TCAF pre-show commissions

Back at the end of July, I opened my first commission list for drawings to be delivered at NYCC. I calculated enough time so that I didn't have to hurry on any of the requests, and I think everybody (myself included) were satisfied with what I was able to do. You can check over at my instagram the pieces I did if you search for the #mooncommissions #comoonssions hashtags. They were posted here on the blog as well. I learned with the experience that I can do this, juggle a small commission list with a certain amount of my comics' work, so I'm interested in trying it again to see what else people will ask for, and what my interpretation will be.

I am opening a TCAF pre-show commission list for those interested in having an original drawing by me with the character (or characters) of their choice. I'll hand deliver these drawings in Toronto during TCAF, so you need to be there in May (you can have somebody be there on your behalf as well).

If you're interested in a private commission and want to know more, please write to fabiomoon.commissions@gmail.com for more information. Because of my own limits, this is not a very big list, so there's a chance that, by the time you read this, you'll get on the waiting list.

(TCAF is one of our favourite shows, so we're excited to go back)

CHINA!

There're no words to describe the thrill of having your book published in China. Or maybe there is, but it's in Chinese.




That's the beauty of telling stories. There's no limit where they can go.

谢谢

TWO BROTHERS - Harvey Award Winner!

We're incredibly happy that our book TWO BROTHERS won a Harvey Award for "Best American Edition of Foreign Material".

Thanks a lot for everyone who keeps supporting our work.

TWO BROTHERS at the Eisner Awards

We still have a hard time believing it, but it did happen. And we have it on video now.


Thanks to all of you.

SDCC 2016 - Thank you, Darwyn.

We publish comics in the U.S. since 1999, first work with a publisher was in 2003 things started to hit off only in 2006, but we still live in Brazil and that keeps us distant from the market. The upside is that we don't get influence by trends, imediata statistics or business gossip. We do our work isolated in the safety of our studio. The downside is that we don't have direct contact with the readers and retailers. We throw our books into the ocean hoping they'll find the reader. Throughout all these years, San Diego Comic Con International has been the moment we have to connect with the market, the editors, artists and readers. We've been going since 1997, and this trip serves to recharge our batteries and fuel another year of production.
The convention has changed a lot since we started going, but it's still a unique experience and the best portrait of the North American market in every sphere, from the indy artists with their first mini-comic, to the Small Press area filled with tiny publishers you've never heard of, to alternative oasis like Drawn & Quarterly and Fantagraphics, going through book publishers having their go on comics like Penguin and Scholastic and First Second, finally getting to Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image, as well as "younger" companies like IDW or Boom Studios. Besides, there're many artists and writers scattered around on tables, signing sessions and panels. Yes, Hollywood has taken a gigantic space on the Con – physical space as much as the attention of the media and the public –, but if you're going there for the comics, you're still gonna have the best experience of your life.



We shared tables on small press area and booths on the main floor for years, but since 2012 we don't have a table anymore, a place to stay for the whole day selling our books. This year we had one signing every day and a couple of panels, giving us all the time in the world to walk around, enjoy the show and rest. We miss the close contact with the readers that having a table allowed us, but it was great to do things calmly and really enjoy our days. With such a big demand and a 7 years waiting list, I'd say it's rather unlikely we'll have a table in SDCC again.
But our signing sessions were awesome, full of old and new readers, known faces, people who we connect only by social media, who comment, share and like the smoke signals we send throughout the year, from afar. During these moments of brief interaction, we could have a glimpse of the the readers' reaction about TWO BROTHERS, released last October, and also about our new book, HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES, released last month. With two recent books, readers had a lot to talk about.
Between parties and dinners, one of the highlights of SDCC is the Eisner Awards Ceremony Friday night. Long and boring like any other award ceremony, the Eisner is, however, a moment to stop and celebrate Comics, the creators and the work. We're ALL isolated in our studios, separated by miles, continents and oceans, but right there we're all together, with all our attention on the art. Throughout the night you'll discover works you didn't know, see some comics that had not caught your attention earlier with new and fresh eyes, and get to know a little closer artists whose work you appreciate for years. Over the weekend, you can walk the convention floor looking for the winners. All of them will be there, waiting for you.
Once more, we were.






