Interview to Danijel Zezelj about his works and upcoming release of portuguese edition of "Luna Park" - Levoir

01

Manuel Santo: You're a graphic novelist, animator and illustrator born In Croatia with a singular and original art technique. 

Can you tell us what is the raw material that you use while doing your artworks? 

Danijel Zezelj 

My technique for drawing comics and most of the illustrations is black ink and white acrylic on a heavy paper. I use brushes of various sizes and sometimes sponge, and originals are around A3 size. 

For big paintings I use acrylic paint on wood, and often use small rollers as well as brushes. 

The sizes are anywhere from 50 x 70 cm to 300 x 150 cm.

02

You're quite popular in Italy published by Grifo Edizioni and other publishing houses, also in France by Mosquito and for U.S.A for DC, Image, Marvel among others.

Do you feel yourself as a complete and recognized artist in the world? 

I don’t see myself as widely recognized and I definitely do not feel as if my learning and exploring has been completed. 

There are many techniques of visual storytelling and painting that I still want to dive in.

It’s the necessity of communication, of connecting to others, that triggers the creativity, and I hope to keep communicating. 

03

In ritmo del cuore published by Grifo Edizioni In 1993  Federico Fellini made an introduction to your book. 

I find it fascinating your work being acknowledged by one of the best movie directors ever. 

What drove Fellini to write an introduction to this book? 

Federico Fellini was part of the creative team behind the magazine Il Grifo, and he really liked the comics I sent to the Grifo publisher at the time. 

I actually didn’t even know that Fellini has seen my work, but when my first graphic novel "Il ritmo del cuore" was about to be published as a hardcover book, Vincenzo Mollica, one of the publishing directors at the time, told me that Fellini wanted to write a few introductory sentences. Which was an immense honor.

I grew up with Fellini’s films, and Amarcord is still one of my favorite movies ever.

04

In 1998, you made a literary adaptation of "The Plague" by Algerien Writer Albert Camus and In 2000 a book about russian Writer Vladimir Mayakovsky. 

What sort of influence their writings have on your work?

I read a lot and constantly, i find huge power and inspiration in good writing. 

Writers are lost souls, lonely warriors, they create worlds out of dead letters, I can relate to their despairs and hopes. 

Right now I’m working on a wide series of portraits of writers which I hope to eventually collect as a book and an exhibition. The  working title is The Savage Detectives (an homage to Roberto Bolano).

05

In 2004, you made a book called "small hands" as a sort of homage about American musician Thelonious Monk. Can you tell us something about the Impact of the music In your work as well? 

Music is another important inspiration for me and Small Hands was an attempt to capture the feel of Monk's creativity, and the way he used the time, the rhythm, the pause, the silence, in his music. He was also a peculiar character, verbally almost incomprehensable, but his composing and piano playing shines with sharp intelligence and sensitivity and deep understanding of the time and space, and human condition. Monk’s music was a complete and authentic language. Graphic novel Small Hands is not at all a Monk’s biography but an attempt to tell the story through the use of syncopation, silence, different time levels, bending the traditional narrative line. 

06

In 2001, you made the art work for Corinthian-Death in Venice published by DC Comics/Vertigo, USA , written by Darko Macan, that was a spin off of Neil Gaiman's Sandman. 

How did you feel drawing this fascinating character from Sandman's universe? 

Corinthian is one of the darkest Sandman characters, and Macan did great job creating the story set in Venice and exploiting the ambiguity of Corinthian. And Venice, as an old fascinating sinking metropolis was a perfect background for his diabolical decadence.

07

In the same year you also did artwork for EL DIABLO, written by Brian Azzarello, DC Comics/Vertigo, USA, 2001.

What can you tell us about this work.

El Diablo is still one of my favorite graphic novels. It is a traditional western story with a modern twist and Azzarello made a powerful remake of an old DC character which he resurrected in his very own original way. Azzarello is always fresh, provocative and smart, and one of the greatest dialogue writers in today’s literature.

