Hi guys, first of all thank you for your time, it’s an honor for us to chat a little bit with you.
You both won the Eisner Prize, how does it feel like for two twin brothers to win both this prize? Has it ever been some rivalry, you know, like “I won it first”, or was it just a big honor?
The first time we won we were running for three awards, one of them together and two of them separately, and we won all of them. The first one they announced was the one we won together, so absolutely no rivalry at all, it went all really smooth.
How important is in your works digital drawings? Do you prefer using pencil and paper or working with computers and digital programs?
We do almost everything on paper. We are exploring the digital possibilities now, for example we use to do the colorings with the computer, but we draw in ink and paper, pens, brushes, etc. We like the idea that everything looks like it’s hand-made, now we’re trying to see if we can do something like that at the computer, but until it happens, we prefer to work with paper. We’re kind of the old school artists.
Your last work is called “Two brothers”. How much of autobiographical is there in this work?
It’s not autobiographical, the story is about two twin brothers, but it’s the only connection it has with us. It’s not linked to us at all other than that.
I know it’s a bizarre question, but we were curious about it. You guys are Brazilian and your country is a lot known for football. Are you guys football fans and did you ever think about working on a football-based comic book?
We are not hardcore football fans. We have our favorite team from our city, Palmeiras. It has Italian tradition by the way, it was called Palestra Italia once. But we don’t go to the stadium often. We did one short story about football though, because in Brazil, for the 2002 World Cup a lot of Brazilian artists got together and did an anthology of short stories about football and so we did one. We scratched that itch, you know, but I don’t think we would do it again. It’s very hard to get the same emotion and energy of a football match in a comic book.
What does it mean Lucca Comics for you? Is it your first time here, are you planning to come back in the next years?
Yes, it’s our first time in Lucca and we really like it, we like the atmosphere, the people, the city. Everybody seems excited. It’s not only related to the books, it’s about the creators being here, the fans being here, and in every corner there’s a chance to have an exciting exchange. We’d like to come back but it depends on the publishers and on the projects we will be working on. It’s a very long trip from Brazil, we’ll need to have very strong reasons to come back (laughs).
That takes me to the next question: what are your future projects?
We are working on two series, Casanova with Matt Fraction, and The Umbrella Academy with Gerard Way, so for now those two series will keep us busy until we have a new idea of our own.
Do you have any advice for our young readers who would like to follow your footsteps and become a professional artist?
One big advice is be patient, because drawing comics takes a long time. Find your own voice, which is important if you want to write and draw your own stories, you have to find the stories that keeps you interested because you are you biggest advocate when people look for your work. Take your time writing and drawing and become a better writer and artist, because it takes time and a lot of commitment. A lot of people don’t realize how long it takes and how much work there is behind it. And even when your project reaches success it doesn’t get any easier, so yes, be patient and keep working and practicing.
Ok guys, this was our last question, thank you again for your time and good luck for your future projects!
Thanks, bye guys!
