BRAZIL COMICS CATALOGUE - SerioComics 71 + Q&A with Editor/Translator Érico Assis and His Q&A with Me!
Plus Kevin Wolf of GraphicMedicine.Org covers SHOULD WE BUY A GUN? in a multi-book review about graphic literature and guns in the United States
I Interview Érico Assis Here, He Interviews Me Over There
Today we have a very special cross-cultural cross-post!
One of the most prolific and important translators of comics, Érico Assis, is Q&Aed today on SerioComics below!!
And over on his Substack, VIRAPÁGINA, Érico posted his Q&A with me here!!!
Thanks also to Kevin Wolf of GraphicMedicine.Org for covering SHOULD WE BUY A GUN? in a multi-book review about graphic literature and guns in the United States
Thank you to Kevin Wolf of GraphicMedicine.org for covering SHOULD WE BUY A GUN? in his multi-book review about graphic literature and gun trauma.
His selections included:
Where We Live – A Benefit for the Survivors in Las Vegas. This anthology was a fundraiser for the Las Vegas Nevada Country music festival’s survivors of the United States’ (so far) largest mass shooting (2017, 60 dead, at least 413 wounded, 800+ injured) by a single person.
Numb to This – Memoir of a Mass Shooting. Memoir of a student who lived through the 2015 Umpqua Community College shooting (9 dead, 8 injured) in Oregon.
Activist – A Story of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Shooting. Written by a survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas (aka, Parkland) high school shooting (2018) with 17 dead and 18 others injured.
Long Way Down. Award-winning fictional story of a long ride down an elevator where the riders discuss their connection to guns, revenge, and generational trauma.
and
Should We Buy a Gun? This is a fictional story of young newlyweds who are mugged at gunpoint and weigh owning a gun against their liberal politics.
Here’s a quote from the review!
I suggest getting a copy of Should We Buy a Gun? and using that for your book club to start a discussion on this important topic.
“I found that Should We Buy a Gun? might be a good opening for discussion about “both sides” of gun control. Do guns make us safer or do they increase personal danger; does the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution carry limitations; can middle ground be found in politics; and what happens when a baby is brought into the mix? I enjoyed some aspects of Should We Buy a Gun? and disliked others, but isn’t that what we should want from such a heated topic?”
Wolf proceeds to analyze some of the real versus fictional elements of SWBAG?
As well as critique its tropes.
And do similar extensive study of the other four books.
As well as research into the topic itself.
Wolf’s achievement is quite significant.
A comprehensive survey of the history of graphic literature about guns in America.
Here’s another link to read his whole essay :)
How I Met Érico Assis
I met Érico via Substack!
I posted about Calvin & Hobbes.
Which is one of the most read SerioComics.
And he asked if he could translate it into Portuguese.
That’s when I learned of his work as a translator of comics for Brazil.
And his Substack…
This began a few messages back and forth.
I sent him a copy of Should We Buy A Gun?
Yes, all the way to Brazil!
He read and really liked it.
And suggested an interview.
Me of him.
And him of me.
Which he’s also going to be publishing on his Substack today as well!
Enjoy :)
Érico Assis
Érico Assis is one of the most prolific and respected voices in Brazilian comics culture. As a journalist, translator, editor, and teacher, his work has illuminated the global comics landscape for Portuguese-speaking readers and brought international graphic literature into vital local conversations. He’s translated hundreds of books—including works by Alan Moore, Henry Jenkins (who reviewed SWBAG?), Joe Sacco, Gene Luen Yang, Jill Lepore, Derf Backderf, and Thierry Groensteen (who also reviewed SWBAG?), and—across genres and age ranges, from The March and Sandman to Sapiens and Agatha Christie.
Seven of his translations have received the Highly Recommended Seal from Brazil’s National Foundation for Children's and Young People's Books, including The Wall and The Pilot and the Little Prince by Peter Sís.
As an author, Érico has published two acclaimed essay collections, Thought Balloons and Thought Balloons 2, which reflect on the art and impact of comics. He has contributed columns to Omelete and Companhia das Letras, and co-hosts the podcast Notes from the Translators.
Érico also teaches practical, hands-on courses in literary and comics translation through LabPub, mentoring the next generation of cultural mediators.
His Substack newsletter VIRAPÁGINA explores the act of turning pages—literally and metaphorically—through reflections on comics, language, and translation.
Subscribe!
BRAZIL COMICS CATALOGUE
From the Preface…
The dissemination of Brazilian literature abroad is one of the pillars of Brazil’s cultural diplomacy. In addition to established authors who continue to attract new readers, new generations of Brazilian writers have captivated the attention of the public and critics throughout the world. In this context, it is worth highlighting the excellence of comic artists who have risen to prominence not only in Brazil, but also abroad.
