Joana Mosi is an award-winning Portuguese cartoonist whose work is only recently becoming available in English. And that timing matters — because until Pow Pow Press started publishing her books The Mongoose and now Physical Education, internationally, there was basically no way for English-language readers to come across it unless they happened to be at the right European festival at the right time.

She is part of the growing Lisbon comics scene in Portugal. Paul Gravett called her previous book, The Mongoose, a “formally experimental yet powerful affecting narrative” She draws, she writes, she teaches. Physical Education has already been published in Portugal and was the first-ever graphic novel to be a National Illustration Award of Portugal Highlight Book, but is getting its English language release through Pow Pow Press on May 5th. The work is fictional yet emotionally true, centered on detachment, expressed through sparse characterization, missing facial features, and flexible page design.

[This episode is number 831 in a series.]

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Intro
01:54 – Portugal’s Comics Scene
04:38 – Found in Translation
07:17 – Revisiting Finished Books
10:50 – Finding Pow Pow Press
12:42 – Going Global via Festivals
18:35 – Style Shift and Critiques
25:32 – Comics Lessons
31:16 – Teaching With Empathy
32:43 – Letting Students Fail
33:55 – Reaching Out To Mentors
35:34 – Fiction vs Autobiography
39:20 – Drawing Detachment
44:41 – Color Choices
45:40 – Motifs And Mundanity
48:20 – Page Layout Decisions
53:21 – Process
55:57 – Getting Feedback
01:01:58 – Outro