São Paulo-Angoulême connection

Bá and I were working this Saturday when my phoned made its noise for incoming messages. It was a video from Michele, our dear Italian editor at Bao. In fact, not only from him, but also it was from François, our dear French editor at Urban Comics. This weekend, the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée is happening in Angoulême once more, and apparently both our editors met in this cold Saturday to let us know, in our current hot summer day, that they were plotting our future at that very moment.

They were trying to confuse us. Deceive us with smiles. Their eyes betrayed them, and we knew they were up to know good. Europeans and their secrets and all that.

We replied with another video, and we smiled back, and we waved.

They're coming for us.

We know it.

We'll be ready when they come.

But we can enjoy our summer while we wait.

Morning walk with the dog

Nothing comic-book-related to report this time, expect the impression this photo of my brother walking my sister's dog around the empty streets of early sunday morning São Paulo could have been a scene of Daytripper.
Also, paying close attention to the picture, I noticed Bá is wearing his DeathFace t-shirt, which is the product of Ivan Brandon and Chuck BB's imagination, and should be coming out as a comic from Offset Comics in a not so distant future.

Every Right

We help the CBLDF every chance we get, to make sure people have freedom of speech so they can express themselves if they're artists, and so they can help spread the word created by others if they're publishers, retailers, bookstores or libraries.
We create stories to talk about subjects we think should be discussed. Most of the time, they're works of fiction.
Every now and then, they talk about our times.

Last week, we saw our city (São Paulo) become what looked like a war zone, with the extreme violent police response to a public manifestation. Violence calls for more violence, and by the end of a very long thursday night many people were hurt for no good reason, wrongly arrested and terrorized by the police force. Add many acts of vandalism to the mix and suddenly you've lost sight of what people were there for in the first place: for their right to complain and express their opinions.

A new manifestation will happen this monday. My brother and I will be there as part of those who believe in peaceful, reasonable gathering. We believe in people's right to have an opinion and we've turned our opinions, as usually happens, in stories.

2012 Around the world - part 1

The convention season has started for us, and it keeps reminding us how many people love to read and to do comics in all its forms and shapes. And the more different these conventions are, they show us how much the comics world can grow in all these different directions.

One page short of finishing the artwork on Casanova: Avaritia #4, our first convention was Quantacon, a small convention here in São Paulo which, in its fist installment, burst out with creative energy and all around happiness. Fun and interesting panels, great range of authors and their individual little booths, and a great amount of fresh new material. It's a great time to be a comic book author in São Paulo and the convention did show how much the city needs an event to put everybody together more often.

After that, Bá finished the last page of Casanova and we left for two international conventions.

First stop was Toronto, only for two VERY cold days. We were guests of honor for TCAF, so it was great to come to the city one week before the festival to get an idea of the city and where everything would take place. Since we were there, we went to visit the CN tower and we made a video calling people for the festival, which you can check out clicking here.

Then we left for Italy.

We went to Naples for Napoli ComiCon and had an incredible time. Everybody we met there were awesome people, from the cute frenetic loud-talker-guest-relations-organizer Viola, to mexican Artist Tony Sandoval, Swiss artist Frederik Peeters, canadian artist David Finch, almost all our italian editors, german artist Line Hoven and so many more. Claudio Curcio created a great festival that puts together everybody who loves comics, games, cosplay and pop culture and, on top of that, made it in Naples, which is an incredibly beautiful city in a very chaotic way. For me, big cities are fascinating, I love when a city has this kind of energy that oozes from the people, the rhythm and the chaos of any place where you can find any type of person, and you look around and you see history in every wall, every building, every hill with a dormant volcano. And all those scooters! The stuff we saw during our short stay in Naples will surely influence future stories, future characters and future situations.
Thanks to all the girls responsible for the the guests who took care of us and make sure we survived the incredible experience: Viola, Chiara, Alexandra e Giovanna.
Thank to our french editor, François Hercouet, who travelled to Naples just for one day to meet us and gives us copies of the just released beatiful french edition of Daytripper. Merci, François.
Thanks to Claudio for inviting us.
And thanks to Italy, for preserving its history in ways many (if not all) cities in Brazil don't even bother to try. We had an incredible time in Naples, and then visitng Pompei, and finally visiting Caserta and the royal Palace, the old medieval town and the incredible Caserta comicbook store, Comix Factory. Thanks to Steffano Perullo for the Caserta portion of the trip.
You can see some pictures of our trip clicking here.
Bá put together a video with images we made during our incredible italian trip. That's just the first offspring of our short italian love affair.



