Quickies #42

Doomer in Mexican art magazine inkult #13

Fabiano Neves draws new Robocop cover

The Mauricio de Sousa and Osamu Tezuka crossover I mentioned here will be about the Amazon forest and should be released in february, 2012.

Bleeding Cool noticed that the FIQ (Internation Comic Book Festival) attended more people than the San Diego Comic-Con. In a Blog dos Quadrinhos post, Paulo Ramos stated that, on one hand, the entrance to the FIQ was free, while in San Diego it was paid; on the other hand, the USA has a much more solid comics market than Brazil's. Afonso Andrade, this year's FIQ's coordinator, said that "Comparisons are hard and dangerous. They're quite different events."

Brazilian Osamu Tezuka fans chose tomorrow, december 17, to celebrate Tezuka Day. Tezuka fans all over the world are invited to participate. You can check it out on twitter or facebook.

Sources: Blog dos Quadrinhos, Neorama dos Quadrinhos and Universo HQ.

Quickies #41

Little Heroes, a little homage to American superheroes by Estevão Ribeiro and several artists, will be published in print in the US by 215 Ink very soon. Instead of a single album, it'll be a short series, and that means more covers. A digital version is already available for sale here. The first album (or short series) is more DCish, but they're already working on a second and more marvelish one.

I thought you'd like to know that Brazil has yet ANOTHER pair of twin comic artists, Marcelo Costa and Magno Costa. They just released Matinê and Oeste Vermelho is coming out of the oven. And they have a Flickr.

Wilson Vieira and Daniel Brandão just published a short story called Il Pizzo (The Extorsion) in the Italian magazine Walhalla

Daytripper is among Library Journal's top ten 2011 graphic novels. Twitted by Gabriel Bá.

BDLP is a fanzine gathering lusophone comic artists and writers, that is Angolan, Brazilian and Portuguese.

Sources: @blogpauloramos, Neorama do Quadrinhos and Universo HQ.

Quickies #40

This year's Belo Horizonte International Comics Festival was the biggest ever, with 148.000 visitors

Fábio Moon in Dark Horse Presents #6

Marcio Takara draws The Incredibles

An interview with LEO (in French). He talks about comic festivals, sexuality and religion.

A short interview with Doomer. Also, he's in the new Pindura calendar.

A new blog rescues the art of old school artist Miguel Penteado. Check it out here (lots of horror stuff).

Sources: Neorama dos Quadrinhos and Universo HQ.

Quickies #39

A BDjornaleco (a tiny special issue of BDjornal) about Spacca has been released in Portugal

João Henrique Lopes de Souza's Elements of Manga Style has ben released in English

The Nix Side is a new webseries about a girl that works in a comic shop. She wants to be a comic artist, as her father had been, but there's this big comics company owner who's a bad guy, and the series is full of pop/nerd culture references, etc. As far as I've seen, it has some good moments. And the chicks are cute. So far, there are 4 chapters, 6 minutes long each. The translation seems pretty good.

Daniel HDR released his new sketchbook

We're having tons of releases at the Belo Horizonte International Comics Festival. Usually, I only tell you about those that may be of more immediate interest to the international community, but I gotta make an exception. Mauricio de Sousa announced a new line of Monica's Gang graphic novels.

Ana Luiza Koehler draws Carthage #2

Sources: Neorama dos Quadrinhos and UniversoHQ.

Quickies #38

Ricardo Manhães is drawing Socialos, a parody of the French Socialist Party, written by Olivier Petit. It'll be published in April, during the elections.

A full page of the New York Times' International Herald Tribune about José Mojica Marins and/or Coffin Joe. I heard about it here.

Portuguese BDjornal publishes the first pages of Julio Shimamoto's Musashi

Will Conrad draws X-Men

Vidas Imperfeitas will be published in the US by Fitztown (Imperfect Lives?). I've been reading that comic and what I can say is, although that's Mary Cagnin first real work, with all that implies, she's got quite a lot of potential. For now, you can check out her DevianART and the comic in Portuguese.

Sources: @elgroucho, Neorama dos Quadrinhos and Universo HQ.

youPIX Festival in San Francisco

Only now I found out about this. If you're in San Francisco TODAY:

youPIX Festival in San Francisco
a safari into Brazilian memes and internet culture


ABOUT YOUPIX? youPIX is the largest internet culture festival in Brazil. In its more than nine events since 2009, – the most recent one drew more then six thousand people – youPIX has hosted important Brazilian guests like Gilberto Gil (former Minister of Culture), Marcelo Tas (TV Host), Rosana Hermann (journalist, internet expert), Helio de La Pena (comedian at Globo Tv), Rafinha Bastos (TV host,  most influent person on Twitter – NYT) and many international ones, such as Christopher “m00t” Pole (4chan/Canvas), Ben Huh (Cheezburger Network), Jamie Wilkinson (Vhx.Tv, Know your Meme, Star Wars Uncut), Anthony Volodkin (Hype Machine), David After Dentist, Double Rainbow Guy and others. Joining a youPIX Festival is like jumping live into the Internet or surfing the web outside the browser. Internet memes, personalities, and fans come together for celebration, discussion and a live immersion in this epic revolution called Internet culture.


Check it out here.

Quickies #37

Ivan Reis, Joe Prado and Rod Reis draw Aquaman (preview here)

Ig Guará and Ruy José draw Blue Beetle

Rafael Albuquerque in Avilés

Bá, Moon and Albuquerque weren't the only Brazilians awarded in the 2011 Harvey. Manoel Magalhães and Osmarco Valladão drew a story published in Popgun #4, Best Anthology.