08

In 2015, you started working for Image Comics in a series called Starve with American Writer Brian Wood. What made you do this series with Brian? 

Brian Wood and I wanted to do an original series for a long time, and as Brian sent me few proposals the one I liked the most was the story about a desperate, wild, aging, self-distructive chef Gavin Cruikshank.

So we started a 10-episode series Starve. Story also explores the excessive power of the modern media, the collapsing social structure, vulgarity of reality television and social media, all of it mixed with some extreme cooking. 

It’s been a long journey (212 pages) but I’m really proud of the final result and I hope it will get published in countries besides USA.

09

Industrial, Babylon and your version of french Writer Charles Perrault "Red Riding Hood" are masterpieces in my opinion and were published in Italy, France and Croatia from 2012 to 2015. 

The silence in it is a scream. How was it for you working in these graphic novels? 

Industrial, Babylon and The Red Riding Hood (entitled The Forest) are all wordless graphic novels. 

In part they are a homage to the tradition of wordless graphic novel which started with authors like Frans Masereel and Lynd Ward in 1920-is. 

But it was my desire to tell stories without words that triggered work on those books. 

I do find combination of words and images fascinating, but the absence of words opens up another dimension of storytelling, the focus on the visuals creates an unique rhythm of the storytelling. 

These books are a sort of a trilogy, connected with the absence of text but mainly with the exploration of individual destinies in the post-industrial world.

Red Riding Hood is one of the oldest european folk stories and Charles Perrault just copied it and polished it to make it nicer and more acceptable to moral standards of the time. However, the story is deeply embedded into the texture of western culture and morality (as every myth is) and I always wanted to do my own interpretation of it.

10

You also did several animations from 2010 to 2015. 

What's the difference in your opinion creating something in movement like they're compared to a graphic novel that is a static artform? 

I did four short animation movies so far and right now i’m working on the fifth one. Big inspiration for me were animations by William Kentridge and seeing them triggered an impulse to try to create a story in a similar technique. 

So far I experimented with a couple of animation techniques but in every case the difference from the graphic novel’s narrative language is big because animation uses time as a primary element of storytelling, as well as the movement and sound. The creative process it’s long and it requires huge amount of patience and concentration, and I find it way too slow and tedious. But when successful, the final impact is immense.

11

In 2009, you did artwork for Luna Park with Writer Kevin Baker that's was published by DC Vertigo and will be published later this year In Portuguese.

What can portuguese fans expect from this particular Graphic Novel? 

Readers can expect a dense and multi-layered story, a trip through several cultures and time periods, a contemplation on the continuity of political disasters through the history. As Kevin said at one point, the Luna Park, in part, is about never learning from our mistakes.

12

As an artist and a person, your life seems divided in several countries such as your birth country Croatia, Italy, France and the U.S.A. 

Do you consider yourself not only a Croatian artist but a citizen of the world? 

I never considered myself as only Croatian artist, and I don’t think that creativity and art could or should be confined within the national borders. 

I spent half of my life living in England, Italy and USA, and I owe as much to all those places as I owe to books, paintings, movies, graphic novels, music… that I came across. 

And I owe the most to people and friends I met and worked and lived with. 

There is a common thread connecting all of us humans, and that is not some poetic illusion but a very concrete and necessary connection. We are social animals and the time is what binds us as much as a space. We all share two fundamental facts: love and death. 

Sometimes you turn love into hate but that only means that you are dead before your time is up. But you cannot escape love or death. 

13

What's your vision of comic book artform, do you think that it will collapse with digital comics and all this new technology available In the XXI century? 

It will not collapse. As long as there is one girl or guy creating a good graphic novel it will not collapse. 

Nothing good dies. 

14

Can you tell us about future projects that you're working on? 

Right now I’m working on a 10-minute animation movie based on the story of my latest graphic novel The Forest (The Red Riding Hood). I have to finish it by September. 

There are also two graphic novels I’m preparing, one based on a short movie script entitled The Fagots, and the other would be a wordless graphic novel based on Kafka. 

There are also few upcoming Live Painting + Live Music performances in Italy and an exhibition in Bruxelles.

