Upcoming exhibitions tributes by international artists to Valentina to promote Crepax Fantagraphics collection

Dear friends and artists,

Due to several problems I still wasn't able to exhibit some of the magnificient artists that sent me works for this purpose from all over the world (lack of time, a space or organization), since you're too many and I'm the first one to blame myself in my work always.

 I've curated an exhibition in Seattle - Fantagraphics bookstore and gallery, Scott Eder's gallery in New York, in Helsinki - Finland comic book festival this year and at my hometown Porto at Boémia Caffé.

 I'm only a mere guy from Porto and you're too many to organize and I'm not José Mourinho, the soccer manager, Cristiano Ronaldo, the soccer player, John Constantine, the Hellblazer or Neil Gaiman's Sandman.

Mourinho seen through the eyes of Spanish Artist Santiago Sequeiros

Mourinho seen through the eyes of Spanish Artist Miguel Almagro 

Mourinho seen through the eyes of Argentine Artist Mister Ed 

CR7 seen through the eyes of Argentine Artist Mister ED 

I also have my own personal life and you're too many to organize and sometimes it seems that I'm fighting my own inner demons while defending myself with words as John Constantine aka Hellblazer.

John Constantine seen through the eyes of Spanish Artist Felipe H. Navarro.

Here's the list of the artists that still weren't exhibited organized by countries in bold.

U.S.A

John Marroquin 

Andy Bennet

Mike Huddleston 

Justine Mara Andersen

Brian Quinn

Timothy Georgarakis 

Portugal 

Agata Rola

Osvaldo Medina

Quico Nogueira

Paula Fonseca 

Brazil 

Rodrigo Rosa

Eric Peleias

João Azeitona

Gelson Mallorcas

Tainan Rocha 

Victor Freundt 

Alcimar Frazao 

Fernanda Guedes

Alex Korolkovas with model Adriana de Moura

Laudo Ferreira Jnr 

Carlos Ferreira 

Camilo Solano

Eder

Rafael Sanzio 

Puerto Rico 

Nivea Ortiz 

Germany 

Christoph Mueller

Egypt 

Tarek Sahin 

France 

Beuh 

Johann Sfar 

Isabel Pessoa

Israeli

Rutu Modan 

Argentina 

Pupi Herrera

Alejandro aguado 

Italy 

Stefano Zattera 

Chiara Dattola 

Rocco Lombardi

Alice Crepax 

Thomas Campi

Greece 

Con Chrisoulis 

Russia 

Alexandra March 

Spain 

Fernando Vicente 

Albert Pons Vazquez 

Jon Ander Azaola 

Juan Berrio

Javier Gay Llorente 

Pedro Rodriguez 

Eduardo Alvarado Sanchez Cortes 

Joaquin Aldeguer

Chris Stygryt 

Cesar Moragues 

Carmen Ortiz 

Piedad Ortiz 

Alejandro Santos 

Dulce Escribano 

José Gabriel Miedes 

Diego Fermin 

Jano 

Pepe Boada

Lem Castañeda Serrano 

Juan Diaz Cañales 

Toni Benages 

Mexico 

Gaston Ortiz 

Tony Sandoval 

Poland 

Wu Es 

Nikodem Kaballa 

In the near future, I'll try to make more exhibitions with your works in other places in Europe.

I just need what everybody needs, a dream and a physical space.

Neil Gaiman's Sandman seen through the eyes of Argentine Artist Mister Ed.

So, making this post is hard for me, but It's a reminder that all of your amazing artworks aren't forgotten in my head and that they'll have an exhibition place.

Meanwhile, I still must keep control of Crepax Fantagraphics collection and other projects which makes sometimes look at my time and see that I don't have it at all :( 

The first Crepax Fantagraphics book 

Many thanks for all your excellent support and feedback given from all over the world.

Special thanks to Gary Groth, Caterina Crepax, Family, friends and my muse and source of inspiration kitty Ilvie that was stolen from my sight and life recently.

