Where were you born? Where did you grow up?
Sao Paulo, the capital, where I was born and raised.
Schooling? Art training?
No, but I’d love to.
How long have you been working professionally in comics?
I’ve worked with COMICS for two years, then I did just a couple of freelances and worked as a Manga teacher.
What things -- both in art and otherwise -- have you worked on besides comics? Are comics a full-time gig for you or part-time?
I started working when I was 16, as a slaes person in the shopping mall, then I worked as a receptionist, untill I got to work with COMICS. Currently it’s a full time job.
Talk about how you broke into the business --was it easy? Hard? Ups? Downs? Any interesting anecdotes? When you held your first published work in your hands, how did you feel?
It wasn’t easy at first, for my lack of experience and the lack of market that still lasts here in Brazil. My first work was in 1997, when an amateur publisher decided to open a publishing company to publish Manga, I draw a story to the magazine that had two volumes and was canceled then. I ended up giving up for a long period and kept drawing just as a hobby, people at my work place would always see me drawing and they liked it very much, many times they asked me to draw for them. It was then in 2002, when by coincidence I was dismissed, one month later I was invited to make a test to draw a COMIC book that was very popular on the internet at the time “The Combo Rangers”. I passed the test and started working with the team in a small studio, but very well equipped. I loved to work on that environment.
After a while we stopped working at the studio and started doing it form home, sending the art works by e-mail or delivering it at the office.
When the magazine stopped, I was already a draw teacher and was working at two different places.
Did you work as an assistant to any other artists? If so, please talk a bit about those experiences.
I worked as an assitant in a couple of short animations made by the Yabu’s studio. One of them was for Tim, I helped making the cleanup and to color. I learned a lot of stuffs and had a lot of fun with the work, because we got back to work altogether at the studio once and again. The other animation I did was a video clip for the spreading of Yabu’s book, The little princeses of the sea. I did the intervalação, cleanup and color of some scenes. This work was made separately by the artists, each one at his own house/office.
How did your parents take to the idea of working in comics?
My mother never liked the idea of taking drawing as a profession, untill now she doesn’t seem to aproove it very much, but she has already perceived there’s no way of turning back XP.
How would you describe your workspace? Is it part of your home,
or do you go "to the studio"?
At home. In the living room table, it’s a very big wooden table, where my PC and my drawing materials are. I intend to put all that stuff in my badroom. =)
What job are you the proudest of? What's your most embarrassing?
I’m proud of all of my art works, but there’s specially one that makes very proud and where I’m depositing my hopes; which is Mercenario$. It’s a project where I’m working with two other friends and we believe that will work out. Well for now I still didn’t feel embarrassed with any art work of mine.
What are you currently drawing? Comments on that project?
I’m doing Mercenário$ and giving private classes of drawig.
Mercenario$ is the dream’s project of 3 friends, the team has already changed a bit its currently composition, but I believe the tendency is to get better, we hope someday some publisher gets interested on the project.
Talk about your family: Parents, siblings, home situation. Are you married? Have kids? Names? Anecdotes about married life, how it relates to your busy schedule, etc. If you have kids do they understand your job? What do they say about it? Do they read comics?
I live with my mother and my brother, but my brother is on the verge of getting married, so there’ll be just me and my mother and my two cats. Oh, I love cats! Have I already said that? No, I’ve no kids, maybe someday...
My mother and my brother just look at the covers of my art works and say it’s beautiful, nothing more than that.
What projects do you hope to work on in the future?
I hope to make a lot of projects in the future, but specially, as I’ve already mentioned I want to be able to finish Mercenario$. I also want to work with something more than COMICS someday; I love making caracter design, I hope to work with games caracters someday.
Where do you see yourself in five years? Ten years?
Maried, with kids, two in the maximum! And professionaly full filled. Dreaming is exempt of taxes!
What is the interest in comics where you live? Do friends and neighbors know you draw comics for a living? How do they react?
People who like COMICS aren’t well respected around here...they’re always considered as irresponsible or imature, well, we know it’s not like that.
My friends in general also like COMICS, they think it’s very cool what I do, some of them are not only friends but co-workers.
What's 1 thing you'll always find in your refrigerator?
Apples! I love apples!
What's your favorite food?
I like many things, but I think I can say I love japanese food.
What are your favorite interests --Movies? Music? TV? Any hobbies? Sports?
I love movies, thrillers , epics, animations...but I hate horror! When I watch them I get at least a week without sleeping very well!
Music is something I really like, melodic heavy metal, movies and animations sound tracks, classical music. I’m not a very sportive kind of person, but I love video games.
Have you ever thought of writing your own stories?
Yes, but I don’t think I can express my ideas with words as well as I do with my draws. The point is that my thing drawing, but I love to paricipate at the time the sory is being concepted, I guess that the ideas flow better in a group.
Ever been in a gang?
No.
What's an average day in your life like? Walk us through a typical day.
Well, generally I wake up late, because I go to bad late. I’m more nocturnal, I’m not really of the mornings, I get useless in the morning. I get my coffee (I’m a cofee addicted), go to my desk put a music on and start drawing, sometimes I get up and play with my cats or do whatever that needs to be done. When I have class, wake up earlier and when I get back I keep on drawing; around midnight I get on the internet to chat with some friends or to send some work.
Any anecdote or interesting story to tell about the COMIC market?
No, right now no story comes to my mind.
Do you have any great, unsold projects in your files that nobody's gotten to see published?
Yes! Mercenario$!!! Well, but it’s not exactly in our files, I’m still working on it when I can.
List of credits
The King of Animes , published by the extinct Kingdwon comics in 1997.
Combo Rangers; at the first publishing by JBC I participated of the two last numbers 11 and 12. In the second that was by Panini, I participated from the number 1 to the 12 which was when the magazine stopped.
Vignettes illustrting articles on the Veja Sao Paulo magzine of december of 2005 and on Veja magzine on january of 2006.
Cover illustration of the Mercenario$ nº 1 magazine.
Illustration of an article at the Dragon Slayer nº 4 magazine.
COMICS of 12 pages plus Mercenario$ illustration, published on Drangon Slayer nº 8 magazine.
If you weren't a comic-book artist today, what would you be?
Maybe I’d be a vet or would be studying the history of old civilizations such as the greeks, egypt, mythology...etc.
Have you taught comic-book art or had any assistants? If so, talk about that.
Yes, I’m a draw teacher. But as an assitant I’ve worked with Elisa in Combo Rangers and Mercenario$, she did the nanquim “final art” .
The single thing you'd most like to be remembered for in your life is...?
I never thought about it. But, I’d like to make a fine job in the future to be remembered for ever.
Any closing words for your fans?
Fans? Which fans??? Well, if I had any I’d tell them not to give up on their dreams.