Over the course of twenty years, we met a lot of people in Comics. We've seen our idols become our friends and some of our friends turning into professionals. SDCC is also a big reunion, a big party.
This year's edition was one of the best SDCC for us, for all the reasons described above, but specially for bringing a deeper feeling of recognition. We're always trying new things, every new project is different from the last, and every year we meet new artists and new works that inspire us and push us to keep innovating and believing there's still a lot to be done in Comics. One of these artists, whom we've met personally in 2008, was Darwyn Cooke. He showed us with his “Parker” series that it was possible to make an good adaptation, keeping his own voice while doing it and blowing the readers' minds. This was the work that convinced us it was possible to adapt Two Brothers. He showed us (and everybody else) an adaptation can be relevant, feel original and look amazing. Throughout the years, his work would guide us, and I hope to have achieved just a bit of the prime he's presented us.
Last Friday, in the heat of the moment and nervous as hell, while thanking everyone who helped us making Two Brothers a reality, I forgot the most obvious and important person of all. Without Darwyn Cooke, our book wouldn't exist. The Eisner we won is dedicated to him.
 

TWO BROTHERS got the EISNER AWARD!

After all these years, the excitement of having a new idea remains the same, the thrill of finishing a story remains the same, the happiness of being nominated for an award remains the same, the nerve-wracking rollercoaster ride during the award ceremony remains the same, and winning the award remains as unbelievably amazing as ever.

TWO BROTHERS is a very special project, an amazing story we had the honor of working on and we had the chance to introduce to new readers. This book deserves all the attention it may get and this award fills our hearts with joy.



Thanks for all who’ve read it and got us this far. E if you haven’t read it yet, get it on your local comic book store or book store, or buy it online, and after you read it, go look for the original novel that originated this work. Do yourself this favor.

Harvey Awards Nomination

Today they announced the nominees for the Harvey Awards and TWO BROTHERS has been nominated on two categories: "Best Graphic Album Original" and "Best American Publication of Foreign Material".

You will find the complete list of nominees here. Lots of great names in there.


The Harvey Awards ceremony takes place on September 3rd, at the Baltimore Comic-Con.

Casanova celebrates 10 years

CASANOVA returns in June, celebrating 10 years since its first publication.
CASANOVA: ACEDIA #5 Cover A (Diamond Code APR160677) and Cover B (Diamond Code MAR168905) hit stores on Wednesday, June 1.

The Final Order Cutoff deadline for retailers is Monday, May 9.

(See more at: https://imagecomics.com/content/view/casanova-acedia-celebrates-ten-years)

Eisner Nomination!

They have just announced the 2016 Eisner Award Nominees and we're extremely glad that TWO BROTHERS has been nominated for "Best Adaptation from Another Medium".

And congrats to all the nominees! What a great year for comics.

How to talk to girls in JUNE, 2016

You can already order our Graphic Novel "HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES" HC, adaptation of the short story by Neil Gaiman.
It comes out in June 15th, 2016, by Dark Horse Comics.
Item Code: FEB160019In Shops: 6/15/2016SRP: $17.99

====
Two teenage boys are in for a tremendous shock when they crash a party where the girls are far more than they appear! 

From Neil Gaiman-one of the most celebrated authors of our time-and award-winning artists Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá, this sumptuous graphic novel is not to be missed! 

• Moon and Bá adapt the Gaiman story they were born to draw!

"Gaiman, Moon, and Bá have created a triolet of a book, lyrically powerful and utterly unforgettable."

-Junot Díaz

"How can something so strange and so beautiful also be so sad? Like a poem, a pattern, and a people whose world was swallowed by the sea, How To Talk To Girls at Parties is three things at once." 

- Kelly Sue DeConnick

"Had sneak peek at How to Talk to Girls at Parties. What boys fear! That girls are very smart aliens who will do frightful things to you in The Upper Room! Teenage angst. Lovely drawing/painting." 
-from a Tweet by Margaret Atwood

"A haunting ode to the lyric of girls, who for our protagonists represent a vast, uncharted universe. An extraordinary comic from three extraordinary creators."

- Marjorie Liu

"Gentle, strange, and full of perfectly good advice ('You just have to talk to them!'), How to Talk to Girls at Parties is wise and odd. Neil Gaiman's writing is sweetly complemented by Fábio Moon & Gabriel Bá's art. It's a quirky delight."

-Audrey Niffenegger

http://www.previewsworld.com/Catalog/STL001158

Neil Gaiman and girls in 2016

In June 2016, Dark Horse will publish our graphic novel adaptation of Neil Gaiman's short story How to Talk to Girls at Parties. The books has just been announced by Publisher's Weekly.



On Neil Gaiman's words, “they have a storytelling aesthetic where [depicting] body language is everything. The story is all about what’s in the narrators’ heads, so it can be very hard to do that in comics. It’s incredibly enjoyable to write a story and see them make it real.”

