The Toronto trip

Warm up sketch in the cold Toronto winter. We came to Toronto for an exciting new adventure.

smoke signals

Warm-up sketch, sending out my usual smoke signals.

the last page of 2016

My sketchbook holds the last drawings of 2016. Before the end of the year arrived, before the fireworks, before the champagne bursting and the bubbling in everyone's glasses in the merry toast of the new cycle, before the jumping of the waves and throwing flowers to Iemanjá, before the candles lit in a circle in the sand and the wishes each candle held, before all that I doodled in my sketchbook a few lines.

Who would have thought I would write and draw a Wonder Woman story? Not me, not before this year, not even when I was reading all those old Wonder Woman comics that now live in my childhood's memory. And yet, I'm happy that when I was invited, an idea struck me before I could say no, and I said yes, and my homage to Wonder Woman now lives inside an anniversary issue celebrating her 75th birthday.
Another incredible experience was being asked to adapt a Neil Gaiman short story, and that's why I drew Wonder Woman reading our How to Talk to Girls at Parties.

I was happy with this drawing, but I wanted to finish 2016 with a couple more images, so I kept going on the bottom part of the page.

Casanova, our crazy spy comic with writer Matt Fraction, turned 10 in 2016, and survived to keep going until his story is complete. We released three new issues this passing year, filled with guest pinups by our friends, with one variant cover reproducing the line art of the first cover of the first issue from 2006 (we felt like we were doing our own Artist's Edition, if only for the cover), and with more of the amazing back-stories Michael Chabon wrote and Bá drew. Here's to the next 10 years.

And then there's the bunny, my fertility animal, wishing for fertile grounds in the coming year. We'll need to be strong, and be fierce, and be patient. Be true to your heart's desire, and let it lead your path and direct your sword.

It has begun.

Creatures of the end of the year

Sitted by the sand, watching the casual dance of the waves as the sun sets, I sketch to mark the passing of another year, in hopes the coming cycle will bring more of what I love and crave and pursue.

SaveSave

The art hunts

Inspired by friends who did the same thing, and wishing I could do something fun to interact in some real way with many of the fans and readers that I have only reached virtually via twitter, instagram or facebook, I started an "art hunt" game during the last two big festivals I went. The first one, FIQ, happened in Brazil, in downtown Belo Horizonte, and I tested the waters for this game first there because I was more confident my brazilian audience would responde to it. Brazilians spend a lot of time on the internet (maybe too much time, in my opinion), so I decided a brazilian festival was a good place to start.



I did one drawing each day at FIQ, which is a five days long festival, so I had to find many different places for the drawings, and also I tried to make drawings that would always be worth looking for.
The one that took the longest to find was Jon Snow, hidden inside the beer fridge of the bar of the festival.

  


It worked out so nice that I did it again at Thought Bubble, the festival that happens in Leeds in the UK. I also did it daily, for three straight days, but this time, since it was my first time in that place, it was harder to choose where to hide the drawings. Two of the art hunts happened at night, since it gets dark at 4 PM around this time of year.
All the same, I think the english crowd also had fun, and all the drawings were found.


These two conventions happened in two consecutive weekends, so after that I was beat and had no energy left to continue my art hunt game during the four days I spent in London.

I had a great time doing this game, and I hope to do it again.

Super sketches

We're back from Germany, and we survived. Thanks to everybody who stopped by to talk, to have your books signed and to ask for sketches. We don't usually do super heroes sketches, and I'm not entirely sure why we decided to say yes to all these requests for super heroes, but I'm glad we did, as we liked most of the drawings we made, and they seemed to make those who asked for them happy.

Thanks to everybody from Panini Germany (Alex, Rebecca and Gunther in special) for taking good care of us, thanks also to Pipo from Cross Cult for a great job with De:TALES and Umbrella Academy, and for being such a nice guy not only to us but to all the other brazilian authors who needed translation at the Frankfurt book fair.

It was great to hang out with Scottie Young, Phil Noto, Esad Ribic, Bill Morrison and Nei Ruffino during the convention. Great conversations about the love for the aesthetics of Tony Scott's movies, TV series, cats and dogs, meeting your idols and who drinks manly drinks or girly drinks.

Back to the drawing board.

Girly sketches

Some of the girly sketches we made during our German tour.

