Oktoberfest! Taking over Germany!

Finally the time has come to talk about our trip to Germany! We are very excited, as we are about to discover the world of book publishing and its renowned Frankfurter Buchmesse, the Frankfurt Book Fair, largest book fair in the world.

We will stay for 20 days in Germany, the entirely first week in Frankfurt as part of the big group of Brazilian authors present in the fair (because Brazil is the homage country on the fair this year), and then we will tour through some cities promoting our books, signing and talking to the audience. And the best part of it is that we will do all that with two of our books freshly released in German! Daytripper has been published by Panini and De:Tales by CrossCult. 

Ever since we started publishing in the U.S. market, it has been easier to find our books all around the world, but often only in English. Some titles have never been published even in Brazil (even though it has been changing, there's only Smoke and Guns, Sugarshock and BPRD left). It is always better to go somewhere where people can find your book on their own language. Germany has seen the publication of BPRD and Umbrella Academy, and now we can land there with our two most personal books published on their native language. That's really priceless.

So, back to our trip, I'll list here all our commitments during our trip, so maybe you can find us, listen what we have to say, learn a little bit about our work, about Brazil and the special connection these two elements have in our hearts.

First of all, we're really proud of being on the selected group of authors Brazil is taking to Frankfurt, as part of being this year's Guest of Honour country. I love the fact that comic have taken me all around the world, but also they're still a strong connection I have with my country and my culture and that's something I take everywhere I go.

So, we recently discovered the Book Fair is open for the public only during the weekend. During the week, it is only business between publishers and agents, bidding, gambling, buying and selling titles and moving the entire reading market forward. During the week, we will have lunch with DC and their partner publishers around the world, which will be very educational. And we will be part of a celebration on the Kobo booth, since we also discovered De:Tales is available on Kobo. But it is only from friday on that our agenda with the public really begins.

11/10, friday:

17h Signing session on Comics Shop X-Tra BooX 

(Berliner Straße 20  60311 Frankfurt am Main)

It is a signing on a comic book store, outside the Book Fair pavilion, so it's open to the general audience. Anyone can go. 

12/10, saturday:

10h45 – 11.25 Talk: Brazil and it's Comics scene - Gabriel Bá and Fabio Moon

Where: Comics Center, 3,0 K17

11h30 – 13.00 Signing session: Gabriel Bá and Fabio Moon

Where: Comics Center, 3,0 K17

3.30 pm to 5 pm - signing at Panini - Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon (Daytripper, Brazil)

Where: Panini booth Hall 3,0 G & F 143

13/10, sunday:

10h - 11h30 HQ & Graphic Novel: reunion of Generations.

with Ziraldo, Maurício de Sousa, Fábio Moon, Gabriel Bá, Fernando Gonsales, Lelis and Lourenço Mutarelli (these are all the invited Brazilian comic book authors present in Frankfurt, some with over five decades worth of comics work, and then there's us, we're the younger ones among them, the new generation with our 15 years comics experience.)

Where: Brazilian Pavilion

2 pm to 3.30 pm: signing at Panini - Gabriel Bá & Fábio Moon (Daytripper, Brazil), 

Where: Panini booth Hall 3,0 G & F 143

And here's where our book tour takes the road (or should I say the tracks, since we'll be going everywhere by train). 

14/10, monday:

Hannover

16h-18h  signing at Comix Hannover, (Goseriede 10, 30159 Hannover) 

It's a signing in Hannover. We're only passing by the city, so please stop by and say hi, discover our books, get a sketch.

17/10, thursday:

Berlim

19h  Modern Graphics - Europa-Center, (Oranienstraße 22  10999 Berlin)

(the shop Modern Graphics located at shopping mall Europa-Center aside the memorial church in the heart of the city)

We will talk with Lars von Törne, from newspaper Tagesspiegel, followed by a signing session. It will be our last night in Berlin, so come and celebrate with us.

18/10, friday:

Munich

16h - 18h - signing at ComicCompany, (Fraunhoferstraße 21, 80469 München) 

It's a two hours signing in a comics store. Come by, get to know us, and then also go to the Literaturehaus to listen to our discussion panel.

20h - Cultureclubbing Brasileiro

Discussion panel with writers João Paulo Cuenca and Luiz Ruffato and comic book authors Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá. There'll be a signing session after the panel as well.

