Published on the Onomatopoeia website by Paulo Ricardo, we read an interesting interview given by comic book artist Wendell Cavalcanti.
Wendell’s Phantom art first appeared on and in Frew Publications 2019 Annual Special. We see his art featured on the full wrap-around cover, as seen above, and also within. He’s gone on to complete other work featuring the Phantom, not only with Frew Publications, but also with Manuscript Press on their Comic Review edition number 405-406 published in 2020.
Onomatopoeia give us a little biography on Wendell:
Born in Natal, in 1973, Wendell Cavalcanti grew up under the influence of comics from the 70s and 80s, and drawing has always been part of his life. At the turn of the 90s to the 2000s, he began his partnership with Estúdio Reverbo, collaborating with his line in stories for the magazines Bio 47 and Brado Retumbante. It was during this period that his career began to take off and his work reached foreign publishers. His resume includes series such as The Undertaker’s Daughter, Adventures of Paula Peril , The Invisible Scarlet O’neil and BlackAcre.
Wendel goes on to talk about his work on the Phantom:
Onomatopoeia: How was the invitation to draw the hero Phantom by Australian publisher Frew Publications? Is it true that you were already a fan of the character?
Wendell: Yes, it’s true, I’m a fan. From childhood. Maybe a lot of designers say that about the character they’re drawing at the moment, but I am. I don’t have everything that was published, of course, but one thing or another I got.
After I finished the Image series, a guy who followed this series contacted me to place some artwork orders. That guy was Tor [Dollhouse], who I mentioned earlier. We started talking a lot about these orders (now I already had a computer) and he started showing script ideas for comics… we started and developed several things together. As soon as he found out I was a fan of the Phantom, he suggested we make a story proposal to present to Frew. As he lives there, I thought it would be much easier to contact him, and I agreed.
We developed a story, I drew some sample pages and he sent it in and went to talk to Glenn [Ford], one of the editors at Frew. Well, the story was unfortunately not approved. I think we carried a little bit in ink. It was a story with a touch of horror, very dark, not on the supernatural side, but more mundane. A few weeks later, I received an invitation from the editor to work on Pidde Anderson’s script for the 2019 Annual of the Phantom. This was my first screenplay for the character and I ended up doing the double cover for this annual edition as well.
I then worked with Julie Ditrich on a two-part script – The Adventure of the Dragon’s Leg – which was published in the Treasures of the Drakon special.
I drew a short story The Phantom and the Flame – Welcome Aboard , written by Andrew Constant.
I’m currently working on the four-part arc The Return of the Golden Circle, written by Julie Ditrich.
Onomatopoeia: What’s the most fun about drawing the hero?
Wendell: Designing the character itself. As a child, I drew the Phantom in my notebook over and over, all the time. Today I can do it professionally, but it’s still fun.
Onomatopeia: The artist Evaldo Oliveira drew the Phantom in the series of magazines by Rio Gráfica e Editora, between the 60s and 70s. Have you had contact with his work, in general, and in the magazine “Espirito que anda”?
Wendell: Look, I read a lot of RGE material when I was a child, so I must have had this contact with his work, although I didn’t know that at the time and there wasn’t even the name of the designers in the story (only in the office, but this I only found out many years later), but as I read the Phantom a lot and [Recruit] Zero was another one I adored, I must have had.
Wendell gives us an interesting insight into his career as an artist and the numerous projects he’s either worked on or is currently working on.
To read the full interview, click HERE
The Phantom 