Manuel Espírito Santo 

Exhibition tributes to Valentina by Guido Crepax to promote Fantagraphics Crepax collection - Boémia Caffé at Porto - Portugal

Due to health and personal problems, I wasn't able to be at Helsinki comic book festival this year, but the organization of it was awesome as shown in the previous post.

 I've decided to do another one in Porto at Boémia Caffé that's one of the best coffee shops in my hometown and it serves a bit as a space to develop my own ideas and projects regarding comic books.

 Being Freelance editor of the Crepax collection being published by Fantagraphics (that i've talked about in previous posts) with so many details to take care of plus promoting it with artists from all over the world isn't an easy task to perform, since it requires focus and organization, writing tribute stories with some artists while being inspired by what I read, listen or watch isn't easy aswell, but my main focus is in promoting Fantagraphics Crepax collection and all of you artists who did tributes to Valentina by Guido Crepax are the best and I really apreciate your support.

 As all of you artists can imagine, it isn't easy to find walls to show all your tributes, due to lack of space since Fantagraphics has more than 200 tributes to Valentina by artists from art forms such as: photography, illustration, comic books and animation. 

 In order for me to organize them and exhibit them, be it at Porto, New York, Seattle, Helsinki or another city in the world, I must figure out a way to show all the excellent tributes that you've sent me while also trying to figure out how many we can put in free booklets to go along Fantagraphics Crepax collection.

 So, if any artist has an idea or a space to exhibit feel free to contact me at my personal email or by facebook (I usually reply to all of you).

Many thanks for your excellent feedback and support once again. You're simply the best.

 I love the idea of art being shown in coffees since all people can see it while having a coffee and be impressed by artworks and that's what I love doing at Boémia Caffé.

Here're some photos of the exhibition at this coffee shop that has hundreds of people visiting it, day in, day out tasting the best croissants in the world or having a mere cup of coffee.

The feedback provided by the customers is excellent from what the owner of it Daniel Castro tells me, photos taken by portuguese photographer Ricardo Russo.

Me and Daniel Castro - owner of Boémia caffé. 

Tributes to Valentina by Crepax to promote Fantagraphics Collection by UK artist Simon Davis, Brazilian artist André Diniz and Spanish artist Javier Olivares.

View of tributes stories of valentina by Guido Crepax to promote Fantagraphics Crepax Collection.

Tributes to Valentina by Crepax to promote Fantagraphics Collection by American artists Jeffrey Allan Love, Bob Burden and Italian artist Sérgio Ponchionne.

And here are some photos of the same exhibition taken only with a mere IPad with low quality

Poster and tribute page by Argentine artist Mister Ed.

Tribute pages to promote Fantagraphics Crepax Collection by Spanish artists Felipe H. Navarro and Fidel Martinez Nadal.

Tribute pages to promote Fantagraphics Crepax Collection by Brazilian artist Brao and Portuguese artist Paulo Pinto.

Tribute pages to promote Fantagraphics Crepax Collection by Spanish artist Sandra Hernandez.

Tribute pages to promote Fantagraphics Crepax Collection by Spanish artist Pedro Espinoza.

Tribute pages to promote Fantagraphics Crepax Collection by Polish artist Magdalena Minko.

Tribute pages to promote Fantagraphics Crepax Collection by Spanish artist Ivila Caballero.

Tribute pages to promote Fantagraphics Crepax Collection by Japanese artist John Kurokawa.

Tribute to promote Fantagraphics Crepax Collection by UK artist Simon Davis.

Tribute to promote Fantagraphics Crepax Collection by Spanish artist Javier Olivares and Brazilian artist Andre Diniz.

Tribute to promote Fantagraphics Crepax Collection by American artist Kelley Jones and Spanish artist Daniel Esteve.

Tribute to promote Fantagraphics Crepax Collection by UK artist Rian Hughes and Spanish artist Chema Garcia.

Tribute to promote Fantagraphics Crepax Collection by American artist Jeffrey Allan Love.

Tribute to promote Fantagraphics Crepax Collection by American artist Bob Burden.

Tribute to promote Fantagraphics Crepax Collection by Italian artist Sergio Ponchionne.

View of the exhibition.

Another view of the exhibition.

Second angle of the exhibition.

