The story is called “O Sarilho” and is the result of a totally independent work, with no connections to publishers, and whose “main objective is to read it for free on the Internet”, the author told the Lusa agency.
“In terms of history, it is about Romans from the future who live in Peso da Régua and who go on a mission to Arouca to recover the wreckage of a satellite, and end up shooting an alien four times and starting a war. It's a story about war, conflict and especially long-term cooperation,” said Shizamura.
The author began regularly publishing the pages of “O Sarilho” on the Internet in 2016, but was looking for funding in crowdfunding to edit the chapters on paper, for presentation at comics conventions.
“I like the idea of making things available for free and then whoever is interested [supports]. There are people who will not be able to support them financially afterwards, but that is not why I should deprive them of history. I think you can reach more people in this” digital format, she explained.
The third crowdfunding application was launched at the end of March, and the author did not expect so much participation, as she has already exceeded by more than 200% the initial goal of reaching 1,000 euros.
“On the Internet, a person has that instant gratification, of putting ‘online’ and having a reaction right away. ‘O Sarilho’ took a while to grow until today, it is not a phenomenon, but it is enough to feed the ego”, said the author.
Shizamura is the artistic pseudonym of Alda Canito, a 32-year-old researcher in Computer Engineering, living in the Porto region, “who is losing her hair with her PhD, and when she doesn't, she makes comics”.
The author recalled that the first attempts to make comics appeared in college days, but it was only with “O Sarilho” that she structured a story. According to the planned plan, you will have work for another decade.
“O Sarilho” takes place in a reality where the characters live in a country called Lusitânia, which manages to escape the annexation of Imperial Medita Augusta, an empire bathed by the waters of the Mediterranean.
In the story, there are three brothers who have to go into enemy territory to collect the wreckage of an ancient satellite and come face to face with alien beings, inadvertently starting a war.
About “O Sarilho”, Shizamura recognizes visual influences from Japanese comics, but everything else results from an amalgamation of readings from childhood.
“I really like stories, I really like to read a little bit of everything, I've always been very attached to books, and there comes a stage when a person has to tell a story too. So I think comics are the perfect match,” she explained.
Shizamura remembers reading everything by Astérix – “which was what was in the school library” –, a lot of Japanese comics, a lot of science fiction, a lot of Portuguese literature, in particular José Saramago.
Therefore, she argues that history could only be Portuguese and linked to Portugal. "It's trouble, because that's what they [the characters] are in."
Because of her PhD, Alda Canito recognizes that it is not yet time to make contacts with comic book publishers, and knows that “O Sarilho” is not an immediate project: “I am doing a long series, each volume depends on the previous one, if it were more episodic the publishers would be more interested, but I don't want to change”.
She regrets not being in contact with more Portuguese comic book authors and artists, but on the other hand, “on the Internet, you end up being in touch with the whole world”.
Those who helped finance the paper edition through 'crowdfunding' will have early access to the end of the sixth chapter, whose pages will be revealed online next October.
