'O Verão do Papa-Angu' (2018).
Germana Viana is a Brazilian comic book artist and editor. After having worked on the production and business sides of the industry, she has become a prominent player in Brazil's indie comic scene, especially participating in and spearheading initiatives with a feminist outset. Among her most important accomplishments are the webcomics 'Lizzie Bordello e as Piratas do Espaço' (2013) and 'As Empoderadas' (2016), the graphic novels 'P.O.V. - Point Of View' and 'O Verão do Papa-Angu' (2018), and her collective project 'Gibi de Menininha' (2018-2019).
Early life and influences
Born in Recife in 1972, Germana Viana graduated in Arts from São Paulo State University. Her main influences are Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez (specially for 'Locas' and 'Palomar'), and Jamie Hewlett (for 'Tank Girl'). She also likes the way Neil Gaiman writes about women, as well as comics she read in the 1980s by writers such as David Mazzucchelli, Frank Miller, Alan Moore and George Pérez.
Early work
Viana began her career in 1990s doing illustrations for children's books. Her first contact with the comic industry happened in 2005, when she started to work as letterer for Mythos Editora. This company was responsible for the editorial work on the Panini Brasil titles. She provided lettering for many Brazilian editions of Marvel and Star Wars comics, for instance. Some years later, Viana was Joe Prado's assistant in managing Brazilian artists for the North-American comics market. Prado's agency, Art&Comics, represented artists such as Ivan Reis, Ed Benes and Roger Cruz. But this line of work was bureaucratic and not artistic, so she left the agency to work in an art gallery.
'Lizzie Bordello e as Piratas do Espaço'.
Lizzie Bordello
Only in 2013, after visiting the Festival Internacional de Quadrinhos (FIQ, the most traditional Brazilian comic festival, held biennially in Belo Horizonte), Viana decided to make her own comics. Her first work was 'Lizzie Bordello e as Piratas do Espaço', a webcomic series about a crew of four women (including a trans woman) who travel in a spaceship capable of time-traveling. They enjoy nonsense adventures with a lot of action and humor. Two print book collections have been released by Jambô Editora in 2014 and 2016.
As Empoderadas
On 8 March 2016, Viana started the ongoing digital comic 'As Empoderadas' ("The Empowered") as part of Pagu Comics, a label of digital comics made exclusively by women. The series tells the story of three women who develop superpowers and become vigilantes after a strange solar phenomenon. This comic won the Troféu HQ Mix (most important Brazilian comics award) as "Best Webcomic".
'As Empoderadas'.
Anthologies and graphic novels
Viana has contributed comic stories to several anthologies, including 'SPAM' (Zarabatana Books, 2015), 'Amor em Quadrinhos' (independent, 2017) and 'Marcatti 40' (Ugra Press, 2018). She also contributed to Alex Mir's 'Orixás - Renascimento' (independent, 2018), a comic book based on African mythology.
With the writer Carol Pimenta, she created the graphic novel 'P.O.V. - Point Of View' (script by Carol Pimenta, Jambô Editora, 2017), originally serialized as a webcomic on Lady's Comics. It explores the lives and everyday worries of a group of friends from São Paulo, all in their thirties. Viana's own comic book series 'O Verão do Papa-Angu' (Social Comics, 2018) is set in the 1920s, when a young city girl is forced to move to her grandparents' countryside house, where she gets entangled in a web of intrigues with the bandit Papa-Angu. She self-published 'Só Mais Uma História de Banda' ("Just Another Story of a Band") in 2020.
Gibi de Menininha
In 2018, Viana launched the project 'Gibi de Menininha', a comic book with erotic stories made exclusively by women. The first book, with erotic horror stories, was published by Zarabatana Books with six stories, made by several Brazilian female artists. Viana wrote one story (penciled by Renata C B Lzz) and penciled another one (written by Camila Suzuki). She was also the co-editor, alongside Claudio Martini.
'Gibi de Menininha' (the name means, literally and ironically, "Little Girl Comic") won the Troféu HQ Mix as best collective publication and the Prêmio Angelo Agostini (another important Brazilian comic award) as best release. In 2019, a second volume with "erotic wild west" stories was made by Germana Viana and other artists.
'Gibi de Menininha' #2.