Daytripper by Moon & Bá

Since the launching of its first issue in December 2009, ten-issue comic book limited series Daytripper – published by the DC Comics imprint Vertigo – has been praised by every decent comics critic. The series was collected into a trade paperback in February 2011, going straight into the New York Times Paperback Graphic Books chart at #1. It returned at the same position two weeks later, where it stayed for a week, before dropping to #2 in mid-March. At the end of June, Amazon.com posted their “2011 Best Books of the Year So Far” lists, where Daytripper was featured in its Top 10 Comics and Graphic Novels category. It has also won three of the most important international comics industry awards of the year: the Eisner (“Best Limited Series or Story Arc”), the Harvey (“Best Single Issue or Story”) and the Eagle (“Favourite New Comicbook”).

The authors of both story and art are Brazilian twin brothers Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá, 31 years old, no strangers to the international comics industry or awards. Both have worked with top guns of comics and pop culture from Mike Mignola (BPRD: 1947) and Matt Fraction (Casanova) to TV creator and movie writer/director Joss Whedon and alternative rock band My Chemical Romance’s lead singer Gerard Way.

São Paulo_ Daytripper by Fábio Moon & Gabriel Bá

At the 2008 Eisner Awards, the six-issue limited series about a disbanded group of superheroes The Umbrella Academy (written by Way with art by Bá) won for “Best Limited Series”, sci-fi adventure Sugarshock (written by Whedon with art by Moon) won for “Best Digital Comic”, and comics anthology “5″ (by Moon & Bá with other comics creators Becky Cloonan, Vasilis Lolos and Rafael Grampá) won for “Best Anthology”. Bá had also been nominated for two 2009 Eisner Awards in the categories “Best Penciller/Inker” and “Best Cover Artist”, and The Deluxe Edition of The Umbrella Academy was nominated for “Best Graphic Album — Reprint”. Horror comics anthology PIXU (Moon, Bá, Cloonan and Lolos) was nominated for the 2009 “Best Anthology” Harvey Award.

Daytripper is currently in its 4th printing and was recently launched in Brazil, where it won an HQMix award. Each issue follows a life-changing day in the life of Brás de Oliva Domingo, an aspiring novelist who writes newspaper obituaries. The story takes place mostly in São Paulo – where the brothers were born and still live – with important events set in Salvador and Rio de Janeiro, as well as small towns in the countryside or by the coast that are so real they seem to have jumped out of romances of Monteiro Lobato or Jorge Amado.

Brazilian countryside portrayed in Daytripper_

Remarkably written and drawn, Daytripper also gives its international audience a rare opportunity to experience the daily aspects of Brazilians lifestyle, habits, beliefs and culture. As a plot, it could have taken place anywhere in the world – as with most masterpieces – , but its natural Brazilian flavor definitely plays an important role in the outcome.

Salvador, Bahia in Daytripper