Full Name: Juliano Nogueira de Sousa

Born: 09/15/1977, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

From an early age, I have always been a quiet, withdrawn child. I spent most of my time watching cartoons and tokusatsus, playing with my hot wheels and, of course, DRAWING.

My first contact with comics was when I was about 8 years old. It was the Turma da Mônica books (very popular in Brazil). And thus I had found my passion. By the time I became a teenager I had gradually migrated towards super hero comics.

Comics were an ideal refuge for a shy boy that kept to himself like me, and it was only natural for me to combine my two hobbies into one aas I took up drawing those colorful characters I liked so much. Little did I know that soon it would become much more than just a hobby... That changed as soon as I got my hands on an issue of Kraven’s Last Hunt and was baffled by the masterful and realistic art by Mike Zeck. Right then and there, at the young age of TWELVE I decided I wanted to become a comic book artist.

I spent most of High School drawing (my teachers on many occasions, for great amusement of my classmates). After High School I ended up studying Architecture at Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP), an University at São Paulo City, and it was an excellent choice, because at that time, the course (especially the first two semesters) was heavily directed towards Art, and that helped me lay some of the foundations of my work. By the end of 1999 I had graduated as an Architect, and started my journey towards becoming a professional comics artist.

But life always finds a way to test your resolution and commitment to your ideals, so amidst a storm of personal problems I managed to be published and/or work in some projects (much less than I’d like to or should’ve) for some independent publishers and studios, such as Zenescope and Studio 407.

All my life, many artists have influenced my art, some of them are: Alfonse Mucha, John Buscema, Frank Frazetta, John Romita Sênior, Ross Andru, Mike Zeck, Alan Davis, Katsuhiro Otomo, Charles Vess, Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Adam Kubert, Akira Toriama, and Adam Hughes.

Recently, Frank Cho, Terry Dodson, Aaron Lopresti, Eric Basaldua, Jamal Igle, Rags Morales and Bryan Hitch. Also the brazilian artists Mike Deodato, Joe Prado, Al Rio, Ed Benes, Luke Ross, Daniel HDR and Ivan Reis.