Monday, July 23, 2012

16 candles, a SDCC story


Once more, we traveled hours and miles away from Brazil to land on the sunny – and windy – San Diego, for yet another Comic Con International, our 16th consecutive year. A lot has changed since our first convention in 1997, but the energy around comics is still just as vibrating as it used to be.

There are many people we've met during these 16 years, some of which became friends and that we cherish our yearly encounter, if only for a very short time on the Hyatt bar or crossing by one another on the convention floor. Some friends have a closer relationship, such as Jill Thompson, who we met back in 97 and was kind enough to make an alternative cover for our comic "Roland" Days of Wrath" back in 99, and today shares the booth with us (she actually invited us to share her booth, to which we are very grateful). Another good friend is Becky Cloonan, the amazing self-publishing queen of comics, conquering every corner of the industry with her charm, smile and amazing talent, who we've met in 2004 and since then have never left our side, and with whom we did some amazing comics like PIXU and our beloved and Eisner winning comic, "5".



A lot has changed in 16 years, for us and for the convention itself. We have been setting up a space for us to stay and get in touch with the public for a long time now, be it a big booth with a Charlemagne statue made of paper-machet (in 1999), or a table at small-press area, one at the Image big island among other creators or the booth we're at right now with friends. And that's because we know this is the opportunity to make the connection between the author and the reader, just like it happened to us all those years ago. Today we have lots of books published, a career that has reached out and now bounces back with all the people who come to our booth to tell us how they liked this or that book, to get one that they didn't have yet, to discover new and old works of ours, to ask for a simple sketch that takes me less than a brief thought, but it's a priceless treasure for them. And the amazing cosplayeres. This is worth all the struggles we go through to be there every year.


Umbrella Academy cosplay at SDCC 2012 Umbrella Academy Cosplay at SDCC 2012 Umbrella Academy Cosplay at SDCC 2012 Umbrella Academy Cosplay at SDCC 2012
I don't really mind all the Hollywood invasion and all the entertainment circus that the convention has become. I find it very fascinating and for the attendees it's an unparalleled spectacle, but it made it more difficult to be part of this whole experience for someone who's not so fanatic and desperate. The tickets sell out in the blink of an eye, the hotels are more expensive every year that goes by and more difficult to get a room. If 16 years ago one could stumble on the convention unaware of it's existence and, out of curiosity, buy a ticket and get in, that's just not possible today. To have a space like ours is a luxury that, if lost, would put us on a seven year waiting list. It's still a gigantic show with lots of exposure and every year new people come and discover us, but it's becoming harder and harder to breath inside the crowded aisles of the convention floor and draw the attention of people who are checking their twitter and facebook feeds on iPhones, or looking up to see Iron Man or the big cave Troll around the corner.

Even the big studios and companies had to leave the building in order to have the room to stand out, taking over restaurants and other venues on the Gaslamp District, flooding the city even more with the craziness of the Comic Con. Luckily for us, one of these exterior enterprises was TR!CKSTER.

books at TR!CKSTER
For the second year on a row, TR!CKSTER is the space to value art and the creators, not the companies, the franchises, the blockbusters of the summer. It had this amazing vibe and offered incredible symposia with some of the best professionals of the field. A little out of the way from the convention centre, it was a kind of a sanctuary, a safe place for those who just wanted find new amazing books, or to hang out with their idols and friends, talk about comics, art and why it's so amazing.

I'm sure San Diego is still the biggest window for displaying your work on the North American comics market, for showing your face, but what it is really showing are the signs of fatigue on the faces of some of our friend creators, and on our own as well. It can't be just a matter of being there, but remaining meaningful to go. We hear a lot about other conventions across the U.S. that are supposed to be great, like C2E2, HeroesCon, Stumptown and NYCC, to which we've attended once in 2010. The smaller, more alternative ones as well, like Mocca, APE, SPX. We've been to TCAF in May and we loved it out there, such a great creative energy. 

The main thing is to keep working on new comics, new stories to fuel the imagination of the readers, to remind them that we are here, far away in São Paulo, but our tales will cross the ocean and find them, be it in San Diego, Toronto, Naples, London, Luanda, La Paz, Rosário, Beja. And we couldn't have done this if we hadn't been attending the San Diego Comic Con International for all these years. It helped to build what we are today, and we hope we have helped building the history of the convention as well.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Watercolor video

Five steps of one of my latest watercolors in a video I made for a brazilian site.
Enjoy.

Monday, July 09, 2012

SDCC 2012

Our books

This year, more than any other year, we'll have our books at our booth inside SDCC. If you like one of our stories and want to try out another one, we'll be there to supply whatever you want. Some are rare to find, others, like the third CASANOVA album, AVARITIA, will debut at the conven.tion.
We'll be at the booth selling and signing the books, and every book we sell will get a sketch inside.

Our schedule


These are our plans inside the convention center, and around San Diego:
thursday, July 12th
2PM- I'll be at TR!CKSTER for the art demo, where I'll draw and ink on the spot, and answer questions about style and storytelling.
8PM- Bá and I will go to the CBLDF welcome party at the Westgate hotel. Stop by to see all the amazing original art they're auctioning this year, and grab a drink while you're at it.
saturday, July 14th
4PM- Bá and I will be signing at the Dark Horse booth (#2615)
sunday, July 15th
12:15-1:45 CBLDF Rock Art Jam- Bá and I, along with Nate Powell, will draw on site rock related images while we talk about the love and influence of music in our work. The audience we'll be able to bid on the drawings to take them home after the panel, the profits will all go to the CBLDF. Room 5AB


Other than that, we'll probaly be at our booth (#1320) most of the time. Come along, stop by and let's have fun at another crazy Comic Con.