Ronaldinho Gaucho's Team is a new cartoon being shown in Italy. A teaser here (what the hell happened to Franklin's hair?)

Luiz Gê and Spacca have been invited to the 22nd Amadora Festival, in Portugal

Sources: Neorama dos Quadrinhos and Universo HQ.

One year!

A week ago, day 2, Anthropro turned one year old, and I totally forgot about it. SHAME ON ME!

All this time, and all I did was Samsara and three chapters of Holy Avenger. SHAME ON ME!

Anyway, let's keep it going, slowly, but somewhat steadily.

Quickies #36

Diógenes Neves draws Demon Knights

A video of the Amy a Mil Traços exhibit

Alexandre Jubran, cover artist for Conan in Brazil, released a barbarian artbook

Mauricio de Sousa and J. J. Marreiro pay homage to Sergio Bonelli

I found totally by chance a tumblr with translated Brazilian comic strips called Brazilian Comics (so original. Not to be mistaken with Bira's Brazilian Comics). It's been ongoing for a year, with recent and top quality strips.

Sources: Neorama dos Quadrinhos and Universo HQ.

Quickies #35

9/11 flash expo by Brazilian cartoonists

Gabriel Bá draws Casanova: Avaritia

Turma da Mônica Jovem was mentioned in the polemic about Justice League #1. Case you don't know, DC was telling everyone that that magazine was the best selling comic of the year, with 200,000 copies. Teen Monica's Gang #34 sold 500,000 copies.

Now we have Mónica Jóven (in Spanish) and Teen Monica (in English) (seen here and here). Those comics will be sold in Brazil, with a new issue every three months, aimed at language students (but telling your comic shop to import some would be a nice idea). The first issues in Spanish and English match the fifth issue in Portuguese.

Greg Tocchini will be in Rouen, France, this wednesday, giving autographs

Sources: Neorama dos Quadrinhos and Universo HQ.

Ezquizofrenia

You know, the main goal of this blog is to make scanlations of Brazilian comics (at least in theory), but it's also interesting to talk about Brazilian webcomics already available in English. So I try to read every one that I find, even if it's a piece of shit.

Ezquizofrenia, by Bruno L. Ferreira and Wagner Gomes, is some sort of mutant, super-hero, nationalist, demons and angels comic. Not only are the script and artwork quite lame, but the translation and the page turning are terribly painful.

It could be interesting as a webcomic experiment, but it's not. Doesn't matter how much the authors brag about how badass and professional they are, it won't come true.

It only goes up to the fourth issue. Guess they gave up. Phew!

Don't read it here.

Quickies #34

Smurf Wars. More pics here.

Mesmo Delivery Kids

El Chavo del ocho is a Mexican TV show that started in the 70's, quite popular in Brazil. They also made comic books based on the series, and that allows me to post it here. In 2008, guys from the Brazilian TV show Pânico met Quico (Carlos Villagrán) and gave him a square ball. In 2010, they gave 14 months of rent to Señor Barriga (Édgar Vivar).

The Amy a Mil Traços exhibit in São Paulo, a tribute to Amy Winehouse.

There's this badass mustache rock band called Black Drawing Chalks. They're also graphic artists, so we got the videoclip below. You can download some of their music here and here.



Sources: Garimpo and Universo HQ.

Quickies #33

Gustavo Duarte makes yet another mute comic book, Birds. The formula is repeated, anthropomorphic animals and a mix of comedy and other genre (Có was sci-fi, Taxi was jazzy, Birds is a thriller).

Marcelo Braga (Gustavo Duarte's brother?) released his Diburros Sketchbook 2011. Here you can read his impressions on the San Diego Comic-Con (in Portuguese), see lots of pics and a list of stores in the US where you can buy Diburros and Birds.

Bira made a trip to South Korea. It seems that our countries are tightening their comic bonds. In his blogs, there's a LOT of text (Portuguese and/or English) and pics about both the events in Korea and Brazilian comics.

Opentrain seems to be becoming semi-known. The Megaman Network and The Mechanical Maniacs have posted about their New Adventures of Megaman scanlation.

Gisele Bündchen recently became the United Nations Environment Programme's Goodwill Ambassadress, and will be a character in a Cartoon Network animation, Gisele & the Green Team.

Sources: Blog dos Quadrinhos, @blogpauloramos, Neorama dos Quadrinhos, @opentrain and Universo HQ.

The Amazing Adventures of Puny Parker

It's a webcomic by Vitor Cafaggi that plays with the idea of a younger Peter Parker, with him being bullied all the time, admiring Captain America... and there's a young Mary Jane too.

I'm not a big super-hero fan, so I must have missed many references. But it's still pretty darn cute.

It's about 150 strips. You can read them online or download the first, second and third seasons.

Quickies #32

The IllustraBrazil! is an event that promotes seminars and exhibits about Brazilian illustration. This year, the event will happen not only in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, but also in Shanghai, China. The exhibit there started yesterday, at the Foundry Gallery.

Ugra's Anuário de Fanzines, Zines e Publicações Alternativas is a catalog of alternative press. In the second edition, they want not only Brazilian magazines, but from all over South America. Southern ziners, get in touch!

American Vampire won the Harvey for Best New Series, and Daytripper won as Best Single Issue or Story (it also ran for Best Continuing or Limited Series)

Sources: Blog dos Quadrinhos and Neorama dos Quadrinhos.

Illustrated Cities

Cidades Ilustradas is a collection of artbooks showing some important Brazilian cities drawn by different international artists, published by Casa 21.

