Frank Miller

Eighteen years ago, Fábio and I went to our first San Diego Comic Con International. It changed our lives. All those comics, creators, publishers. All our idols. One in particular had – and still has – a major impact on our careers: Frank Miller. That year, he gave a very inspiring opening speech at the Eisner Awards that we will never forget. And among other things, he did a signing session, to which I gladly waited in line. And with all my courage at the time, I told him I had come all the way from Brazil and asked if I could take a picture with him. It was the first time I stood so close to him, he was taller than me. In fact, he was a giant.




That seed that was planted back in 1997 has grown. We have a career in comics, we have our work. We've been back to SDCC 17 times, almost every year, and met with Frank Miller on few other occasions. None with such an impact as that first one. Until now.

Unbelievably enough, Frank Miller came to Brazil, came to São Paulo, our city, as guest of honor of Comic Con Experience, a very big convention here. He came to promote Dark Knight III. He made lots of fans very, very happy. One of them, of course, was me.

We were incredibly honoured to have Frank Miller visit our studio, we showed him a little of our work, our comics, our life. And after 4 days, with all the courage I had inside of me, I asked for another picture. One that will change my life the same way as that first one did.




Eighteen years ago, I was 21 years old and Frank Miller was 40. I am 39 years old today, and I'm meeting new creators that are 21, 20 or younger. I can't tell what the future brings, but I have faith that the next eighteen years are going to be awesome.

SDCC - Different is Cool!

For the first time in a while, I looked at the whole upcoming SDCC program, and that reminded me how big the show is. There's a lot going on there. Of course there are loads of TV and movies useless bullshit that drag thousands of people every year to gigantic pitiful lines, but you can find many panels with comics creators and publishers with experience and knowledge to share, with lessons about the craft and great advices to the young artists and writers.
There’s a pattern to be recognised on the panels that jump to my eyes while reading the whole program. First, let’s see a list that I find very interesting, and that I might even go to.

On Thursday there’s a panel called "breaking into comics right now" at 12pm on room 28DE and "Breaking into Comics the Marvel way" at 1pm on room 7AB. At 11am, a "Writing Workshop with Kelly Sue DeConnick" on room 2, and at 3pm, "Writing 101: what to think about before you start writing" with Marv Wolfman on room 30CDE. On the same room, it's followed by "Comic Book Art: making a living doing it", talking about how to price and sell your art, exploit and merchandise it and try to squeeze those dollars out of it. 

At 4pm, on room 28DE, there's the "Delcourt panel", with the French publisher's founder Guy Delcourt. Decades of experience and millions of comics sold every year, it'll be good to learn that there's more to comics than American super-heroes. And while you're discovering new cultures, at 5pm, "Making a living in Manga: Japan creators and editors talk" on room 29AB.

Fábio and I will be on two panels on Thursday. At 1pm on room 2, we'll join "DeConnick and Fraction: Milkfed Criminal Masterminds at work" to talk about all the projects this crazy couple is working on, including Casanova. And at 3pm we'll be at room 23ABC on "Dark Horse Originals: The New Mainstream", talking about our new graphic novel, Two Brothers. 

Wow, and that was just Thursday. 

On Friday at 11am, "Publishers Weekly: The French Comics Invasion" on room 29AB. 

If you want to create comics for kids, you should go to two panels. On Friday at 12:30pm, "GRAPHIX: Beginning, Present and Beyond" on room 24ABC, and on Saturday at 3pm, "Kid's Comics" on room 23 ABC, and 

Friday at 3pm, "Breaking into Comics and Staying in" on room 30ABC and on Saturday at 4pm, "IDW: So, You want to be in comics" on room 4. 

On Sunday, if you still have energy for panels and want to learn a little bit more about digital comics, “Comixology Submit: The Future of Self-Publishing” at 3pm on room 29AB. 

And almost every day there's a cool IMAGE COMICS panel with creators and editors talking about how awesome comics are.

You might have caught the pattern on the panels I’ve picked. They’re all about creating Comics, getting into Comics, different approaches and mind sets. Well, that was my way to prepare you to our panel on Sunday, “Different is Cool”, at 11:15am on room 6DE. 

In the last 20 years, we’ve self-published Comics and we’ve worked with small and big publishers, on tiny to gigantic projects, and we have been living exclusively out of comics for the last eight years. We have been to conventions all around the world (we’re open for invitations for show on Japan and Australia, by the way). The first thing we learn on our first trip to San Diego Comic Con in 1997 just proved to be one of the most valuable once we started going to Comics Conventions and Festivals in other countries. Diversity is the most precious quality the Comics global industry has to offer. Yes, Global Industry, because good creators can come from anywhere in the world, and a good story breaks barriers and travels to distant countries and gets translated to the most exotic languages. 

