Born in Manaus, Brazil, and currently living in Redwood City, CA, Alex is a former Forest Engineer and Professor turned translator and writer. Since 1999 he's been writing fanzines, poetry, and tales, but only in 2021 he released his first book, Iwará-iwê. A long-term friend of the founders of Black Eye Estúdio, he started the localization of their comics and released the English version of Sete Cores da Amazônia and Speechless through Tucupi Books.

Black Eye Estúdio started in 2018 as an initiative of childhood friends Ademar Vieira and Raphael Russo, along with artist Tieê Santos, as a vehicle for their creations. Their studio is based in Manaus, Brazil, and since 2021, it has a USA division within Tucupi Books.

Tieê Santos

Illustrator

Emerson Medina

Writer

Romahs Mascarenhas

Illustrator

Regina Kim

Assistant Editor, Reviewer

Romahs is a veteran illustrator and active member of the art scene in Manaus, as an artist, arts professor and freelance. Some of his works as a writer and illustrator are on the successful all-ages comics series "Turma da Mônica", from Maurício de Souza Produções - MSP, one of the most successful IPs in Brazil.

Our in-house English reviewer and assistant editor, Regina started working with us in 2021, reviewing and editing all English translations for Tucupi Books. She received her BA in English, with emphasis in Rhetoric and Composition from California State University, Long Beach. She is a California native and currently based in Oklahoma.

Sofía Collimedaglia

Spanish Translator, Reviewer

EN: Argentinian teacher, editor, and translator. Sofía worked on translating and reviewing several graphic novels and books for Tucupi Books/Black Eye Estúdio. She works as a high school teacher in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and has been developing independent projects as an editor and Spanish teacher.
ES: Profesora, editora y traductora argentina. Ha colaborado en la revisión y la traducción al español de varias novelas gráficas por Black Eye Studio. Actualmente se desempeña como profesora en Escuela Media en Buenos Aires (Argentina), mientras desarrolla proyectos independientes como editora y profesora de español.

Black Eye Estúdio

Partner

Alex Souza

Editor-in-Chief, Writer

Raphael Russo

Writer, Assistant Editor

Ademar Vieira

Illustrator, Writer

Also from Manaus, Raphael Russo is one of the founders of Black Eye Estúdio and co-author of the graphic novel A Maldição do Governador (The Governor's Curse), he manages most of the administrative tasks and marketing for the studio and for Tucupi Books in Brazil. Raphael has a degree in History and works as a public officer for the Brazilian federal government.

Born in Manaus, Ademar received a degree in journalism from the Amazonas Federal University. He started his career as a writer for the Hyper Comix magazine (1997-1999), dabbled in amateur movie making in the early 2000's, and since 2015 he has been working as a writer at the Petit Fabrik studios, as one of the head writers of the kid’s show “Lupita”, winner of the best children’s show award at the Gramado Festival in Brazil. He also showcases some of his work on Instagram and recently released his first book with a collection of his Instagram posts.

Medina is a journalist with graduate degree in Visual Arts. He participates in art collectives in Manaus since the 1990s, writing for newspapers, comics, books, and movies.

Born in Manaus and currently living in Macapá, Brazil, Tieê has been working as a professional illustrator since 2003. Focusing on comics with informative content, he worked with major companies such as Petrobras, Masa da Amazonia, Honda, and Philips. Currently, he is part of the staff of C-4 Studio and Black Eye Estúdio as illustrator.