Belém, by Jean-Claude Denis (fr)
Very, very beautiful. I don't know if it's because of the city or because of the artist. Probably both. Oh, the colors, the textures... The text shows the artist's impressions and some peculiar findings.

Belo Horizonte, by Miguelanxo Prado (es)
By far my favorite. Not only are the city and his artistic view very good, but he uses the opportunity to write a delicious short mystery story that takes place in the city. Too bad this is the ONLY issue that doesn't have an English translation in the end. That's why I'm putting it on my maybe-someday-scanlate list.

Curitiba, by Cesar Lobo (br)
Even the simplest of the albums is very well done. But this one feels more touristical than the others.

Florianópolis by Guazzelli (br)
This one has more flat colors, drawn more loosely. The author focuses on the country life and dreams.

Porto Alegre, by Carlos Nine (ar)
The most bizarre, everything alive and distorted...

Rio de Janeiro, by Jano (fr)
Anthropomorphic and subversive, of course, and rich in details. It was later made into a movie, Rio de Jano.

Salvador, by Marcelo Quintanilha (br)
Poetical, human, realistic and artistic at the same time. Instead of information or impressions, a web of short stories.

São Paulo, by David Lloyd (uk)
The one I liked the least. The paintings look too much like photographs, and the written text is boring.

All the volumes (except for Belo Horizonte) have English translations in the end. All of them can be downloaded at low-but-still-good-enough resolution at Quadrinho.com.

Quickies #31

Some of this Quickies is old news, some is game related stuff I posted elsewhere, some is about politics.

Mauricio de Sousa and Osamu Tezuka were friends. They were going to make a crossover between their characters, but then Tezuka died. Last year, more than 20 years later, Tezuka Productions authorized the crossover. "Finally, I'm fulfilling our promise", said Mauricio. So far, I haven't heard anything else about it. Pics here.

I made a couple of posts on Opentrain, one about the Street Fighter Dance and one about the Wololo Day (I still don't know which side won).

Brazilian politicians are trying to pass a law to control the internet. I studied the matter to some extent, since I'm not always pro-anonymism. It's not nearly as horrible as what's happening the the US, but it's still freaking Big Brother. Show your support to freedom here and here.

(August 10 update: make some more pressure here)

Monica before and after

You might already know Monica from Monica's Gang (if you don't, it's worth checking out).

Anyway, here's what she looked like in the sixties:

And here's the recent teen version:

Quite an evolution, heh?

Pics taken from As Tiras Clássicas da Turma da Mônica vol. 1 and Universo HQ.

Quickies #30

Actually, just one quickie (I hate it when it happens, but yeah).

Looks like there's yet another comic festival going on right now in Bolivia (see the last Quickies), the IX Festival Internacional de Historietas "Viñetas con Altura". Laerte and Rafael Grampá will be there:

August 2: "Charla y demostración magistral dictada por Laerte Coutinho "
August 3: "Taller de historieta dictado por Rafael Grampá - Dirigido a público interesado en la historieta Brasileña y Norteamericana"
August 4: "Taller de historieta dictado por Laerte Coutinho - Dirigido a público interesado en aprender los procesos de creación de la historieta"
August 5: "Charla y demostración magistral dictada por Rafael Grampá "

Source: @blogpauloramos.

Virginia's Diary

O Diário de Virgínia, by Cátia Ana, is a webcomic (more of an illustrated story, actually... well, it's a diary) about a graphically talented girl, dealing with her fears. It's inspired in the works of people like Scott McCloud and Edgar Franco. McCloud himself twitted about Chapter 4: "Fun little scrolling Brazilian webcomic". The translation is noticeably flawed, but it's still quite interesting if you're into that kind of experimentation.

Quickies #29

A video showing Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá receiving the Eisner Awards has been released. At one point, Moon says "It´s awesome. It´s really awesome... like fora pra caralho!".

Eduardo Pansica and Eber Ferreira draw Teen Titans

More Brazilian artists and writers in Stripburguer 55

The Umbrella Academy will be made into a movie

André Diniz is in Bolivia for the VII Semana Comic de Santa Cruz. He'll make a lecture later today called “Guión para historietas, enseñar en vez de contar”, and Friday he'll lead a chat about “Historietas de guerrilla: los cambios en el mercado de las historietas los últimos 15 años”. He also drew the bill for the event.

Sources: @adiniz9, Blog dos Quadrinhos, @blogpauloramos and Neorama dos Quadrinhos.

Quickies #28

Here's a very comprehensive list of "made in Brazil manga", starting in 1965, even if there's some inaccurate info. Enjoy the pics.

Roger Cruz just released his artbook called Nudes in Fury

Vertigo horror anthology The Unexpected will have cover by Rafael Grampá

Monica's Gang characters have been seven years old for five decades. Now, they'll start aging.

By the Southern Grace of God, drawn by Mario Cau, will be released in the US through Ka-Blam.

Sources: @blogpauloramos, @hectorlima and Universo HQ.

Friday Comics

On the preface of Bá and Moon's O Girassol e a Lua (The Sunflower and the Moon), Laerte says that Brazil is the country with the highest concentration of twin graphic artists: Bá and Moon and the Caruso brothers. Well, he forgot to mention the Pandolfo brothers. Now the Jesus Vignolli brothers come to add to that (even though I don't know of they're twins).

Their Friday Comics don't come out every friday, as the name suggests. They make mostly subtle short stories. My favorites are Light & Shadow and Modern Heroes, with good storytelling and meaningful use of colors; Natal, boring story, but with a very interesting reinterpretation of Jesus' birth with northeastern Brazilian themes; and The witch of lakemba, strips always starting with the same panel.

