Luxuria

If you were waiting for the soft cover trade, the wait is over.

Pencil.

Sometimes, my pencils are very loose. Most of the time, actually. I don't think I could work as the "only penciller" kind of artist, as I leave a lot of the art for the inking part.

Together, we're great.

According to this site, we're pretty great, and people should go after the stuff we have done.

Well, they should. Agreed.

Now, because we're in the comic business, some images will follow.



It's hard to jump from one project to the next, and loose drawings like this one will serve the purpose of just drawing for the fun of it, no expectations, no goals. Reclaim the artist you are, that artist who gives himself to the projects he works on, and after you're once more your own, go jump again on another project and tell more stories.



I love coffee, and so does Bá. For us, it's a big thinking and talking fuel, and we just can't do without. Maybe we could, but we sure don't want to.



Today, Dave sent the colored pages from the Umbrella Academy final issue. They look beautiful. His work over Bá's art made us reevaluate our entire work and how we approach it in terms of color. Before, we only wanted to color our pages ourselves. Now, even the stuff we do color will be, in our minds, compared to what Dave did, in that strange inner voice that keeps asking you "What would Dave do?" when you're thinking on ways to color a certain page or drawing.



I received a new script from Matt this week, and it's just the best script I ever read. It's, by far, the best script he's ever written. Now it's up to me to be the best pages I've ever done.

Under a tree.

Sitting under two trees that cast a welcome shadow in a sunny day, I remember that much more than a job, to draw is a pleasure, and a very personal one, one you share only with the paper, with the brush, a movement that takes you anywhere without you ever leaving.

January started as an eclipse, when the sun and the moon meet only to part again from each other. Bá was here yesterday on his last day before he took off to a desert beach, and I returned from a beach to now resume working. We sat together, we ate and we talked, making plans a month ahead. January is solely on each one's shoulder, and we only talk about what we'll do when we're together again. We have a lot of plans, we want to tell a lot of stories. This year can be better than the last, which was already very good, and we have to make it a better year if we want it to happen. We are in the making business, nothing suddenly appears, except for birds and bees, and nothing gets done by itself, except maybe the duration of a day (and not even that, to some, as we can have days to end days, and days to end weeks).

Let's make comics, even if under the shadow of a tree.

LAST DAY OF THE YEAR AT THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY

It's been a hell of a year.
I've never made so many comics in my life. I'm actually exhausted and I really need some rest. But it was totally worth it.
Worked on Christmas and I'm gonna work tomorrow and the day after, but it's all worth it.

Comics are great.

I believe we've done something special with The Umbrella Academy. I feel really proud of it. And that kept me working all these times.

Last night I was finishing it, alone in the studio, late at night, and I felt like registering it. Fábio wears suits on his last days on each project. Well, I'm not the fancy one.



It's no great movie, but it's just to say that I've done it. I went all the way, and I'd do it again anytime. So let's do it again next year.

Oh yeah, I couldn't help putting the song as the soundtrack. It's actually one I like.

Happy New Year to all of you.

new journeys.

My bags are packed and I'm ready to go.
The new year awaits.



For good things to happen, we have to make it happen. Here's wishing next year brings a lot of good things for us, and for everybody. When midnight comes, on the 31st, I'll be watching fireworks with my feet buried in the sand of a beautiful beach, the sea gently breaking against my ankles, and I'll throw flowers and say thank you, and I'll make wishes and enjoy another good year.

Hopefully, I won't be alone, and we will all have new stories to tell.

Online interview about Umbrella Academy

A Couple of months ago I gave this interview to Fanboy Confidencial about Umbrella Academy and comics in general and it's finally online.

It's a good way to close this year with something that has been so much talked about.
Click here to listen to it.
Enjoy.

lost Picasso.

In the middle of the night, today, two paintings were stolen from one of the most important museums in São Paulo. One of the pieces was a Picasso.

Gone.

Now, everything changes.

Before the year ends, the apocalypse begins.

Or so it goes on the new issue of the Umbrella Academy. As I write this, Bá is working on the the final issue, on it's final pages. Issue six promises to be one of the best from the series, and the artwork is just mind blowing. Wait for it and you'll see.

While you wait, issue four is out, on comicbook stores everywhere. Go get your copy and let us know what you think.

More umbrella next week.

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.

Washington Post.

This past Sunday edition of the Washington Post published their A List for Titles that earned the top grades from their reviewers, which, in their comics section, included Luxuria: Casanova, Vol 1, by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Bá.

Works at the end of the year tend to pile up around here, and December is usually one of our most busy months of the year. It's nice to see little things like this while you're working. Makes it feel that, while we're very isolated when working, the work we do in getting seen, and read, and remembered.

Back to work.

But also, before I go, here and here you'll find reviews of the most recent Casanova issue.

Now back to work.

Casanova 11 in the stands today.

I just received my copies. Just read it in my hands. I'm so used to the strong blue by now that I think it will be impossible to go back to a lighter color on the next albums.

Anyway, this is probably my favorite issue, artwise. From my issues, of course, 'cause Bá rocks in another dimention entirely.

I even liked my bit on the backmatter. I think I'm getting good at this "where does my ideas come from" thing.

Black tie.

I mentioned in the backmatter of Casanova 10 how it felt right that I was doing the secret cinema people at the same time Bá was also drawing another group of well dressed black tie individuals, right?

I guess it's pretty obvious now what I was talking about.



Now, the storylines from Umbrella and Casanova are moving very far apart, and we're drawing completely different things.

Bá, his cars and his cities 1.

the Casanova 14 cover.

This will be my final issue drawing Casanova. Acconding to the cover, all characters will move to Cuba, join the revolution and shoot crows.

Or become crows.

And their passports will have Casanova Quinn stamped on them on the way in.

Quiet, little girl.

How much color!

Until last year, 90% of our work was in black and white, which we love, but now we're producing more and more in color. If mayve Dave Stewart wasn't doing these glorious colors, it would be easy to continue just doing black and white.

The third Umbrella will be out in two weeks.

World cup 2014 in Brazil.

We imagined how would the mascot look like.
Thank God we don't do this for a living.

rainy sunday.

Summer rain falls all the time since yesterday. It's a shitty weather, today, and working seems inadequate. I still need some sort of work done, so it doesn't matter if it doesn't fit the way the world looks from my window. Right now, I wished it wasn't such a big window, which accounts to such a big shitty weather.

But, hey, it's summer. When it's not raining, the days are very hot. It's hot while it's raining, even.

That's summer. That's nice.

But I'm working. Still working. Always working.

I wish I didn't love work so much on sundays. I wish sundays looked like sundays to me, but they don't. They look like mondays, or tuesdays, and I work on mondays and tuesdays.

I love doing comics, and it's hard to do comics all the time in the summer.

The rain makes it easier, even with the shitty weather.

Where????

I've been drawing the Casanova comic book without Casanova Quinn since I did the sketch below on May 5th. I did the other charactes afterwards, but the damage was already done.