New Year's Resolutions

Next week I will start a new thread of posts spotlighting my favorite comics. "Favorite" is the key-word here. This won't be a "best graphic novels ever" list. There's enough of that out there on the internet. It will be about the comics or comic-related stories, series or books which I came across during my life and that had some sort of impact on ME. I'll start with the earliest comics I enjoyed and will proceed to the present. I hope you join me, find out some hidden gems, remember old classics and share your memories of these comics too.

Happy New Year!

The Mighty Enlil Arrives!

I have received some copies of my book The Mighty Enlil and it's a beauty to behold this particular comic finally on paper! If you're interested in buying a signed and sketched copy of the book please contact me though my email pedrocruzcomics at gmail dot com. Merry Christmas!

Recebi um conjunto de cópias do meu livro The Mighty Enlil e é uma beleza apreciar esta bd finalmente em papel! Os interessados em comprar uma cópia autografada do livro podem contactar-me através do meu email pedrocruzcomics arroba gmail ponto com. Feliz Natal!

O Inominável Homem-Sapo no TLS magazine

As quatro pranchas de "O Inominável Homem-Sapo" que desenhei, colori e legendei segundo um guião de André Oliveira estão agora reunidas no mais recente número da revista do The Lisbon Studio. Podem ler a revista gratuitamente aqui.

Comic Book Artists Drawing - Jeff Smith

Comic Book Artists Drawing - Robert Crumb

Comic Book Artists Drawing - Jaime Hernandez

Comic Book Artists Drawing - Jack Kirby

Zeppelin Tales

The most recent book I've illustrated for Airship 27 is now available! Here's the press release:

CLIPPERS OF THE CLOUDS

UP SHIP! AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTIONS launches ZEPPELIN TALES!

In the early 20^th Century, German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin pioneered the creation of rigid, lighter-than-air crafts capable of long distance flights. During World War One, they were adapted for military use as long range bombers wreaking havoc upon Great Britain from their lofty positions high above the clouds where fixed-winged fighters could not reach them. After the war, the Zeppelins became pleasure ships utilized in luxury Trans-Atlantic Flights and highly popular.

The Golden Era of the airship was the 1930s, the same period as that of pulp magazines, and it is no surprise that their romantic images would inspire pulp writers of the time. The original monthly magazine, ZEPPELIN STORIES, was produced solely to highlight these magnificent flying machines in exciting, colorful and fast paced adventures. Now, Airship 27 Productions, itself bearing the image of these high-flying cruisers, launches a brand new series devoted to airships.

“I doubt there could be a more inevitable title for us than this one,” joked Airship 27 Managing Editor Ron Fortier. “Even since we started publishing new pulp novels and anthologies, many of our readers would point to our logo and ask when we were going to get around to doing a book about airships.”

Fortier states that as much as he was always keen on the idea, other projects kept taking precedence. Then a few years ago one of their regular contributors pushed the matter to the foreground.

“Writer Frank Schildiner wrote one day pretty much asking if we were ever going to get to this particular theme as it begged to be done. I no longer had any legitimate excuse not to tackle the project. We put out the word and within a few days two of our finest pulp writers answered the call.”

In this debut volume you, will thrill to the exploits of Jim Beard’s new hero, Tracer Talbot, as he encounters a mysterious pirate airship and her crew. While writer I.A. Watson sets off on an aerial adventure aboard an experimental Zeppelin built to explore the skies of an alien dimension. Each high flying tale is wonderfully illustrated by Pedro Cruz, and the book features a stunning cover by award winning artist Mike Fyles with Art Director Rob Davis providing the book’s overall design.

Join us as AIRSHIP 27 – ZEPPELIN STORIES Vol One soars into the stratosphere of the imagination on this, its maiden flight.

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTIONS – New Pulp Fiction for a New Generation!

Available now at Amazon in both hard copy and Kindle.

(http://www.amazon.com/Zeppelin-Tales-1-Jim-Beard/dp/061591554X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1383666100&sr=1-2)

And as a downloadable PDF at our official website.

(http://robmdavis.com/Airship27Hangar/index.airshipHangar.html)

And as a teaser, another of the twelve illos I've created for this fun volume.

O Inominável Homem-Sapo II

Publicada no passado mês de Outubro na revista CAIS, esta bd teve argumento de André Oliveira e arte da minha autoria.
This comic was published in the October issue of CAIS magazine. It was scripted by André Oliveira and the art was by myself.

Efemérides #6

Deixo aqui um teaser da bd de uma prancha com que participei no fanzine Efemérides #6, o primeiro de quatro volumes dedicados ao tema "Heróis de BD no Século XXI". Neste primeiro volume, coube-me imaginar a personagem de Conan, o Bárbaro, no actual século. Qualquer semelhança com a realidade é mera coincidência...
De acordo com Geraldes Lino, editor do fanzine, o lançamento do zine está marcado para o dia 2 de Novembro, às 17h, no Fórum Luís de Camões, na Brandoa, no decorrer do Festival Internacional de BD da Amadora 2013.