Quickies #27

A preview of FF, drawn by Greg Tocchini

Joe Madureira draws Avenging Spider-Man

Veteran comic artist Watson Portela makes his official portfolio blog - read it here.

Monica's Gang will be made into a collection of Gogo's Crazy Bones

Monica's Gang in another pro-reading campaign, now in Portugal

Sources: Neorama dos Quadrinhos and Universo HQ.

Santolouco's short webcomics

The one you see above is the Speedsk8ter Fairy, and there's another called Emergency Pit-stop. Yeah, just two free short webcomics by Mateus Santolouco. So there isn't much I could say without spoiling your fun. Check it out.

Save our forests

Going offtopic for a good cause.

We used to have a lot of discussion here in Brazil about the Amazon being regarded as international. It's OURS, we say. Well, I don't think we deserve it.

New Brazilian forest protection laws don't protect anything.

Click here to read more and sign the petition.

The Indian, the Indian and the sort of Indian

Portuguese Mistake


When the Portuguese came
In a heavy rain
He dressed the Indian.
Pity!
If it had been a sunny morning
The Indian would have stripped
The Portuguese.

-Oswald de Andrade (translation by Régis Bonvicino and Douglas Messerli)

***

The important thing is not to forget that, in the final analysis, our students must gain dominion over the foreign language for their own good and to become more able to face the new challenges the world puts in their paths. It is they that have to dominate the English language, never letting the English language dominate them.

-Kanavillil Rajagopalan (my translation)

***

You gave me language, and my profit on't
Is I know how to curse. The red plague rid you
For learning me your language!

-Caliban, from William Shakespeare's The Tempest

Quickies #26

Rafael Grampá and Eduardo Medeiros in Strange Tales II

Franz, from Opentrain, is in São Paulo. Meeting of scanlators! And this is what he's been doing.

Casanova - Avaritia will come out in September in the US

Morten, from Offtopia, has shown to be inapt at managing Cali's scans. Cali was the first to make English scanlations of Brazilian comics (and then he disappeared). Thanks to witch_fm and to the old ENXAME blog, I could save what had been done. Some chapters are missing. So I'm taking over and recovering this shit.

Here's the first candidate to the Brazilian cospoor contest!

Sources: Ambrosia, @PiadasNerds and Universo HQ.

Quickies #25

Danilo Beyruth draws the death of Spider-Man for The Gutters webcomic

A romantic poster of Monica and Jimmy Five is being given at some Brazilian supermarkets, if you buy Turma da Mônica Jovem (Monica's Gang Teen) #34.

Geraldo Borges draws Adventure Comics

Wagner Reis and Fabiano Neves draw Vampirella

Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá will be at the 2011 Luanda Cartoon, in Angola

Sources: @hectorlima, Neorama dos Quadrinhos and Universo HQ.

Quickies #24

Felipe Massafera draws Flashpoint: Abin Sur - The Green Lantern

Paulo Siqueira draws Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint

Rafael Albuquerque makes a new website - HERE

Gledson Barreto didn't know what he was getting into when he was invited to draw the polemic Foreskin Man. He thought it was a big opportunity, not an anti-circumcision campaign (now being accused of anti-semitism). He apologizes to everyone who felt insulted. Read it here.

Sources: Neorama dos Quadrinhos and Universo HQ.

Quickies #23

Bigorna's goodbye post, written by Baraldi, sparked off a lot of discussion. Ambrosia made a series of posts on the subject, written by diverse comic artists, writers and scholars. You can have them all google translated:
Some badasses' opinions
Delfin's opinion
Estevão Ribeiro's opinion
Alexandre Nagado's opinion
Nagado was the only one who actually agreed with Baraldi, but with better arguments.

André Diniz tweeted:
@adiniz9 I wrote an article about the present national comics market http://bit.ly/jR7uYQ
@adiniz9 Just kidding. That link leads nowhere...

Bira Dantas too made a post on the subject, also disagreeing with Baraldi

Exhibition SICAF 10 Brazilian Cartoonists Paralel Exhibition 2011 in Seul, South Korea.

Ibraim Roberson draws Flashpoint: Frankenstein - Creatures of the Unknown

Source: Neorama dos Quadrinhos.

Quickies #22

Justiniano pledges innocence

A few pics of Renato Guedes' artbook. Autograph sessions have been made in Colombia and Brazil. Argentina and France are next.

Bigorna, in my opinion, the best Brazilian comic news website, has shut down. And there's Baraldi's goodbye post. Though some people agree partially with what he says, most think it's bullshit. I find it disgusting. It's too big, have it Google translated.

Daytripper won the Favourite New Comicbook and Favourite Single Story Eagle Awards

Doomer in a website about skulls

Sources: Bigorna, Blog dos Quadrinhos and Universo HQ.

Captain Ninja - Aliens 3

Those of you who read Holy Avenger might recognize that guy. He's Marcelo Cassaro's alter ego Captain Ninja. Written and drawn by himself, of course.

Opentrain scanlated this short story related to the Aliens 3 game. It's funny, ok. Have fun.

Quickies #21

A pic of Jayme Cortez with Stan Lee

Thanks to the Way Back Machine, you can still see the old Holy Avenger website.

Walmir Amaral de Oliveira enters the Comiclopedia

Diógenes Neves draws Green Arrow

Mauricio de Sousa will be honored at this year's FIQ (International Comics Festival). As usual, that'll make him the event's major theme.

Sources: Blog dos Quadrinhos, Neorama dos Quadrinhos and Universo HQ.