Where: Literaturhaus München, Salvatorplatz 1, 80333 München)

And afterwards we will all be heading to a club nearby to party, as João Paulo Cuenca spins his DJ set.

We will be guests at the Comic Action, (at the Messe Essen, Norbertstraße 2  45131, Essen), a comics convention that takes place in Essen, and we will have some siginings at the Panini Booth to promote Daytripper. Fábio will have two signings on Thursday, and I'll have just the one in the afternoon. And we'll both have two signings on friday.

24/10, thursday:
Essen

11:30h - 13:30h - signing at Panini Booth (Hall 2, 2-C150) 

14:30h - 17:30h - signing at Panini Booth (Hall 2, 2-C150) 

25/10, friday:
Essen

11:30h - 13:30h - signing at Panini Booth (Hall 2, 2-C150) 

14:30h - 16:30h - signing at Panini Booth (Hall 2, 2-C150) 

And this is it for Germany. There's a lot of places to go, lots of people to meet, lots of different things to discover. We have heard only good things about Germany and we can't wait to get there. German people, German food, German beer, here we come.

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.

CONVENTION SEASON!!

Two weekends of fun, sketching and lots of flying around await us!


 NAPOLI COMICON!


We're very excited to be going to ITALY as guests at NAPOLI COMICON this weekend and, for our delight, Italy is the country with the largest variety of our books (after Brazil and the U.S., of course).
- DETTAGLI (Comma 22)
- Daytripper (Planeta DeAgostini)
- CASANOVA (Panini)
- Umbrella Academy (Magic Press Comics)
- Sugarshock! (Bao Publishing)
- URSULA (Lain)

Our schedule is:

Sunday April, 29th 

10:30 Mostra d’Oltremare- SALA INCONTRI

Come si lavora in USA

With Lorenzo Ruggiero, Pasquale Qualano, Fabio Moon

11:30       Mostra d’Oltremare- SALA INCONTRI

 Incontro con Magic Press Edizioni 

with Pasquale Ruggiero and Gabriel Bá

15:00-18:00 Mostra d’Oltremare-Area autografi
Signing Session

Monday April, 30th

15:00-18:00 Mostra d’Oltremare-AREA AUTOGRAFI
Signing Session

16:00 Mostra d’Oltremare-STAND MAGIC PRESS
Signing Session

Tuesday may, 1st

11:00-13:00 Mostra d’Oltremare-AREA AUTOGRAFI
Signing Session

15:00 Mostra d’Oltremare-STAND MAGIC PRESS
Signing Session

15:00-18:00 Mostra d’Oltremare-AREA AUTOGRAFI
Signing Session

So we will have two panels and signings with many publishers. For all of you who are attending the convention, look for the schedules of these publishers and you might find us.


TCAF

After that, we're going to the cold lands of Toronto, Canada, as guest of TCAF (Toronto Comic Arts Festival). We have two commitments so far:

- TCAF 2012 KICK-OFF EVENT! Jeff Smith, Gabriel Ba, and Fabio Moon in conversation!
Noir and the Fantastic in Comics and Graphic Novels
Friday, May 4th, @ 7:00pm
@ Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge St.
in The Bram and Bluma Appel Salon
Free to attend, registration required.
And
- We have a spotlight on our work sometime on sunday, May 6th, and we'll talk about how you can't turn back once you discover all the different possibilities of comics as a language.


We'll have some signings, I guess, and a table where we can hang out, but we want to walk the floor a lot and discover new stuff and authors.


We expect to have lots of fun on both conventions and meet lots of people.
See you guys around!

DIGITAL TWINS!

We love comics. And we consider ourselves old school, because we like comics made by hand, on real paper, to be printed on paper and read on book format by people. Although we will keep making our comics to be printed, digital comics are here and the tablets and readers are also becoming a growing reality that we can't oversee.

Every publisher is putting their comics out there to be read on digital readers, and our books are among them. So now you can buy and read our comics online or on the device of your preference, and take them with you whenever you go.

Now you can get Daytripper on Comixology here.
You can read Daytripper #1 for free.

You can browse Dark Horse Digital and get all the awesome comics they publish.
Regarding our comics, you can now get Umbrella Academy series 1 and 2, our Eisner nominated De:TALES, or our horror comic PIXU, made with our good friends Becky Cloonan and Vasilis Lolos.

