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.

Walter White

A Breaking Bad inspired image.
Farewell, Walter.

rehearsing a sketch

The Strain at DHP#28

This is the cover for Dark Horse Presents 28, out in September 25th. In one of our rare art collaborations, Bá penciled the cover, inked the top image, I inked the bottom part and he colored the whole thing. Click here to see the cover with the logo and everything else.

Close up on the process

Morning walk with the dog

Nothing comic-book-related to report this time, expect the impression this photo of my brother walking my sister's dog around the empty streets of early sunday morning São Paulo could have been a scene of Daytripper.
Also, paying close attention to the picture, I noticed Bá is wearing his DeathFace t-shirt, which is the product of Ivan Brandon and Chuck BB's imagination, and should be coming out as a comic from Offset Comics in a not so distant future.

10 times 10

 

The class

    
I can comfortably put ten people sitting in two tables in the main studio room, and that still gives me enough room to stand in front of then and use the white board or the tv to show examples of narrative through the use of images and words. Still, I felt I could have more people, so I opened up two classes, one on monday nights and the other, on tuesdays. Soon enough, I had twenty students enrolled in my two month class on the possibilities in creating visual narratives and, after eight years since we last opened our studio to students, my entire routine changed as I'm starting to get to know each one of them and their particular desires and works.

    
They're a very eclectic bunch, ranging in age from 17 to 37, with a lot of people interested in drawing, but a good number more interested in writing, and all willing to try to merge these two creative activities in the comic form. This week, I'm having nude figure drawing in the class, and it's a very interesting exercise to note how even those who are more used to drawing are not naturally used to paying attention at what they see, as figure drawing is much more learning how to look than learning how to draw (at least that's what I take most from it).

   
Even after we stopped giving classes at the studio, we continued to give workshops and lectures about comics, the narrative form, the history of the medium, our history in it, so there's a lot of subjects I could talk about, and have talked about, when it comes to teaching comics. I'm constantly curious to research new authors and new stories, new styles, trying to know everything great being done in comics around the world, but there's something different in this class now. To balance what I can talk about comics when I use the great comics and great authors as an example and to try to see what the work of the students show, and where it leads, it's sometimes like being on both ends of a road.

An exciting long road, in which I'll be traveling with the students for the next two months.

Liberty, Killjoys and EDITORS

Two of the recent covers I've done.

The first one is for the CBLDF's Liberty Annual 2013. The editor for this anthology changes every year and this one's Scott Allie. I did this cover and Fábio also has a little story in there. It will be out in October by Image Comics.




And also my variant cover for THE TRUE LIVES OF THE FABULOUS KILLJOYS #5, crazy mini series by Gerard Way, Shaun Simon and Becky Cloonan. Edited by Sierra Hahn and published by Dark Horse, this will also be out in October.




There's a lesson to be learned here. Make friends with editors. Get to know their names, what books they edit, who they work with. If they like your work and they trust you, they'll get you cool gigs.

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.

BPRD Vampire #4 is out today

I took the picture above in a hot November night as I worked my way into the third issue of BPRD Vampire. I tried to find a picture of the period I was working on issue 4, but there wasn't any. When you have to focus on producing the stories, and every day can seem like the previous or the next as you just have to draw and draw and draw until your story is there, in front of you, it's hard not to forget about other things, other people. You dive into the world of your own creation and, for a while, you live in it.
BPRD Vampire #4 is out today in comic book stores and through the Dark Horse internet store. "After what we've put Simon through on issue three, what else could we possibly come up with to top that?" was the question our editor made when we delivered issue three.
I hope you like the new issue.
We did.

Killjoys cover #4

Here's is the forth cover Bá did for "The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys", the mini-series written by our pals Gerard Way and Shaun Simon, and drawn by our super-pal-partner-in-artistic-crimes-awesome-in-her-own-right Becky Cloonan.

Every Right

We help the CBLDF every chance we get, to make sure people have freedom of speech so they can express themselves if they're artists, and so they can help spread the word created by others if they're publishers, retailers, bookstores or libraries.
We create stories to talk about subjects we think should be discussed. Most of the time, they're works of fiction.
Every now and then, they talk about our times.

