Ana Margarida Matos - Hoje Não

Winner of the internal competition "Toma lá 500 paus e faz uma BD!" 2020

Running outside the usual corridor of autobiographical self-pity — so common in so-called alternative comics — the comics of Ana Margarida Matos surprise me with their conceptual density and freedom. In Hoje não ("Not Today"), there is a virtuously obsessive graphic precision and an exhaustive use of words that captures me within labyrinthine pages. It’s as if the author forces me to remain in this claustrophobic space for as long as she spent drawing that page. But the fluidity and originality of her narrative solutions leave me disarmed, vulnerable to the passage of time, a partner in her days. I move through the pages as if in a game of chess, trying to anticipate moves and being surprised by the outcomes. Checkmate.
— António Jorge Gonçalves

With a new lockdown approaching, this book is a daily record from January 16 to June 26, 2021, based on the author's premise of not losing track of time again — documenting everything and anything that happens during the day and summarizing the most important parts in just five lines.
Each page corresponds to a day, capturing the boundaries of personal identity in such an atypical moment in the history of our existence, through daily routines, existential crises, and observations of society.