We've been working on this book since last year and we couldn't be happier with it.

Neil Gaiman's How to Talk to Girls at Parties (Hardcover) | 978-1-61655-955-7 | 6/15/2016 | $17.99

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.

TWO BROTHERS in New York.

Nothing happens out of the blue and it's easy to loose track of time when you spend so many years working on the same project. You may forget all the other things that happened during those years, what has changed since the last time you were there. Last time we were in New York was in 2010, we had just released the last issue Daytripper. I can say for sure that everything changed for us after that book.

Five years later, we were back in New York with an Eisner and Harvey awarded book that spent four weeks on the top of The New York Times bestsellers list, published in twelve languages, respected and beloved by authors, critics and readers. And we were there to release our new book, TWO BROTHERS.





We began our trip with the right foot, with a discussion and signing session at Barnes & Noble in Tribeca. We arrived half an hour earlier to let our anxiety steam a little down, and when we finally began talking with the audience, we were warmly welcomed by everyone, always paying attention and full of interesting questions. Everyone present left inspired and happy, with their books signed, glad they were there, being part of that special moment. Right there, the book was out on the open, it was free. We could finally relax a little and recharge for the next four days that awaited us.

We love conventions, the interaction with the readers, meeting new creators, the adrenaline of selling your own books and sharing the passion for your work with everyone who stops at your table. We’ve been to four different conventions in the U.S. this year and we could see what they have in common, the differences, the artists that go to every each one of them, the publishers, the T-shirt/Toys/Light Saber stores, the cosplayers. Bigger and smaller events. New York Comic Con has grown a lot in the last five years since we’ve been there, specially the Artist Alley. It was great returning to the crazy frenzy of tabling, specially with a fresh new book that would only come to the stores the following week.



We sold 100 copies of Two Brothers in two days. Dark Horse had more books shipped overnight for the weekend to have it at their booth. We were rarely not busy on our table. With a career of almost 10 years in the U.S., readers had a lot of different stuff for us to sign, but what brought most of them there was Daytripper. The single issues, the trade, the deluxe hardcover edition. But most importantly, what the story meant to each one of them. A book that remains with the readers after they finish reading it, one that is constantly given as a gift for loved ones, one that is the entryway to comics to so many people.

Saturday was our busiest day and we were barely at our table. We had our spotlight panel in the morning, a signing session at the Dark Horse booth, followed by five interviews about the new book. After all that, we waited an extra hour at the booth just so we could give our book personally to Frank Miller. It’s great to have idols that inspired and influence you. On the very few occasions we happen to meet ours, we make sure to show the respect they deserve. We have a successful career, our work, our fans, but it’s always good to remember we have still a long road ahead of us.



Life is made of choices, and we’ve chosen to go to New York to release our new book. It was a group effort to guarantee the books would be there in time, to set up an event on the bookstore, to get us a table at Artist Alley and a spotlight panel on the official program. We bought the tickets, the convention and the publisher got us the hotel rooms. We spent almost a week in New York without doing any sightseeing, no shopping, nothing a tourist is encouraged to do so easily there. We went there to release the new book and we had to return right away, for work awaited us.

I’m not sure when we’ll be back in New York, but I am in no hurry. The new book’s journey has begun and we were glad it happened there. Today, the book arrives on every comics shop around the U. S., and many other places that buy and read comics published on the American market. The book has already been released in Brazil and in France, and in two weeks it will be released in Italy (at Lucca, our next trip), but I feel like from now on, the book will really reach the whole world. It’s just a matter of time.

¡DOS HERMANOS EN MÉXICO!

¡Vamos a MÉXICO para La Mole Comic Con!

Vamos a tener dos mesas en el Artist Alley (A1018-A1019), dónde estaremos todos los días.
Y tenemos una charla el sábado, a las 12:15h
- "BAJO LA SOMBRILLA DE LOS GEMELOS FANTÁSTICOS. Desde Brasil, los hermanos Gabriel Bá y Fabio Moon, artistas multipremiados de la industria del cómic, platicarán sobre su trabajo en The Umbrella Academy, Casanova y Daytripper, entre otros proyectos. Moderador: Jorge Tovalín."

Nos vemos pronto!

Aqui una pagina acerca de nosotros.

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.

Going places

We've been to San Diego Comic Con International 17 times, once to NYCC, and one time to TCAF (ok, it's in Canada, but it's awesome). Although we've been to conventions all around the world, in the United States we've been to only two. So we're really happy to be going to Denver and Phoenix the next two weekends.