How I met the Master

My first scalation ever was Le Troisième Testament, from SilentMoon's The Third Testament to O Terceiro Testamento. Moon is somewhat famous in the scanlation world, probably the first to make French ones. I made the Portuguese version in 2007, I think, and the first two tomes were officially released in Brazil in 2008. Sadly, my translation of a translation was still better than the official translation.

Anyway, at that time, I tried to get in touch with Moon, to ask some info or only to show him what I was doing. I never got an answer. But he was one of my main influences anyway, showing me different things.

In January 27, 2010, I made an account at The Longbox, mostly looking for a proofreader. There's an "introduce yourself" area, where everyone would make a new thread for introduction. I had made mine, and I went back there to check for answers, and I realized that one of those threads had had many more replies than usual. I got curious.

Guy #1 was introducing himself, ok. Admin welcomes him, ok. Guy #2 introduces himself, saying he didn't need to make a new thread for that, ok. Admin asks Guy #2: "hey, are you THE SilentMoon?" Only then I realized the Master was before me. He and I had joined that forum in the very same day! Also, the Admin had uploaded some of his stuff just the day before!

As you can imagine, I went OMG OMG fangirl. And he was like, oh, ok, so nice, thank you. Oh, so humble!

And we never talked again.

But tell me if it isn't MAGICAL!

Quickies #20

Marcelo Ferreira will be one of the artists of the new Richie Rich

Justiniano was arrested in the US for possession of child pornography. Apparently, he had a pendrive with slides to be shown at a funeral, and another with child porn, and he mistook one for the other. He had done a lot of artwork for Marvel and DC.

Alain Voss died on May 13th, in Portugal. Brazilians say he was French, the French say he was Brazilian, but he grew up in Brazil, that's for sure. He left the country to escape the dictatorship, and became part of the first Métal Hurlant team. His main work was Heilman, a polemic comic that mixed nazism, punk and esoterism. Click here for the original news and lots of pics of his work.

First pics of MSP Novos 50. MSP 50 is a three-album series with short stories made by many writers and artists with their personal interpretation of Monica's Gang universe.

Jimmy Five asks Monica to be his girlfriend in Turma da Mônica Jovem (a teen Monica's Gang series, not available abroad). Will she accept it? We'll find out when issue 34 is released.

Source: Universo HQ.

The lady from the movie (and some Samsara)

Last wednesday I went to the local film society to see the 1987 movie A Dama do Cine Shanghai. It's a long, yet seizing thriller that won more than thirty awards worldwide.

This movie has a lot of elements in common with Samsara: noir narration, a mysterious woman that gets a guy in trouble, witty dialogues, old appartments. Some people noticed refrences to The Godfather and Hitchcock too.

After the movie, we had a chat with the author and director, Guilherme de Almeida Prado. Apparently, some critics had found references to movies Guilherme didn't even know existed at the time! We talked a lot about cinema, but that's not our focus here.

Then I brought up the comics. Hector Gomez Alisio was doing the storyboard for the movie, and he said, hey, we should make a comic out of this! But it was a B movie script, with lots of dialogues and most of the action not happening on screen, it wouldn't work, and it wouldn't be worth it to make an adaptation. What the hell, Guilherme had another script, that'd be too expensive to be made into a movie anyway.

And so Samsara was born. For some reason, they didn't know the publisher demanded a specific number of pages, so they had to add about eight pages in the middle after it had been done. Yeah, the explosion in page 26 was a big filler! My guess is that that probably added to the intricate script!

Other funny facts. Guilherme and Hector communicated by mail. Sometimes Hector would change a charcter's hair from one scene to another. Also, sometimes he would make too tiny bubbles:
— How am I gonna put all that text in there?
— I don't know. I drew it like that and it looks nice, so we're keeping it.

Samsara should have been published also in English and Italian, but the original publisher had made a mess with the masters for printing (I'm no press expert, but you know) and it didn't wanna make new ones. Notice that the blue is always a bit off in the scans.

Guilherme had just learned how to work with comics (and with Hector) and they were going to do a REALLY good one (as if Samsara wasn't awesome already), a five-part graphic novel. But then the graphic novel vogue ended in Brazil and the publisher closed its doors for them. Maybe some badass company should pick this forgotten project up!

I showed him my scanlation and he loved it! Man, THAT'S WHEN SCANLATION PAYS OFF!!

And I got an autograph:

His writing is as ugly as mine!

Ethical reflections on scanlation

Much has been said about why people read scans. It's not my intention to lengthen that topic, but to reflect on why people should or shouldn't read/make scanlations.

With the internet, now more than ever, people have freedom. The law doesn't matter anymore, people will get what they want. Maybe, after a long time under the yoke of the law, people may have kept individual ethical reflection superficial.

I wanna show you some ideas, and I hope I can be balanced and clear. Some of what I say is specific to scanlations, some regarding file sharing in general.

Scans may be against the law, but the law has been wrong many times. The concept of authorship is very recent in human history and can be disputed. To believe that knowledge and art cannot be private property is a genuine way of thinking.

On the other hand, everything we have, roads, social security and even the sales and distribuition of artistic goods, depends on systems.

The power of systems doesn't come from above, but it belongs to each person that's a part of it. With illegal distribuition, people take their support away from the system, weakening and partially destroying it. Those people can't justify themselves saying that the system doesn't cover their expectations because, being out of the system, they can't demand anything from it. You can't demand improvements in public transportation if you don't use public transportation.

Another very used excuse is that sharing actually advertises the artist's work, possibly increasing sales. Well, isolated cases don't prove much, and the real effects are unmeasurable. It sounds nice to divulge an artist's work ("oh, they only make real money with concerts, anyway"), but that denies them control over the distribuiton of their own work. An ethical end needs ethical means. Like I said, it's okay to be an anarchist, but don't hide behind false moralism.

