I’ve fantasized about spending time on a boat for as long as I can remember. I’m fascinated with the creative architecture involved in these floating homes (floating villages, depending on the size of the boat), and often I wondered if it could be possible to find a boat where I could do what I do: write and draw comics. I’ve tried to write and draw on cars, buses, trains and planes, and found all options a bit too shaky when it comes down to putting pencil or pen or brush to paper, but haven’t yet tested the stability of a table inside a vessel that rocked ever so gently with the waves.
I spent a lovely extended weekend in one such boat this month, and we sailed to quiet desert beaches, and we swam with turtles and many different fishes, and we slept by the stars.
I think about these marine accommodations every time I go to the San Diego Comic Con. The convention center is located right next to the Marina, and the walk from the hotel to the back stairs of the convention is right by the water, and as I walked past the many boats parked in the harbor, I imagined how hard it would be to stay in one of those boats instead of paying for an overpriced hotel room.
One year, probably the last time I went (2019), somebody at DC got a boat. He had a brother or a cousin (a recently divorced doctor) who had a boat and somehow was convinced parking his yacht next to the convention center would attract celebrities and result in glamorous parties. I found myself drinking late at night inside that boat one night, and had a lot of fun. All the celebrities remained on dry land.
The new kids on the block
I did a variant cover for Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso’s new book, Blood Brothers Mother, and I did it basically because they’re my friends and the book’s editor, Will Dennis, is also my friend and he asked me if I’d be interested. These days, the time I spend researching and thinking about a cover is time I prefer to spend writing and drawing the new story, so this cover is going to be the exception this year.
Eduardo’s artwork is one I have studied a lot over the years. I learned to pay attention to details in the background, I learned about character diversity and the balance between realistic and cartoony, I leaned about negative space and light and shadow. In this new work, he’s trying something new (new for my eyes, at least) and he’s coloring the pages himself with watercolors, so it’s very interesting to see how his approach to black and white compositions translates to color.
In terms of the story, nobody writes nasty characters like Brian, and I can’t wait to find out how nasty these kids will get as the story unfolds. The three brothers were the characters I was most curious about as I read the first issue, and I focused my cover on trying to give the kids as much personality as possible and make the reader as curious about them as I was.
Another quiet month
Bá and I are writing and doing layouts (which is basically how we write visually). The story is moving. At the same time, Bá and Gerard are also moving on the new Umbrella Academy series. Both stories are long and it doesn’t make sense to talk about them months (or years) before they’re ready for publication, so let’s just say what we can, which is what I just said. Everything else would just be speculation, and could chance depending on us or on the editor or on the publisher or on the colorist or on the letterer.
We could have been in an international book fair this weekend, but it made more sense to work on the new book. We could go to an international convention in May in a country we had never been, but we also decided the new story needed us more than the convention.
The sketchbooks keep me company. Ideas, studies and the ocasional Moon Girl keep popping up to keep my hands warm and responsive, and to keep my days from being just about writing (which I love but make my productivity look too abstract).
Take care of each other in May.
Be kind and curious every day.
Raise the sails of your boat
And sail away.
Be safe. Be kind. Be curious.
Pa-ZOW!
Fábio Moon
Moon Base, São Paulo
April 22nd, 2024