Where were you born? Where did you grow up?  
I was Born in Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil.

Schooling? Art training?  
Yes. I was Álvaro Rio’s student and participated of the COMICS workshop of the UFC (University of Ceara) and studied at Joe Kubert School.

How long have you been working professionally in comics?  
Since 1996.

What things -- both in art and otherwise -- have you worked on besides comics? Are comics a full-time gig for you or part-time?  
Well, I’ve already worked as an office assistant, as a law trainee, as a trainee at the O Povo journal, as a waiter, as a cleaner, as a cartoon maker in events (doing caricatures), as a software illustrator, as a CD cover maker and as a drawing and COMICS  teacher.

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? 
I broke into the professional COMICS business writting and drawing a Ceara’s character, criated by a cartoon maker named Mino, entitled the Rapadura Capitain. That was in 1996. In the north american professional business I’ve had my first appearance in 2000, working as an assitant in a DC COMICS title. It wasn’t easy and from that time on I had highs and lows. I did a couple of works with independents publishing companies, many tests, comissions, cards illustrations, a couple of covers, AK COMICS titles, character’s conceptions and a story to Dark Horse.
What I’m about to tell right now wasn’t actually an anecdote, but a real story. In 1998  I was in New York City showing my portfolio to a couple of small publishing companies. I was in the very beginning of my career and my art was yet very problematic. In one of those visits there was a very well dressed mister that took me in and evaluated my work in a very raw and honest manner. He was even rude for a moment. I listened everything very carefully and tried to absrob the maximum for my progress, although I had no idea of who that man was. In the end he said:

1. “If you have any doubts about anything I said you can go to Marvel and DC that they’re going to tell you the same thing.

Then I said:

1. “But I couldn’t get an appointment with them”.
2. “Tell my name and they’re going to take you in”.
3. “And what’s your name, sir?”, intrigued I asked his name already expecting him to be a very important person.
4. “Neel Adams, the legend!” he answered.

Dude, I was shocked. I’ve always been a huge fan of Adams, I knew a lot of his work, but had never seen his face before. Icould never thought that he would take in and evauate beginners portfolios. I learned a lot on that day. I learned we must be humble and we must learn to listen critical poits of view even if you don’t who is criticizing, I learned a lot of precoius things about draw and also asked for an autograph and a picture with my idol.
My fisrt COMIC story was published on the UFC’s magazine, called PIUM, in 1995. It was an undescribleble emotion. It was a dream come true. There I was sure of what I wanted to become in the future.

Did you work as an assistant to any other artists? If so, please talk a bit about those experiences.
Yes I did and it was great. A great school. It was working as an assitant that I learned the real COMICS production’s rythm, I learned many tricks, I had a global vision of the whole process and, off course I had advanced “classes” of draw and narrative, in a way no school is able to teach.

How did your parents take to the idea of working in comics?   
They support me, respect it and believe in my potential. And so does my wife and my daughter.

How would you describe your workspace? Is it part of your home,  
or do you go "to the studio"?
I’ve two work places. One is at my own home, small, but complete, with a light table, PC, scanner, etc. and the other one is bigger and more professional at my studio, where I teach and spend most of my time. In the studio, beside the tables, the PC and every kind of material, I’ve a large library of visual reference. Besides, the studio is a space where friends who love the nineth art and COMICS professionals get together. Great artists frequent my studio and even do their own works in there. Dudes such as Allan Goldman, Cristiano Lopes, Caio Menescal, JJ Marreiro and Geraldo Borges. Great talents!

What job are you the proudest of? What's your most embarrassing? 
I really like some authorial stories, but I’m specially proud of a work I did with the Yellow Jacket, of Dark House. A work that didn’t please me that much was with the Ava, of AK COMICS, because I was hired to re-draw a story and I had to follow the same layout of the prevoius artist, the same framings, camera’s angles, etc. and the final result was a no fluid narrative.  

What are you currently drawing? Comments on that project? 
Unfortunately I can’t coment many things about it. But I can say that there’re two projects. The first one are covers for the three first editions of a title and the second are pages of a project to be presented to Image

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’m the oldest son. I’ve two sisters and my parents are great. They’ve always shown their love by me and they’ve always supported me in everything in my life. I’m blessed. Today I’m married since 2000, but I’m with my wife Juliana since 1992, when we first started dating. We’ve a beautiful three years old daughter named Liz. Because of her age, she still doesn’t understands my job vey well, but she already respects it. She loves to draw, she has a mount of COMICS and loves when we read them for her.
The profession I chose, that I love so much, is not steady at  all and due to that, my wife and I had already to face tuff times. She’s always been my side. She never got discouraged and also gave me an immense proof of love when we went to live in the U.S so that I could study at Joe Kubert School. For us to pay our bills, Juliana worked 14 hours a day as a dinner waitress. Besides she was very comprehensive and never got jealousie of the human anatomy classes with nudes femine models. Hehehe!