Third angle of the exhibition.

Entrance of Boémia caffé where the exhibition is.

Special thanks to Gary Groth, Caterina Crepax, my family, my friends, my ex-wife Paula Fonseca that supported some of my ideas until 10th June 2016, to Daniel Castro who's the owner of this awesome café, to vocalist of swiss band Young Gods : Franz Treichler for the inspiration and support given while I was writing tribute Valentina stories and to my kitty Ilvie that continues to be my muse in my dreams and memories.

Exhibition tributes to Valentina by Crepax by international artists inHelsinki comic book festival to promote Fantagraphics Crepax collection

Poster to tributes to Valentina by international artists Helsinki comic book festival 2016 by Portuguese artist Sérgio Rocha 

Organizing an exhibition with some of the best international artists in comic books, illustration, animation and photography isn't an easy task because it requires focus and attention to all the details and several hours comunicating with all of them in different languages and time schedules with a comunication tool as a mere IPad 

I had to focus on myself and the person who's to blame because of all this work is the Portuguese coach Mourinho, since I believe in his strength and how he deals with his own life, with his own words and his way of thinking in his work in all the soccer clubs that he managed around the world and of course to how Guido Crepax dealt with his own life aswell while being a master and one of the greatest ever in comic book form with his main character Valentina (among other pieces of art and storytelling) to whom this exhibition was made to promote Fantagraphics Crepax collection in which i'm freelance series editor of it.

Mourinho seen by Argentine artist Mister ED

I believe that I'm a free spirit and I do try to be pratical and emotional, trying to put all my energy in my work.

I love books, I love working on them, of course that sometimes, being focused on a project such as this one with 82 international artists in a project that took me more than a year takes time and sometimes people were asking me what I did in life or who I was and I always replied them telling them that I'm merely a guy that loves books because they mark history.

Everything that I did in this exhibition and with others at Porto (this year) and Beja (2014) in Portugal, at Seattle (this year in Fantagraphics bookstore and gallery) and New York (this year in Scott Eder Gallery) in the U.S.A and now in Helsinki comic book festival (also this year) was to promote Fantagraphics Crepax collection.

Thanks to all artists who provide visions of Valentina and were all the time real kind and gentle with me, an humble guy from a city named Porto.   

Of course that this was affecting my personal life, but in my mind and within my memories, I'm conscious that I was doing all this work and other projects not only to me (like I did in the past), but to my ex-wife Paula Fonseca who supported some of my ideas but we lost ourselves in comunication (I think) and each one of us turned another book page in our lives (I don't believe in anger or hate), our kitty Ilvie that I brung to our home from the street (it still haunts my dreams as my muse), my friends,my brothers,nieces and nephews and my family, because they are and were the ones who gave me support in my ideas.

I believe that sometimes if people give you stones you must make fire with them to keep you warm and healthy.

A pity that i couldn't be at Helsinki comic book festival to talk a bit about it, but health and personal problems made it impossible to be there, but I continue to thank all the organization of this comic book festival: Kalle Hakkola, Maura Manninen and Aino Sutinen for how well they treated me as a person.                     

Some of the artists that are exhibited in this exhibition were artists whose books I've read or that I've met while surfing the world wide web and that believed in this project to all of you, I never forget your support aswell (I know that I couldn't put all the artists that made Valentinas in this exhibition, but I'll try to see what I can do in the near future)   

4 Tributes to Valentina by Crepax by Sid Jung from South Korea, Rune Ryberg from Denmark and Walter Minus and Baudoin from France.

8 tributes to Valentina by Crepax by artists Peter Kuper, Olivia de Berardinis, Jeffrey Alan Love, Michael Gaydos from U.S.A, Patricia Breccia and Quique Alcatena from Argentina and Apollonia Saint Clair from France. 

3 Tributes to Valentina by Crepax by artist Stanislas from France, Sandra Hernandez from Spain and Nicolas Mahler from Austria

11 tributes to Valentina by Crepax by artists Tim Sale, Arnold Pander, George Pratt and Roberta Gregory from U.S.A , Ana Biscaia from Portugal, Chris Chalik from Poland, Dave Mckean from UK, Nicolas Krizan from Sweden, José Luis Ágreda and Felipe H. Navarro from Spain.  

