Crumbs

by Ana Matias (Writer), André Oliveira (Assistant Editor & Writer), Bernardo Majer (Writer & Artist)

Trata-se de uma antologia de banda desenhada portuguesa, em inglês e a cores, recheada de talento. Ao longo das suas 144 páginas conta com obras inéditas (tirando uma ou outra) dos seguintes autores:

André Caetano
Ana Matias
André Oliveira
Bernardo Majer
David Soares
Fernando Dordio
Francisco Sousa Lobo
Inês Galo
Joana Afonso
Mário Freitas
Nuno Duarte
Osvaldo Medina
Pedro Cruz
Pedro Serpa
Ricardo Venâncio
Sérgio Marques
Zé Burnay

A capa tem desenho de André Pereira e cores de Afonso Ferreira.

Genres: Comics, Anthologies, Graphic Novels, Bande Dessinée

144 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2014

Reviews

[Lightwhisper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adorei este mini-livro de pequenas bandas desenhadas. Estilos tão diferentes entre si, claro que umas histórias gostei mais do que outras, mas foi um pequeno tesouro encontrado num livraria =)

[Ana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Marvel's Vice-President CB Cebulski once said that "Portuguese creators are unique in Europe. They don't stick to a specific art school like the French, the Spanish or the Italian, to name just a few. Each and every one of the Portuguese artists drink from a rich pool of styles and create their one distinctive one, ranging from the most classical of french bande dessinée to the most dynamic alternative manga style, but always with something rare: a true identity."

With such a description and an even more enticing cover (cheers to André Pereira, Afonso Ferreira and Mário Freitas for that), who wouldn't be intrigued?
First of all, this anthology is in an awesome format - the book is smaller than my own hand and somehow that tiny portability makes it so strangely appealing.

But then you open it up. This may be a crude generalisation, but I must say that "Crumbs" is frankly disappointing. With such anticipation one would expect good quality, solid comics, right? Wrong. What we see throughout this thankfully short book is (with a couple exceptions) a series of boring, senseless, flimsy works following unoriginal formulae (from overdone existential talk to "too conceptual to have a plot"), at times feeling lazy - when they transmit any feeling at all.
The art itself is fine, sometimes even gorgeous, but the stories just don't do them justice or work with the text, which makes everything so generally incomprehensible and lacking.

That having been said, I feel obliged to highlight three works: "Omega", by Nuno Duarte and Ricardo Venâncio (definitely my favourite, a solid, structured work with great illustration); "Low Battery", by Nuno Duarte and Osvaldo Medina (good drawing, not a fan of the text but the story itself is well accomplished); and "Ick", by Joana Afonso (great, great illustrating work, one is left wondering what the author could achieve if she actually let her imagination run wild).

All in all, good illustration, not so good stories. The "true identity" that Cebulski mentions seems to still be looking for itself, and hiding in the abstract/conceptual format because, it seems, it still hasn't got the skills/focus to present a solid result.

[Reyel2107 · Rating 4 out of 5]

uma obra com altos e baixos mas no geral boa !!!!