Brazilian Comics Day

Happy Brazilian comics day!!

On January 30, 1869, Angelo Agostini published the first comic with fixed characters, in Brazil. We're having celebrations in many parts of the country, and I'm sitting here in front of the computer =( hahaha!

Quickies #5

Eduardo Ferigato draws The Last Phantom

Sergio Cariello draws The Action Bible (the Bible, but superhero style)

Edgar Indalecio Smaniotto created the blog Banda Desenhada Brasil (in Portuguese) where he posts articles and reviews originally published in HQBrasil, his column about Brazilian comics in the Portuguese magazine BD Jornal.

Waldez won the first prize in The Ranan Lurie International Hispanic Political cartoon Award 2010, in the USA, and Simanca won the third prize.

Matt Fraction and Fabio Moon's Casanova is back.

Six BR independent comic books (actually, 5 magazines and 1 journal) were nominated to the Alternative category in the Angoulême Festival: Café Espacial, A3 Quadrinhos, Consequências, Top! Top! (that had already been nominated last year), Jam and Café Expresso (a newspaper related to Café Espacial). We'll probably know who won by monday.

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

Quickies #4

Greg Tocchini draws What if: Wolverine - Father #1

On december 16th, Mauricio de Sousa released Amizade sem Fronteiras (Friendship without Frontiers), about the the countries of the Mercosul. It'll be printed in Portuguese, Spanish and Guarani and distributed in public schools.

José Roosevelt's L'Horloge gets re-edited in France

The three first volumes of José Roosevelt's Ce get re-edited in a single tome in France

7 pages from LEO's new album, Survivants #1

Source: Neorama dos Quadrinhos

I gotta get back to the scanlating =/

Sérgio Macedo - part II

Here are a few quotes from the interviews that I found quite valuable:

"Art is knowing how to live."

When asked about his relatioship with foreign editors, he said:

"There are more sharks in the editing world than in the sea..."

"I'd like to make a suggestion. I see that Brazilian comics are entering in a very heavy, low energy dimension. Artists are pleased with creating stories of violence, crime, tragedy, horror. Look, guys, that's very easy. Drawing monstruosities, ugliness, "denouncing" horrible things is easy. The world is full of problems, what we need to do is find solutions to make life better, to be happy. No one came to this world to be unhappy. Life on this planet has lost its conexion with the Original-Center-Source of the universe, it's not easy, but this planet is a very interesting school. Connecting with positivity, doing to others what we'd like them to do to us (that applies to comics as well), are principles that have extremely beneficial effects for life in general. It's time to wake up from this conditioning that the Brazilian media, specially TV, execute on people's heads. Can't you realize that it's the ruling classes' interest to maintain the people in this atmosphere of fear and insecurity to better control them as sheep? Guys, wake from this brainwashing that the TV is doing to you! Artists and writers, think of doing more positive comics. I remember chatting with Jean-Giraud (Moebius), one of the best artists of the planet. We were making comments on certain trends in comic books, and he said: 'Drawing monsters is way too easy. Drawing the beauty of an angel, now that's something else'".

Sources: Bigorna and Alan Moore Senhor do Caos

Part I

Sérgio Macedo - part I

Can you believe he learned to draw and paint by himself?

He was born in 1951 and left for Europe in 1974, but he found it too grey and sad, so he moved to Tahiti and lives there up to this day, doing sports from 2 to 5 hours a day and working from 6 to 16 hours a day.

He had many influences in different moments of his life:
-Inácio Justo, Shimamoto, Jayme Cortez, and the illustrator of Francisco Marins' books (frequently quoted as an influence by many artists, but very few remember his name, Oswaldo Storni - here's a post about him)
-North American Underground and French vanguard (Druillet, Caza) and Richard Corben and Wallace Woody's techniques
-Frederic Remington, Norman Rockwell, all realistic painters
-but his main influence, since the 80's is material, energetic, psychic, mental and spiritual life.

He published in many magazines: Grilo, Soma (Brazil); Actuel, Circus, Métal Hurlant, Rock & Folk, Neutron, Horizon du Fantastique, SexBulles, Ah! Nana, BD Adultes, Pilote (France); Heavy Metal (USA); Totem (Spain); Tung Metall (Sweden); and here's a (probably incomplete) list of his albums:
O Karma de Gargoot (Editor Massao Ohno)
Fume C'est Du Macedo (Kesselring Éditeur)
Psychorock (Humanoïdes Associés)
Telechamp (Humanoïdes Associés)
Caraïbe (Éditions Glénat)
Voyage Intemporel (Éditions Glénat)
Eldorado I - Le Trésor de Paititi (Éditions Glénat)
Eldorado II - A La Recherche D'Agharta (Éditions Glénat)
Les Aventures de Mike The Bike & Molly (Éditions Neptune)
Pacifique Sud I - Le Monde Tabou (Éditions Aedena)
Pacifique Sud II - Le Mystère des Atolls (Éditions Aedena)
Brasil! (Vaisseau D'argent Éditeur)
Honu Iti E (CTRDP)
Te Tere O Te Tupuna (CTRDP)
La Légende de Tuivao (Éditions des Mers Australes)
Lakota: An Illustrated History (Treasure Chest Publisher)

Lakota won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Multicultural Book of 1997, chosen from 1100 books! In 2007, he won the HQ Mix Award for Grand Master. He was the first to use aerography in comics in Europe.

He doesn't see himself as a mystic, but someone who tries to use the natural inner energy, to use more than 10% of the brain, to live respecting the values of Beauty, Kindness and Truth, and do to others what he'd like to be done to himself.

More pics here, here, a preview of Xingu! and his Comic Vine page.

Sources: Bigorna and Alan Moore Senhor do Caos (lots of pics).

Part II