The important thing is that people can read our work. We'll keep writing, drawing. We'll keep telling stories.

We love comics.

De:TALES hardcover

We're very happy to be releasing this again. When Diana called us and said they were doing a new edition, we were delighted with the idea of doing a new cover. We love the original cover and we wanted to preserve the same mood, but at the same time we wanted to try to apply all that we have learned in these years that separate this edition from the first.

If you never read this, this is your chance.

The solicitation reads like this:

DE:TALES
Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon (W/A)
On sale Oct 6
b&w, 112 pages
$19.99
HC, 6" x 9"

From the company that introduced American audiences to Brazilian twins Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá (Daytripper, Pixu) comes a new hardcover edition of Dark Horse’s out-of-print De:Tales, a collection of the twins’ breakthrough short stories!

After three Eisner Awards and a series of acclaimed projects with writers Joss Whedon (Sugarshock), Gerard Way (The Umbrella Academy), Mike Mignola (B.P.R.D.: 1947), and Matt Fraction (Casanova), Moon and Bá are now among the hottest artists in comics. De:Tales is the duo’s most personal work to date, presenting their work separately, together, and in tandem—as the twins trade off on the roles of writing and illustrating, share those roles, or fly solo. Brimming with all the details of human life, their charming tales move from the urban reality of their home in São Paulo to the magical realism of their Latin American background.

Featuring a brand-new cover, Moon and Bá’s seminal and sought-after work is finally back in this handsome hardcover packaging, proving once again that they are a talented pair to watch out for.

• Named by Booklist as one of the 10 best Graphic Novels of the year, Foreword Magazine gave it a silver medal on the Graphic Novel category of their “Book of the Year” award, and it was nominated for an Eisner Award.

Now available in hardcover!

The italian De:TALES

Now in our hands.
Published by Comma 22, our books keep speaking more languages than we ourselves have learned.

It's a wonderful feeling, like having a bastard foreign baby.

Gemelli di Meraviglia

De:TALES in Italian, published by Comma 22.
But I want it in my hands. This doesn't feel real enough.

5, the rhino, and a bunch of our comics online.

When we started talking about 5, one of the early ideas was that of drawing animals with our characters. We never ended up using the rhino, but I just wanted to draw it anyway because it's cool as hell to draw.

Khepri.com is doing a great job at making sure you can get our book anywhere you are. From September 16th to September 22nd, not only 5 was the best selling item, but Casanova 2 was number three and Casanova 6 was number five. De:TALES was there too, on the best seller graphic novels, at number four. If you look at it, I think it might be the first time during this entire year that there isn't a Brian Wood book or comic on the top five best selling items at Khepri. A clear sign of the apocalypse, or a good start for the rest of us, comic book creators?

Becky seems to be well represented as well, with Nebuli, MINIS and American Virgin popping up on the list. This was a good week for the 5 crew.



click on the images above to get any of these AWESOME comics and get your fix on all things "twins". (well, maybe not all, but it's a good start)

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT, LOST THE AWARD AND IT WAS AWESOME!

As incredible as it may sound, after going 11 straight times, this year's San Diego Comic Con was unique, in good and bad ways. Every year we learn new things, meet new people and realize why we're once more there, among so many people who love comics.

The top spot on the most amazing things about this year was joining with Becky and Vasilis, that's for sure. We've known each other for some 3 or 4 years, but we always had very little time to spend together and talk and have fun. This year, we've made "5", the COOLEST COMIC of the year, hands down the most wanted item of the convention, and we were practically STUCK in our table together, just having fun and freezing under the air-conditioning from Hell. Our table, by the way, was only possible because of Ivan Brandon who had asked for 2 tables at the Image booth and passed one along to us. He has been doing amazing work in comics and has been putting great people together on his projects, like the amazing second volume of 24seven. The table was another great thing he's done for the sake of good comics.



As it was expected, everyone was amazed with GRAMPÁ's cover of "5", as well as all the other art he had in there. The awe for his work was only matched by his absence on the show, as he was truly missed and tons of people now want to see more of him.