It's not necessary to take any of these extreme positions, there are intermediate positions. You could believe that free distribuition is the best way to go. If you like a comic, for example, it becomes a part of YOUR culture, and it's only natural to want to share it. Still, you could believe that authors have some right over their work, and that it's up to them to be or not a part of a freer world. Thinking that way, you probably won't take totally away your support from the system, allowing/forcing it to adapt, to change prices and variety, at the same time valuing free webcomics.

Anyway, the law only seems annoyed when money is involved. Cultural rescue websites like Acervo Origens* are usually well regarded, cause there ain't much economic potencial for that stuff.

(May 18th update: Acervo Origens had received financial support from the Government of the Federal District for six months. Now it decided that Acervo was infringing copyright. So everything uploaded at that time will be removed. What a plot twist.).

In a similar way, scanlations don't bother anyone when those comics aren't commercially available (even though it may allegedly take away support from the system). An example is that many scanlation groups had a healthy relationship with publishers, some scanlators being later hired. If a cultural rescue of things that are out of print, lost in time (vertical rescue), is justifiable, then why not a horizontal rescue, between countries and cultures? It's YOUR culture, and you may have some right to share it!

It's okay to buy music from other countries, people do listen to songs in other languages, no problem. But translation is necessary in comics and movies, working as a horizontal rescue. Not to metion import taxes that vary between countries, but can be quite prohibitive. Online MP3 sales cover that spot, but there doesn't seem to be a parallel sotution in comics.

Another interesting point: if, for working with things that have no official distribuition in certain countries, scanlations can be considered a legally grey area, what if we think of English as a global language, that area would be even GREYER! Could that thinking be extended to official online distribuition?

At last, scanlations/fansubs are possible as a way of protest. For example, Ghost in the Shell has had questionable quality translation in Brazil, disrespecting the customers. A good fansub would be a way to protest.

Anyway, do it or don't do it, but think about the world vision that best pleases you, and how far are you willing to commit to it.

Segregation

When I first heard of this gay animation festival, I was like, come on! You wanna be treated like normal people, but you keep making those segregationist festivals instead of showing your work at regular festivals (which shouldn't be so hard, since they're mostly alternative)!

But then I realized how I stay away from American and Japanese comics, maybe even the French, looking only for comics from other countries. And how I don't show my scanlation at manga websites because, well, they think manga is the only scanlation possible! Why would I try to blend in with those who don't think I exist?

"If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, 
But make allowance for their doubting too;"
- If, by Rudyard Kipling


Both cases are just the same. It's understandable to stay in our safe ghettos, but we must get out (or come out). They don't dislike us, they just never thought we were possible.


P.S.: Since we're talking about prejudice, what about this: most American or French comic readers won't read Holy Avenger cause it's too manga, but most manga readers won't read it cause it ain't TRUE manga!

Quickies #19

"Batman", "Robin" and "Catwoman" "teach" "Portuguese" to Brazilian intelligence agents. I want my tax money back.

Daniel Galera and Rafael Coutinho's Cachalote will be published in France by Cambourakis.

The Marvel Art of Mike Deodato Jr. will be available in book and comic stores in the USA on July 6th.

@blogpauloramos said: "A 2010 discovery that also applies to 2011: Brazilian comic production is more heated than Argentina's". If you know anything about Argentine comics, you know that's awesome.

But only a few days later, Baraldi wrote an article about the pitiful situation of Brazilian comics, saying that it's just a bunch of nerds selling comics of 500 copies in small events, so different from the great masters of the past.

Sources: Bigorna, @blogpauloramos and Universo HQ.

Cassaro sues Pereira

I was gonna make this part of a Quickies, but it grew too big. Marcelo Cassaro (main writer of Holy Avenger) and Petra Leão (writer of a couple special issues of HA) sued José Roberto Pereira (writer of the first issues of The New Adventures of Mega Man) for calumny and defamation. Those are the only BR comics being scanlated nowadays, what about that!

It was hard to research, the press ignored it, Cassaro made no mention of it. In his incredibly dull podcast, Pereira says that the swollen-faced Cassaro sued him out of envy of his work. This month, they agreed that Pereira would have to do some community work.

I had to dig deeper. The post that started the process has been deleted, but comments were that it was badly written, antiethical, not a critic to Cassaro's work, but full of personal offenses.

It's not the first time he gets sued for that. Check out his blog's title and subtitle: OBSCURE WORLD: ONLY TRUTH INSULTS. "You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." - Winston Churchill.


I couldn't make my mind about him. Although he seems to be a complete moron, from what I've heard of his podcast, he does have a few very intelligent and polemic opinions in some points.

To be fair, Cassaro can be quite an asshole in his formspring sometimes.

Latveria Free! part X

"@kaimbra: Dr. Bruce Banner asks everyone to stay calm.

@JEBosombra: In front of the castle of Doctor Doom (who has Infinity Gems), Dr. Manhattan holds his blue dick and says: "Mine is bigger than yours!"

@JEBosombra: Von Doom uses mind wave emitting machine to reduce twitters' courage. It's working terribly well."

That's about it! =)

After that, @MauricioMuniz tried to make another campaign protesting against the World Cup to be held in Brazil, but that just didn't catch.