There is a long tradition of comic books in Brazil, dating back to the first half of the 19th century. Since then, the comics sector has grown to become one of the most consistent niches in the Brazilian creative economy, transcending the publishing industry onto domains such as animation for television and cinema, theme parks, video games, and the licensing of many different products.
Furthermore, Brazilian comics have definitely spread beyond national borders. Authors have been publishing their works in an increasing number of foreign languages and countrie—in addition to translations, there have also been original publications abroad—,which led them to the forefront of many international festivals. The publication of this catalogue is an important step in consolidating the extraordinary moment that Brazilian comic art is experiencing abroad. Curated by Érico Assis, it aims to establish a record of the main works of the genre published by Brazilian authors in the last ten years, in order to allow the international community of aficionados and market professionals to better understand the tradition of the Brazilian comics industry, its themes and traits.
Initially edited in Portuguese for the lusophone countries, the catalogue debuts, with the present edition, in English and French (original Brazilian-Portuguese texts were maintained in the images). Another relevant development is the catalogue’s extension from 70 to 100 entries, with a view to making the selection more representative, albeit still insufficient to do justice to
Brazil’s contemporary comics scene. Finally—and gladly—several entries have been updated with references to translations published and awards won since the catalogue’s previous edition.
The following pages propose a fruitful encounter between diplomacy and comic art, which we hope will translate into a meaningful contribution to the promotion of Brazilian culture abroad.
Not Just A Translator But A Stylish Presenter
Érico has a beautiful layout for his catalogue by Camilo Maia.
Not Just An Editor But A Comprehensive Curator
He also has connoisseurly compiled an eclectic and historic collection.
Not Just A Curator But A Creative Encapsulator
And with his adaptive translation and writing he well digests each selection. While also hiring other translators for the non-Portuguese.
Let’s enjoy our talk with him!
The Q&A with Érico Assis
1. SerioComics: You told me that Eduardo Bolsonaro is a Brazilian congressman, son of your former far-right president, and one of the country’s loudest advocates for expanding civilian gun ownership. During the last administration, the number of privately owned guns increased fivefold due to looser regulations. What impact has that had on your life in Brazil? Why do you think you’re seeing this change?? Do you blame America???
Érico Assis: I should mention that Eduardo — or Bananinha (“Little Banana”), as we mockingly refer to him in Brazil — has been living in the U.S. for the past few months, so he's now closer to you than to me. He took a leave of absence from his congressional duties, says he and his family feel persecuted in Brazil (well, his father is being tried for treason). You might find him attending meetings and rallies with great minds (not) like Steve Bannon.
I could blame America, yes, because many people like Bananinha take their cues from what they believe to be the American stance on guns, eager to defend gun ownership as if they were NRA members. During the Bolsonaro years (2018–2022), gun ownership in Brazil rose by an astonishing 474%. However, the real blame lies with the Brazilians themselves, who unfortunately have chosen to adopt this mindset.
Thankfully, it hasn’t directly affected my personal life. But I do feel a growing sense of fear. School shootings, for example, were virtually unheard of in Brazil until just a few years ago — and we’ve seen a terrible rise in them since 2018. There’s nothing more horrifying we could import from the U.S.
I truly believe that more guns only make all of us less safe, including those who own them. Even after reading your book, sorry.
2. SerioComics: Many of the books you’ve worked on are deeply American in tone or context. How do you preserve their cultural specificity for Brazilian readers while still making them accessible? Do you have American friends that you talk to?? Do you talk to the authors themselves???
Érico Assis: I'd say that any Brazilian likely knows far more about the U.S. and American culture than the other way around. We've been consuming your mainstream culture for decades — your movies, music, TV series, and comics, for example, are, in a way, also our mainstream culture. So, in general, it’s not difficult for a Brazilian reader to understand the cultural nuances in American comics. Nor is it particularly hard for a translator.
That said, there are times when I have to dig a little deeper and do some research — either to understand a very specific American reference or to find a way to explain it in a way that makes sense to the average Brazilian reader. Some recent examples come to mind right away.
A 1990s American comic that parodied The Jerry Springer Show, which wasn’t broadcast here. Since it was a tongue-in-cheek piece, I chose to adapt the reference to one of our own tabloid talk shows — we had a few, unfortunately — to preserve the punchlines.
Another case came from a Migraine Boy strip, where a raccoon is shown washing beads in a stream, as part of a punchline. There aren't raccoons in Brazil, so I had to figure out what was going on — and why that behavior was funny or relevant in an American context. In that same collection, there are strips involving George Washington’s wooden teeth, the cherry tree story, and the “never told a lie” myth. While I’m familiar with those stories, I suggested adding a footnote for Brazilian readers who might not get it.
