Enrico’s blog

Unfortunately I lost the rough thumbnail I had done for the Gondola piece. The basic layout though started as a vertical one with me drawing on the footsteps of a canal and Marit passing on a gondola. I wanted a lot of water to fill a good amount of the cover, so to fit the [...]

Ladies and gentlemen we present you: “The Totoro Forest Project”. A little idea that turned into a major undertaking. What is it exactly? Totoro Forest Project is an international charity effort to preserve Sayama Forest, also known as Totoro Forest. This endangered sanctuary on the outskirts of Tokyo is where director Hayao Miyazaki got [...]

Yay! Just received Jillian Tamaki’s Graphic novel Skim (written by her cousin Mariko Tamaki). It looks wonderful, the drawings have a great loose feeling to them, can’t wait to read it.

We just heard from Gingko Press, the publisher of our book 森 3 Trees Make a Forest, that the it has sold 2500 copies so far. While sales were a little slower than they had hoped out of the gate, the book is proving to be a solid reorder for them. So, that’s great to [...]

I’ve been a fan of Dave Eggers since his brilliant “A heartbreaking work of staggering genius“. Between McSweeneys, his books and his work at 826 Valencia tutoring center it’s not hard to see how he got himself a Ted award. Don’t miss his inspiring Ted Talk here and then if you wish, follow up on [...]

Good news! UberTalented friend Chris Appelhans and Gallery Nucleus just put out a beautiful little (but long) book of his brilliant Frank and Frank comics. You can purchase it here.

Just got this today from amazon, I am an official Murakami groupie
now. Looking forward to it.

I’ve started reading “Fiabe Italiane” edited by Italo Calvino a few days ago and I am loving it. He divided and organized fables and tales by their region of provenance and it’s been a pleasure to read the Ligurian (the region i come from) ones to start. Calvino grew up in San Remo, he was [...]

The second book I got at Kinokuniya last week is filled with amazing woodblock prints by Hokusai (1760-1849). The title, “Hokusai - First Manga Master” is a tad hokey perhaps but there’s no doubt that the rich visual culture of Ukiyoe has had a huge influence on manga’s visual storytelling and even on japanese culture [...]

Here’s the first book I got at Kinokiniya the other night: Yakuza moon by Shoko Tendo, memoirs of a gangster’s daughter. Which is proving to be, as you can imagine, an inspiring read for me. I am really trying to immerse myself in this world. I am a third through and I’m hooked. Real life [...]