14 tributes to Valentina by Crepax by artists Caterina Crepax (Guido Crepax's daughter) and Thomas Campi from Italy, Danijel Zezelj from Croatia, Sami Makkonen from Finland, Carlos Nine and Alejandra Sanguinetti from Argentina, Magdalena Minko from Poland, Emil Gunnar Maxen and Peter Bergting from Sweden, Brao from Brazil, Kelley Jones and Sam Henderson from U.S.A and Ivila Caballero and Ruben Pellejero from Spain.

6 tributes to Valentina by Crepax by artists Bill Koeb and David Lasky from U.S.A , Mike V. Derderian from Jordan, Hunt Emerson from UK, Sonia Pulido and Santiago Sequeiros from Spain.

9 Tributes to Valentina by Crepax from artists Brian Bolland and James Harvey from UK, Joanna Joka Karpowicz from Poland, Paulo Pinto, Sérgio Rocha and Derrade from Portugal, Gustavo Rico, Fidel Martiñez Nadal and Chema Garcia from Spain     

12 tributes to Valentina by Crepax  by international artists such as Dylan Horrocks from New Zealand, Simon Davis, Rian Hughes and Steve Yeowell from Uk, Tommi Musturi and Marko Turunen from Finland, Carlos Dearmas from Argentina, Ben Marra and Jude Harzer from U.S.A, Alex Baladi from Switzerland and Spanish artists Kosta and Pedro Espinosa  

2 tributes by American artist Richard Sala and Brazilian artist Alex Korolkovas that were hidden in the previous photo.

10 tributes to Valentina by Crepax by artists Bill Sienkiewicz, Gilbert Hernandez, Michael Avon Oeming and Brian Biggs from U.S.A, John Kurokawa from Japan, Doug Lobo from Brazil, Kolbein Karlsson from Sweden and Javier Olivares and Miguel Almagro from Spain

1 Tribute to Valentina by Guido Crepax by Argentine artist Santiago Caruso along 6 pages of First Crepax Fantagraphics book

During 2015 and 2016 I also started thinking on doing stories as tributes to Valentina by Crepax to promote also Fantagraphics Crepax collection and some artists supported my ideas, to whom I'm in debt to them: Pedro Espinosa, Sandra Hernandez, Felipe H. Navarro, Fidel Martiñez Nadal, Ivila Caballero from Spain, Magdalena Minko from Poland, John Kurokawa from Japan, Brao from Brazil, Mister Ed from Argentina, Paulo Pinto from Portugal, so I must see what I can do with them. I was listening to a lot of music while writing them, particularly from the swiss band Young Gods (whose lyrics and music reminded me a lot of Valentina's dreams) and I've contacted the vocalist from the band Franz Treichler to ask him for permission to use some of his lyrics as inspiration (which he gave me) for the pace of all stories with key elements in each one that I think connect with my memories of each city from what I've read, listened or saw and paid some tributes to artists and comic book characters from each city and from Fantagraphics artists that I love and chose to put some words in the original languages of songs from Swiss band Young Gods or quotes from writers to create a sort of movement in the stories throughout the cities where the stories were set (that are translated into english).

Tribute pages to Valentina by Crepax by Felipe H.Navarro from Spain, Mister ED from Argentina, Magdalena Minko from Poland and Paulo Pinto from Portugal

        

The first photo on the left is the first page of a story set in Madrid - Spain with a XXI century Valentina that loves soccer and searches for Mourinho who coached Real Madrid against the powerful Guardiola's Barcelona drawn by spanish artist Felipe H.Navarro.

The second one is drawn by Argentine artist Mister Ed has a quote from Julio Cortazar with him describing life and time through a wrist watch and a Raymond Carver quote aswell describing love, this story is set in Barcelona - Spain and Mourinho coached barcelona aswell for a while.

The third one is set in Warsaw - Poland and drawn by Polish artist Magdalena Minko with some elements that link to the other stories, like a tribute to Hellblazer character and British band My Bloody Valentine songs.

