Third Crepax Tribute limited booklets with help by international artists and new upcoming projects

Lost in the most beautiful city in the world?

I never know who I am or what I do in my professional life.

My friend and magnificient Finnish artist Terhi Ekebom gave me an advice to create an heteronyme while writing narratives, so my name is Mauno and I am a fisherman somewhere in Europe navigating seas in a small boat, living in a tiny house without internet with the company of some kitties, listening to wolves outside it.

 Perhaps I am not a fisherman and I am a guy named Manuel that was born in Porto, but Terhi knows life better than me because she is one of the best artists that I know of, a brave and lovely woman and I trust her and love her as the magnificent human being that she is.

My youngest niece Leticia in leisure time

I never know what I can write in narratives since they all are synched in my brain, heart and soul, so sometimes I ask to my youngest niece Letícia for advices on how to write narratives and she tells me that they are easy to write and I trust a lot in her, when she is in my company,  she picks up my cellphone and starts sending pictures of her to all my contacts and I truly believe that she knows how to communicate as a child to everybody because she cant conceive in her mind what is the worth of social networks and neither do I.

 I clearly know that I love people and international  artists in my heart and soul and I am not interested in having tons of "likes" at social networks because it is easy to press a button in a cellphone or a PC, but it isn't easy trying to reach to people s minds, memories, heart or soul.    

With one of my little cousins playing hide and seek 

Writing and organizing ideas in my mind, heart or soul sometimes is a bit crazy, since I lose myself a lot in the company of my nieces or cousins while playing with them in my leisure time.

A professional card with design by Argentine Artist MR Ed, a pen, a pencil and number 7 

Trying to figure out what a professional card is as consultant editor of Fantagraphics books publishing company based in Seattle - U.S.A is tricky since I clearly know the work that I have done with this company and the one that I am doing with the people there (mainly its owner Gary Groth) , be it Crepax book collection, Alberto Breccia book collection (that will be a reality in some months). I don't know or care about foreign lousy book collections whose rights were sold to other publishers all over the world since I am not a part of this busyness that clearly bores me a bit and that deals with numbers. Part of my job is to give advices to Fantagraphics or other publishers to publish excellent book editions of some artists that I love in order to be able to see them in book stands all over the world, clearly knowing my position at this publishing company and that I am not  Fantagraphics exclusive because I work for other publishers also.    

Monologue with a statue   

Everybody that communicates with me, be it online or personally knows that they aren't communicating with a statue and I also communicate with them in this exact same way, but I love to communicate with trees, birds, cats and even statues when I am alone.  

Lost in a labyrinth 

Several times, it seems that I am in a maze, be it at my professional or personal life and I continue to live it and forgetting about this sort of maze in my head, so I wander several streets in Europe knowing that a simple maze can be an easy way for people to enjoy themselves, because life is a maze and always will be.

       

My youngest niece Leticia and myself drawn and printed in paper by Japanese Artist John Kurokawa

International artists such as John Kurokawa that is Japanese know the bound that I have with my nieces so he created an artwork based on my youngest niece Letícia in my company. 

A vampire drawn printed in paper by Japanese Artist John Kurokawa

A ghost drawn printed in paper by Japanese Artist John Kurokawa

I also know that I am a simple vampire or a ghost who writes some narratives, curate exhibitions all over the world with help by international artists in this blogue/concept, that I try to share with international artists and I think that John Kurokawa and all artists that I work with know about this.   

Pic samples of movies that I love randomly organized in a coffeeshop table 

such as 2046 by Chinese director Wong Kar Wai, Trust by American director Hal Hartley, Mirror by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, Vertical Ray of The Sun by Vietnamese director Tran Ahn Hung, 8 and a half by Italian director Federico Fellini and sample artworks by Finnish artist Terhi Ekebom and Spanish artist Eduardo Alvarado Sánchez-Cortés

      

Pic samples of movies that I love organized in a blank page such as 2046 by Chinese director Wong Kar Wai, Trust by American director Hal Hartley, Mirror by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, Vertical Ray of The Sun by Vietnamese director Tran Ahn Hung, 8 and a half by Italian director Federico Fellini and sample artworks by Finnish artist Terhi Ekebom and Spanish artist Eduardo Alvarado Sánchez-Cortés

I love movies, TV series, books, music, artworks and soccer and I try to get inspired in these interests of mine while organizing things in my head.

