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.