An assortment of nice things

Marathon. Chernobyl. There's a lot for you!

Hello from Castrum Lusitania, my fortress in northern Portugal. Welcome to another edition of our weekly newsletter.

This past week was a lot of fun because I got to work on a bunch of different things. And perhaps more important, FINISHED a bunch of different things.

Guys, there’s no better feeling than wrapping up a piece of work.

Project Red

Listen, we really can’t complain when we get to do what we love the most. But I also won’t lie: when you’re in the thick of it, drawing page after page of sequences filled with characters moving around in different places, having to research constantly for all kinds of things, it can feel grueling. Same for writing or any other creative job.

So it was with great pleasure that I finished a 34 page issue of Project Red, putting us over the 100 page mark. Yes, we have now enough to fill a trade paperback, but there’s still a long way before any kind of announcement.

I’ll take a couple of months off it now to work on another thing (more of a return, really), but I’m already longing for its setting and characters. Here’s one of my favorite - albeit tiny - panels from the latest issue:

Writing

A few weeks ago I wrote about using David Lynch’s 70 cards method to put down an idea for a script. Things ended up looking like this in my office:

Lynch’s method is a practical and very useful way to make sure you have enough material for a full motion picture (in his view, that’s 70 scenes). The method allows you to easily move things around if you want to try sequencing things out differently. It’s also powerful because it lets you write something, anything down without worrying about it being perfect. And then comes the genius of it, which is that once you’re happy with the cards and their sequence, you can type them out and BOOM, you have your script with scenes in place. All you have to do is flesh them out.

Which is exactly what I spent three days doing this week and I now have this idea out of my head, in a full treatment where all scenes and transitions and even bits of dialogue are in place. All the hard work is done.

Will this ever be anything other than a doc in my computer? Who knows. I’ve already sent it to people. But the satisfaction of putting an idea together is the first and most important prize for any creator. No one can take that away from you.

New cover and new commission

I’ve begun a new commission, but more on that in a few weeks/months. I was happy that the client liked my proposal, so it’s officially started though.

I’ve also done a new cover for a great book that had been on my to-read list for a while. Working on a cover for it was the perfect excuse to go through more than 40 issues in a couple of weeks. Here’s a taste:

An assortment of nice things

Finally, a bunch of different things for you to enjoy. I’d say they’re nice things, but your opinion may vary.

We got a lovely new Phenomena Book 3 review:

https://comicmix.com/2025/06/10/review-phenomena-book-three-the-secret/

As well a New Podcast about Phenomena, with me and Brian!

https://gatecrashers.fan/2025/06/11/talking-phenomena-with-brian-michael-bendis-and-andre-araujo/?amp=1

Marathon

Marathon is an upcoming online extraction shooter by Bungie. Which is a shame for me, because after watching this stunning short by Alberto Mielgo all I wish is that it was a narrative adventure game. The short is easily one of the best things I've watched recently. Mielgo strikes again, because his Love, Death & Robots episode Jibaro was one of the best things I had watched recently. Go figure.

Chernobyl

I’ve watched Chernobyl recently for the first time and even with the highest expectations, it delivered and then some. The fact that I was sick as a dog with a nasty flu helped with the feeling of dread and decay, but the emotional impact of the show is so well conceived that you’ll get it even in your happiest days.

We could spend hours dissecting it, but this excellent analysis on YouTube is all we need to understand why the show is so emotionally effective - it's all because of perspective.

It choses to put you in the place of specific characters instead of a general view of events. You don’t get all the facts right away. In fact, you get very little. But you get a strong first person perspective of every thing that matters, which is much stronger emotionally than getting a general view all the time.

Unsurprisingly then, the last episode is the less effective of them all. That’s because it’s when they pull the curtain back and explain everything in detail. The show trades the emotions of a single character for an overall view of the events in order to tie the knots. Which was needed and very well done. Cleverly though, after it wraps up it tells you what happened to each of the main characters, bringing it all back to the individual level. Chef’s kiss.

Truly one of the best mini series I’ve ever seen.

Remember: you can now buy Phenomena Book 3 (and 1 and 2)

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See you soon!

André