Zona Negra @ MOTELx

I know, I know, I've been abandoning the blog again. I don't mean to do it, but I've been so incredibly busy with college work that I can hardly breathe, let alone blog. But this deserved to be posted.

On September 4th the official release of the illustration/comic project Zona Negra, in association with MOTELx - Lisbon International Horror Movie Festival, took place. I was very excited to be able to attend, and it surpassed my expectations. Not only did the presentation go very well, but I got to meet a fantastic group of talented people that were, on top of talented, extremely nice and fun to talk with. The whole experience boosted my will to improve myself, to learn more and draw better, so I can keep showcasing my work alongside other artists. I'm very happy to have contributed, and all I wish is to keep contributing to Zona in the future.

Here are some photos from the event:

This is boyfriend Cosmic and me, paying attention to the speaker. Notice our geek t-shirts. I even look like I could do the truffle shuffle.

Unfortunately not all the authors could be present, but this was the group at the presentation. Fom left to right: Raz, Cosmic, me, André Oliveira, Paulo Marques, João Maio Pinto, Fil and Maria João Careto. Make sure you give them all a visit.

This is me (once again, looking about 1 second away from truffle shuffling), Cosmic and Paulo, holding proudly our Zona issue. Doesn't it look great?

I'll finish by saying that if you want an issue for yourself, you can order one at the Zona blog, here.
Thank to everybody who made this possible :)

And I promise I'll try to update this more regularly. Maybe even with some sketches! (or is that wishful thinking? hmmm...)

Zona Terror

The project ZONA came from the mind of author and editor FIL, who created this anthology as a way to showcase his and other artists work in the world of comics and illustrations. The first installment came out this year and it was a success, filled with great works from many portuguese artists.
Now, in association with MOTELx – Lisbon International Horror Film Festival, a new edition of ZONA will be released, this time under the theme of Horror.

This is the cover, done by the artist Eduardo Monteiro.

I wanted to contribute, not only because I am very passionate about horror movies, but mostly because this is an awesome publication and a one of a kind way to contribute to something with some portuguese artists whose work I admire. I made an illustration for it, and you can see a sneak peek here:

A lot of kick ass artists contributed for it, like my cosmic boyfriend Pedro Carvalho, Hugo Teixeira, Roberto Macedo Alves and many others.

This special issue will be released in September and some of the artists (me included, probably) will be in Lisbon, at Cinema São Jorge, for the launch, but more details on that soon - that way, if you're in Lisbon in September, you can drop by, have a word with me and the gang, see a movie and buy a ZONA!

Comics

Almost a month without updating this time... have I really been that busy? I guess so.

Either that, or I haven't been watching a lot of interesting movies to write about. This month I mostly re-watched some bad movies with my boyfriend Cosmic (I made him do it... I think it's important to see some crap once in a while, so you value good movies even more), but the ones I watched I already talked about in older posts so it's not worth doing it again. I could talk about Wolverine, but that was a disappointment, and, funnily enough, I don't feel like ranting today, for some weird reason. So, what can I possible update on? Let's see... comics. I'm going to let you know what I've been reading these days. Hopefully you find one or two good recommendations.

1. Wolverine: Logan

So, since I mentioned the Wolverine movie, I'm starting out with this one, penned by Y: The Last Man's Brian K. Vaughn (also writes some stuff for Lost, but I've totally fallen out with that show... but Y: The Last Man is awesome, though) and with art by Eduardo Risso, this isn't exactly a groundbreaking Wolvie story (it's hard to make one these days, because it seems like every angle of his misterious past as already been explored...), but it's very interesting anyway. It's set on World War II, and Logan was captured by the Japanese army while serving on the Canadian parachute batallion (or something along those lines). There he meets and american soldier and a japanese woman what will change his life. The writing is solid, but what especially caught my attention was Risso's art, that I though was absolutely kick ass. I never read 100 Bullets (the comics he's most famous for) but I just might have to look it up after this, because the guy kicks ass. 3.5 out of 5

2. Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together


Ah, Scott! These books are always a little bundle of joy to me. Scott and his gang had me on the first volume, and it's just been getting better. I love both Bryan Lee O'Malley's writing and his art, that while apparantly simple, is very dynamic and endearing. Scott's journey is filled with bumps on the road that we all can relate too, and his relationship with his friends, his girlfriend, his band, is a pleasure to follow and it almost makes you feel like you know those people (stupid thing to say, I know). His combination of slacker/hero is one of the things that makes this comic so great, and little things like a pannel showing him melting in the heat of his house playing Nintendo and still being too lazy to get up and get some water really make me smile. Plain and simple, these books make me smile and I'd recommend them anytime, anywhere. Can't wait to read number 5... I'm just delaying the pleasure a little, and trying to make the wait for number 6 less excruciating. 4.5 out of 5

It had been a while since I read a manga of any kind, but since this book was recommended to me and my boyfriend by someone who knows his comics (working in a comic shop kinda comes with that, I guess), he bought it and I read it first, because I'm a little leech like that :B Anyway, this was a pretty good surprise. And I really mean surprise, because I had no idea what this book was about. Turns out it was a cleverly written sci-fi/mistery story, that deals with a group of childhood friends, now adults, that must dig deep into their memories to try and stop the impending end of the world. It was a very enjoyable read, and it was pretty cool to see the storyline jumping back and forth from the 60's to the 90's. The childhood bits almost reminded me a little of Stand By Me... which is good. The characters were well-developed and endearing, the story was suspenseful and... well, I have to know what happens next. This definitely has my attention, and I'll try to get my hands on volume 2 soon. 4 out of 5

