Release party of Zona Fantástica at Central Comics

Last Saturday, March 6th, the release party for Zona Fantástica took place at one of the local comic shops, Central Comics. We weren't the only book being released, there was also "As Incríveis Aventuras de Dog Mendonça e Pizzaboy", a widely anticipated comic made by the collaboration between portuguese writer/producer Filipe Melo and 3 artists from Argentina, so we were in great company. The afternoon flew by, once again drawing and signing books, chatting with my fellow artists and with Filipe Melo (which was very cool, because I really admire him - he produced the first (and only, so far) portuguese zombie movie, which makes him pretty much the awesomest person around). This time the paparazzi was my lovely Cosmic-rocket-man, who took loads of cool photos, some of which I'll share on this post.

Can you spot Zona Fantástica there? This is the store front of Central Comics. I felt pretty excited to see a book with my cover there, I can't deny that. It was a good feeling.

The announcement of the two release parties taking place that afternoon. Hey, Green Lantern, stop stealing my thunder!

Here's the book for sale. Me and the rest of the gang signed all of these and plenty more.

This is me drawing on Central Comic's honor board. Whenever they host a special book release, they have the authors draw something on this board, and then they hang it in the store. It's pretty cool, especially since before I used to always look at the honor boards and admired the work on them, and now I have my very own drawing there too.

This is me, Fil and Rui Alex drawing. I wasn't signing a book at the time, I was drawing on that kid's moleskine per request. It was cool!

Still drawing for the kid. I drew a zombie, which I hope didn't scare him or anything. It was a nice zombie, it wouldn't bite anyone.

Still drawing, and joined at the table by Diogo Campos. Hey look, it's the Walking Dead!

Chatting with Filipe Melo, who we had the pleasure to meet! I got to draw him a nifty zombie. Wish I had had more time to really draw something kick ass, but Filipe still had to go to his book's release at Fnac, and so was short on time. He was a super cool guy.

Still drawing and chatting with Filipe. Ignore my stupid face, I don't know what was going on.

Moved tables, got joined by Pedro Nascimento, and continued drawing. It was an amazing afternoon. Drawing for hours, signing books and chatting with the people in a comic shop... could there be something cooler to do? I don't think so!
If you'd like to have a book, you can always go to the official blog for the project and order one via e-mail. Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Release of Zona Fantástica

As you know - because I've posted about it earlier - yesterday was the release of the comics/illustration project Zona Fantástica, as part of Fantasporto - Oporto's International Movie Festival. It went very well and it was fantastic to hang out with all the artists and the people that went to the release! I drew a lot of zombies in a lot of books, predictably. I have to find something more fun to draw than zombies, quickly. Since I had my friend Mário take some photos, I'll take this chance to post a few of them.

This was the selling stand. You can see the book that was released, Zona Fantástica - as well as official t-shirts - and also the previous volumes, Zona Zero and Zona Negra.

This is me on the table. Next to me are Joana Afonso and André Oliveira, and we can see the back of Diogo Campos :)

Another shot of some artists at the table, this time with our "srs business" face. Left to right, you've got me, Joana, André, the Fantasporto presenter that made the opening speech, and Fil (who unfortunatelly got half-cut from the pic).

The lighting was not the best for photos, but here André and Fil were talking about the Hammer Killer, which was my comic. Look, there's my name on the wall!

This was at the end, when we were autographing and drawing on books. Clockwork from me are Hugo Teixeira, Diogo Campos, Fil, Pedro Nascimento and Raz.

And this photo was snapped by Joana, it's my very own Cosmic-Rocket-Man and André!

All in all, it was a great end of a day. Not only were we all happy with the book, it sold well, we drew a lot, and people also seemed to enjoy it. Another plus was hanging out with each other, since we all live pretty much scattered all over the country and don't get many chances to hang out.

I hope you enjoy the photos, and in some time I'll post the Hammer Killer I drew for this.
Keep rocking!

PS - Quem não pôde aparecer ontem, pode aparecer amanhã, dia 6, na Central Comics, depois das 17h, pois vamos ter uma festa de lançamento da Zona com alguns dos autores presentes (entre os quais eu) para sessão de autógrafos. E se quiserem apareçam ainda mais cedo e apanham o Filipe Melo e a festa do Dog Mendonça e Pizzaboy!