Last week, we saw our city (São Paulo) become what looked like a war zone, with the extreme violent police response to a public manifestation. Violence calls for more violence, and by the end of a very long thursday night many people were hurt for no good reason, wrongly arrested and terrorized by the police force. Add many acts of vandalism to the mix and suddenly you've lost sight of what people were there for in the first place: for their right to complain and express their opinions.

A new manifestation will happen this monday. My brother and I will be there as part of those who believe in peaceful, reasonable gathering. We believe in people's right to have an opinion and we've turned our opinions, as usually happens, in stories.

Cycles

We still didn't have time to write down the incredible experiences we had in our trip to Portland  - you can have a glimpse of it in this report from Craig Thompson - but I wanted to put this picture of our white board in here to mark the end of a cycle and the beginning of the next one. It takes a long time to make comics, and a lot of planning is required, and the artist just hopes there's no loss of quality when you have to worry about deadlines and schedules. We feel we reached the end of one cycle as our BPRD-Vampire mini-series is done, and as Bá finished all his six KillJoys covers, and as we just delivered our short story for the American Vampire anthology. We're starting a lot of new projects right now, and it's an exciting time, maybe the most exciting time in every project, when we watch these ideas as they are born and start to take shape. This initial energy will feed us for the next days, months and years as we work on these stories.
Back to the drawing board.

Killjoys cover 3

We're back from Portland, where we saw good friends and talked a lot about comics. I've already done two new covers and have yet another to do, but first I can show my alternate cover for the third issue of "The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys", crazy new series written by Gerard Way and Shaun Simon, with fabulous art by Becky Cloonan, due to come out in August by Dark Horse.

We'll write more about our inspiring week in Portland on the next post.

Portland week!

We've been super busy here at the studio. After finally finishing the last pages of BPRD-Vampire (check out the detail from the last page on the image above), we're still hard at work on our short story for the recently announced American Vampire anthology. If that's not enough, there are two covers on our plate this month, a KillJoys one and a yet secret one, and we're trying to finish as much as we can before we travel to the US for our Portland week next week.
Portland week?
Yep.

We were invited to Portland to be part of this year's edition of the International Comic Arts Forum (check out the sweet Mike Allred poster) and we gladly accepted, as we love to talk about comics and how great it is to create and read them, and as Portland has so many awesome comic related people, from authors like Craig Thompson and Joe Sacco, to great artists like Allred himself, to publishers like our beloved Dark horse, and also some amazing mainstream writers like Matt Fraction and Brian Bendis.

Last time I went to Portland, this, this, this and this happened. Who knows what can happen this time?

Some of the things that will happen we know. Here's our to-do list:

-Wednesday, May 22th - from 7pm till 10pm- TFAW signing/party - we'll be signing at the Portland Things From Another World (2916 NE Broadway Street), in a very relaxed meet and talk get together where we'll sign your comics for you. Attendees will enjoy free food and beer (those 21+ with valid I.D.) and receive raffle tickets to win an original sketch I did for the event poster (pictured below). It was supposed to be a fast sketch, but I got a little carried away.

- Friday, May 24th, from 2pm to 3:15pm- Roundtable: Beyond Auteurism - Creativity and Collaboration in Comics. With Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Matt Fraction, Charles Hatfield, Ben Saunders, Qiana Whitted. (part of ICAF, at the University of Oregon, White Stag Building 70 NW Couch Street)

- Friday, May 24th, from 7pm to 8:30pm :An Evening With Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon. Moderated by Matt Fraction. We'll talk about our love of comics, and how we choose and create our projects, and we'll show some pretty pretty pictures to help with our presentation. And Matt will keep things funny. (part of ICAF, at the University of Oregon, White Stag Building 70 NW Couch Street)

Both ICAf events are free for the public, as is the signing at the store, but for the ICAF talks they ask that you register online. All the information can be found here. I hope a lot of people come, and we'll be ready for all sorts of questions, even if we have to squeeze them out of the audience.

KILLJOYS 2

One of my most challenging occupations these days is making up variant covers for "The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys", crazy new series written by Gerard Way and Shaun Simon, with amazing art by Becky Cloonan, due to come out in June, after a quick appearance on FCBD in the coming weeks.
There're lots of characters, crazy places and lot's of stuff going on. It's been a pleasure being part of this adventure, being able to see where the story is going and help marking the way.

So here's my cover for the second issue, that should be out in July.