 2046 is a movie that tell us about a writer that believes in love and a number of a room.

 Trust is a movie that tell us about what is trust in a relationship with love and life.

 Mirror is a movie that tell us about where our memories stand.

 Vertical Ray of The Sun is a movie that tell us about a family concept.

 8 and an half is a fictional film based on life, its memories and in what we can achieve with them.

 I have tried to gather all these movies in my heart and soul (randomly or organized) to try to figure out how I am going to turn several projects that I have in mind into reality, be them book anthologies, shows, personal books, all this with help by international artists. 

 I love brave and lovely women and Spanish artist Eduardo Alvarado Sanchez Cortez knows how to draw them, so I have asked him to print some women that he drew.

 Terhi Ekebom knows that I love her work, so I have thought that a fascinating isolated house that she created as an artwork would be perfect for this narrative.   

  

With third Crepax tribute limited booklets organized by myself and published by Fantagraphics, a framed artwork based on myself and a kitty that I used to have drawn by Spanish artist Jon Ander Azaola and another framed artwork with a sketch study of Valentina by Spanish artist Santiago Sequeiros 

Crepax limited booklet cover organized by myself with help by international artists and published by Fantagraphics

Published tributes to Valentina by Argentine artist Patricia Breccia and American artist Bill Koeb  

Published tributes to Valentina by American artist David Lasky and Japanese artist John Kurokawa

Published tributes to Valentina by American artist Brian Biggs and Italian artist Caterina Crepax

Published tributes to Valentina by American artist Olivia de Berardinis and Brazilian artist Rodrigo Rosa

Published tributes to Valentina by Spanish artists Pedro Espinosa and José Luis Ágreda 

Published tributes to Valentina by American artist Jeffrey Alan Love and Spanish artist Fidel Martinez Nadal

Published bios of the artists in this third Crepax limited booklet  

Published tribute to Valentina by American artist Sam Henderson

Being myself involved with more than 150 international artists (whose artworks I love) knowing that I must somehow publish their artworks makes my head spin several times per day, because it isn't easy trying to organize all the works that some of the best international artists sent me for several personal projects that I have or had in my mind.

 Tributes to valentina by Italian maestro Guido Crepax is one of them that I will continue developing in my mind and it is a project that I am proud of since it basically deals with a confused man as Crepax (that was a genius) putting his personal life in paper while talking to a fictional character that he created in his mind and gave it a life of its own by drawing her in an unique way.   

Trying to organize all my work in my mind

Below I will post a music video named "Analyze"by British musician Thom Yorke and its lyrics that tells a bit of my state of spirit right now. 

      

A self-fulfilling prophecy of endless possibility
You're born and raised across the street
In algebra, in algebra

The fences that you cannot climb
The sentences that do not rhyme
In all that you can ever change
The one you're looking for

It gets you down
It gets you down

There's no spark
No light in the dark

It gets you down
It gets you down
You travel far
What have you found
That there's no time
There's no time
To analyze
To think things through
To make sense

Like cows in the city
They never looked so pretty
Bad power cuts and blackouts
Sleeping like babies

It gets you down
It gets you down
You're just playing a part
You're just playing a part

You're playing a part
Playing a part
That there's no time
There's no time
To analyze
Analyze
Analyze

Special thanks to all international artists that also are awesome human beings, my family and to common people with awesome souls that help me every single day while I am developing new ideas for my job.

Manuel Espirito Santo 

Presentation - 1st Crepax book - Fantagraphics in Porto as creator and series editor of it

My experience with Guido Crepax and Fantagraphics - Porto first presentation at Boémia Caffé.