Latveria Free! part IX

"@polegadas: Neeeeeeeeeerds, the Workers' Party is following us because of #LatveriaFree LOL laughed my ass off :)

@MarcelaMarvel: #LatveriaFree That's all I say! cause I'm a Nerd and an Intern"

Somebody made a tumblr covering the situation in loco. There's little that I found worth translating (the best line was "I should have brought more cigarettes"), but you might wanna check it out, there are a few parts in English.

"@bruno_hq: When asked about the situation in Latveria, Victor Von Doom comments 'GO FUCK YOURSELVES YOU NERDS'

@LandNick: When asked in an enterview if he was Latverian, dictator Victor Von Doom answered: 'No!! Latveria is mine!!'

@TitoCamello: People Magazine: Hollywood couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie declare that they'll adopt a refugee Latverian kid.

@FabioRezende: That #LatveriaFree joke is pretty fun, but it'd be better if the person who made it knew English #FreeLatveria

@lielson: it's nerdness for us, but for the Latverians it's raw truth.

@VitorAzambuja: The pope accuses Doom of satanism. The Dalai Lama accuses Doom of bellicism. Hu Jintao accuses Doom of opportunism. Dilma stays silent."

Latveria Free! part VIII

"

(form here)

@sapao318: When you look at Victor, it's because he tore up your head and is looking at you in the eyes.

@JEBosombra: Latverians say: 'Doom had his bots squeeze our balls unless we smiled!' http://is.gd/TACxHD

@IgorTavern: Batman tries to invade Latveria and ends up headless. Ozzy Osbourne is the main suspect.

@msoares: Charlie Sheen makes a video supporting Victor Von Doom and says the dictator has tiger blood like himself."

About this time, spammers start to show up.

"@HufflepuffBR: Doctor Doom is supposedly looking for a mystic black-covered book.

@BozoDel: FREE LATVERIA with the purchase of Latveria of equal or greater value.

@TitoCamello: Captain Planet sends support message to the Latverian people: 'THE POWER IS YOURS!'

@IgorTavern: 'No, I have the power!' He-Man, contradicting Captain Planet."

Too bad some of the jokes weren't translatable... I had to distort some, too.

Latveria Free! part VII

"@TitoCamello: In Duckburg, quackillionaire Scrooge shows interest in Latverian crisis: 'What's the market's exchange rate today?'

@neryunf: 'Doom's missing a screw!', internation politics specialsts say.

@fabiofreitasss: Monica volunteers: 'I'll use my bunny on Von Doom and get over with this mess!' and 'He's gotta be friends with Jimmy Five!'

@MauricioMuniz: NEWSBREAK! It is revealed that president Dilma Roussef's family doesn't come from Bulgaria, but from Latveria! Von Doom's cousin?

@lederlycomics: Avengers waste time talking and are found out by Doombots. Were they written by Kurt Busiek, they would have already attacked.

@IgorTavern: Wall-E gets upgraded by Tony Stark. 'It's time to kill', says the robot.

@polegadas: proof that the last elections in Latveria (30 years ago) were a fraud: Doom ran against a Doombot.

@IgorTavern: Naruto and Kakashi killed by Elektra. 'Amateurs', she says.

@IgorTavern: Witnesses claim to have seen the Joker writing 'run away, run away, Wonder Woman' on an Avengers' tower wall.

@jeansinclairBR: Victor Von Doom about the accusation of machinations with Brazilian politicians: 'BAH!'"

Latveria Free! part VI

"@MauricioMuniz: In his biography MEIN MASKAMPF, Von Doom reveals: 'I cried over the wrecks of the WTC! I wanted to knock it down!'

@neryunf: Time to wake up the Beyonder RT @JEBosombra: Doom shows his arsenal to his enemies! The Infinity Gems are recognized! Armies start to retreat.

@mngljr: baytor! baytor! baytor! baytor!

@IgorTavern: 'I don't give a fuck' Says John Constantine when asked.

@MauricioMuniz: In New York, people burn copies of MEIN MASKAMPF, Von Doom's biography, in the Central Park. And copies of TWILIGHT too.

@IgorTavern: 'I am hungry' Galactus announces.

@Akularith: Sales of Von Doom action figures fall very quickly.

@guilhermekroll: It's so cool that @NickFury tweets in Porguese, huh? LOL

@veja: Dilma, PT e MST* involved in budget deviation to Victor Von Doom in Latveria.

*President of Brazil, Workers' Party and Landless Movement

@fabiofreitasss: Sandman about Latveria: 'A nation that has been dreaming of freedom and justice for a long time...'"

By the way, #LatveriaFree actually DID make it into the Top Trends.

Latveria Free! part V

"@fabiofreitasss: Superman is questioned about the situation in Latveria: 'I don't know it. Show me on the map.'

@strixvanallen: Von Doom, in his speech, accuses the USA of sending four terrorrists to assassinate him, threatening the country's democratic transition.

@lederlycomics: Iran threatens to gamma bomb the USA in support of Von Doom. The White House's spokesman says Ahmadinejad might carry out the threat.

@lederlycomics: The White House's spokesman says he's concerned about the number of gamma creatures: 'We may have a rainbow of Hulks!'

@Lord_Anderson: Minister Marco Feliciano says Latveria is cursed because dictator Victor Von Doom's mother was a gipsy and a sorcerer.

@elescama: A bald giant appears in the borders of Latveria and resumes his presence to one sentence: 'I just watch.'

@MauricioMuniz: Von Doom's biography, MEIN MASKAMPF, is on The New York Times's best-sellers list. Critics agree: 'He's a monster!'

@lederlycomics: Stan Lee is seen for a moment in a CNN newscast: 'Its a Marvel crisis. I had to show up. Excelsior!!!'

