Felipe's FRED GUARA and XDRAGOON #29!

 Felipe's FRED GUARA and XDRAGOON #29!

About a few weeks ago my friend and creator of the XDragoon series from Brazil caught up with me on Skype and kindly shared with me his next big and exciting comic project entitled - Fred Guara.

Now before I talk about Fred let's dig into a little background on his Xdragoon series.


Felipe's been working on XDragoon for over 6 years non-stop, producing a whooping (coming to...) 30 chapters and an incredible 1400 pages worth of story content for his series. The heart of the story is about an alien (that is anthromorphed like a dragon) named Rocky who befriends a human named Renata and ever since their first encounter they've been through all kinds of adventures facing danger, rivalry, alien invasions and tyranny that would threaten Earth.

We get to see the evolution of their unique friendship as more characters are introduced - both friends and foes - and as the story progresses we begin to witness the two developing a platonic love for one another through their experiences of good times, hardships, sacrifice. This utlimately helps Rocky evolve into a very powerful guardian towards the end of Morphs arc where he realises his true power involving an artifact known as the X-Gem.







I couldn't believe that 6 years have passed since his vision for this comic came into fruition. What I'm most happiest about is that, despite following this series every once in a blue moon - I won't lie, I've been able to witness (just as a much as the fans have) Felipe's evolution on his artwork. From the earlier pages and animation work up till what he has at present you will clearly see improvement on his illustration work - whether it be the expressions and body language from Rocky teasing Philip about his 'fish lips', dynamic poses during action sequences, the narrative's composition and flow of the panels used to progress the story, the colouring and rendering of each page, and finally the consistency of his drawing style.

Although the illustration and rendering style may not look as complex as it can potentially be (i.e. you'll see that alot of his backgrounds are dominated by speedlines and emotive screen tones to create the mood and effect relative to the panel) you have to keep in mind that this guy did everything by himself (with the exception of the English revisions) and drawing comics sucks up a huge chunk of your life - especially if it is your baby project! You gotta time manage as well as cater for your finances, it's not an easy life to have.

So yeah please do check out his stuff, and congratulations to Felipe for making it this far with the XDragoon series! You can visit his website by clicking on this link.






Now then, let's talk about his new series Fred Guara. 







Now that Felipe's gained alot of experience writing action/adventure orientated comics involving his own unique human and anthro-cartoon styled characters he's able to apply this accumulation of experiences towards his next big project. The really awesome thing about Fred is not that it's something new but it is also something that Felipe has always wanted to work on for comics - tackling the comedy business.

Felipe loves his action/comedy stuff, in fact it immediately reminds me of the time when I watched some Ranma 1/2 and Dragoon Ball (not Z or GT, Dragoon Ball when it first came out XD) stuff back in the early nineties - it's going to involve fighting, alot of crazy things happenin' and perhaps less on the romance stuff. I think Felipe may have substituted the romance for more pervy and random fun stuff - why you ask? Cuz I read a full chapter of Fred Guara myself - in Portuguese.


I mean I didn't even need to understand the dialogue but I was immediately entertained and hooked with his new wacky character designs and their charming yet outrageous expressions (mostly coming from Fred himself) on each panel. There is definitely more attention to detail on his backgrounds (I forgotten to mention that this is done in black and white, but I'll get back to you on that in a minute) making you feel immersed to his universe, also there is alot of story telling just from the body language of the characters and their actions on each panel - I really feel that he's come a long way when it comes down to the crunch of making comics.

Going back to the format, it's currently done in professional manga style inks and screen tones, and I stress no bias on the quality of his black and white comics as of his standards today - it really is done professionally, even better than the standards on my previous GRAND HUNTER project. It is also in Portuguese and plans for an English translation is very likely but not anytime soon. Here's a sample page of his first chapter (Western comic-reading format of left to right):







For those curious to know more about Fred Guara I will update his translation on Felipe's website:

The series happens in a little city called Uaná, where there´s a freelance service agency called, “Lobo Loco”. You can contract this agency for anything: from rescuing people, finding an artifact, protecting the president, being a babysitter, all the way to presenting a kid´s show at the local school. Lobo Loco is formed by four members:

1. 
   Fredenilson “Fred” da Silva Guará: Fred is the agency leader. He´s a maned wolf who is crazy and has an insane sense of logic! Most of time Fred can be seen smiling, but behind that smile covers a wild personality he has where fights are a welcoming sight to his eyes! He has a strange fire power that is related to an ancient creature of Brazilian folklore.
   
   
   
2. Zé Poça: Nicknamed 'Zep', he is a possum, who loves to drink. He usually hangs around in the city, so it´s normal routine that he finds clients for the agency. However this does not discount the fact that he can´t escape from Fred´s dangerous and wacky attitude!
   
   
   
   
3. Josué: A young sparrow whom Fred adopted. Because he´s… Hmm… Round and is always a victim to Poca's tricks. He loves video games and cakes.
   
   
   
4. Talita: A 14 year-old girl who arrived at the agency as a client and eventually ended up as a team member, because of an agreement she made with Fred. Talita hates how the agency is always dirty because of Fred´s bad habits. Also, she lives with her mother and brother, Paulo. Her father however is unknown.

The one last thing I'll point out about his new Fred Guara series (based on what I remembered during my discussion with Felipe on Skype) is that it is very much inspired/influenced from Brazilian folklore - the concepts and theme that is. I love it when a comic is based off the artist's nationality and culture because it's not often you get comic artists who work on a project of that nature - I feel that it will resonate more with audiences especially those who understand the folklore and culture better. Also the main character Fred - and no lie, I LOVE this guy's design and how he's portrayed in the comic - is based off a South American mammal called a maned wolf - resembling a large fox with reddish fur and is well known for stealing chickens from farms! Cheeky bugger!







Now I know that Ashworth was originally based off a Wombat (and that is an Australian native species) but I'm still debating on whether or not to keep him as a wombat or to keep it a mystery as to who and what he is. I've been doing research lately and tried to find a link to the story and character's origin and it hasn't been easy. I won't confirm until I got something concrete. Anyways!

Work at the casino has been keeping me busy lately but I plan to work on a couple of things during my three days off starting Tuesday: 's commission, and the latest of Felipe's Xdragoon series - an alternatve cover for Chapter 29!







So yeah that's the update I have for this new month of November! Hope everyone has a fun and spooky Halloween and be sure to keep on inspiring with your illustrations! Take care!