"Zero Medal" is a comic book series project that tries to bring a new science fiction universe with nostalgic action and super powers from the saturday morning cartoons. Although being a kid's theme, there are several inner conflicts of the main character who lives a love at first sight and a strong and active female character in a story full of intricate details that interest adults as well. 

In addition to the comic book series, there is a game being made and there are plans to make animation series and movies too.

I always dreamed of being an artist. I learned to read the Monica's Gang comics before I even started in school. The year was 1994. I was 14 years old, and at that time, mascots dominated the entertainment world. Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, Snoopy, and especially in games: Bubsy, Sonic, Mario, Sparkster, Earthworm Jim, etc. It was at that moment that I realized that I also needed to have my main character. A mascot! That's how the character Garra was born, as well as the project that would later be called Zero Medal.

The difficult part was creating a story and a universe for him. What I created at the time didn't please me. It was only many years later that I had the idea of ​​creating Pandora, a 100% human character with whom Garra falls in love. She then gained so much strength and personality that I recreated the script several times with the best of the previous versions and a more active participation of Pandora, where she became as much of a protagonist as Garra.

As no project comes out of nowhere, Garra was also born from many inspirations from the 90s, bringing that nice nostalgic feeling to those who lived that time.

Knights of the Zodiac: This reference is perhaps the most obvious, right? The characters in the Zero Medal series don't wear constellation armors but they wear Universe Medals that grant super powers. Each one of them has its power according to its origin, which varies between plasma, wind, ice, etc. Very similar to some of the super techniques of Athena's knights.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: A human with 4 half-animal, half-human characters. However, instead of turtles, we have wild cats. One of the big differences is that Garra is not a mutant. He was born that way with the mixing of DNAs in an alien laboratory. Another big difference is that Pandora is not just a fragile girl who needs to be saved all the time. She has an active and important role in the story, something that even April herself also needed to update nowadays.
Bubsy/Ducktales/Megaman: The first and biggest visual inspiration in the creation of Garra in 1994 was Bubsy. Although Garra's eyes resemble Sonic's, the shape of the head and eyes were inspired first by Bubsy but then by Uncle Scrooge and the body has chubby arms and legs like Megaman's.
Phantasy Star: The look of the humans in Zero Medal has an anime-like style because they are inspired by the Phantasy Star game series. Pandora was inspired by a girl I was in love with as a child and also by Alis, the protagonist of the first Phantasy Star from the Sega Master System.
Superman: Many of the comics' layouts, fighting poses and narrative are inspired by Superman comics. Also the scheme of closing story arcs in 3 editions was inspired by the comics of Superman's rematch against Doomsday (Hunter Prey) and Doomsday Wars.
Sonic The Hedgehog: Although this is the reference that people notice the most at first glance, Garra has very little to do with Sonic. However, the similar shape of his eyes really draws attention. Besides, I've been drawing Sonic my whole life. I've been a fan since 1991 when the first game was released and I've made several fan comics. So we can say that my artwork has become "addicted" to his style in everything I do.

Only with the valuable advice from friends and coworkers, as well as the experience working with animation and all the studies from courses, in 2013 the project reached a version that I liked. After creating more than 19 versions of scripts and producing an animated teaser, the Zero Medal issue 1 comic book was finally released in December 2018 thanks to the help of many friends and family who supported the project on the Brazilian crowdfunding platform called Catarse.

Launched at CCXP 2021, considered the largest geek convention ever made in Brazil and the largest Comic Con in the world in terms of attendance in 2019, Zero Medal reached its third issue, closing the first arc of the adventures of Garra and Pandora. In addition to the comic book series that continues to be produced and the cartoon animated teaser that was made to promote the project, scripts and storyboards for series and movies are being prepared, a video game is being developed, and several crossover partnerships are also being made with other national and international authors.

And it all started in 1994 with a childhood dream...