Interview to David Lloyd about the Portuguese Edition "V for Vendetta" - Levoir

A small intro.

The night was cold and it did rain a bit.

 I remember being with David at Beja - Portugal in 2014 during a comic book festival, while curating and organizing an exhibition dedicated to Italian maestro Guido Crepax with several of his originals and that later in 2016, I should be talking with him to a live audience about his masterpiece "V for Vendetta" written by British genius Alan Moore in Lisbon to promote it as the first book of a graphic novels collections, but a lightning train passed on my mind while somebody was telling me that I should pay my own trip, food and stay from Porto to Lisbon and this buzz on my head while I was doing a work, blured my vision of that event.

 I knew that I wanted to help doing a definitive book edition of "V" and all that it stands for since it was first published in Warrior magazine.

 David was willing to help me and receptive to the idea, the publishers were not because it would give a bit more work than the usual copy and paste from other "V for Vendetta" worldwide published book editions, being myself a simple guy and not an "illuminati", I quit this work.

I also knew that David drew for me an exclusive artwork for the Portuguese book edition with "V" and "Evey" to be published in it, but once again, the publisher rejected it, because of the trouble of inserting in this book edition an artwork by the artist who created visuals for it, maybe (perhaps, maybe), Alan Moore could also provide an intro for this edition but at that time, I knew that maybe/perhaps/whatever, that the publisher wouldn't publish it because of the work that this would take by inserting extra pages on this book edition.

 So, I lighted a cigarette and forget about everything that this editor/publisher was saying to me while thinking that David also drew an artwork based on John Constantine's Hellblazer for me, just because he also worked on some issues of it with British writers Jamie Delano and Grant Morrison.

 Below is my coffeeshop interview with written words in the company of David Lloyd himself.

01

You did visual art for a masked vigilante named Night Raven in March 1979 for Marvel UK with British artist Steve Parkhouse, I remember reading about it and that he was a sort of inspiration to V.

What can you tell us about this? 

David Lloyd: As it turned out, my visuals were bent to their idea of how the character should look, not mine - but nevertheless it proved successful and brought me a following.  It was a precursor to V because when the editor set up his own magazine later, he asked me to create a similar type of character to Night Raven, and V was the result.

02

The character V created by you and Alan Moore appeared first In issue 1 of Warrior March 1982 magazine edited by Dez Skinn in chapters in black and white and ran monthly until number 27 from April 1996.

Being later serialized and finished by you along Alan Moore by DC comics in color from September 1988 to May 1989 in 10 comic book issues.

 Did you and Alan knew at the time that it could be a sucess among comic book readers in a though period such as the Cold War and with Margaret Thatcher as British Prime Minister? 

David Lloyd: We never thought there was any doubt - we knew we were doing something that was more than just an adventure and had important things to say, but we also knew that the readers were liable to respond positively to it because most comic readers here in the UK at the time were very welcoming to the apocalyptic subject matter that we dealing with in V.  And we knew we were doing a good job with it.

03

With several references in this book, like George Orwell's masterpiece "1984", David Bowie among many others, was it difficult for you both to mention references while creating something new as well? 

David Lloyd: I'm not aware we mentioned Orwell or David Bowie in V - I'll check!

V was influenced and inspired by lots of things, many of which we detailed in an article describing its genesis in the middle of the story's run.  Referring to other works directly in the body of any creation is just a way to add relevant ingredients to the mix that might be necessary to your intention.  I can't imagine a situation in which you'd want to do it if it was liable to make creativity difficult.

04

One of the things that made me curious with this masterpiece was the main character being linked with number 5 and the letter V, that clearly stands for the message that the book tries to give us. Evey's character was also a derivation of the main character name V.

David Lloyd: You'd have to ask Alan about the idea of using all the different meanings of V. He just thought that up out of his usual genius.  But you're wrong about Evey. V is a blend of two unsold stories that both myself and Alan had created separately years before V, which were both, coincidentally, about urban guerillas fighting a fascist dictatorship in a future England. Mine was about a female resistance fighter called Evelina Falconbridge.  That's where the name Evey comes from.