After Italy, we left back to Toronto and for TCAF, thinking there wasn't much Toronto could do to impress us more than Naples.

We should have known better.
(to be continued...)

Lots of different stuff and a São Paulo pinup

We've been busy with new projects, lots of drawings and conventions here in Brazil. I'm working on the new CASANOVA: AVARITIA issues, we're adapting a Brazilian novel into a Graphic Novel, we're working on a illustration book and we're also trying to put new ideas together. All that while we tour around the world to spread the love for comics.
Well, this is one of the illustrations I just did for a poster of a concert, a simphony about São Paulo.

Initial sketch was made on a notebook, 3 inches tall.



I don't usually do this, but this time I have printed the sketch bigger and used it as the skeleton for the pencils, just because I liked the composition so much and it would be very hard to get it right on the bigger size artwork. I'm working on a A4 size here, not that big in fact.



Inked version, using Micron and Staedtler pens.



Since I have scanned the pencil, I noticed how nice the paper texture turned out to be and how it would dialogue well with the city. I decided to incorporate that into the final artwork.
The pattern on the sky is a tile pattern typical of São Paulo, with a very clever use of tiles forming the shape of the state.



It's kind of my homage to Katsuhiro Otomo as well. I always loved how his cities are more than just backgrounds and are treated as characters, his light and shadows and the use of zipatone and patterns in the black and white art.

Well... Back to work.

Monday comics.

Monday, we got together with two friends, Grampá and Rafa Coutinho, and at dinner we made a fast crazy comic at eight hands on my sketchbook. One would ink the other's pencil, and then the next had to continue the previous panel.

Nothing that makes sense, but great fun.,


First panel is Grampá inked by Bá, second panel is me inked by Rafa.

Then, it's Bá inked by Grampá, and Rafa inked by me.

Now, it's Rafa inked by Grampá and Ba inked by Rafa.

Finally, Grampá inked by me and the last panel is Rafa inked by Bá.

Less than a month before San Diego, and we're all so excited.

Music and Comics.

Gerard came to Brazil with My Chemical Romance as part of their tour. When he was in town, we hung out a whole day talking about music, comics and what the future awaits for us. And that's a bright future, I might say.

Our encounter did wonders for both of us and we learned a lot with one another. He took me to one of his shows and it was really thrilling when he dedicated Teenagers to me in front of five thousand people. They have all treated me really nice and I had to do something in return. And I did what I know best.

He speaks!

As most of you may already have noticed, Fábio does most of the talking – writing – around here. Not that he's the bright one or he's the one who knows how to speak in english, but the fact is that he's been trying harder to enchant the american public with our ideas than I have.

I think I've been too busy drawing comics – monthly comics for that matter – that I didn't feel the need to write so often. Also, for being so busy drawing, I didn't have lots to say other than what I was putting on paper, which was, on most cases, a secret until it went to press. So as much as I wanted to talk about what I was working on, I felt I could not.

But now that last year is gone and most of The Umbrella Academy has been published already, I can talk a little about some of my ideas and my worries and what I care about when it comes to comicbooks.

