Drawing has been one my things for a long, long time. As an adolescent and young adult I was always drawing, at home, in classes, waiting for the bus, or in the coffee shop. Since science took over, I go back to it only occasionally and by bursts.
- o -
In celebration of the 50 years of the "Revolução dos Cravos", the wonderful Carnation Revolution, a "timeless self-portrait" as a 7 and 57 years old.
- o -
"Barata tonta" is a Portuguese expression for running around frantically, aimlessly, panickingly. It literatlly means "dizzy cockroach" or "silly cockroach." I have seen "barata tonta" translated as running around like a headless chicken. Yes. The globe is the photo that NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman took on April 2. Everything else is hand drawn using SketchBook App.
- o -
Like many kids of my generation in Portugal, I was an enthusiast of European "Bande Dessinée" (BD). We devoured "Tintin", "A Suivre" and any books we could get access to. Many started editing and producing Fanzines displaying their own art and that of friends, as well as texts about favourite authors or trends. One of those Fanzines, COMiCARTE, created by Paulo Oliveira and Paulo Amorim, da Comissão de Jovens de Ramalde, grew to a significant reach, way beyond the usual circle of "friends & family". The dynamic duo, teaming with (another Paulo) Paulo Jorge (better known today as Paulo J Mendes), went on to organise, in 1985, the first edition of what became the "Salão Internacional de Banda Desenhada do Porto". The first "Salão" was held in Casa Dom Hugo, near the Sé Catedral of Porto, featuring the late Arlindo Fagundes, who had just published "La Chavalita", and Miguelanxo Prado, who was on his way to be one of the greatest graphic novelist ever. The "Salão" became an important annual event, so large that it moved to the Mercado Ferreira Borges. Twenty years later, the newspaper JN made a piece about the "Salão" mentioning that it was the dream of two young men ("dois jovens") without naming the Paulos. Paulo Oliveira and I had met circumstancialy in 1984, and he encouraged me to apply to the "Concurso BD do COMiCARTE", timed so that the prizes would be awarded during the very first "Salão". My brother Aljo Carcan (text) and I (drawings and colours) submitted "Maresia" that got the first prize. Its four pages displayed a dystopic future, less about a global ecology in disarray and more about a disfunctional world in which the happy character lived in a bubble of perception-conditioning technology. The last thirty years were unforgiving for the white paper and originally vivid colours, but not for the white ink and the allegory. Looking at the World today, the allegory is conspicuously up-to-date.
- o -
When I joined the laboratory of Mário Arala Chaves in Porto, he eventually found out about my comics and summoned me to his office. He explained that a comic book would be a wonderful vehicle to convey the intricacies and complexity of immunology to a broader audience. We started collaborating immediately on our "immunocartoonology" project. Although I made many illustrations, the project was never completed.
The second time was more recent, within the exhibition "Drawing Across University Borders" coordinated by Mário Bismark that took place at the Soares dos Reis National Museum, between November 17, 2022 and March 19, 2023.
- o -
During the Easter weekend, in 2024, I spent some quality time drawing and experimenting with playful colours in my SketchBook app. It had been a year since I had left the IGC, the research institute that was my home for over two decades, and somehow this led to "illustrations of childish mischiefs", as I wrote in a twitter post.
The sand castle
Jonathan Howard gave his first address as director to the IGC community during the institute’s 50th anniversary celebration in 2012. The moment carried great anticipation, as he was succeeding the legendary António Coutinho. In his speech, Jonathan portraid the institute as a beautiful but delicate sandcastle — “António’s sandcastle, with its walls and turrets” — and said his mission was to renew it, improve it, but above all, not to bust it. And he kept his promise. A decade later, however, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation decided to alienate the IGC, striking at the heart of the community that had kept the sandcastle standing.
- o -
These days, I find myself spending long periods of time working at home. The stream of news with images of the suffering in Palestine is overwhelming. The dread and disempowerment feels like the COVID-19 quarantine. In contrast with those disparaging times, now I went back to drawing.