05

Did you planned to portray Evey as a sort of a derivation also in terms of personality comparing her to V? 

David Lloyd: Well, for me, Evey represents society - the people. 

She begins cowed and afraid and grows in knowledge and strength as V molds her, which is what V attempts to do with the corrupted population in order to make them fight for a better and more honourable existence.

06

I remember In 1984, David J and Kevin Haskins, that were members of Bauhaus music band, doing a soundtrack for this book with the song written by Moore "This Vicious Cabaret" with a cover drawn by you.

 know that they are from Northampton as Alan is and they worked before together in 1983 Sinister Ducks EP, under a pseudonym named Translucia baboon with a Kevin O'Neill cover

and that Alan also wrote a preface for their 1981 "Mask" album under the pseudonym Brilburn Logue.

07

I remember talking personally with Peter Murphy in early 90's before a concert, while he was promoting his album "Cascade" and he told me that he loved "V for Vendetta" then.

Did you liked seeing this soundtrack with such known musicians, then? 

David Lloyd: I didn't knew any of those guys or any of that music.  David J was a nice guy, and his music for V was appropriately Weill-like, and yes, it was great to see V evolve into these areas.  We were always trying to extend V into other areas at that time - trying to interest tv and film companies in doing a version.

08

Another thing that I remember seeing in the ten DC comic book issues was that you made  amazing splash pages that never appeared in the normal TPB Edition of this masterpiece and that I also haven't seen collected the Warrior covers that had V on them and that also the covers of the issues were really small in the TPB.

 Do you think that you would have loved seeing a proper gallery with all these covers in a normal format page in a TPB Edition? 

David Lloyd: By 'splash pages' if you mean the bridging pages between chapters in the miniseries, they're in the Absolute Edition.  

Would be nice to see the covers well printed again, but, I'm more interested in the story.  A cover's made to interest and attract, but the play's the thing.  Btw the Warrior covers, apart from one that was partly done by me, weren't done by me, though I've been mis-credited with them.

09

I've watched 2005 "V for Vendetta" movie directed by James Mcteigue and I liked it, knowing that I can't compare it with the book since they're two different art forms, one that has movement and another that is static.

 Was it good for you seeing the book adapted into a major picture with known actors such as John Hurt (that interpreted Big Brother in it, after being the main character named Winston from the movie masterpiece "1984" directed by Michael Radford released in 1984 and that was based on George Orwell's masterpiece book, being first published in 1949 with the same title in which Winston was against Big Brother in it)

Natalie Portman as "Evey" and Hugo Weaving as "V"?

David Lloyd: Yes, they made a good movie of it, though, as you say, it's a different version.

10

What have you felt while working with Alan Moore in this masterpiece? 

David Lloyd: Very happy.  Except to say that the best time on it were the early days when we were doing just 6-8 pages every month, and we were basically making it up as we went along, with time to think and experiment more.  When it was completed for DC, Alan wrote the final 3 issues in one chunk and it was a different experience to work on it.

11

The "V" mask stood as a strong influence In this century due to the anonymous movement.

 Was it strange for you to start seeing "V's" mask in the news all over the world with common people trying to make political statements with it? 

David Lloyd: Not strange - heartening and satisfying. To see it represent in many ways, and many places, in the real world what it represents in the book - a symbol of standing up against oppressive authority, or a perceived tyranny of some kind.

12

You visited Portugal several times, what is your opinion about our country?

David Lloyd: Oh, I like what I've seen, but I've not seen enough of it for long enough to form an opinion!

13

Are you happy with an upcoming "V for Vendetta" Portuguese book edition?

David Lloyd: Of course. 

14

Can you tell something to Portuguese fans about your personal interests in comics? 

David Lloyd: My main interest is in what I'm doing now - publishing Aces Weekly, an exclusively digital comic art anthology, which I suggest everyone check out at www.acesweekly.co.uk.

