February: month of changes

Things will end, others will begin

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

February has just begun. I’m 124 pages deep into Phenomena Book 3. Unless something goes wrong, this month I’ll wrap the mammoth task that is to create (with Brian Bendis) a massively epic trilogy of books.

And then move to the next thing. Which right now feels insanely weird and exciting.

Equal parts weird and exciting

After wrapping A Righteous Thirst For Vengeance, I’ve been drawing Phenomena non-stop for around a year and a half. First Book 2, which will be on sale on April 23, and then Book 3, which will only come out in 2025.

It was my choice to do both books back to back. The initial idea was for me to come back to the world of Phenomena after Righteous Thirst, draw the second volume, move to another thing and then come back again for the third one. But that would force me to be highly selective and limit my choices with the in-between project as I’d have to return for the third volume sooner rather than later.

So I decided to go all in and do both books (2 and 3) back to back, guaranteeing that I’d have all the planned work on Phenomena completed and have complete freedom to choose the next thing, particularly avoiding limiting its length right from the beginning. And the next thing, if you’ve missed the news, is another brand new book with Rick Remender.

I have to admit that it always feels equally weird and exciting. After more than a year and an half drawing crazy adventures with Spike, Boldon and Matilde, I know the sudden stop can be like hitting a wall. You live with these characters daily and it feels odd to suddenly leave them. But at the same time, there’s a storm of excitement brewing as I get ready to dive into a brand new world, full of new characters to design and animate. And it couldn’t be something more different.

But that’s all still coming, because…

…We still got Phenomena work to do

And I ain’t playing around. Yes, I’ve been gathering some references and resources and drawing some little things for the next book, but mostly just to aclimate to it. For the most part, it has been all hands on deck as I draw the epic finale to the third Phenomena book.

As I mentioned, we’re now with 124 pages in the bag, which is very near to the end. I’ve just finished the big final battle, going through more spreads than ever, and I’m very happy with how it all is going down. Here below you can see some sneak peeks, though there’s very little than can be shown at this point that won’t ruin things for both me and you.

I also drew another cover this week - in fact, I’ve finished it just before turning my attention to this newsletter - and I’ve begun working on grey tones for the pages above (more on that next week).

One cycle is near the end, but we’ll go out with a bang, that’s for sure.

And I’m glad I have you for the journey.

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See you all next week!

André

P.S. How insane has True Detective season 4 been? I’m loving how it keeps playing with the expectations of what that show has been so far vs. all the crazy hints at horror and sci-fi it keeps giving. I’ll definitely come back to the topic once it wraps. Is this like The Thing? What is going on? AAAAHHHHHH