I think it's fair to start with Umbrella, since it has called so much attention and it took so much of my time last year (and, yes, it will take some of my time this year also). I gave up super-hero comics for a while now because I thought it was all too worn off and it was just a part of the big machine of selling comics, toys, T-shirts and making movies and it was not about the stories anymore. So from the first script of Umbrella when the kids are fighting the Eiffel Tower and "flying towards camera" and stuff like that, I had cold feet and feared to have had made the wrong choice about taking on The Umbrella Academy. When I got to issue #3 I was very worried, because it's almost all action. The parts I enjoyed the most were when Vanya appeared, because they were the pages with more emotion and depth.




But you know what? Since I was one of the skeptics of this series (maybe the most skeptical of all), I'm now also one of its biggest admirers, because I have to give it to Gerard that he told a great story, created some instant-liking characters and gave this worn-off genre a very fresh tale.

I'm kinda sad to confess this, but i've made the best pages of my life for The Umbrella Academy. It's just sad because I'm a storyteller and I like – and I WANT – to tell stories of my own and I wish I was drawing my own stories right now, or at least more of that and not only stories someone else has written, even if it's a good story. The fact that I liked the Umbrella story helped me a big deal when coming up with the pages, because as the story was taking shape in front of me, first on the layouts and then on the actual pages, I instantly knew I was doing something good, worth reading, something that was not like all other super-hero comics on the stands. And that's the main reason I want to work on new comics, just to make something different from everything else.



But you know, we have lots of new stuff cooking and in 2008 I'll be able to fulfill my need to tell stories, as well as drawing and working with other authors. Too bad we can't talk about any of these things right now. But that's the fun of it, right?



Changing the subject a little, or entirely, I'd like to say why I don't really write as much here as, let's say, on our blog in portuguese we keep for our readers in Brazil. Yes, as you may know, we are from Brazil and we've been making comics in Brazil a little longer than in the U.S. We have almost 10 books published and lots of independent work, some awards and some recognition, but the market in Brazil is much different from the american one, much smaller, so I feel the need to speak to the audience at large and tell them why comics are so great, why we must be taken seriously and what is possible with comicbooks. It's a never ending struggle to pass it along to the newcomers, readers and the majority who doesn't even read comics thinking it's silly things just for kids.



Four years ago, we have created this blog (in english) in order to do the same thing with our american readers (or anyone in the world who could read in english actually), because no one knew us then. But we have been working so much, specially on monthly series, that this audience can see our work on a regular basis and get acquaintanced with it a lot easier than our brazilian audience, who gets a new book year year or so. Books that are kinda hard to find, also, as in the U.S. the public already know where to get his favorite comic every month.

So I really whish i could have a mix of the two markets, produce as much as I do for the U.S., with big print runs, and still be able to write in portuguese, the most beautiful language in the world. Well, that's what I have to aim for and keep reaching, right?

All my friends say I work too much, I don't have time to go out. They ask me if I wanna change the world. Well, I do. And I believe it can be done with comicbooks and that's what I'm gonna keep doing: telling stories that can change the world of someone who's lucky enough to read it.

Roaring city.

David Lloyd is in São Paulo this week for the release of his new book about the city. As part of a series, each book by a different artist and portraying a different brazilian city, his was one of the most difficult for the publisher to put together, since São Paulo is such a huge city and demanded a lot more time and research than the other cities.

Four years ago, when the publisher started talking about the book with the mayor's office (in order to get financial and logistic aid), Will Eisner was in talks to do the book. He liked São Paulo quite a lot, and had visited many times

As I flip through David's book, I wonder what kind of book Will would have made. I close my eyes and I almost can see it. While David Lloyd began with the airplane he arrived, I think will would have begun with the rain that fell all that month during the research period, and the people that had to go to work anyway, running on the wet river-like sidewalks, or waiting for the bus at the crowded bus stop. São Paulo doesn't steam like Eisner's New York, and it isn't foggy like Lloyd's London (it's really Brighton, but London is cooler). It is just her own monster, roaring to her visitors, inviting them all to see the wonders, and dare them to survive.