Melodies

the songs you hear when the end is near

I really love music. How it connects to our core emotions faster and deeper than many other art forms. How it transports us to moments of our lives, people we knew then and the experiences we had together while those songs were playing.

Music is stronger than my ability to concentrate, so most of the time I create in silence. I write in silence, and I draw pages in silence. I can ink listening to music, and I can color (both in the computer or with watercolors) with songs playing at the same time, but most of my work is done without any kind of sound. The silence also helps Bá and I when we want to say anything to one another while we’re working, be it while we’re each writing our own scripts and we want to check something, or when we’re drawing in silence at our drawing boards and we have an idea we want to share.

Right now, we’re deep into a writing phase of our story, so music is like a distant friend I only run into by accident if I have any energy left after a long workday to go out at night. I miss having more music filling more parts of my days, but I want the story to continue.

When I go away to the beach for New Years, I might play with the guitar with my niece a little. Or I might go swimming in the ocean. Listening to the music of a warm summer day might be all right, too.

I was looking around my living room this morning for anything to color a warm up sketch I made on my Moleskine. I found a blue pencil, and I ran with it.

James Tynion and Michael Oeming are warming up for another Blue Book story, this time focusing on the 1947 “Flying saucer” report. I made a variant cover for issue one, and using only blue to color the sketch this morning made me think of that cover.

I don’t think I’ll find time to write another letter (in English) before the end of the year, so I’m trusting you to go have a wonderful time during the festivities. I was asked this weekend if I had to choose one thing I wanted to add to my live next year, what would it be, and it got me thinking. The person who asked me wanted to make sure she had time to meditate more often. What do you wish for next year? Something you want strongly enough to change from your routine? Something that will make your life grow and get better?

I hope next year we’re all on our paths to engage in making our lives, and the lives of the others around us, better.

Be safe. Be kind. Be curious.
Pa-ZOW!

Fábio Moon
Moon Base, São Paulo
December 18th, 2023