Of course you've heard of unCOMMON:Stories. I'm sure you didn't let slip through your fingers the fact that it was advertised by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and by Steve Jobs himself as "the biggest thing to happen to books since the invention of the book"  (attention: parts of the previous sentence might be made up).

I'm sure you have your copy there, resting gently on your coffee table, ready to be showed with pride to all of your guests. I'm sure you read a couple pages everynight, just to make sure you have the best possible dreams ever. 

I'm sure they use it to teach your kids in school, i'm sure it's in every waiting room in the planet, to make waiting not only less of a pain, but an actual pleasure. I'm sure it's your favorite book and you can never have enough of it. 

I'm sure of all of this things because otherwise I would be sad. And let's say it, no one likes to be sad, right? 

Kidding aside, if you don't know of it, well you should. Full stop. You have no excuse for not knowing it, or about it. And don't pull that crap "I have no time for it" : you're reading THIS blog post, should I say more? 

But let's pretend for a second that you really know nothing about it. 

It's a book with comics from Sio and photos from myself.

unCOMMON:Stories is a celebration of people. It's just another way of breaking the ice: "Hi, we're writing a book about you. What's your name?" It's a collection of photos of (un)common smiles, grins, and faces. It's a comic book, one comic per person, hundreds of panels about them. It's a way for us to express ourselves in the most natural way we know. It's a black and white book.

It's people.

But most of all, it's Stories with a face. A real one. 

Here's a link to our website where you can buy it (YEE!), download it for free (OK!) or even make a donation (YOU'RE AWESOME). 

Over 2 months, while living together in Sapporo, Japan, from February to March 2012, we met with 46 strangers on the streets, convinced them to tell us their story in front of a nice pint of beer, took portraits of them and translated those real life stories in freely inspired comics.  Here's a quick look to the faces of the stories that are in the book. 

It was the most awesome thing ever, and the most rewarding experience that I ever had. Working side by side with your best friend, meeting lots of people with surprising stories, and seeing your work appreciated to the point where the crowdfunding campaign (on Ulule) we started to publish the book not only reached 100% of the funds in 3 (THREE!!) days, but it went further all the way to 387% over a month. 

Ok, and what after the book? Do you really think me and Sio would stop there? NO SIR! Over a year later, we're organizing our second unCOMMON project. And it's going to be LEGENDARY! All I can say right now is : 

1. It's the biggest, longest, awesomest project we've ever planned
2. It involves a foreign country
3. It will start on March 5th
4. Did I already say it's going to be off-the-hook LEGENDARY?!

I won't give out details (just yet) but I will tell you this: be ready for something that is going to BLOW YOUR MIND, day after day, from March 5th. So, be prepared: go to our Facebook Page, drop a like, share the page with all your friends. 

Nico