And then, something extra


Aside from all the original pages we'll have at our booth, from Umbrella Academy, Casanova, Serenity and BPRD 2012, I'll be bringing these little paintings I've been doing recently. They're small and delicate, and cheaper than the pages, so a wonderful opportunity for those who want a piece of original art from us but can't afford a page.

Saturday, July 07, 2012

CASANOVA originals at SDCC 2012

It's sexy. It's crazy. What else can I say for sure about CASANOVA?
It was a very hard year working on this series and juggling it with all the other projects both Matt and I had to do, so I'm really sorry to have delayed issues #3 and #4 so much. But, in the end, it was for the best, because I was more focused and could produce what I think were some of the best pages of my life.
AVARITIA was a crazy story arc that explained a lot of things and left a whole other bunch on the air, but that's the way it is with this book. And what comes next? We'll have to wait and see. Only Matt knows.
So if you're a fan of Casanova Quinn, Sasa Lisi, Suki Boutique and Luther Desmond Diamond, you'll be thrilled to know that we're bringing original pages of AVARITIA to sell next week on SDCC at our booth (#1320). Here's the amazing selection of pages (click on the pages to see a bigger version).
 
casanova-avaritia-01-cover casanova-avaritia-01-p02 casanova-avaritia-01-p03
casanova-avaritia-01-p18 casanova-avaritia-01-p21 casanova-avaritia-01-p24
casanova-avaritia-01-p25 casanova-avaritia-01-p30 casanova-avaritia-01-p31
casanova-avaritia-01-p32 casanova-avaritia-02-p01 casanova-avaritia-02-p03
casanova-avaritia-02-p06 casanova-avaritia-02-p07 casanova-avaritia-02-p10
casanova-avaritia-02-p11 casanova-avaritia-03-p01 casanova-avaritia-03-p02
casanova-avaritia-03-p03 casanova-avaritia-03-p08 casanova-avaritia-03-p15
casanova-avaritia-03-p16 casanova-avaritia-03-p17 casanova-avaritia-03-p31

Oh, how I loved that Ziggy Startdust reference. It came out perfect. I really love when Matt points at something and I nail it. It's a very hard thing to do. the man is not from this world.

The folks of Beguiling have some other pages as well, from previous stories. So don't forget to check them out. They sell it online and I'm sure they'll bring of of them to the show as well.
AAAAAANNNNND… we will have all three trades of the Casanova series for sale at our booth.
LUXURIA, GULA and AVARITIA. Very exciting! PA-ZOW!

BPRD originals at SDCC 2012

Both Fábio and I have been big fans of Mike Mignola's work for a long time and when he began Hellboy, it just blew our brains with his amazing style and perfect mix of fun story, great characters, amazing design and overwhelming use of black&white art.
It was a great honor to have worked with him on BPRD:1947.
So if you're a fan of the Hellboy universe as well, you'll be happy to know we're bringing original pages for SDCC next week! We have a bunch already with the folks at Beguiling and I'm sure they're bringing them all this to the show, but here's the new selection of pages (click on the pages to see a bigger version).
bprd1947-04-p18 bprd1947-04-p19 bprd1947-04-p20
bprd1947-04-p21 bprd1947-05-p19 bprd1947-05-p20
bprd1947-05-p21 bprd1947-05-p22
It's great to create characters that survive your story and move forward on their own. Ota, the priest we helped creating for this series, has new adventures of his own on the series Cameron Stewart is doing, called BPRD - Hell on Earth: Exorcism. Go check it out.

So if you're going to SDCC, stop by our booth (#1320) and check out all the original pages we have there, as well of all the amazing comics too, of course.

Thursday, July 05, 2012

Umbrella Academy originals at SDCC 2012

San Diego Comic Con International is just around the corner, happening from July 11th to July 15th and, once again, Fábio and I will be there and share a booth with some amazing artist friends: Jill Thompson, Becky Cloonan, Andy Belanger and Rafael Albuquerque, plus the talented Murilo Martins.
We will have our books to sell this year. Umbrella Academy (both volumes), CASANOVA (Luxuria, Gula and the freshly compiled AVARITIA trade), our beloved Daytripper and more. Please stop by to check out any – or all – of the books.
And, as we have done in previous years, we'll have original artwork for sale ate our booth (and some with the nice folks of The Beguiling store over at the Drawn and Quarterly booth, very close to ours). And other pages I'll have are on this link.
Here's a preview of some of the Umbrella Academy pages I'll bring, from the amazing Apocalypse Suite series (click on the image to see a bigger version).
umbrella-1-02-p19 umbrella-1-02-p20 umbrella-1-03-p12
umbrella-1-03-p13 umbrella-1-03-p14 umbrella-1-04-p07
(this last page, page 07 from issue 4, is reserved already).
We'll put more updates before we travel, with signing information, panels, shows, Trickster and everything you need to know to find us on the big, crazy show. It's so close. Again.
See you all soon.