Monster

I did this quick sketch based on a monster character from Gustavo Duarte's new book while I was waiting for a panel we would do together this weekend in São Paulo.
Having a panel and a signing session back home in the same week of Comic Con in San Diego made it just a tiny bit easier for us to miss the convention for the first time in 17 years. Both the talk and the signing were packed and Bá and I love to talk to the fans, and we were happy we could do it this weekend.
Back to work now. One of the reasons we skipped San Diego was to work on the new books, so let's get back to them.

Straight to inking

I guess Bá and I weren't the only ones impressed by the link to a 26 page story done in ONE day by this incredible french artist called Boulet. You can check out the story clicking here. It's a funny and nice story on its own, but to think it was done in 26 hours is insane. It's one page per hour.
Poking around the web, I found some videos of the guy drawing, and discovered that he doesn't pencil his pages, going straight to inking. Check it out.
Bá and I got all kinds of excited about this and, during some coffee breaks, we tried out hand at drawing straight with pens. Bá's version in the one with blue pen, mine is the other one, in black.

"Drawing straight with a pen is EASY" is what Bá is saying to me on his drawing.
I don't know if it's easy.
But it sure is fun.

Life drawings

Some of the drawings Bá did this year at the live drawing class. Not one took more than 10 minutes, but these range from 1 minute to 5 minutes each.

Casanova, strip and stuff

I know we're already twins and we can do double the amount of work, but sometimes I could use an extra pair of hands. We've been busy.

Bá is going strong on Casanova Avaritia pages (thumbnails shown above) and I just finished our weekly strip (we publish a weekly strip in Brazil's biggest newspaper). It's weird how some of our world will take a long time to be published worldwide, and at the same time other works of ours, being done at the same time, will be puvblished in the US fast and will take a long time to be published in Brazil. It's like we can't please everybody, which sadly I think is true.

The Scream Awards! You can vote for us until October 18th, but why wait? VOTE NOW!
(Our comic doesn't have vampires or zombies, but it's ver cool anyway.)

Habibi, which is Craig Thompson's new book, is awesome and it comes out next week. Check out the book's website to see if Craig is doing a signing near you and go get his great book. Bá and I will have some Craig-related news soon.

Back to work.

Solstice

Summer solstice at one side of the world, Winter solstice at the other. Both ways, there are stories to be told, thus work to be done.

I just finished a cover, which the editor liked and have already been sent off, and so off I go to this short 8 page story which I've been planning since April, when the idea was born. It's a strange thing, going back to short stories after the 220 pages of Daytripper, but in a refreshing sort of way, I think it's just what I need. These days, it's easy to get carried away and only come up with big epic ideas, ideas which will take many pages - and many years - to get done, and there are some periods in your life, and in your work, where a smaller story is just the right size to fit that moment in which you want to work and, at the same size, still have time to gaze at the world and see what the tides might be bringing my way.
I hope that the next time I have something to write about in here, this short story will be over, and I hope this happens in the next two weeks.
Back to work.

Sketch

Thinking about a new strip, the sketchbook by my side.

Figure drawing

Here's Bá training.
A little practice never hurts anybody, even if you already "know" how do draw. There's always something new to learn, to think about, to consider.
Most of this poses were just one minute poses, some were three minutes long, one or another, five minutes long.

 

 

 

 

 

Slim and shorty

Slim and shorty.
That's how I think about Cyclops and Wolverine. Maybe over the year Cyclops might have gotten a little stronger, it's possible, but Wolverine should have stayed short. Adamantiun bones don't stretch.

A sketchy girl

This was my warm up sketch this morning. I got a little carried away, so it took me the entire morning.
I liked it, though.

International women's day

Au revoir, and hello Cass

Above, the last page of my sketchbook. Below, a sketch Bá did this week as a preparatory study for a scene on Casanova. It's good for us to be drawing at the same time, even if in completely different things.

The Sandman

I remember when I first read a Sandman comic. A girl in my class at freshman year of College lent it to me when I told her I wanted to do comicbooks. I had a huge crush on that girl, so I would have read anything, I guess, but I'm glad she had the entire Sandman collection up to that point to lend me.

To think that I have, in recent years, met Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean, became friends with Jill Thompson (who I have shared a booth with at SDCC in the past two years, but have met and admired since 1998), all that makes something inside my chest go warm and happy.

Dream big, dream always, and go after your dreams.

Who knows where life will take you.