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A new series

Starting next wednesday, I'll be posting a new comics series created, written, pencilled, inked, colored and lettered right here by yours truly. Twice a
week, every wednesday and saturday each a new page.

I was writing this sort of essay, an introduction, if you will, to this new comic series of mine, rambling about all sorts of things, but then I had a change of mind. Let the work speak for itself, I thought.

So there, just a few lines, as a sort of announcement. I hope you come by and follow what I'll be building in the following months. If you find it intriguing enough, drop a few lines, comment and tell your friends about it.

Before we go, for the sake of credit where credit's due, I'll be using a font created by AIT's Larry Young (thanks, mr. Young!).

Until then!

ZAGER & EVANS - In the year 2525

WIP

Today: a panel from a page currently on my drawing board.
Next saturday : a formal public statement.

QUEEN - Radio Ga-Ga

Sketches IX - Sean Phillips

Sean Phillips drew me this one.

DURAN DURAN - Wild Boys

Sketches VIII - Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman, the man in black, signed me a couple of books back in 2003's BD Forum in Lisbon. Not exactly sketches, I know, but still worth sharing, I think.

RADIOHEAD - Karma Police

Sketches VII - Fernando Gonsales

Brazilian cartoonist, Fernando Gonsales, the creator of Níquel Nausea, drew me this sketch.

THE SMASHING PUMPKINS - Tonight, Tonight

Sketches VI - Rosinsky

Rosinsky drew me this lovely Thorgal as a child.
As a bonus, here's the master at work.

U2 - Window in the Skies

Sketches V - Daniel Clowes

Daniel Clowes, the world famous author of Ghost World.

U2 - Yahweh

Merry Christmas!

Sketches IV - Charles Burns

One of the very first "alternative" american comics I discovered many, many moons ago, watching the Comic Book Confidential documentary.

Charles Burns work is fascinatingly eerie, mixing the disturbing with the glamourous.

PAUL SIMON - You can call me Al

Sketches III - Chris Ware

Chris Ware is Jimmy Corrigan. Ok, that might be an exageration... but that's the feeling I got when he did me this sketch.

LIMAHL - The Neverending Story

Sketches II - Seth Fisher

This is by the late great cartoonist Seth Fisher. Out of the handfull of international cartoonists I had the grace of meeting and greeting, he was the kindest and most generous I ever met. Alas, the good die young. R.I.P.

R.E.M. - Nightswimming

Sketches I - Dave Gibbons

Now, this is a really sketchy sketch! It was the first one I ever got from a famous comic book artist, Dave Gibbons. It's Rorschach of the Watchmen.

AIMEE MANN - Save me

TOYS V - Le Fauve

Got this one early this year at the Ângouleme Festival International de la Bande-Dessinée. The little kitty is called Le Fauve.
He's the Festival's mascot/trophy and was designed by the great french cartoonist Lewis Trondheim.

COLDPLAY - Viva la Vida

TOYS IV - Lord of the Rings

While I don't think that Peter Jackson's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings - one of my all-time favorite books - is as good as it could have been (curse you, Peter, for not giving us the scorching of the Shire) I still liked it, in no small way thanks to the visual translations of Alan Lee and John Howe.

My wife (then-girlfriend) got me the first special edition of the Fellowship of the Ring dvd with the Argonath miniature so it was only natural that we ended up collecting the rest of them. Smeagol, which came with "The Two Towers" is my favorite!

AEROSMITH - Fly Away From Here

TOYS III - Jasmine

This is a statuette of Jasmine, one of the main characters from John Byrne's Next Men.

Being a huge fan of John Byrne and particularly of his Next Men comic book series, I couldn't let this pass. I didn't get this statue when it came out but I have managed to buy it last year from e-bay. It's part of a limited numbered series (this is 338) and it's a reproduction from a sculpture done by John Byrne himself.

John Byrne's Next Men was a comic book that was originally released back in the early '1990s. It came right about the time the first Comic Book Shops were starting business here in Portugal, so it was one of the very first original american comics I collected and read - until then, the only versions of american comics we had around were translated brazillian anthologies usually sold on kiosks.

This year, IDW publishing has started to re-release the series in big-thick black and white phonebook collections. Check them out at amazon.

MADNESS - Our House

TOYS II - The Bat-Man

Next in the line, the "1st Appearance Batman". This is an action figure which was part of a series supposedly reproducing the original look of several DC characters, as in how they looked when they were first conceived back in late 1930's and early '40s. I've always been a fan of this Batman, back when he was THE BAT-MAN, so I had to get it.

As far as the rest of the characters in this series of action figures, some seemed pretty faithful to the intent of the series, but others seemed to miss the mark.

PETER GABRIEL - Sledge Hammer

TOYS I - Superman

Ever since I was a small kid I always liked...what should I call them? Dolls? Figures? They're not necessarilly "action" figures as I like them just fine even when they don't move. Statues seems a bit pompous and it doesn't emcopass the so-called action (as in articulate)figures, which I like too. Miniatures might be a possible name...

Anyway, even as an adult I still have a fondness for these little toys. So here follows a series of posts with my most prized current possessions.

First of the line is "The Kingdom Come Superman". This was a wedding gift from a couple of great friends (Hi, Ivo and Nelson!) who are just as hopeless comic book geeks as me. It's a beautiful statuette of Alex Ross' design for his version of Superman. As years have gone by I have come to like less and less Mr. Ross' artstyle, but I still have a certain fondness for his visual approach to this character, taking him back to the roots of the strongman Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster originally imagined.