So I invite you to enjoy the whole show, go to all the panels you can, go to the Eisners ceremony, learn all the things you can, talk to all the people you can, and then come meet us on Sunday on room 6DE, at 11:15am, and let’s talk about how the best way to break into comics and build a career may not be by doing what everyone wants, but by doing what only you can do. And let’s find out what that means.

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?

taking the spotlight.

It was great to have a spotlight panel at this year's Comic-Con. I have always learned a great deal about making comics by listening to the story of other artists, and so it was great to have this opportunity to basically talk for an entire hour about the way we love to make comics, even when it's not easy, and what we learn every day.

We have to get back into "making comics" mode, so I'll leave you with an excerpt from the spotlight.

At the end of another day, we remember.

Going to San Diego is great. We see our old friends and we always meet new ones. We have a great time, even with the long hours working at the booth. We were tired every night, but away we went at dinners and bars, because that's when you have time to relax and talk to the people you know you never see during the convention because everybody is busy working.

Every morning, we were early eating and getting our strength back, for another day of awesomeness was waiting for us.



Now it's time to get back to work. All of you, go! Let's make more comics! Let's be great, let's succeed, fail, make mistakes and learn. Most of all, let's tell more stories.

Let's continue.

July has begun with horror!

Our new enterprise into the helms of horror will hit the stores this week.

PIXU: Mark of Evil!, the collected, hardcover edition of our Harvey nominated mini-series done last year with Becky Cloonan and Vasilis Lolos. Beautiful book!
And BPRD: 1947 part 1 of 5, the dream of every cartoonist, working with Mike Mignola on the Hellboy-verse, and there're Vampires!

As the publishers start to announce their panels on the San Diego Comic Con, we start to have a notion of how busy (or not) the convention will be for us this year. Since we won't have a table anywhere, if you want to find us you better go to these panels.

So far, That's what we know:

Thursday, July 23rd:
- 6:00 -7:00 Vertigo New Ongoing Series/Crime Line
It's a new beginning for Vertigo with the launch of new ongoing titles such as The Unwritten, Greek Street & Sweet Tooth. In addition to these titles we will be launching the highly anticipated Vertigo Crime Line with some of the top talents in the industry. Hosted by Senior VP - Executive Editor, Vertigo, Karen Berger and Senior Editor Will Dennis, this panel is not to be missed, especially considering the talent present: Peter Gross (Unwritten), Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, The Nobody), Jason Starr, Chris Gage, Gabriel Ba, Fabio Moon and others! Room 5AB

Friday, July 24th
- 5:30-6:30 Vertigo: View of the Future
Vertigo, DC's edgiest and most provocative imprint, returns to San Diego! Come and discover what's going on at the imprint that birthed The Sandman, Preacher, Y: The Last Man, Fables and more? Wait 'til you hear about what new projects the Vertigo team is going to thrill us with next! Hosted by Senior VP - Executive Editor, Vertigo, Karen Berger, Group Editor Shelly Bond, and Senior Editor Will Dennis, with Jason Aaron (Scalped), Mike Allred, Mark Buckingham (Fables), Josh Dysart (Unknown Soldier), Peter Gross (Unwritten), Amy Hadley (Madame Xanadu), Jeff Lemire (The Nobody), Chris Roberson, Matt Sturges (House of Mystery), Matt Wagner (Madame Xanadu), Bill Willingham (Fables, House of Mystery), G. Willow Wilson (Air), Brian Wood (DMZ, Northlanders), and others (that's us)! Room 5AB

Ther'll be the first ever, awesome Spotlight on Fabio Moon
Friday, JULY 24
12:30-1:30pm
ROOM 10

We'll have some signings as well, and we'll post them here closer to the event.

One day, lotta work! Off to the Comic Con!

Last day of work before leaving for San Diego. We're all set.
- We're gonna sell original pages of Umbrella, Casanova, Sugar Shock;
- We have PIXU!!
- We also have CASANOVA vol.1 softcover, CASANOVA vol. 2 set(issues 8-14), Ursula, Rock'n'Roll, the Eisner nominated 5 and the Eisner nominated De:TALES.

we'll be on booth 2729, from Wednesday 'till Sunday.

We'll be signing at:
Thursday - Dark Horse - Fábio and Bá - 1pm-2pm
Saturday - Dark Horse - Umbrella Academy - 4pm-5:30pm
and at CBLDF at some point.

And now here's a video of my last day of work, penciling 2 and a half pages and inking 5, in order to travel to San Diego in peace.

Original pages at the Comic-Con - first call

So, ever since we started doing high-profile projects as Casanova and Umbrella Academy, from time to time we get emails asking if we sell original pages. Since we live in Brazil and we don't want to deal with international shipping and paypal and stuff (not right now), the only time we actually get to sell our pages is when we go to San Diego for the Comic Con International.

If you're going and you're interested, now is your chance to let us know.

Well, the convention is 2 weeks away and we will be bringing original pages to sell. Next week we'll post a page with all the pages we'll bring (yeah, it's impossible to bring a year's worth of pages of 2 monthly series).

Stay tuned.