 

Being a small child in the 70's in Portugal wasn't easy because we were under a dictatorship from 1933 to 1974.

Brief world history of the country where I was born:

Portugal used to be one of the richest countries in the world because of world discoveries (that started with the birth of Henry, the navigator, that was born in Porto in 1394 and died in 1460 and was the mastermind behind the Portuguese empire (Portuguese sailors were the first ocidental to arrive to countries such as Japan, Australia, Brazil, India and several countries in Africa) and that also  continued with Fernão de Magalhães (that also was born in Porto)  and his name is in all atlas of the world and that was the first man that organized the first circumnavigation in the globe from 1519 to 1522.

  In 1578 we lost our riches because of the death of our king Sebastian, who didn't leave any heirs to the throne and left us under the dominion of Spain, this leads us to the collapse of Portuguese empire   

 I think that these events gave us Portuguese a kind of longing (Saudade) and we even started to have the complex of our king Sebastian that disappeared in a battle in Africa leaving us orphans, fado's music being a direct consequence of it in my opinion.

 Porto always was a different city, it gave name to my country because we lived near the ocean, so we as a country are several ports (literally translated in the name of Portugal).

 During the arrival of our ships with soldiers to Ceuta in 1415, we gave the meat that we had to our soldiers and started eating only the entrails of the pigs (that's now a common and typical food in Porto).

 Porto was also named Invicta that means in Latin "never defeated or conquered" being a fact that with the help of english soldiers, (that we've a pact with till modern days), we defeated Napoleon forces two times, being the latest in 12 May 1980.     

 So returning to the first paragraph that I've wrote in this post and bearing in mind how poor we were in earliest 70's and even 80's, we started to develop interest in arts in order to forget famine among other things.

 That's how I started searching for ways to escape my reality, reading several books about World History, prose, science fiction and of course comic books in languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, English and German.

 I knew at the time that I've loved comic books because they were static and I could construct dreams in my mind with them, like some kids of my age, but this fact made me love art in movement as well such as movies, animation, tv series, theater, etc.

 I'll write a small list a lot of my interests in these areas, but it's a tiny list, since giving away names in the XXI century, it's too easy, so in my opinion, I think that people should try to search more historical, fictional and even realism  content in the world wide web by their own, to try to see what arts, history or realism could help while creating their personnality and identity (questioning always everything while being critics with facts).

 In animation, I instantly remind myself of british artists such as Phil Mulloy and Joanna Quinn, Russians: Alexander Petrov, Piotr Dumala, Ivan Maximov, Portuguese animator Regina Pessoa among several others that I love.

 In movies my interests are a bit random, loved several American movies such as John Ford's westerns, David Lynch, Tim Burton, Jim Jarmusch, Hal Hartley among many others, classics, etc, Asian movies by directors such as Wong Kar Wai, Tsai Ming Liang, Kim Ki Duk among others.

 In Europe loved Portuguese director João César Monteiro, Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, German Expressionism (Fritz Lang, Murnau, Robert Wiene, etc), French new wave movies with director Godard among others, Russian director Tarkovsky and the italian neo realism wave movement with directors such as Antonioni, Fellini, Visconti, Ettore Scolla, Vitorio de Sica among others.

 I'm also a soccer's fan, It's popular, it's entertainment and the energy that emanates is awesome.

 Just love music as well and I think that I couldn't live without it as well, but books  always were my achilles heel, I just loved books and writers since a kid such as Kafka, Pessoa, Shakespeare, Charles Schulz, Hugo Pratt, Guido Crepax, José Muñoz, K. Dick, Cormac Mccarthy, Maiakovski, Dostoievsky, Beckett, Antonin Artaud or others less known (in prose or comics).

 I've decided as series editor of Fantagraphics Crepax complete collection to do a talk that was held in 23 April 2016 in my hometown Porto at a coffee called Boémia Caffé.

 Special thanks to Daniel Castro for all the support.

Here are some photos of it: 

Portuguese comics newspaper from 1979 "O Lobo Mau" that published part Valentina's first stories "The subterraneans storyline".

