Felipe Marcantonio

Felipe Marcantonio didn’t set out to make a webcomic—he set out to make an animated TV series. When his college animation project about alien dragons hit production limits, he did what great indie creators do: he turned it into a comic instead. That pivot became XDragoon, a shonen-style sci-fi saga that debuted on August 1, 2008 and ran for over eight years of near-continuous updates.

The premise hooks you fast: Rocky and Alfred, two dragon stowaways from the planet Gan-Mah, sneak aboard a spaceship on a mission to stop their emperor from invading Earth—and end up stranded in the middle of it. What follows is a blend of high-energy battles, interstellar politics, and unlikely friendships between aliens and humans, all rendered in Marcantonio’s manga-inspired style with vivid full-color art that visibly levels up across the run. By the time the original series wrapped in November 2016, XDragoon had amassed well over a thousand full-color pages across more than eight years of near-weekly updates.

Marcantonio kept expanding the universe from there. The spin-off XDragoon: Rockstar reimagined the cast in a music-themed side story from 2013 to 2016, and he even brought the dragons to life as an animated webseries in 2018—fulfilling the project’s original destiny—with episodes funded partly through his early Patreon supporters. In 2022, Brazilian publisher Editora Crás gave the series a gorgeous print reboot as XDragoon: Viagem sem Volta, followed by the English Kindle edition XDragoon: One Way Journey in July 2023. The saga’s latest chapter is XDragoon: Magma Crystal, a seven-chapter reboot of the second adventure that serialized weekly on Tapas from August 2023 through its conclusion.

XDragoon isn’t his only world. Since 2015 he’s been drawing Fred Guará, a comedy-action-mystery series about a werewolf paranormal investigator—a tonal left turn from dragon warfare that shows his range (and just celebrated its 10th anniversary). His animation chops have made him a fixture at conventions like Brasil FurFest, where he’s discussed comics, animation, and the Brazilian market on panels. By day he works in the industry at MSP Estúdios and Crás Estúdio, keeping one foot in mainstream Brazilian comics while his own universes grow on the side.

Want to jump in? The complete original XDragoon run is free to read on Tapas in both English and Portuguese. Support his work on Patreon for early chapters and exclusive art, follow along on Bluesky or Instagram, and find every link on his Linktree. If you love creator-owned worlds with real longevity—think a Brazilian mix of Dragon Ball energy and Sonic-era adventure spirit—Felipe Marcantonio belongs on your shelf.