Pssst. Hey, guess what? The Umbrella Academy: Dallas is hitting shelves soon! Believe it.
The second series is going to knock your socks off. And if you aren’t wearing socks at the time, then it will go into your dresser drawer, take your socks, and then fling them about the room just to prove to you its power.
You’ve been warned.
Dark Horse got the opportunity to speak with extremely busy Gabriel Bá about the new series and his upcoming projects, all of which are sure to be fantastic.
Dark Horse: Of all the different mediums to chose from as an artist, why work in comic books?
Gabriel Bá: Because what I really want is to tell stories. It's not all about drawing, about the art -- it's about telling a story with that sequence of panels, those pages, those words. Writing and reading are incredible experiences and comics puts all this together.
DH: What attracted you to the Umbrella Academy series?
GB: Looking back, I think it was the relations between the characters that struck me right away, even though I knew so little about it then. And I liked the visuals Gerard had created also, so [I knew] it would be a good place to start from.
DH: I know Gerard had some concept sketches and ideas of the characters coming into the project. How did you work with him to change some of the details and create the style of the series?
GB: He had some sketches of the characters, some details of the world like cars and power generators and stuff. I made lots of questions about everything at first, to get the right feel to everything. Every new take I would do on any character, I'd send it right away. After a while, I started to get it more quickly and really understood the world of Umbrella Academy, so creating things became easier.
I think now Gerard also creates stuff thinking on all the drawings. I already did as much as I create new stuff looking back for all we've already done. It's a living thing now and we have to respect the directions it's taking.
DH: How do you convey the mood of the series through your art?
GB: I love black-and-white art, and it's excellent to control the mood of the scenes. You can get very dark and gritty, and also have deep emotions into every page. I also go through a lot of research to find all the right elements to build this world. So it's a mixture of past and future and present at the same time. It's actually a mixture of all the cool iconic things different eras have to give. That's one of the things I got from Gerard's first sketches and descriptions and that helped making the art the way it is.
DH: Are there special clues hidden in your art that can help readers figure out the looming mystery in Umbrella Academy?
GB: Not really, but whenever I know something far ahead that will happen, I want to start to place it in the story so we can build it within the comic, not only in the mind of the creators.
DH: What kind of collaboration is involved when working with Dave Stewart on the colors?
GB: I just light a candle and pray. He listens. I do it every night, before going to bed.
DH: Who are some of the artists that have inspired you to create?
GB: Will Eisner's The Building graphic novel was one of the first “real-life” type of story that I've read and it really got to me. Before reading that, I thought comics were humor, for kids or superheroes.
DH: Do you feel that growing up in Brazil contributed to your work in a way that couldn’t have happened anywhere else in the world?
GB: Well, you could say that to anyone, right? But truly, I think that I have all this stuff from the Brazilian culture, from the art, the people, the music that somehow translates in my art. There's no reason why I should do it otherwise. I'm not a better artist because of that, but I'm [a] different artist than “the usual” and that helps me stand out.
DH: What upcoming projects are you most excited about?
GB: I'm working with my brother on two very different projects. The first one is the BPRD: 1947 miniseries, and we're really excited to be working with Mike Mignola and very thrilled to play on Hellboy's playground. The other project is our own series at Vertigo that we’re writing and Fábio is doing the artwork. It's gonna be a ten-issues miniseries and it's the biggest story we've ever told. It's gonna be a landmark on our careers, for sure.
DH: If you could have a superpower, what would it be?
GB: [The ability to] read women's minds.
Be sure to check out our totally amazing Making of a Comic Feature where you can see Gabriel’s work -- all the way from sketches to lettering!