the last page of 2016

My sketchbook holds the last drawings of 2016. Before the end of the year arrived, before the fireworks, before the champagne bursting and the bubbling in everyone's glasses in the merry toast of the new cycle, before the jumping of the waves and throwing flowers to Iemanjá, before the candles lit in a circle in the sand and the wishes each candle held, before all that I doodled in my sketchbook a few lines.

Who would have thought I would write and draw a Wonder Woman story? Not me, not before this year, not even when I was reading all those old Wonder Woman comics that now live in my childhood's memory. And yet, I'm happy that when I was invited, an idea struck me before I could say no, and I said yes, and my homage to Wonder Woman now lives inside an anniversary issue celebrating her 75th birthday.
Another incredible experience was being asked to adapt a Neil Gaiman short story, and that's why I drew Wonder Woman reading our How to Talk to Girls at Parties.

I was happy with this drawing, but I wanted to finish 2016 with a couple more images, so I kept going on the bottom part of the page.

Casanova, our crazy spy comic with writer Matt Fraction, turned 10 in 2016, and survived to keep going until his story is complete. We released three new issues this passing year, filled with guest pinups by our friends, with one variant cover reproducing the line art of the first cover of the first issue from 2006 (we felt like we were doing our own Artist's Edition, if only for the cover), and with more of the amazing back-stories Michael Chabon wrote and Bá drew. Here's to the next 10 years.

And then there's the bunny, my fertility animal, wishing for fertile grounds in the coming year. We'll need to be strong, and be fierce, and be patient. Be true to your heart's desire, and let it lead your path and direct your sword.

It has begun.

Poetry Girls

As we worked on our latest book, “How to Talk to Girls at Parties”, adapted from the Neil Gaiman short story, we referred to the story with our editor Diana as “Poetry Girls”. It was a reference to one of the best ideas of the original story, probably the one that motivated us to adapt it – besides the obvious chance to work on a Neil Gaiman story.
I see poetry girls everywhere. I see them in the streets, in movies, inside the pages of books, I hear them in songs and click on them accidentally on the internet.

The picture above is the best poetry girl image by far. My mother and my niece, sitting at my table in a convention in Brazil next to my giant banner – the cover of our poetry girls book. Grandmother and granddaughter, looking at each other, a million stories shared in that look, with two paper crowns to add to the magic.

SDCC 2016 - Thank you, Darwyn.

We publish comics in the U.S. since 1999, first work with a publisher was in 2003 things started to hit off only in 2006, but we still live in Brazil and that keeps us distant from the market. The upside is that we don't get influence by trends, imediata statistics or business gossip. We do our work isolated in the safety of our studio. The downside is that we don't have direct contact with the readers and retailers. We throw our books into the ocean hoping they'll find the reader. Throughout all these years, San Diego Comic Con International has been the moment we have to connect with the market, the editors, artists and readers. We've been going since 1997, and this trip serves to recharge our batteries and fuel another year of production.
The convention has changed a lot since we started going, but it's still a unique experience and the best portrait of the North American market in every sphere, from the indy artists with their first mini-comic, to the Small Press area filled with tiny publishers you've never heard of, to alternative oasis like Drawn & Quarterly and Fantagraphics, going through book publishers having their go on comics like Penguin and Scholastic and First Second, finally getting to Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image, as well as "younger" companies like IDW or Boom Studios. Besides, there're many artists and writers scattered around on tables, signing sessions and panels. Yes, Hollywood has taken a gigantic space on the Con – physical space as much as the attention of the media and the public –, but if you're going there for the comics, you're still gonna have the best experience of your life.



We shared tables on small press area and booths on the main floor for years, but since 2012 we don't have a table anymore, a place to stay for the whole day selling our books. This year we had one signing every day and a couple of panels, giving us all the time in the world to walk around, enjoy the show and rest. We miss the close contact with the readers that having a table allowed us, but it was great to do things calmly and really enjoy our days. With such a big demand and a 7 years waiting list, I'd say it's rather unlikely we'll have a table in SDCC again.
But our signing sessions were awesome, full of old and new readers, known faces, people who we connect only by social media, who comment, share and like the smoke signals we send throughout the year, from afar. During these moments of brief interaction, we could have a glimpse of the the readers' reaction about TWO BROTHERS, released last October, and also about our new book, HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES, released last month. With two recent books, readers had a lot to talk about.
Between parties and dinners, one of the highlights of SDCC is the Eisner Awards Ceremony Friday night. Long and boring like any other award ceremony, the Eisner is, however, a moment to stop and celebrate Comics, the creators and the work. We're ALL isolated in our studios, separated by miles, continents and oceans, but right there we're all together, with all our attention on the art. Throughout the night you'll discover works you didn't know, see some comics that had not caught your attention earlier with new and fresh eyes, and get to know a little closer artists whose work you appreciate for years. Over the weekend, you can walk the convention floor looking for the winners. All of them will be there, waiting for you.
Once more, we were.






Over the course of twenty years, we met a lot of people in Comics. We've seen our idols become our friends and some of our friends turning into professionals. SDCC is also a big reunion, a big party.
This year's edition was one of the best SDCC for us, for all the reasons described above, but specially for bringing a deeper feeling of recognition. We're always trying new things, every new project is different from the last, and every year we meet new artists and new works that inspire us and push us to keep innovating and believing there's still a lot to be done in Comics. One of these artists, whom we've met personally in 2008, was Darwyn Cooke. He showed us with his “Parker” series that it was possible to make an good adaptation, keeping his own voice while doing it and blowing the readers' minds. This was the work that convinced us it was possible to adapt Two Brothers. He showed us (and everybody else) an adaptation can be relevant, feel original and look amazing. Throughout the years, his work would guide us, and I hope to have achieved just a bit of the prime he's presented us.
Last Friday, in the heat of the moment and nervous as hell, while thanking everyone who helped us making Two Brothers a reality, I forgot the most obvious and important person of all. Without Darwyn Cooke, our book wouldn't exist. The Eisner we won is dedicated to him.
 

