Mario got out.
I'll throw you links while I go bring him back.
I know I said I wouldn’t send any letters for the rest of the month, but stuff happens and I felt like sharing. And I didn’t feel like waiting to share. Maybe I’m excited about this past week and what I’ve come across, or maybe I’m just specially needy.
(Carnaval plays tricks on our minds and makes us do unexpected things)
I want to point you to this Diana Schutz interview. I learned a lot about her in this interview, and how she ended up working in comics, and why she made some of the choices she made, and what she expects from the future of our medium.
Diana was our first editor in the US, who we met by accident in San Diego in the late 90s. In probably our second trip to San Diego Comic Con, we noticed a woman hanging around with Frank Miller at his signings and at his panels and at the Eisner Awards ceremony, and we assumed she was Lynn Varley, Frank’s colorist (and wife at the time), and we approached her to tell her how much we liked her work. She took the compliment, smiled but looked at us funny, perhaps a little confused on how those twenty one years old kids could possibly know what editing was. After she clarified she was in fact Frank’s editor at Dark Horse, we opened our portfolio and she politely had a look at our pages. We were working on ROLAND- days of wrath at the time, and that was what we had to show. The pages didn’t catch Diana’s attention, but she was impressed by our enthusiasm, and next year, when we went back to San Diego, we looked her up again and we continued to show her our work, and she was always honest in her feedback, and when we started to translate our stories from the original Portuguese and send her copies in English she got really excited, told us to keep sending her stories like that, and started to talk to Mike Richardson to convince him to publish our work at Dark Horse (it would take another five years of us self publishing in Brazil and sending her our work for her to get him to agree, just to remind people these things don’t happen overnight).
. . .
Speaking of Frank Miller, what about this interview with Frank Miller, Dan DiDio, and Silenn Thomas, of Frank Miller Presents, about their publishing venture? Doesn’t say as much as I would have hoped, which I guess is better since there aren’t many of their books published yet.
I was looking online at the guest list of Galaxy Con in Richmond (which I’m one of the guests, and happens on March 24th till March 26th), and I saw that Dan Didio will be there. Maybe I’ll ask about their books, what’s coming and all that.
. . .
I’m super happy that Terry Moore After Dark Kickstarter campaign is going so well, and now I’m hoping we get the ultimate stretch goal to unlock Jeff Smith’s beautiful pin up (shown above).
I told you before about this one shot my friend Gustavo Duarte is doing for DC, DC Speechless. Here’s the official cover Gustavo did, and I can’t wait to show you the variant cover Bá and I made for him.
Gustavo often writes and draws his own stories here in Brazil, but the majority of his work in the American market has been collaborating with other writers, so it’s nice to see Gustavo spreading his wings and creating the stories only he can make.
No Commission this week?
I’m working on a cover and reading a script. Also, I’m plotting with my brother. I leave commissions for the weekend, but this weekend I let Mario (the imaginary third twin who does all the work around here) get out of our basement where he’s chained to the drawing board drawing our stories and he enjoyed the beginning of Carnaval season.
“We can catch up on the commissions during the week”, he said.
I agreed. Mario deserves to have a little bit of fun.
On my coffee break this afternoon, I drew this picture of Monstro, one of my bunnies. 2023 is the Chinese year of the Bunny. I hope it brings peace and happiness to my bunnies (and maybe some wisdom, so they learn how to avoid getting so wet when it rains really hard).
Be safe. Be kind. Be curious.
Pa-ZOW!
Fábio Moon
Moon Base, São Paulo
February 13th, 2023