Here's a teaser for the one page comic I did for the fanzine Efemérides #6, the first of four volumes under the theme "comic book heroes in the 21st century". For this first volume, I re-imagined the character of Conan, the barbarian, in our current century. Any similarity to reality is mere coincidence...
According to Geraldes Lino, the fanzine's editor, the zine will be officially released on the 2nd of November, at 5pm, at the Forum Luís de Camões, on Brandoa, during the comics International Festival of Amadora 2013.

O Inominável Homem-Sapo I

Publicada no passado mês de Agosto na revista CAIS, esta bd teve argumento de André Oliveira e arte da minha autoria.
This comic was published in the August issue of CAIS magazine. It was scripted by André Oliveira and the art was by myself.

Shape of things to come

This week I've finished twelve illustrations for an upcoming Airship 27 book, ZEPPELIN TALES volume one. According to Captain Ron this is most likely to be released next year, but in the meantime, here's a sneak peek of my artwork for this great new pulp book. Enjoy!

THE MIGHTY ENLIL in print at AMAZON!

It's out!

Finally, my webcomic, THE MIGHTY ENLIL is available in print at Amazon.



Epic battles, sibling rivalry, time-travel, love and jealousy on a mighty scale—this is the realm of The Mighty Enlil. Nominated for best national webcomic of Portugal and highlighted at the PPBD2013 expo on the 9th Festival Internacional de Banda Desenhada de Beja, THE MIGHTY ENLIL is the graphic storytelling brainchild of Portuguese artist and teacher Pedro Cruz. Redbud Studio is proud to present Pedro’s creation in print for the first time ever.

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Os leitores portugueses podem comprar-me directamente o livro. Os interessados podem entrar em contacto comigo através do email pedrocruzcomics at gmail.com

In the meantime...

As I'm writing this post, Rob Davis is taking care of putting together the book collection of  The Mighty Enlil, my webcomic. This paper version will be released soon through Redbud Studios and be available though different channels so stay tuned to this blog for further announcements.

In the meantime, here's a photo I found online from the Prémios Profissionais de BD 2013 showing a couple of Enlil's pages that were present when the awards giving ceremony took place.  The picture is from Nuno Amado's blog.

The making of The Mighty Enlil cover - The final art

... And here's the finished cover to The Mighty Enlil comic book, collecting my entire webcomic in paper. Coming soon  from Redbud Studios!

The making of The Mighty Enlil cover - The color sketch

On to the second on the step on the creation of the cover for the paper edition of my webcomic The Mighty Enlil, soon to be published by Redbud Studios.
After the line sketch was done, I did another colored version in order to have a proper idea of how the cover would look like.

The making of The Mighty Enlil cover - The sketch

As some of you already know The Mighty Enlil is about to be published in regular comic book format through Redbud Studios. In the next couple of weeks, I'll be showing the development of the cover. First step, after a brief talk discussing ideas with Rob Davis, Redbud Studios founder and Managing Editor, this was the  sketch I came up with.

The Mighty Enlil - lost page 05

The Mighty Enlil - lost page 04

The Mighty Enlil - lost page 03

The Mighty Enlil - lost page 02

The Mighty Enlil - lost page 01

Is there life beyond the end of The Mighty Enlil? Yes, there is.

On the following weeks I'll be sharing a few unfinished pages that were originally intended to be part of The Mighty Enlil webcomic. At a certain point in the story I thought of just having Enlil wander around the big city looking at the brave new world of the 21st century for awhile . These pages featured some of the best art in the comic (imho) but upon reflection it became apparent to me that while they might have worked in book form, their contemplative nature would quickly deprive the weekly webcomic of its momentum. So I decided to cut these pages out of the webcomic and move the narrative full steam ahead. Now that the story is over, I've decided to post the pages here as a sort of addendum. Think of it as a kind of "DVD extra" and enjoy the pages for what they are!

The Mighty Enlil went to Beja ...

… thanks to fine folks at the organization of the Prémios Profissionais de Banda Desenhada 2013.

André Oliveira asked me to supply a couple of pages from The Mighty Enlil for the PPBD2013  expo  at the 9^th Festival Internacionalde Banda Desenhada  de Beja. The event took place between  the 1st and 16th of June and I managed to make a brief visit to the expo on its final weekend.

Here’s a few photos . Guess who's posing between those pages?

The Mighty Enlil page 13
 






The Mighty Enlil in Beja











The Mighty Enlil page 22


 

The making of The Mighty Enlil

At the request of a few readers, here’s a brief, succinct glimpse as to how I made The Mighty Enlil.

Step 0 - The story.

The Mighty Enlil evolved as I created it. I didn't have a complete story in my head that I put down to paper on a script to follow as I drew. I've tried that in the past with other comics but I lose interest in stories that I already know. In this case, the story developed as I wrote and drew the comic, sometimes rewriting or casting aside entire pages or whole sequences. On the left is an example of a panel from an unused page. 