Mark's already a familiar face around my comic book shelves, and it's great to see he's still able to keep my interest fueled after all this time. It never ceases to amaze me how good the story is (and considering it's Robert Kirkman who also writes The Walking Dead, well, it's amazing how the guy keeps such consistent quality writing on such different styles...), how incredible the art is and how with each volume I just wish I had the next one to pick up and read right after. Invincible is one of my favorite comics ever, it has rightfully earned that spot, and if you're not reading it, you're missing out terribly. 4.5 out of 5

Last but not least, the best zombie comic to ever see the light of day is up to it's 9th TPB and keeps all the intensity that we're used to. After volume 8, this felt a little bit slow and uneventful, but it was pretty unrealistic to imagine that every book after 8 would keep that pace - I think people would die from art attacks just reading it. Don't get me wrong - this book still is rich in emotional intensity and action. The story is progressing on a very interesting direction, and I can't wait to see what comes next, because I feel like this was almost the calm before the storm. But sadly, the next volume will probably take a while to hit the shelves.

Besides this, I've been reading a lot of Sin City issues and other miscelaneous comics that my boyfriend awesomely lent me, so I can't complain about my comic life at all.

And I won't complain about movie life either... after all there are some decent movies coming out these next weeks.

What have you guys been reading? Any recommendations?

Current Readings

You may, or may not (depending on how well you know me or how long you've been reading this blog) know that, as well as a movie fan, I am a huge book fan. I love to read, I think it's wonderful to immerse yourself in a book and let your imagination run wild and your feelings be touched for a few days.
When I was younger, I used to juggle a lot of books at the same time, since I had a lot of time to read and got my hands on every new book I could. Nowadays, with less time, more responsibilities, and more ways to spend money, I don't read as much anymore. But recently, thanks to December being the month of gifts and thanks to my wonderful Cosmic who lends me so many books, I've been building a respectable stack of books on my bedside table.
And now you ask, what have I been reading? And what am I about to read? Well, don't go away, 'cause I'll tell you right now.

Comics-wise, this week started off awesome, as I read volume 2 of Scott Pilgrim, "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" and volume 6 of Invincible's trade paperbacks, "A Different World". Scott Pilgrim is still great, I enjoy the writing and the art so, so much, and one of the things I love the most about this book is the underlying nerdiness of it. A lot of things play out like it's a game - catching items, leveling up, learning skills, and it's pretty fresh and awesome. Invincible is one of my favorite books, I just wish I had more money because everytime I'm finished with one TPB I want to move on to the next one. Volume 6 had more of the usual twists and turns, hooking you even more into the story - Robert Kirkman sure know how to write - and more of the brilliant art Ryan Ottley got us used to. One of my favorite things about these TPB is the few pages of sketches and layouts at the end of the story, and this volume is no exception. Great stuff.

On other books, I'm almost finished with a wonderful book I'm reading courtesy of Cosmic. It's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer. This has to be one of my favorite books of the last few years, and I haven't even finished it yet. I just know that this book is making me feel so much, and I think it takes a brilliant writer to press the emotion buttons like that. I think the last book that touched me in a similar way was Blankets (that is, by the way, perfection in the shape of a graphic novel), although the book's subjects are very different. In this one, we follow Oskar, a 9-year old depressed inventor, astrophysicist, scientist and all around brilliant kid, on a quest to feel closer to his father, who died in the Twin Towers on 9/11. Oskar's journey makes his path intertwine with a lot other people, and brings us stories of joy, sadness, failure, hope, making for a heartbreaking but very sweet and moving book. Foer's writing is excellent, and I love his little experiments with images and typography. I'm close to finishing, but I really didn't want to - it's one of those books that's so great you just don't want it to end.

Fortunatelly, once I finish Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, I have more reading material to pay attention to.

Also courtesy of Cosmic, I have Chuck Palahniuk's Choke. I'm pretty curious to read this one because I think that after Fight Club, it's Mr. Palahniuk's most famous work, and as such I'm eager to see what awaits me on those pages - besides, the movie's coming up and I want to be an informed reviewer when I see it.

One of my good friends also lent me Nightwatch, by russian writer Sergei Lukyanenko. I enjoyed the movie (I didn't see Daywatch, which I heard was pretty ridiculous), and books are almost always better than movies, so I'm bound to like this one (plus, the cover I have is not nearly this cheesy).

Last but not least, I have what was a birthday gift from some of my friends that I still couldn't find the time to start: A Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin. The first of a series of 7 books, I'm also very curious to start reading this one. Seems to be in the same fantasy vein as Lord of the Rings (that I loved, back when I read it, a good bunch of years ago), and I miss reading quality literature of that kind (last books of the sort I read were Eragon and Eldest, and honestly I didn't think they were that good).

Did you read any of these books? What did you think of them?

Comics

Tempos houve em que os belos dos comics, de vez em quando, lá traziam uma ou outra vinheta com coisas bem estranhas.
As pessoas da época olhariam para aquilo sem malícia e não pensariam duas vezes sobre o significado das coisas... mas e agora? Que é que vocês me dizem a algumas destas vinhetas?










Podem ver mais destas pérolas aqui:
http://thedailyinterests.blogspot.com/2007/07/top-15-unintentionally-funny-comic-book.html