the audience in the eye and win them over with our charming accent. Located on a tremendous spot and sharing the space with incredible creators, we took the most of this experience selling all our comics (even the ones we had with other publishers), including our self-published "5", done with Becky Cloonan and Vasilis Lolos, that ended up winning an Eisner Award in 2008. Selling it at that table during the convention was crucial to it's success.

For the past three years, everything has changed for me. If it wasn't for Eric Stephenson's first contact, there would be no Casanova. If that would be the case, there'd be no Umbrella Academy, because that comic really made Scott Allie and Gerard Way invite me to the series. We met incredible people over these years. Eric Stephenson, Joe Keating, Drew Gill, Ivan Brandon, Andy MacDonald, Paul Azaceta, Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, Rick Spears, Jason Pearson and Robert Kirkman. I'm sure there's a whole lot more.

We have worked with a lot of different publishers, small and big, in Brazil and in the U.S., on very different projects. No one is perfect, there's no easy way to do this thing we do. All you need is to really love what you're doing and that's what Image represented for me from the beginning: love for comicbooks.

I don't know about you, but Image Comics really changed my life.

Hulk Smash!

Soon, in a comic book store near you.

Witch and Wizard cover 2

I'm doing the covers for this Witch and Wizard mini-series at IDW. You can find out more about this at their June solicitation list.

It's good to stretch other muscles from time to time.

Below, a detail of the inking, the initial approved sketch, the inked version and the final cover.

Flower

What about you?

Going up or down?

Daytripper 4 ever.

Moon and Bá have crafted a frighteningly human story, winding together the moments that define who we are to weave a tapestry of life and death. Lyrical, poetic, and haunting, Daytripper is an experience that will resonate with you long after you have put the book down.
-- Becky Cloonan (5, PIXU, DEMO)



Daytripper 4 is out now.

Don't miss it.

a note in the mail

Along with the first issue of the new DEMO, we just got a note from Becky in the mail.


Do you still go to the mail to send your friends stuff? Doesn't it feel great when you get something in the mail from a friend.

In a profession where we work mostly by ourselves, it's good to have friends who reach out. We should all do it.

Lets make comics, and share with our friends.

p.s: Daytripper #4 comes out today. Go grab your copy before your store runs out of copies.

God Save the Queen - Brazilian comics in the UK

We had our share of traveling (nowadays mostly business trips) and we always come back home with the certainty that we will never leave Brazil. Not that there's something wrong with other places and Brazil is certainly not perfect, but it's our home. And we're glad to notice that for the foreign eyes turning their attentions to our home, even with all the flaws and things we're not happy about, Brazil has never looked so good.

The Southbank Centre in London, UK, will be holding Festival Brazil, a celebration of the country's cultural heritage, including music, visual arts, dance, literature, debates and food. It will begin in June 19th and it will go until September 5th. Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes, Tom Zé, Sócrates, Milton Hatoum and lots of other artists on one big event. Here's the promotional video, only a little taste of all the diverse talents that will be part of the festival.



And if Brazil is on a good phase, the same can be said about comics, getting a lot of attention and recognition all around the world, proving itself to be more than just pretty pictures, but one of the most fresh and inovative forms of art and storytelling of our times. With that in mind, among the literay attractions of the festival, there's going to be a panel with Fábio and me on July 5th at 7pm, where we'll talk about comics in general, our work and what Brazil has to do with all of that.

You can get all the information about Festival Brazil on their website. You can learn more about our panel and also book your ticket for one of the 250 seats here.

On our most recent work, Daytripper, we are telling a story different from all the others we have told before. We are showing this Brazil that no other comic has ever shown. Let's all meet up in London and talk about how we can always be surprised by people, what they do, the places we know and the ones we are yet to discover.

Spiderman

Brás

Find out more about Daytripper here.

Daytripper 6 solicitation

Daytripper 6 (of 10)

Written by GABRIEL BÁ & FÁBIO MOON
Art by GABRIEL BÁ & FÁBIO MOON
Cover by GABRIEL BÁ
When life takes us by surprise and makes everyone want to close their eyes, Brás finally gains something he’s been waiting his entire life to find. But he would trade it all to know what happened in Rio.


Vertigo, 32 pg, color, US $2.99 - mature readers
On sale MAY 12

Our podcast on the day Daytripper #3 hits

Today, Daytripper #3 hits the stands. We love this issue and now it's on the readers hands. It's on your hands.

That podcast on the previous post, on Alter Ego Comic Cast? Here the updated link with the actual talk. Fun stuff

Finally, also this week I contributed to a 4 page story inside DMZ #50. I liked the story and the idea behind it, and I'm very happy about the way it came out on paper. Also, I now have my name on a comic along with Jim Lee, Dave Gibbons and Eduardo Risso. Wow.

Strange fact: the artwork from Daytripper #3 was finished about one year earlier than the artwork for DMZ.