Filipe Melo (born 13 September 1977) is a Portuguese musician, film director and

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

writer.

Early life

As a teenager, Filipe Melo was a computer hacker. At age 15, he was questioned by the police and he was denied access to computers for a few years.

Music

An accomplished

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

pianist, Melo studied at the Hotclube in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

and at the

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...

with Joanne Brackeen and Ray Santisi . In Portugal, he did sideman work for many international musicians including

Benny Golson Benny Golson (born January 25, 1929) is an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He came to prominence with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie, more as a writer than a performer, before launch ...

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John Ellis John Ellis may refer to: Academics *John Ellis (scrivener) (1698–1791), English political writer *John Ellis (naturalist) (1710–1776), English botanical illustrator *John Ellis (physicist, born 1946), British theoretical physicist at CERN * Jo ...

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, Peter Bernstein, Donald Harrison,

Andrea Bocelli Andrea Bocelli (; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor and multi-instrumentalist. He was born visually impaired, with congenital glaucoma, and at the age of 12, Bocelli became completely blind, following a brain hemorrhage resulting fro ...

, Jesse Davis, Paulinho Braga, Sheila Jordan, Herb Geller and Martin Taylor, among many others. He has been working as an arranger and orchestrator for many artists, and composing original soundtracks for theatre and film.

Films

His first short film was ''I'll See You in My Dreams'', which he wrote and produced, winner of

Fantasporto Fantasporto, also known as Fantas, is an international film festival, annually organized since 1981 in Porto, Portugal. Giving screen space to Fantasy film, fantasy/Science fiction film, science fiction/Horror film, horror-oriented commercial fe ...

, a Méliès d'Argent and 12 more international awards. ''I'll See You in My Dreams'' is now considered to be the first Portuguese

zombie A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in whic ...

film. He wrote and directed "Um Mundo Catita" with Manuel João Vieira, a TV show in 6 episodes, and also directed 2 music videos for the band Moonspell. He has directed two short films: "Sleepwalk" (2018) and "The Lone Wolf" (2021). Both films won the Sophia Award for Best Short by the Portuguese Film Academy. His short film "The Lone Wolf" became the first Portuguese entry to the shortlist for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.

Comic Books

Melo is an Eisner and Harvey nominated author - His work has been published in many countries and languages. His latest book, “Ballad for Sophie” was published by Top Shelf Productions in 2022. He also wrote '' The Adventures of Dog Mendonça & Pizzaboy'', a series of three graphic novels

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops known ...

. The books feature forewords from filmmakers

John Landis John David Landis (born August 3, 1950) is an American comedy and fantasy filmmaker and actor. He is best known for the comedy films that he has directed – such as ''The Kentucky Fried Movie'' (1977), ''Animal House, National Lampoon's Animal ...

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, Tobe Hooper and

Lloyd Kaufman Stanley Lloyd Kaufman Jr. (born December 30, 1945) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. Alongside producer Michael Herz (producer), Michael Herz, he is the co-founder of Troma Entertainment film studio, and the director ...

. In 2012 he was invited to write a story for the

Eisner award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books, sometimes referred to as the comics industry's equivalent of the Academy Awards. They are named in ...

-winning anthology ''

Dark Horse Presents ''Dark Horse Presents'' was a comic book published by American company Dark Horse Comics from 1986. Their first published series, it was their flagship title until its September 2000 cancellation. The second incarnation was published on MySpace, r ...

'', also featuring works by Frank Miller and Mike Mignola. He frequently works with Argentinian artist Juan Cavia.

References

*http://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/21-704/The-Untold-Tales-of-Dog-Mendonca-Pizzaboy-one-shot *http://expresso.sapo.pt/bd-editora-norte-americana-dark-horse-vai-publicar-historia-de-filipe-melo-e-juan-cavia=f62146
Interview in Falar Criativo podcast
1977 births Living people Clean Feed Records artists {{comics-writer-stub