At the Denver Comic Con, we'll have tables G2 and G4 on the Artists' Alley, where we'll be most of the time. We'll sign books, make free sketches. We'll have comics and prints to sell. Stop by.
On Saturday, May 24,  from 12:55pm to 1:45pm, we'll be on Room 304 on the panel Festival de Brazil, with our friend Rafael Albuquerque.


Then on the next weekend we'll head to Phoenix Comicon, where we'll set up our stuff on tables 13140 and 13142 on the Artits' Alley. If we still have comics and prints, we'll be selling them. If not, signing, sketching and talking comics.
On Friday, May 29th, we'll be on room North 121 for a Spotlight panel about our work, from 1:30pm to 2:30pm.
And we have two signings at the Dark Horse booth. On Friday at 3pm, and on Saturday at 11am.

We're really excited to go to these two different places and meet new readers and creators.
See you all there.

Two Brothers! In France and Brazil, so far.

Our new graphic novel, Two Brothers, is going to be published by Dark Horse in October, but it has already been released in Brazil and in France in March.

We've been to France to release it, also to represent Brazil in the Salon du Livre de Paris, since the country was the guest of honor. We toured for a week and visited Bordeaux, Pau, Nantes, Lille and Paris and all the signings were amazing. I will try to write a more detailed report here in the near future.







The release of the book here in Brazil was a blast. We always fear no one will show up, but it always surprises us how much readers and fans we have and how much love they have for our books. We have a big tour ahead of us and we are thrilled to travel with this book all around the country.





There's still a long way to go, but I can't wait for the book release in the U.S. We have comics to work on until then (Casanova? Umbrella Academy?), and we love comics.

By the way, you can already order Two Brothers on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other online stores. And then wait until October. It's just around the corner.

Bá and Moon fonts

There's a much bigger text to be written here, about the time we started lettering our photocopied independent comics in the computer, about when we started having our comics lettered by other people, one of those being Nate Piekos, of Blambot fame (who, as we came to learn, had designed many fonts we were already using), and about the moment we decided to have our comics look a little more ours by lettering them by hand again.
Hand lettering a comic is a lot of work. And, when you're publishing your stories in at least two languages (english and portuguese), it's impossible to do it all on the page. Because of that, even if we started hand lettering our comics, we decided it was time to turn our hand writing into computer fonts. And that's when we came back to Nate.
Besides being an awesome letterer (he lettered Umbrella Academy and Sugarshock for us), he also is a great font designer, and has made a lot of custom fonts for artists.

First, Nate turned Bá's hand lettering into fonts. We were on the final stages of our new book, "Two Brothers", which we were already negotiating to be published in portuguese, in french, in english and in italian, and we really wanted it to have Bá's lettering in all versions.
Both Bá and I have been hand-lettering our weekly strip at the brazilian newspaper, "Quase Nada", since 2008 (even though we replaced the letters with computer fonts for print), but since 2013 I have restarted to hand letter some short stories I was doing, to get better at it, and do try and really define my style. After the incredible results of Bá's custom font, we knew it was only a matter of time until we would hire Nate to do his magic on my font.

I plan on continuing to hand-letter my comics whenever I can. More and more, I'm trying to make everything blend a little better, from the drawing, and the inking, and the balloons, and the letters, and the colors.
Now, with these custom fonts, we can do that all around the world.

Two Brothers

After 4 long years working on this book almost in secrecy, we can finally talk a little bit about it. 

Our new book, TWO BROTHERS, is an adaptation of the novel “The brothers” (Dois Irmãos, in Portuguese), by Brazilian novelist Milton Hatoum. It’s the story of twin brothers Yaqub and Omar, and their family of Lebanese immigrants living in the port city of Manaus, on the riverbanks of the Amazon. It’s a story about identity, love, loss, deception, and the dissolution of blood ties. A strong story worth the huge challenge of adapting it.

It’ll be publisher by Dark Horse and it’ll come out only in October, but you can see a 10 page preview at Publishers' Weekly.

DELUXE

At last, the Daytripper Deluxe Edition HC is here! We're very proud of it and we know how much the readers have asked for a premium version of our beloved book.




You can see a step-by-step of the new wraparound cover image here and Comics Alliance has a preview of the Sketchbook section here.

And a little video of the book.




We couldn't be happier. This really push us to keep telling our stories. We love comics.
And a big thank you to all our readers. They made this possible. This book is for all of you.