The fourth one is set in Porto and drawn by Portuguese artist Paulo Pinto with Mourinho as a link, since he coached Porto aswell and because Caterina Crepax was in my hometown in december 2015

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Tribute pages to Valentina by Crepax by John Kurokawa from Japan, Pedro Espinosa, Fidel Martiñez Nadal and Sandra Hernandez from Spain and Brao from Brazil.

The first photo is set in Kyoto - Japan where the portuguese have roots and I've decided to start it here with drawings by John Kurokawa.

The second one is drawn by Spanish artist Pedro Espinosa and it's set in London - England, Mourinho also coached Chelsea there and I've decided to put as a key element also english writer Aleister Crowley who faked his own suicide in Portugal with the help of Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa who was a personal friend of him.

The third one is set in Le mans - France and it's drawn by Spanish artist - Fidel Martiñez Nadal, I thought on putting there some key elements like french writer Antonin Artaud, Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese (who has a link with Valentina and France) and my personal life in it with my nieces and nephews on the story.

The fourth one is drawn by Spanish artist Sandra Hernandez and it's set in Milan, Mourinho also coached Inter Milan and Crepax was a Inter supporter, so I've thought that it would be a good idea linking him on this story with a quote by Italian writer Pier Paolo Pasolini and Valentina watching a soccer game at San Siro.

The fifth one is set in São Paulo - Brazil and it's drawn by Brazilian artist Brao with lyrics by Young Gods and a reference to Mourinho aswell.

Organizing exhibitions or book collections isn't easy. Writing stories isn't easy aswell since you must be in sync with the artist and focused on what you're doing and since I'm a pratical and emotional guy, I was trying to show the love that I had regarding my ex-wife, (She gave me support through almost eight years and I also supported her in all her good and bad times as a couple should be until 10th July 2016, perhaps we were never in sync regarding the way that we saw life differently or could be that we lost comunication and feelings which I find normal sometimes in couples or even about the working environment and people that surrounded us and can influence our behaviour, but I will always remember our excellent moments throughout the years that we passed together), because in human nature nothing is eternal concerning feelings and emotions and we make good things and mistakes in it, being worst if somebody lost a father like my ex-wife did in Februrary this same year, being her father last words to me that are still stuck in my mind: "take good care of my daughter if something happens to me", which I tried to do until the date of our divorce (and even after it), our kitty Ilvie, (my muse and warrior), my hometown Porto and Portuguese people as a Nation with what I knew from History books (being us famous sailors all over the world throughout world History, being my country the oldest one in the world) what I've read of us as a country and also the History of my hometown (which is awesome), books that I've read in several languages from several international writers, movies that I saw also from international directors, songs that I listened to from international bands since I was a mere teen and some cities that I've visited and others that I didn't, stories that I've imagined in my mind, so the main character (a modern Valentina) in the stories that I was creating was always my ex-wife and I'll never deny the fact that I was creating a love story to her because she was the person that I loved and trusted my life with, the cats that appear on all stories are what our kitten Ilvie meant to me and my nieces and nephews aswell.

 So now, all I see in these stories are some finished pages to be solved as a puzzle and to be transformed into a mere origami with the idea of building a book while turning a page in my life.

   

My opinion is that past, present or future always mix themselves because I believe in my heart that all of them collides in this thing called life, that's why I remember in my memories a conversation in my favourite movie Mike Leigh's Naked between the character named Johnny with a watchman: "has nobody ever told you, Brian, that you've got this sort of gleeful preoccupation with the future?" and several advices from my grandmother, my grandfather and my aunts and uncles.

Special thanks as always to Caterina Crepax, my family, my ex-wife Paula Fonseca, our kitty Ilvie, my friends and Gary Groth   

Interview published at Portuguese Público newspaper made by me to Croatian Artist Danijel Zezelj

Here's a part of an interview that I've made to Danijel Zezelj (that's complete in another post in this blog) that was published at Portuguese Público newspaper because of the release of Luna Park with script by Kevin Baker in Portuguese.

Many thanks to Danijel for being so kind to answer to all my questions.