A woman reading the first Crepax book 

1st Crepax Fantagraphics book along a French edition of Valentina by Guido Crepax stories, Portuguese edition of Pauline Reage's adaptation Story of O by Crepax,  French Charlie mensuel magazines with Valentina stories and French edition of Valentina Crepax - Published by L'echo des Savannes/ Albin Michel.

Checking out The Subterraneans map with the made up language created by Guido Crepax and Luisa Crepax

Reading the first Crepax book 

My wife Paula Fonseca reading the first Fantagraphics Crepax book

Waiting for the talk to happen with a painted tribute to Crepax on a wood board by
Lama - Escriptorio Graphico 

First Fantagraphics Crepax book.

Checking out The Subterraneans map with the made up language created by Guido Crepax and Luisa Crepax

Talk with first Fantagraphics book while comparing a French edition by Albin Michel with some stories that appeared in the first Fantagraphics book and the comparison of both editions

Checking out The Subterraneans map with the made up language created by Guido Crepax and Luisa Crepax

Talk with first Fantagraphics book along tribute booklet and tribute to Valentina by Argentine artist Mister ED

Me with Marco that's the portuguese artist that hand painted a tribute to Crepax on a wood board

Reading the first Fantagraphics Crepax book

Tributes to Valentina by Guido Crepax by French artist Walter Minus and Spanish artist Fidel Martínez Nadal that made a tribute to Valentina in Porto with elements of it when Guido Crepax daughter's Caterina Crepax visited my hometown

Checking out The Subterraneans map with the made up language created by Guido Crepax and Luisa Crepax

Books gives us dreams, nightmares and the sense of being part of them while having them in our possession, which I find truly interesting because books are being almost an object in the digital era that we live in.

 So, with all this in mind, I started thinking in the first Crepax book (and the collection as well) as an object/historical legacy of Italian maestro, published by Fantagraphics in hardcover in a huge format and high quality and even asked several known artists from all over the world to do tributes to Valentina and later to Belinda comic book characters created by Crepax and that are going to appear as free booklets with the Crepax collection and that could be exhibited as well, being these tributes,visions and property of the artists to exhibit as well where they want or to sell them.

 This book gave us lots of work and lots of times, first was the book and later our own personal lives while the book was in production and sometimes we had some discussions about details and all, so it was a book made with love, blood, sweat and tears.

 I think that it's an excellent book and we tried to surpass all the obstacles that appeared (like happens in real life in all areas) while we were putting it in production,

 Working with Fantagraphics is excellent and we don't have any middle term, we must always do our best while doing a collection like this.

 I know that we did our best in it and tried to pick some of the mysteries that Crepax gave us with his stories by connecting some influences that he had in his works with world history, his own personal life, movies, books or characters that ressembled a bit his main character Valentina either physically or in terms of personality in other movies.    

 It's really easy to judge Guido's artwork, but Guido Crepax was also a master storyteller.  

 With this presentation done by myself in a coffee with random audience in my hometown, is my way of paying a tribute to Italian maestro.

 This was a healthy obsession with Crepax, but if it was another artist or in another area, I would also be obsessed with it, since my work is my obsession and in my opinion, we must always give everything in life in any work since we only have one and the history of the world depicted by artists or writers since the beginning of times is in books and it'll always be. 

 If we must create books better in graphic and information terms, I know that we must work harder and harder, since we are working having in mind readers that search for good quality books and some people can't imagine the work and effort that we put in them. (neither did I, before start working on them).

 So, when you see a book or a comic book, never judge it by its cover or its price. 

I'll post a video of the talk soon and more photos with other future projects dedicated to Crepax like tribute stories being made to Valentina by truly gifted artists from all over the world.

Many thanks to all audience present in this presentation, to the artists that made lots of Valentina's vision by Guido Crepax that are being spread in the world.

Special thanks for the support of my wife Paula Fonseca, my kitty Ilvie, my family, friends, Gary Groth and Caterina Crepas