The choice of translation is often tied to the type of publication and, of course, its audience. A monthly comic book, for instance, which has a younger, broader readership and a certain ephemerality, allows for the use of references drawn from local culture to make the material easier to grasp without disrupting the reading flow with footnotes. This would be different for a hardcover graphic novel, which might be aimed at a more mature audience, or a trade paperback collecting a classic newspaper strip, as both have a more lasting nature.
3. SerioComics: You mentioned that as a translator you stay engaged with American media like TV/Movies/Fiction and news/pundits like Colbert. What have you noticed about the changes in our culture from afar? Do you think America has fundamentally changed under Trump?? What would you like to see in American culture as a response???
Érico Assis: Since I only engage with a part of American culture and don’t live in the U.S. nor regularly speak with any Americans, I know my perspective is extremely, extremely biased. I mostly watch left-leaning content, like The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and even social media algorithms steer me toward progressive viewpoints. So I’m honestly flabbergasted when I see the country — or at least a majority of it — elect Trump. Twice! Clearly, there’s a lot I’m not seeing or understanding about American society.
That said, I don’t believe America has fundamentally changed. I still love so much about your culture, creators, and ideals. I still love Wes Anderson’s films, the comics of Chris Ware, Eleanor Davis, Craig Thompson, Joe Sacco, Alison Bechdel and so many more. I love Spider-Man, I love Dog Man. I love the open-hearted, rose-tinted idealism behind shows like The West Wing and The Newsroom. I’m rooting for the new Superman movie — the trailers look great! I could go on.
I realize that most of the American media I consume right now is in a kind of reactive mode to these dark social and political forces. And rightly so. I just hope that someday you’ll be able to move beyond this constant fighting stance and return to a kind of optimism that isn’t defined merely by what isn’t happening. That’s my hope for Brazil, too.
4. SerioComics You’ve translated a crazy range of comics, from Gene Luen Yang to The Addams Family. What draws you to a project? What makes you say yes to translating a particular book?? Do you ever ask to translate certain books or do you only get requests from publishers???
Érico Assis: The bills - or the boletos, as we call the bank invoices here - are the ones that make me say yes.
Usually, a publisher selects me for a project, not the other way around. A working translator in Brazil has to be constantly active — maybe even more than freelancers in some other countries — and since our publishing industry isn’t that substantial, it’s not always easy to say no.
That said, even if money weren’t an issue, I think I’d still say yes to pretty much everything I’ve translated so far. I truly love the work. I love having the chance to read and engage deeply with a book or a comic, even poorly written ones. I think the only kind of project I’d have a real problem with would be something I’m strongly ideologically opposed to — but that hasn’t happened yet.
5. SerioComics: As someone who translated Sapiens and March, how do you handle works that blend politics, philosophy, and visual storytelling? Are there ethical or creative challenges in those?? What’s something about the craft of translating comics that most readers, even comics fans, don’t realize???
Érico Assis: Every translation project brings its creative challenges. The first — and greatest — challenge is to capture the author's (or authors') voice, but in Brazilian Portuguese. That’s always the main goal. I haven’t really faced many ethical dilemmas in translation, or at least not frequently. I know that some of the ideas in Harari’s Sapiens and in March by Lewis, Aydin, and Powell are debatable, but I don’t think any of them are presented in a way that promotes harmful views.
I did have some ethical concerns while translating Dave Sim’s The Strange Death of Alex Raymond, particularly when he dives into his misogynistic rabbit holes. Thankfully, that content is far from the main focus of the book — and the Brazilian edition includes a solid backmatter section addressing the controversies around Sim. I didn’t write that section myself, although I’ve written elsewhere about Sim’s ideas, many of which I strongly disagree with.
Something that may be surprising to American readers — and isn’t always obvious to comic fans in general — is that the Brazilian comics market places a lot of care into the lettering of translated editions. Especially when a foreign creator hand-letters their work, Brazilian editions go the extra mile to preserve that. If you read a translated Will Eisner comic published in Brazil, you’re still reading it with his lettering — even when it’s a digital font recreated from his handwriting. The same goes for artists like Craig Thompson, Jeff Smith, and many European and Asian creators. Brazilian letterers who specialize in translated comics often get praise from the original creators when they see how their work was handled in our editions.
At virapágina, I wrote a piece about My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book 2 translation, and it has some eye-catching examples of that extra care in lettering.
6. SerioComics: What do you think international readers most misunderstand, or underestimate, about Brazilian comics? Who should we be reading from your country?? Is there anything completely different about Portuguese???
Érico Assis: I think most international readers aren’t even aware of Brazilian comics. And they should be!