What projects do you hope to work on in the future?  
I love telling stories and the way I like doing it the most is through COMICS. I dream of participate of great projects with big publishing companies. I’d like to draw great scripts, fulls of humanity and inteligence. Work with script writters I admire. And my great dream is to publish authorial albuns in the european model. I’ve great ideas that are on my files waiting the right moment to be done.

Where do you see yourself in five years? Ten years?  
In five years I see myself steadly in the COMICS business, having published many cool titles I want to have pride of them and to have the joy to say that my career evolved to each year.
Ten years from now, I want to have built a solid and respected name. Who knows maybe to be publishing my authorial material in Brazil, U.S and europe?
 
What is the interest in comics where you live? Do friends and neighbors know you draw comics for a living? How do they react?
Fortunately here in Fortaleza there’s a significant number of people who consume and produce COMICS. Most of them in an independent way, but there’re also good professionals, of international recognition. Most of my friends and neighbors really doesn’t understand my work. Al though my mother and my father support me, they still seem not to understand it. But I understand them. I also  don’t understand a thing of the work of accountants and of  stock markets operators of the financial market. Hehehe!

What's 1 thing you'll always find in your refrigerator? 
Yoghurt. My daughter loves it and it must be always in my refrigerator.

What's your favorite food? 
Sushi and sashimi.

What are your favorite interests --Movies? Music? TV? Any hobbies? Sports? 
I love soccer. I am a fanatic Flamengo’s fan. Without a doubt the red-black is one of my biggest passions. Moreover, I adore cinema, music and TV. I’ve a like for drama, national cinema, scripts based on real facts, human stories beings and with foot on the ground. In my free time I read a lot of COMICS, some books, watch a lot of TV (soccer, the news, soap operas and series). I am a great fan of Friends, Wonder Years and Lost. About  music, I am very eclectic and if I can, I spend the entire day listening to The Beatles (which is my favorite band), U2, Marisa Monte, Alanis Morissette and rock in general, mainly the classics of 50’s, 60’s 70’s and 80’s.

Have you ever thought of writing your own stories? 
Yes, I do already do that. I’ve already published a few stories of mine, but none big project yet. I’ve plans and dreams of making authorial albuns in the future.

Ever been in a gang? 
No.

What's an average day in your life like? Walk us through a typical day. 
Well, I usually wake up around 06:30 A.M. Some mornings I go to the studio and in others I stay at home. I check my e-mail account and I keep on the Internet. I Start working at 08:30 A.M. At 10:00 A.M I go to  the gym. Every afternoon I go to  the studio where I give private classes and draw. At night, usually, I minister classes of the regular courses, I come back home, I have supper with my family, I give attention to them and then I draw until the time it’s necessary.

Any anecdote or interesting story to tell about the COMIC market?
One of the first COMICS I published was an authorial one and it had a sex scene. With no bad intention I gave Juliana (my current wife and, at the time, my girlfriend) an unit. The next week, my father in law called me for “an embarrassing” talk about my future with his daughter… Today, remembering my shyness and the“situation” I caused, I find it very funny. Hehehe!

Do you have any great, unsold projects in your files that nobody's gotten to see published?  
Yes i do, but I’d rather not to talk about it. The right time to take it out of my files and to produce it is yet to come

List of credits:
Let’s see if I remember everything… PIUM magazine; Captain Rapadura; Manicomics; Front; Informal; Pixel; Northeast Daily; Strange world Presents: Collection 100 Answers - Hanna-Barbera; Wizard Brazil; Strange World magazine; Sexy magazine; Sexy Total; UniversoHQ.com; Miscellany; Vortex; Quadreca; Azrael (tracer assistant); Collection of cards for the A&G; covers for Philosopher Rex; Atomic Robot Comics; Arcadius Press (tracer assistant); Comics Book Artist #6 by Top Shelf; Aya, Jalila and Rakan for the AKComics; Yellow Jacket for the Dark Horse… I guess that’s all!

If you weren't a comic-book artist today, what would you be? 
I guess ‘id be a COMICS teacher.


Have you taught comic-book art or had any assistants? If so, talk about that. 
I give draw and COMICS classes in my studio since 1998.
 
The single thing you'd most like to be remembered for in your life is...? 
 I’d like to be remembered by honesty.
 
Any closing words for your fans?
I only have to be thank for whom that follow my work, that reads my stories. Everything that I make in my days with the intention of improving my work is in due to the the respect I have for the reader.