António Jorge Gonçalves, aged 60 and with over thirty years of professional experience, has recently published ‘O tempo do cão’, marking a new collaboration with Angolan writer Ondjaki. He has launched a literary collection with female illustrators and is soon to release ‘O caminho de volta’, a drawn, biographical essay.
Next week, he will also be at the Bologna Children’s and Young Adult Book Fair in Italy, where the book ‘Dita Dor’ (2024) was awarded the prize for best children’s graphic novel.
In an interview at his studio in Lisbon, where he avoids using a computer and archives dozens of sketchbooks—now serving only “museum curiosity”—António Jorge Gonçalves discussed the connections in his work, particularly focusing on the comic ‘Dita Dor’ and the essay ‘O caminho de volta’.
“I align myself with the notion that drawing can be a form of writing… Drawing is the only thing I can truly rely on to write about what is unspeakable to me,” he stated.
‘Dita Dor’, released in 2024 as part of the literary collection ‘Missão Democracia’ by the Assembly of the Republic, is António Jorge Gonçalves’s first graphic novel aimed at younger audiences.
Gonçalves was nine years old during the April 25, 1974, revolution, and he infused the book with childhood memories of his parents and siblings, the “claustrophobic years” under dictatorship, the death of Salazar, the Colonial War, and the nuances of everyday Portuguese life and customs.
“I wanted to talk about what it was like under the dictatorship because I think we are at a point where even fascism seems ‘cool’… And I wanted to talk about fear, imagining having to live with the fear of speaking out today, the self-censorship,” he expressed.
António Jorge Gonçalves describes comics as his “most fundamental language,” recalling his obsessive interest in drawing since childhood, even as his artistic endeavors have expanded to illustration, cartooning, graphic design, live performance drawing, publishing, and teaching.
“I see myself as a generalist rather than a specialist. I can’t devote myself to only one thing and become a great expert. I like to immerse intensely into things and take them to a point where it’s worthwhile. When things are well developed, I get bored; it’s tedious,” he confessed.
In his studio, the black notebooks are meticulously organized, filled with what he termed the “choreography of the hand,” comprising exercises in pen, white pencil, and watercolor, often experimental and diary-like.
“Words demand some form of reflection from me. I have to consciously think about things that drawing doesn’t require. In drawing, I don’t lie,” he declared.
The context also refers to ‘O caminho de volta’, a book to be published in April by Companhia das Letras in a non-fiction collection, subtly addressing themes of family, time, and absence.
In 2024, his mother moved into a nursing home for health reasons. “The day she went to the home, I found myself drawing this: Every day, I would sketch six squares in my notebook with images of what I saw that day, excluding people.”
‘O caminho de volta’ features a selection of these drawings, produced before or after visits to the home, capturing urban landscapes, buildings, gardens, a window, a staircase, or the interior of a home, all interwoven with brief handwritten texts.
“Drawing is the only thing I can truly trust to express the unexpressable to me,” he explained.
This book is not a diary. It’s a conversation with the author himself, originating from the family incident of his mother entering the home, an event portrayed as “an underground river” in the narrative.
For António Jorge Gonçalves, the sketches in his notebooks are lifeless, but what gets reproduced in books is what stays alive. “When I think of a book, the original is what’s published,” the version readers will enjoy.
With this thought in mind, he decided to create a literary collection, ‘Oleandras’, featuring autobiographical visual narratives by female artists.
According to António Jorge Gonçalves, this collection is “heavily influenced” by the notion of “escrevivência” (writing-living), a term coined by Brazilian writer Conceição Evaristo, and the experience of reading “Quarto de Despejo: Diário de uma Favelada” by Carolina Maria de Jesus, both of which deviate from the literary canon.
“I began to realize the lack of female representation in the arts. I noticed that almost all the books I’d read were by men. I started reading nonfiction books with an autobiographical inclination by female authors and realized I hadn’t encountered those themes. There were certain topics that I thought were universally canonical, but they were masculine,” he admitted.
The first two volumes in the ‘Oleandras’ collection, self-published by Noturno Azul, are “vai, mas volta” by Liliana Lourenço and “amanhã” by Ana Biscaia, with a volume by Paula Delacave and another by Rachel Caiano in preparation.