VAMPIRE 5

As we're currently finishing the art of the last issue of our series, the last cover is unveiled.


And here's the solicitaion for this issue.

BPRD: VAMPIRE #5
Mike Mignola (W), Fábio Moon (W/A/Cover), Gabriel Bá (W/A), and Dave Stewart (C)

On sale July 31


After the bloody encounter in the woods, only Professor Bruttenholm himself can put an end to this vampire hunt and get to the bottom of the mystery of the undead of Český Krumlov.

Picasso

Late last night, after finishing a double spread page and while waiting the ink dry before I could scan it, I opened my sketchbook and made this Picasso sketch for a friend's blog. It's been 40 years since Picasso died and his work was/is hugely influential not only in the fine arts, but also in drawing and cartooning in general.

Casanova v.4 is coming with a bonus

Casanova has a great deal of history with April. I always remember 2009 with fondness. But now the time has come to yet again share the wonders of the Casanova universe with our universe.

Matt says it best:

"When CASANOVA returns at the end of the year, the main story by Moon and me will be backed up by shorts created by Michael Chabon and Bá.
He keeps saying “Like TALES OF ASGARD” and I’m not sure if he’s kidding or not.
CASANOVA IV
Fraction • Moon • Chabon • Bá • Peter • And, siiiigh, Dharbin.
Marvel/Icon 2013."

Covering the first Killjoy

Continuing in our blog's recent trend of posting our covers, here's Bá's variant cover for the first issue of The True Lives of th Fabulous Killjoys, the new book by our pals Gerard Way, Shaun Simon and the lovely and talented Becky Cloonan.

BPRD - VAMPIRE cover 4

Here's what the solicitation of this issue says:
"Plagued with two vampires trapped inside his chest, Simon Anders struggles to keep them under control before they can throw him into a bloodbath with an army of witches."
We're finishing this issue this week as we also finish the script for issue 5. It has been an incredible ride and I can't wait to see what people think of it in two weeks when the first issue comes out.
Back to the drawing board.

VAMPIRE, VAMPIRE, VAMPIRE!

We're finishing issue 4 of VAMPIRE this week, but here's the cover and solicitation information for issue 3, out in May. (Issue #1 will be on sale in two weeks!)




B.P.R.D.: VAMPIRE #3 (of 5)
Mike Mignola (W), Fábio Moon (W/A/Cover), Gabriel Bá (W/A/Cover), and Dave Stewart (C)
On sale May 29
FC, 32 pages
$3.50
Miniseries
A nobleman vampire’s life is spared after a horrific bargain made with the evil goddess Hecate, and now the bloodthirsty Simon Anders will put that deadly deal to rest.
• A direct sequel to the critically acclaimed B.P.R.D.: 1948!
• From the Eisner Award-winning creators of Daytripper—Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon!

Tour de France 2013 - the video

The final chapter of our great adventure in France, now with images, sounds and a lot of traveling around.



Thanks to everyone who came to our signings. Thanks for the stores who opened their doors to us: La Bulle, Expérience, La Parenthèse, Bulles en Tête and Apo(k)Lyps.
And thanks for Urban Comics for everything they did for us. It was amazing.

Angoulême - part 2, or the French tour

There were two halfs of our trip to France. Going to the Festival at Angoulême was just the first one, and the second half was definetely the most different.

Using our lovely Parisian apartment as our home base, the Urban Comics crew sent us in a small signing tour around France: four cities in total, including Paris. Every day, we would wake up early, take a TGV train and cross the country to visit another city, give interviews to the local press and sign at a local bookstore, where we were always met with a mix of readers who had already read Daytripper and those who were discovering the book for the first time but, either out of a recommendation from the bookstore owner or out of their habit of going to signings.

It's incredible how every city in France appears to have a great bookstore specialized in Bande Dessinée and comics. We visited Bulle at Le Mans, which I think was the oldest one in our tour and was located in the oldest part of town, a beautiful medieval village near the remains of the wall built during Roman times. In Lyon, we visited Experience, a great bookstore with a ceiling filled with drawings from their visiting artists, a most distinguished collection from all around the world. We saw Craig Thompson's drawing, and Bannister's (he's from Lyon), Cyril Pedrosa's and so many more. Moebius also left his markings on that cave of wonders, and so did we.