Our table was, as we so accurately described, FUCKING FODA! Like a well balanced meal, it had all sort of colors, a variety of genres and all the powerful range of stuff we all are able to do. Next to our amazing and best-selling "5", we had Becky's MINIS, an amazing collection of her early mini-comics, and East Coast Rising, her Eisner nominated series from Tokyo Pop; and we had Vasilis' brand new graphic novel Last Call, as well as his mini-comic Hats and Pirates of Coney Island, published by Image; also their collaborate work on Nebuli, the first time I saw Vasilis' work and the starting point of the urge for us to make something together; And Fábio and I had the brand new CASANOVA #8, as well as the hardcover edition, alongside copies of the "who-are-these-amazing-brazilians" ROCK'N'ROLL we have made with Bruno and Kako. We got some FCBD comic from the Dark Horse booth, as well as the free poster and our one copy of our Eisner nominated De:TALES to show people and point them to the DH booth to buy it.


Speaking of Eisner Awards, this year was a great sample of independent authors and amazing different works and I think the most significant nominees and winners were from outside the mainstream comics, or super-heroes. As much as we were disappointed to lose, we could not have lost to a better book. The first time I've seen Jason's work I thought "we're so gonna lose to him". One of the things I regret about this year is that I didn't have any time to check out all these comics and creators on the floor, at the convention, because we were always selling at the booth or at some important meeting. I'd love to get American Born Chinese and Fun Home, as well as Jason's award winner The Left Bank Gang. One thing I'm definitely going to chase is Eric Powel's Satan's Sodomy Baby. I'm getting everything from Brian at Khepri.com.

Shout out to our awarded friends Jill Thompson (painter), James Jean (cover), Dave Stewart (colors) and Paul Pope (writer/artist - series). And Sam, congrats again and thanks for the Old Boy edition.

As it would be expected of someone who have been publishing constantly in the US for the last 5 years, our work's following of fans have increased considerably and we were happy to witness statements of gratitude, admiration and respect from lots of people who would stop by our table, as well as other fellow authors during all four days of the convention. It all started on our beloved USA Hostel, where we've been staying for the last 6 years. Our roommates, 2 funny auzies, not only have seen ROCK'N'ROLL, but also would not believe when they connected the dots between us and CASANOVA and Umbrella Academy that we would share that room with them. They were the nicest and funniest roommates we'd had in years. And it was full of amazingly hot women all the time, awesome and talented Ky-tee in particular. As much as nobody would believe or understand why we stayed in the hostel, and that this have been probably the last time we stay there, you won't meet so many different and interesting people from all over the world in the hotels.

Moving to a whole other level of stardom and recognition, this year had obvious aspects of our work that called a lot more attention, like my collaboration on The Umbrella Academy, written by Gerard Way. The same way I'm having a blast working on this book and I'm really proud of the results so far, Gerard could not be happier with our creation and the first thing he said to me was "thank you for this wonderful job". On the couple of hours we spent together on saturday, we did an one-hour signing for 80 lucky ticket winners, surrounded by an unbelievable sea of teenagers with cameras flashing, shouts and laughs, and It was really amazing to me when someone would come with a copy of CASANOVA, De:TALES, URSULA and "5" among the Umbrella Academy or My Chemical Romance items. As Gerard himself have put on an interview for MySpace, the main idea of making this comic is acknowledging the fact that he has millions of fans and use that to see if he can bring more people to know comics, not only our, but all comic that he loves. He just want to see comics do better and reach more people, and so do I.


various moments of the time with Gerard, the madness of the signing and at the bottom, the Umbrella team: Nate Piekos (letters), Dave Stewart (colors), me (art) and Gerard.

Another moment on the Olympus of fame was when Joss Whedon came to our table to finally meet Fábio, who's been working with him on his brand-new Sugar Shock comic for Dark Horse Presents. Everyone around was so excited and thrilled and whispering "oh my god, it's Joss Whedon", while Joss was excited and thrilled and whispering "oh my god, it's Fábio Moon". Promotional genius that he is, he asked Fábio to draw the main character of the book on a T-shirt that he would wear on his panel and signings and Fábio stood up for the task and made an amazing job, right there on the fly. Joss would parade with his new T-shirt for the next 3 days (on top of clean clothes, ok) and he even wore it on the exclusive EW party on saturday night. Walking around with Nisha Gopalan, the lovely girl who was kind enough to include and interview us for the TOP 100 EW list, we asked to be introduced to J. J. Abrams, who said he loved Joss' T-shirt, to which Fábio answered "well, write a comic for me to work on and I'll make you a T-shirt".