@mas_que_mario: Von Doom was bullyed in his childhood: 'That criminal Ben Grimm wouldn't leave me alone...'

@JEBosombra: Paparazzi finds out! Dr. Doom had a child outside of his 'marriage' with Latveria: http://is.gd/w9l2u1."

Quickies #18

Adriana Melo was the first woman to draw the Punisher and Spider-Man


Laerte made into the Brazilian TTs, after going to the late night show Altas Horas. Lots of comments were made about his crossdressing, pro, against and neutral. Still, he wasn't ranked as high as other guests of the show.


Monica's Gang is part of a huge project to teach 180.000.000 Chinese children to read and write. Several comics, books and animations are being tranlated to Standard Chinese, in a partnership with the Chinese government. "They liked the way we always send a positive message when facing problems and the way the kids play with each other and relate with their parents", says Mauricio de Sousa. It's being done mostly through the internet, since they'd have to "destroy a forest for each (printed) issue".


Works of Pedro Franz, author of Promessas de amor a desconhecidos enquanto espero o fim do mundo (Love promises to strangers while waiting for the end of the world), will be part of an exhibition made this saturday by Convoy, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.


Renato Guedes indepently released his artbook. It can be bought through this e-mail: renatoguedesartbook@gmail.com


Sources: Bigorna, Lady's Comics, Neorama dos Quadrinhos and Universo HQ.

Latveria Free! part IV

"@lederlycomics: Wolverine was detached to invade Latveria, free the people, blow up a Doomboys factory and buy some bread.

@lederlycomics: According to the UN spokesman: 'he's ideal for this mission, since he can be in several monthly magazines at the same time.'

@leonardomenezs: in CARAS magazine, pictures of Namor the Sub-Mariner swimming in Von Doom's pool: 'a passion? Susan Richards.'

@fabiofreitasss: NEWSBREAK! Captured Skrull spy claims that Von Doom is not himself! He's as Skrull in control of Latveria. Truth or polemics?

@JEBosombra: Doom shows his arsenal to his enemies! The Infinity Gems are recognized! Armies start to retreat.

@heitorvserpa: Von Doom accuses SHIELD of supporting Magneto's terrorist movement.

@BozoDel: in Latveria, the dictator overthrows YOU!!!!!

@samuel_barboza or @PIPOCAENANQUIM: 'Now Latveria's on fire', says mischievous Human Torch.

@jacquesbarcia: Forge confirms to be working on a sub-dimensional server. 'Twitter will be operational again in Latveria in half an hour', he says.

@PauloMcMiller: Crisis in Latveria makes stock markets to suffer sudden falls. Nasdak: -15,4%; Dow Jones: -8.9%; Bovespa: -13,6%"

Latveria Free! part III

Yesterday, @MauricioMuniz, journalist, editor, blogger and creator of the #LatveriaFree campaign, retweeted the tweets that started it:

"After Egypt, Libya and others, analysts assert that the next country to rebel agains its dictator will be... LATVERIA!

NEWSBREAK! UN just froze Victor Von Doom's bank accounts in Switzerland and Cayman islands!

LET'S HELP IN THIS FIGHT! It's time for another dictator to fall! Spread the word and help our Latverian brothers!

To aid in the fight, Simple Minds released the single "Latveria's Day". Let's sing together "OH OH OH OH LATVERIA'S FREE"

Let's show the power of Twitter! The world needs to know the horrors happening in Latveria! Spread the word about this fight!

Acoording to the CNN, the rebels are already attacking Doomstadt, capital of Latveria! So far, 82 deaths and 22 DoomBots destroyed!

In this moment, president Obama is having a meeting with Nick Fury at the White House to discuss the situation in Latveria.

Guys, mankind is one! We have to fight for the Latverian brothers' right to freedom! Spread the word! Join this fight! 

The UN is deciding if SHIELD should intervene with the Latverian rebellion! For political reasons, the Avengers are forbidden to do so.

RESEARCH! In your opinion, should the UN and the American Congress allow the involvement of the Avengers in the Latverian crisis?

It's time for the Iron Mask to fall!"

He also said it started as a simple joke, he didn't expect it to take such proportions. He never laughed this much with twitter.

And he's coming up with another one.

Latveria Free! part II

I figured no one was gonna make a selection, so I saved as much of the campaign as I could. It's still ongoing, but much slower.

It seems that @MauricioMuniz started the whole thing, but I couldn't find out where or when.

Anyway, I think I'm gonna translate a little bit of what's going on everyday, if I can.

"@PauloMcMiller: A massive amount of doombots make a tight protection around the Latveria Falls Plaza. The population is furious.

@lederlycomics: The situation gets complicated with the information of a presumed Skrull infiltrated in Nick Fury's ranks.

@HufflepuffBR: Remember Genosha!

@roberpinheiro: The Justice League showed concern through their spokesman Ajax about the situation in Latv... oops, wrong universe.

@unilson http://twitpic.com/4l7cmt it's been more that 60 years of Latveria's fight for freedom!

@lederlycomics: The alleged Skrull spy was captured. More detailed info at any minute.

@Cardoso @TonnyDourado: Where's UN? And NATO? Where's Captain Planet, if not stopping this criminal?

@NathaliaMSM: #LatveriaFree my ass! God Save Doom! >=)

@gaio_cruz: CNN NOW: Darkseid schedules a diplomatic visit to Latveria and sends military reinforcements to Victor von Doom.

@PauloMcMiller Pope Benedict XVI sends his blessings to the Latverian people and asks for justice to be done."

Those were tweeted yesterday. I tried to give you just the feeling, but I'll try to select the funniest next time.