Nancy, the smallest city in our tour, had the biggest bookstore, La Parenthèse, with a lot of space for the readers to discover all kinds of comics, old and new. One room, where we did our drawings and met the public, was filled with great automates, those wonderful handmade dolls which, when you press a button, move by themselves in the most ingenious ways.

In Paris, we visited two bookstores: Bulles en Tète, the newest in our trip, and Apo(K)lyps. Luckly, their were close to each other and we walked the distance from one another, but still that was our longest signing day, signing for three hours on the first and for almost the same time on the second.

We finished the last night of our tour with dinner with Pôl and François from Urban Comics at a great restaurant, eating well, drinking champagne, wine and talking about comics, past, present and future.

We don't know when, but this wasn't our last trip to France. This was the beginning of our french road. And our work has put us on this road and, if we continue to do good work, it's the work which will keep sending us across the globe. The work is the author's voice, the author's face. Our work is our passport.

Angoulême 2013 - the video

We did a little video with some images from the first part of our trip - the festival in Angoulême, the artists we knew, the town. I hope you like it.

Angoulême - part 1

Bá and I returned from our first trip to Angoulême and its Festival International de la Bande Dessinée a week ago, in the middle of Carnaval, and after 10 days in the cold french winter, we recovered by the beach for a week, feet sunk in the wet sand seen through the transparent waters of our beautiful sea. We had an incredible time in France, inspiring every day, and more and more we fall in love with the respect and love the french market has for the books and the artists.



Festivals that take place in smaller cities, or in just one determined part of a big one, are great because you can - and should - do everything by foot, and Angoulême is this beautiful little medieval city and the festival takes over the entire town. All around, you see people that love comics, artists, readers, editors and everybody else involved, and you cross them in the streets, in every restaurant, in all bars and museums and in the giant tents (called "bulles" over there) where you'll find the stands and booths of all the publishers. The prize most people are after is a very beautiful original drawing - done on their book or on a sketchbook or on a separate piece of paper - from their favorite artist. The artists take turns in the publishers booths, and a place in the line for one of the signing sessions of three hours (or more) is very disputed.
We were at the Urban Comics booth every day, signing copies of Daytripper or Casanova, and from Umbrella Academy and many of our work in english. The response from the audience was incredible, and it was great to see what the french responded more in Daytripper: Olinda, the exotic girl from the waters of Salvador, and Brás first love, was more successful than Ana, and many people asked for drawings of Dante, the dog.



Another guest Urban Comics brought to the festival was Bill Willinghan, of Fables' fame, who came with his lovely assistant Stephanie. Every night, as we gathered together for dinner, the guests and everybody from the publisher, we had an incredibly funny time with Bill, a human well of jokes, and he told very interesting stories about his time serving in the army in the seventies, which was the last time he had visited France. After two or three Vertigo panels together in San Diego (all of them passed without us getting to properly talk to each other), it was really nice to finally have an opportunity to get to know Bill a little more. Those dinners at Angoulême were always delightful, and everybody at Urban Comics loves what they do, and it was nice to feel that comics (or bande dessinée) are such a passionate world in France.
It's great to feel the good vibe when it's there, spreading, oozing from the artists, from the readers, from yours friends. It was great to see people we already knew so we could share this wonderful feeling that comics are great and there's something magical happening in comics right now. We had great talks with Cyril Pedrosa over late night drinks, and a great conversation with Mark Siegel over wine, and a wonderful lunch with Bannister in the basement of a italian restaurant. There were those we wished we could have seen more, and talked more with, like Frederik Peeters, Annabelle, Joe Keating and many others. On the last night, we had a very interesting and motivating conversation with Jessica Abel and Matt Madden about the differences of comics, of comics markets, of different artists, authors, and how that, instead of limiting, is nowadays actually liberating, even if still hard to accomplish.


Another great thing about this year's festival was the presence of so many brazilians. Call me patriotic, or sentimental (or blind, or crazy, or stupid), but comics are living a great moment in the world theses days, where new stuff by new people is finding its way in the hands of the readers all around, and when something great happens to you, you wish somebody close to you could share all these wonderfull feelings, and it was great to have other brazilian artists around, our friends, and it was a special moment that we shared in those four days of festivities, a moment we can bring back home together, hoping that, by talking about it, we can inspire others the same way the trip inspired us.