Many thanks David 

Fantagraphics Crepax - 1st book presentation - Porto - Video

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      

      

       

    

    

 

Exibition Tribute to Crepax - Fantagraphics bookstore and Gallery - Seattle - 9th to 21st April

Poster for Tribute to Crepax with international artists original artworks, videos by Alex Korolkovas and Sound installation by Sérgio Rocha from 9th to 21 April in Seattle - U.S.A
 

Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery did a Crepax book launch in 9 April with an exhibition that will be in display until 21st April 2016 to promote the first book of the complete Crepax collection series for the first time in english that's already available in almost all comic book stores in the world with some original tributes to the iconic comic book character Valentina created by Crepax by some of the best international comic book artists such as American artists David Lasky, Mark Wheatley, Benjamin Marra (that also exhibited a tribute to Belinda that is another Crepax comic book character), Mark Wheatley, George Pratt (with two tributes to Valentina original artwork), Peter Kuper and Roberta Gregory, Argentine artists Mister Ed (with 2 Valentina originals exhibited) and Santiago Caruso with two pieces as well being one of them a tribute to Belinda as well, Spanish artists are also present in this exhibition with original tribute artworks by Pedro Espinosa, Sandra Hernandez and Javier Olivares.

This book launch is also a multimedia tribute to Crepax with with Sound installation by Portuguese musician Sérgio Rocha with the voice of the Italian maestro Guido Crepax mixed with sounds and tribute vídeos to Valentina by Brazilian artist Alex Korolkovas with Brazilian models as Valentina's character Barbara Nogueira and Adriana De Moura

An exhibition worth checking for those who live at Seattle or want to visit Fantagraphics Bookstore for the first time from other states.

 All the feedback is being excellent by artists and public since appeared in the store several people to see this multimedia exhibition, some celebrities comic book artists such as David Lasky, Ellen Forney and Grammy Award musician Bill Frisell among others.   

 This saturday, 16th April due to Record Store Day at Georgetown art attack in Seattle, the videos and music for this exhibition will continue streaming all day.

 Everybody in the area should check this exhibition with excellent original artwork by some of the best comic book artists ever and buy the first Crepax Fantagraphics book until 21st April 2016.

Many thanks to all artists who paid tribute to Crepax and helped this dream of us come true.

Special thanks to Caterina Crepax and Gary Groth for their support and here are some photos of this successful event:

Crepax tribute exhibition with first Crepax Fantagraphics book at Seattle

Screening video by Brazilian artist Alex Korolkovas

Another photo of the other screening video by Brazilian artist Alex Korolkovas

Visitors at Crepax book launch party at Fantagraphics bookstore and gallery

Exhibition with original works by Artists George Pratt, Roberta Gregory, Santiago Caruso and Javier Olivares

American artists David Lasky and Ellen Forney were also at Fantagraphics bookstore and gallery to see the exhibition at Crepax book launch party

Original tribute to Valentina by Argentine artist Santiago Caruso 

Grammy award winning musician Bill Frisell talking at Crepax tribute multimedia

Release of Crepax 1st book collection and 1st Valentina tribute booklet - Fantagraphics

Dreaming with a Guido Crepax exhibition and a book collection since 2011

When I first saw a Crepax exhibition at comic book Festival Viñetas Desde o Atlântico in 2011 in Spain, I thought on doing one in my country never knowing how I could do it and I was also interested on trying to do an excellent Crepax book collection since then and of course that in order to do this, I immediately thought on Fantagraphics publishing company.

 Years passed and I always talked to my close friends about what I intended to do some day with an artist that I loved so much as Crepax since I was a child (I didn't knew how I could do it, but I remember trying to go to this comic book festival to talk with Crepax sons to try to do this dream of mine, I didn't went there for personal reasons and over my work as well). I even remember contacting Corto Maltese house and some Hugo Pratt friends to do a Crepax and Hugo Pratt ensemble exhibition, but life sometimes takes our dreams away and we must battle for them and that's what I did.

 in 2013, an aquaintance of mine told me that he was friends with Guido Crepax daughter at facebook (Caterina Crepax), so I introduced myself and added her on my network and told her about my dream.

