Hi from Paulo!

Hi there,

My name is Paulo Henrique and most of you know me as the artist of the Hardy Boys for Papercutz.  One thing you might not know is that I prefer to go by PH instead of “Paulo Henrique.”  I’d like to share a bit about myself and let you all ask any questions you may have for me. I always like to hear from fans!
I was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil where I started drawing at a very young age.  The first thing I remember drawing was from when I was 6.  I was in art class and I drew a picture of Darth Vader.  The teacher said she thought that I had drawn a bride in a black wedding dress!  I always liked bad guys the best, but I knew that Vader was a good guy under that mask.  I think that’s why I liked him so much as a kid.  After that, I just kept on drawing and drawing.
I really like “larger than life” characters, and when I was growing up I was drawn to Manga style before I even knew that’s what it was called. For those of you who don’t know what Manga is, it’s really just a word for Japanese art. It’s a style that we use in the Hardy Boys a lot. There are a million definitions of “Manga” out there, but an easy way to identify the style is characters with exaggerated faces and bodies. In English, the translation is actually “Japanese comics,” so you’ll see a lot of stuff out there called “Manga” that actually isn’t.  If you want a good example of some Manga Hardy Boys, look at the fourth page of comics in THE HARDY BOYS Graphic Novel #14: “Haley Danielle’s Top Eight!”:

Some of the best-known artists who shaped what we know as Manga today are Machiko Hasegawa and Osamu Tezuka. Readers have probably seen Tezuka’s “Astro Boy” at some point in their lives. Google it!  The history of Manga goes all the way back to the 1800’s and there’s a lot of info on the Internet if you do some searching.
Back to my art!  Some of you may want to know who my favorite comics characters are and how I got started.  Well, I love that blue bomber!  I’m talking about Megaman.  I started drawing him when I was a teenager and I’ve beaten all of the original Nintendo games. Megaman is a Manga character and he jump-started my career.  In 1997, I was hired to draw the Megaman comicbook for Brazilian publisher Magnum and ended up working with Sidney Lima, who would work on THE HARDY BOYS at Papercutz years later.  At that time, a lot of publishers got interested in Manga, so I met with Magnum and did a test for Megaman.  Both Sidney Lima and I ended up getting the job, and we became friends.  Years later I started to work for Yabu media and was doing an electronic graphic novel called COMBO RANGES, so I called him to work with me.  This led to us collaborating on THE HARDY BOYS.  He is a good friend and a great artist.  I have to thank him for introducing me to Papercutz and THE HARDY BOYS.  The Megaman series took off, and I ended up teaching Manga style to young artists at a place called Impacto Studios in Brazil.
Impacto Studios is a place where young artists can come to learn and improve their art, while more established artists teach classes to students and are introduced to companies that may want to hire them. At Impacto, I became friends with Klebs Junior, the founder of the studio and a comicbook artist himself.  Klebs is well known in comics. Aside from founding Impacto he also illustrated “Snakes on a Plane” (DC), “Excalibur” (Marvel Comics), “Harbinger” and a bunch of other titles.  Klebs became my agent and helped get my work to America.  When he heard that Top Cow Productions was looking for an artist for their “Myth Warriors” series, he set up a test for me.  Top Cow hired me and my work ended up getting distributed to a much larger audience in the US.
I worked for a lot of different magazines and publications in Brazil, but it wasn’t until volume 6 of  THE HARDY BOYS that I started working on that series.  My friend Sidney needed some help.  He asked me to help draw the Hardy Boys on #6 and then I started drawing it full-time and have no plans to stop!  I just finished my 11th volume of the series.
Aside from comics, I really love music.  I have remixed a lot of Megaman songs from the video games and I play guitar and sing in a hard rock trio called “Octane” in Brazil.  You can find us on MySpace and YouTube.  As far as my favorite groups go, I like Avenged Sevenfold, Story of the Year, and System of a Down.  From the “Old School” I love Iron Maiden and Metallica.  I also like pop and classical music.  I love Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart.  I don’t understand classical music, but I appreciate it so much.  I like some Brazilian pop music but I really dislike, (I don’t want to say hate, it’s a strong word)…SAMBA!  Samba’s the national music of Brazil.  It’s upbeat and encourages listeners to dance.  It’s not for me, though.
So all of you readers may have questions for me.  Send them in and I’ll try to answer as quickly as possible!  My favorite titles from THE HARDY BOYS so far are #8: “A Hardy Day’s Night” (just a beautiful father and son story) and #15: “Live Free, Die Hardy!” which was action-packed.  I’ve got to thank Jim Salicrup, Terry Nantier, Scott Lobdell, Laurie E. Smith, and Mark Lerer for all of their hard work and support.  Perhaps most importantly: thanks to you fans!  Without you we wouldn’t be able to put these great graphic novels together.  Thanks and be sure to ask me questions!

-PH