Step 1 - The thumbnails

I jotted down whatever ideas I had on an A5 moleskine sketchbook that I carry with me at all times - ideas can come anywhere at any time. These could be little images, whole sequences, plain dialogue or some combination of all the previous. This was probably the most creative and time consuming step as I tried to make sense of everything and make the pages as clear as possible. To me this was mostly an intuitive step, following my visual storytelling instincts. Sometimes I drew preliminary miniature pages as the ones seen on the left...

Step 2 - The pencils

I created one page at a time, from beginning to end. The drawing started in rough, simple shapes, without details, just the basic shapes.This was mostly done using non-photo blue pencils or markers on plain photocopy A4 paper. I feel very comfortable drawing comic pages with set panel grids (be it three, four, six, eight or nine). I find that it adds to the effect of simplicity and narrative that I'm aiming for with my comics, so I opted to have a set six-panel grid on this comic.

Step 3 - The inks

For the most part, I inked all the outlines using Faber-Castell Pitt black pens size S or XS. I tried to make this and the previous steps as spontaneous as possible because I tend to lose motivation if I spend too much time on a single page.

Step 4 - The colors

 I colored everything on my computer. I think this was the second most time consuming step, leaving an important part of the storytelling to the colors. I tried to use colors in a symbolic way, sometimes also trying to evoke different moods or environments according to the needs of the story.

Step 5 - Lettering and balloons

 I lettered everything using digital fonts. After having placed the text where I wanted I drew the speech balloons, always trying to create a visual flow that would help direct the eyes of the reader zigzagging across the page, from left to right and up to bottom. Sometimes there was no text as in the last panel of the page on the left. I find silent panels very important as they help create a beat or a pause in the rhythm of the narrative. Sometimes less is more.

And that was it. After each page was done I'd post it on my blog and email it to Brant Fowler at www.comicrelated.com, who graciously formatted everything in order to be viewed through their website.

Hope this helps those of you who make or want to make comics too.

The Mighty Enlil - afterword

After over a year, we've finally reached the end of this particular adventure with our mighty anunnaki friend. I'd like to thank you, dear reader, for taking the time to follow this comic and hope you've had at least as much fun reading it as I had creating it.

No work is ever created on a vacuum. I'd like to make some special extra thanks to :

• Ron Fortier for being Enlil's #1 fan;
• Brant Fowler, the team of Zone 4 and everyone at comicrelated for their incredible support and for having included Enlil on their evergrowing site;
• Geraldes Lino for enthusiastically spotlighting my work on his blog;
• André Oliveira and everyone at the Prémios Profissionais de Banda Desenhada 2013 for Enlil's nomination for best national webcomic and also for taking the time and care to include Enlil pages at the PPBD2013 expo on the 9th Festival Internacional de Banda Desenhada de Beja;
• Pepedelrey for some harsh but helpful critics on my previous comics;
• Finally, last but not least, to my family and close friends. You know who you are and without your love and support none of this would make sense.

The Mighty Enlil comic is ended - at least on this web format - but on the following weeks I intend to spotlight some behind the scenes and extras. Then, hopefully, in a few months, we'll return with another new ongoing comic. In the meantime, keep on checking this blog at the same day, same hour!

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Comic Jam #54

Na passada terça-feira, teve lugar mais uma Tertúlia BD de Lisboa. Desta vez, o homenageado foi João Lameiras. Tive o prazer de participar no habitual comic jam, desenhando a última vinheta. Os interessados podem ver a prancha e os improvisos em toalha de mesa publicados por Geraldes Lino no seu blogue. *** Last tuesday, another Tertúlia BD of Lisbon took place. This time the honored guest was João Lameiras. This time, I had the pleasure of taking part in the usual comic jam, drawing the last panel. You can see the page and the free style drawings done on the table covers posted by Geraldes Lino on his blog.

The Mighty Enlil 51

The Mighty Enlil 50

PPBD 2013

Foi com surpresa e agrado que tomei conhecimento da nomeação da minha bd The Mighty Enlil para melhor webcomic nacional nos Prémios Profissionais de Banda-Desenhada 2013. Ficam aqui os meus agradecimentos à organização responsável por esta iniciativa e a todos aqueles que nomearam a minha bd. A lista de nomeados nas várias categorias assim como mais pormenores sobre esta iniciativa podem ser consultados aqui. A divulgação das obras vencedoras terá lugar em Lisboa, dia 24 de Maio no auditório da Torre do Tombo pelas 17h30m. * * * I was surprised and pleased to learn that my comic The Mighty Enlil has been nominated for the national best webcomic award of the Prémios Profissionais de Banda-Desenhada 2013. I'd like to thank the organization of this event and particularly to all the responsibles for the nomination of my comic. The list of nominated works and authors, as well as further details, can be read in full detail here. The winners will be announced on the awards ceremony taking place in Lisbon on May,24th at the auditorium of Torre do Tombo around 5:30 pm.

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