In 2014 after talking with her, we decided to do a Crepax exhibition at the X Festival Internacional de Banda Desenhada de Beja - Comics' Festival, Beja - Portugal in June 2014, but while I was thinking on the exhibition, I was also thinking on the Crepax book collection that I've thought before at Fantagraphics, so I contacted on January 2014, publisher and Fantagraphics owner Gary Groth and talked with him about my main idea that was first thinking on trying to publish the works of one of the best comic book artists ever in English in the best publishing comic book company that I know of at a huge size, this happened before making the Crepax exhibition in Portugal with originals by the artist and tributes by several artists to his main character Valentina with both Crepax's sons in a talk with myself, Brazilian artist Eduardo Filipe Sama and them about their father's works to an audience at the before mentioned comic book festival in Portugal, we thought also on putting an original soundtrack by portuguese musician Sérgio Rocha to go along with the exhibition and a poster with the musician/artist design as well.

 Almost 2 years after, It's awesome to see, one of the best comic book artists ever and his main character being talked all over the world with part of my work with Fantagraphics as consultant editor on this collection; while gathering tributes to Valentina by Guido Crepax from the best artists in the world on the character's 50th anniversary, based on a Caterina Crepax idea and with her support. It was also great being with Caterina in my hometown in december last year near my birthday.

 It's also awesome to see that an exhibition is being held at New York at Scott Eder's gallery from 12 March to 22 April this year, an homage to Crepax main character Valentina happened in 6th February at San Paul's gallery in Miami in the U.S.A. this same year by Brazilian photographer Alex Korolkovas and that another one is going to happen in Fantagraphics bookstore and gallery in 9th April this same year with the first Crepax book launch party in Seattle - U.S.A. with original tributes to Valentina by American artists: George Pratt, David Lasky, Benjamin Marra, Beto Hernandez, Mark Wheatley, Peter Kuper and Roberta Gregory, Argentine artist ED, Spanish artists Sandra Hernandez, Pedro Espinosa and Javier Olivares, tribute videos to Valentina by Brazilian photographer Alex Korolkovas with his Valentina models Barbara Nogueira and Adriana de Moura and music by Portuguese musician Sérgio Rocha with an original soundtrack made only for this event. 

 Guido Crepax clearly deserved all this.

  Since I always loved books and I was always more interested in books, because they provide us history, I'm proud to be part of Fantagraphics team by trying to help them with what I know to do the best Crepax collection ever made.

 The books are awesome and we all worked really hard on them to try to make the best Crepax collection ever and one of Fantagraphics best book edition and some excellent free booklets with some of the best comic book artists ever doing tributes to the artist main character Valentina.

 Today when I received them, it was a joy and a dream come true with hard work, sweat, blood and some laughs and tears (that's life and the way that I know to make some of our dreams come true).

 I know that it's only a book, but what can I do? I love books.

 I know that the following books will be even better (always with hard work), so stay tuned for this amazing collection dedicated to a comic books maestro and buy them if you can directly at Fantagraphics, since they're a masterpiece.

Many thanks to all the artists and their amazing art work that helped this dream come true and to the artists who made tribute stories to Valentina such as ED, Pedro Espinosa, Sandra Hernandez, John Kurokawa, Magdalena Minko, Paulo Pinto, Felipe H. Navarro, FIdel Martinez Nadal, Brao (you're all awesome) and all the fans and people who are spreading the word about this collection all over the world and of course special thanks to my friends (particularly André Azevedo for his advices), my family, essayists for the books British Tim Pilcher, Americans Sarah Horrocks, Katie Skelly and Kristy Valenti, Spanish comic books expert Alvaro Pons, Brazilian comic books expert Marco Aurelio Lucchetti, book designer Jacob Covey, Fantagraphics team for all their support and special thanks to my wife Paula Fonseca, my muse kitty Ilvie, Caterina Crepax and publisher Gary Groth for their trust on me and the shared love that we all have on books and comic books.