Fábio and Joss Whedon...


... and the famous Dandelion T-shirt.

This year we had a lot of time to talk to Diana Schutz, our godmother, our light and guide trough the helm of comics. We owe her so much that it cannot be described with words. Only making amazing comics we can honor our debt with her.


Fábio and Diana.

We had our share of meetings and projects are indeed moving forward, as the doors have been open wide to us and we have to make sure they won't close. As usual, we hanged out a lot with other creators on lunches, dinners and late at night at the Hyatt bar. We've met M.K. Perker, an amazing and hilarious artist from Turkey, we were introduced to John Cassaday and talked a lot to Jim Lee, who was really impressed with Becky's work. The dead-dog party that wraps the convention was one of the best I've ever been to, where all the creators present were really happy with the show and the direction comics are going. With lots of drunk smiles and sincere joy and respect from one another, we ended our trip with hugs and toast and, as I was making fun of Paul Pope and Jim Pascoe that "if I wasn't wearing this hat, I would be on your "messy-hair" team", he said to me in a natural voice and with an honest smile on his face:

"You are on our team. We're all on the same team".

EW 100 list

We made it into the EW 100 list, the ultimate must list. And we got a FULL PAGE!. Go find the magazine and check it out (I will). After that, go find our books fast! Eisner nominated De:TALES and the up-coming Umbrella Academy by Dark Horse, Casanova by Image, URSULA by AiT/Planet Lar and much, much more.



And check for our MEGA-SUPER-COOLEST-COMIC-EVER, 5, made specially for the San Diego Comic Con alongside amazing and beautiful Becky Cloonan, mysterious and talented Vasilis Lolos and exotic 10th wonder of the world Grampá.

Only at our booth on the 2007 SDCC!

Another award for De:TALES.

Foreword Magazine has a list of their "Book of the year" award winners for 2006, and De:Tales got a silver medal on the Graphic Novel category. Click on the link to see the list (and go to page 9 to see the graphic novel winners).

Here's what the Foreword site says about the award:

If your books expand a reader's world, introduce a voice society needs to hear, offer practical knowledge where none existed before or simply entertain so compellingly that all distractions fall away as the reader turns the next page, they should be submitted for the Book of the Year Award.
ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards were established to bring increased attention from librarians and booksellers to the literary achievements of independent publishers and their authors. Our awards process is unique because we ask a jury of our readers, librarians and booksellers, to select their top categories as well as choose the winning titles. Their decisions take into consideration editorial excellence, professional production, originality of the narrative, author credentials relative to the book and the value the book adds to its genre.
ForeWord is the only review trade journal devoted exclusively to covering books from independent houses -- ranging in size from university presses publishing hundreds of titles per year to micro, POD and eBook publishers who may publish one title in a lifetime.

Talking out loud.

You've seen our artwork in many places. You've read our stories (maybe) and loved it. Now, it's time to hear what we have to say.

There's an podcast interviw with us over at the Bullpen Bulletins. To listen to it, you can clic here or here.

Now, who can tell who is saying what?

Back to crazy workload, now.

De:TALES SALE!

There's a big De:Tales sale at Khepri, as well as other Eisner notinated titles, so if you haven't read our book yet (or any other of the many on sale at Khepri this month), this is your chance. Don't miss out, and hurry, there's a lot to read if you want to catch up o all these books.

De:TALES - Eisner nominee!

The list of nominations for the 2007 Eisner Awards is out and we have been nominated in the category Best U.S. Edition of International Material with our De:TALES.

Nice.

Our first award!

We just received news that our De:TALES made it into the top 10 Graphic Novels of 2007 list from Booklist Magazine, which of course makes us very happy.

I don't know if this is an award or not, but it fells good all the same, feel like we're doing something right, or at least people seem to like it.

We are producing stories for a second De:TALES, or something on the same vein, and let's hope it's finished soon.

Q: What is Booklist?
A: Booklist is a 100-year-old journal, published by the American Library Association, whose core mission is to provide public and school librarians with reviews that help them decide what to buy. In recent years, Booklist has also become a valuable tool that helps librarians make reading recommendations.