San Diego

my forever tipping point

San Diego.

Bá and I have been going to San Diego for Comic Con since 1997. We went every year until 2012, skipped 2013 to focus on making Two Brothers, then I went by myself in 2014 while Bá was still drawing Two Brothers to negotiate which publisher would publish the book in the US, and we skipped 2018 to focus on work again (I wrote a very detailed imaginary day by day account of what we usually do there in a newsletter from 2018).

2019 was our last year, and we haven’t been back after the pandemic.

Everybody’s San Diego experience is different, and the convention itself have changed quite a bit since we first went, but for us this trip was always the tipping point of our year, our réveillon in terms of work and in terms of making plans for our career. Our lives have been lived year by year in before San Diego semesters and after San Diego ones.

One of our regular activities in San Diego was supporting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and for years this meant we would make original drawings for their annual auction (the Spaceboy image above was the last drawing I made for it, back in 2019). On the Thursdays of Comic Con, the CBLDF throws a welcome party where everyone can see a lot of the original artwork that will be in the auction, and a lot of creators attend the party as well to give fans a chance to interact in a more casual relaxed environment. One year, I had this idea to draw a wide variety of characters and celebrate visual diversity as well as cultural diversity.

This year, the CBLDF welcome party at SDCC, which will happen as always at the Westgage Hotel’s terrace under the stars, is sponsored by Oni Press and their Fight Censorship, Read Comics initiative. Bá and I made a joint piece for this campaign. We talked about what point of view we could contribute, then he made two sketches. The first had some legal licensing issues, so we went with the second one.

I really liked how it turned out.

What else can I say about San Diego? You can read here some of the presenters of this year’s Eisner Awards ceremony that will take place once more in the Indigo Ballroom at the Hilton Bayfront on Friday night. Good luck to all of this year’s nominees.

This week’s commission was of Hellboy and Hecate fighting. I went back and reread the Wake the Devil storyline to get a better sense of the size of Hecate in comparison to the big red, since she was smaller than the Hecate I drew in BPRD 1947 and in BPRD Vampire, and this sequence where they are fighting inside a castle and Hellboy pierces her with a spear was just too dynamic and I knew I had to reinterpret that scene.

Choosing to draw them exploding through the castle’s wall helps give the composition more movement, and after deciding Hellboy’s pose wouldn’t be of him stabbing, but rather of him clinging to the spear as a wounded Hecate tries to escape and free herself like a whale, the last creative decision was that this drawing would work better horizontally.

Bá and I miss going to San Diego every year and this time won’t be any different. Still, our new book is coming along and this particular week turned out to be crucial to the production of the last pages of the chapter we’re currently on. There’s magic in finishing a chapter, and this is going to be a magical week here at the studio, so in a way it will be as memorable as going to San Diego has always been for us.

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

Fábio Moon
Moon Base, São Paulo
July 17th, 2023