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".