Heroes Con is up ahead.

We’re at the airport in Newark, waiting for our flight to Charlotte. Our first flight from São Paulo was long, and I haven’t slept enough, and we’re about to board another flight for a little while. Still, I couldn’t be more excited for what the rest of the week and next week hold in store for us: a chance to celebrate a long project, and a chance to celebrate a brand new one, and how both of them are just part of this incredible career that we chose and that keeps sending us across the globe.

There’s a convention happening in São Paulo this weekend, and we would probably be going there if we weren’t going to our first Heroes Con, in Charlotte. We have been hearing a lot of good things, and a lot of great things, about Heroes Con, and finally we’re making it to the show. It’s strange to discover this convention exists for years, for there was a long time that for us, who come from Brazil, the only convention in the U.S. was the San Diego Comic Con. Maybe there were others, we thought, but surely they’re very small and unimportant. We discovered that there are much more conventions in the U.S., there’s really a “convention season” when you have at least one convention every weekend, and most of them are not “unimportant”, with a few being even more exciting than San Diego in some aspects.

Casanova celebrates 10 years, and we’ll have a exhibition of artists we admire taking a shot at our characters in the kick-off party of Heroes Con, on June 16th.

We’ll have exclusive copies of our new book, adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES, at our table (artists alley #1815-1816).

We’ll have original artwork at the table as well, from a selection of the stories we have drawn over the years.

And then there will be all the people, and the places, and the foods, and the stories that we expect to discover this week in Charlotte as we catch up with old friends and make new ones.

The forbidden signing, not so forbidden

Our new book, an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's How to Talk to Girls at Parties, comes out on June 22nd, and we'll be in the States for the occasion. The week before, we'll have exclusive copies for Heroes Con, in Charlotte, but on the official release day of the book, we'll be in New York City, and we couldn't let this opportunity to interact with new yorkers pass us by, so we reached out and arranged a special signing to celebrate the release of the book.

The Forbidden Planet comic book store in NYC was the very first comic book store I went to, when we were young teenagers, around the age the main characters of the new book are, and by then we certainly didn't quite know how to talk to girls anywhere, let alone at parties.

When I was living in New York, going to NYU and studying film in the summer of 1999, Forbidden Planet was my local comic book store. I wondered if someday I would be back there to sign my own books.

"Of course you will", I'd tell myself.

"One day".
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How to talk to girls in JUNE, 2016

You can already order our Graphic Novel "HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES" HC, adaptation of the short story by Neil Gaiman.
It comes out in June 15th, 2016, by Dark Horse Comics.
Item Code: FEB160019In Shops: 6/15/2016SRP: $17.99

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Two teenage boys are in for a tremendous shock when they crash a party where the girls are far more than they appear! 

From Neil Gaiman-one of the most celebrated authors of our time-and award-winning artists Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá, this sumptuous graphic novel is not to be missed! 

• Moon and Bá adapt the Gaiman story they were born to draw!

"Gaiman, Moon, and Bá have created a triolet of a book, lyrically powerful and utterly unforgettable."

-Junot Díaz

"How can something so strange and so beautiful also be so sad? Like a poem, a pattern, and a people whose world was swallowed by the sea, How To Talk To Girls at Parties is three things at once." 

- Kelly Sue DeConnick

"Had sneak peek at How to Talk to Girls at Parties. What boys fear! That girls are very smart aliens who will do frightful things to you in The Upper Room! Teenage angst. Lovely drawing/painting." 
-from a Tweet by Margaret Atwood

"A haunting ode to the lyric of girls, who for our protagonists represent a vast, uncharted universe. An extraordinary comic from three extraordinary creators."

- Marjorie Liu

"Gentle, strange, and full of perfectly good advice ('You just have to talk to them!'), How to Talk to Girls at Parties is wise and odd. Neil Gaiman's writing is sweetly complemented by Fábio Moon & Gabriel Bá's art. It's a quirky delight."

-Audrey Niffenegger

http://www.previewsworld.com/Catalog/STL001158

Neil Gaiman and girls in 2016

In June 2016, Dark Horse will publish our graphic novel adaptation of Neil Gaiman's short story How to Talk to Girls at Parties. The books has just been announced by Publisher's Weekly.



On Neil Gaiman's words, “they have a storytelling aesthetic where [depicting] body language is everything. The story is all about what’s in the narrators’ heads, so it can be very hard to do that in comics. It’s incredibly enjoyable to write a story and see them make it real.”

We've been working on this book since last year and we couldn't be happier with it.

Neil Gaiman's How to Talk to Girls at Parties (Hardcover) | 978-1-61655-955-7 | 6/15/2016 | $17.99

The Sandman

I remember when I first read a Sandman comic. A girl in my class at freshman year of College lent it to me when I told her I wanted to do comicbooks. I had a huge crush on that girl, so I would have read anything, I guess, but I'm glad she had the entire Sandman collection up to that point to lend me.

To think that I have, in recent years, met Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean, became friends with Jill Thompson (who I have shared a booth with at SDCC in the past two years, but have met and admired since 1998), all that makes something inside my chest go warm and happy.

Dream big, dream always, and go after your dreams.

Who knows where life will take you.

Birthday sketch

I think this is my very first Sandman. Done over my coffe-break.
Happy birthday, Neil.

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.