I tried to answer that very question while working on the Brazil Comics Catalogue, for which I selected one hundred comics produced in Brazil over the past decade. It’s fully available online at https://bit.ly/catalogohqbr4. Since comics readers are a universe of varied tastes, interests, and curiosities, I’d suggest flipping through the catalog and seeing what catches your eye. The Catalogue includes all the necessary info about each work, along with links to help you connect with the creators — but I’m also happy to help anyone who wants to know more about how to access these comics.
In the U.S., you can already find excellent editions of Marcello Quintanilha’s Listen, Beautiful Márcia and Marcelo D’Salete’s Angola Janga and Run for It. The recently released Braba anthology also offers a solid, though understandably limited, snapshot of contemporary Brazilian creators. All of them were published by Fantagraphics.
I’d love for more readers to discover the work of artists like Laerte, Pablito Aguiar, Lélis, Gidalti Jr., Ilustralu, Pedro Cobiaco, Paulo Moreira, Alexandre Lourenço, Aline Lemos, and many others — unfortunately, their work isn’t currently available in English. I hope that changes soon. The Brazil Comics Catalogue is part of an effort — mine and others’ — to help make that change happen.
7. SerioComics: You've worked extensively with children's and adult comics. How does your approach differ when translating for children versus for adults? Do you share your kids books with your own kids?? Do they know you helped make them???
Yeah, when it's appropriate, I share my work with my daughter, who’s now 14. That’s almost the same number of years I’ve been working as a translator. I always tell her about the comics and books I’m working on — especially the ones I think she’ll enjoy. Or at least I try to.
She’s even helped me on a few projects — most memorably with the glorious The First Cat in Space series by Mac Barnett and Shawn Harris. (Have you read them? They’re fantastic!) She read the English versions and then went through my translation drafts before I sent them to the publisher. She gave me notes like: “Kids don’t talk like this,” or “This is a dad joke — no kid is going to laugh at your dad joke.”
Translating for children, particularly small children, is usually a bit harder. You have fewer words to work with in each book, so each one carries more weight. And there’s something else, too: I often find myself wondering if that one word, that one sentence, might be the difference between a child staying in love with reading or quietly drifting away from it. That thought stays with me. I worry — in the best sense of the word — about doing right by that reader, because I know how much it matters for a young one.
8. SerioComics: Your Substack Virapágina translates as "turn the page." What does that name mean to you? What can readers expect from your newsletter if they subscribe?? How do you read so many books that you talk about in it???
Érico Assis: That’s what I love to do: flipping pages. Literally (sometimes digitally). It’s part of my work as a translator and journalist, and it’s also what my newsletter is about: reading in any way, shape, or form I enjoy — and hopefully, in ways you enjoy too.
I don’t think I read “so many books.” I’d love to read more, but the days keep getting shorter. I just read what I can, when I can.
There’s one thing I always suggest when people ask me about reading: always read from the top of the pile. A new book just arrived, and you’re dying to start it, but there are 17 unfinished ones beneath it? Read the new one. If it’s calling you, pick it up. You’ll circle back to the others eventually. I promise you will.
9. SerioComics: What’s a comic (or creator) you’ve translated that you feel is still underappreciated in Brazil or America? One you wish more people would discover?? Is it me ;0 ???
Érico Assis: I’d love for Brazilian readers to be able to read Should We Buy a Gun, Dave. I’d love to translate it too!
Among the authors I’ve translated and don't get as much praise as I think they should... I’m a huge fan of Joe Ollmann, and I think more people in Brazil should be reading his work. Jillian Tamaki deserves every award and all the praise she gets in the U.S. and elsewhere, and I wish she were just as recognized here. I know part of the problem is how expensive some of these books are in Brazil, but I still hope more Brazilian readers get the chance to experience the brilliance of artists like Chris Ware and Seth.
And it goes both ways: there are non-American authors I’ve translated recently who deserve more attention from American readers, too — like Horacio Altuna from Argentina, and Lucie Bryon from France.
10. SerioComics: Have you ever made comics yourself? Can we see an example?? Do you recommend people learn languages through comics translations???
Érico Assis: I quit my comics career when I was about 7 or 8. These days, I just enjoy reading them — and I find a lot of pleasure in watching them, organizing them, and constantly rearranging them on my shelves. I think I pour all my creative energy into writing about comics and translating them, and I’m fine with that. Though I never say never...
Can people learn languages through comics? I think it depends on how much you love the comics you’re using for that — or how much you love the idea of the comic you want to read. Sometimes that love is strong enough that you learn a whole new language just to access that thing you want. That’s definitely been my case: I learned a lot of English (and French, and Spanish — even a bit of Italian) because there were comics I wanted to read that weren’t available in Portuguese. If the will is there, the language tends to follow.
Over on his Substack, VIRAPÁGINA, Érico posted his Q&A with me here!!!
Thanks so much Érico!
And again to Kevin and GraphicMedicine.Org!!
And thank you all for reading!!!
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