Mauricio de Sousa

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Mauricio de Sousa (born October 27, 1935) is a Brazilian cartoonist who has created over 200 characters for his popular series of children's comic books.

At 17 years of age, he worked for a daily newspaper called Folha da Manhã as a crime reporter. In 1959 Sousa quit that job and began his comic book career. He created Turma da Mônica ("Monica's Gang"). Sousa's characters were inspired by children he knew from his childhood and by his own children. His later style is highly reminiscent of that of Osamu Tezuka, a famous Japanese Mangaka (manga artist). That is probably no coincidence, since the two were personal friends.

[edit] Story

Mauricio de Sousa was born in Santa Isabel on October 27, 1935. His father, Antonio Maurício de Sousa, was a poet and a barber, and his mother, Petronilha Araújo de Sousa, also delved into poetry. Mauricio developed an interest in cartooning at a young age, and began to draw posters and illustrations for periodicals of Mogi das Cruzes, where he lived. He sought penciling work in São Paulo, but instead took a job writing the police blotter for Folha de São Paulo, but he soon quit and focused on his budding comic book career. This led to the creation of his first character, Bidu, who later became the symbol of his company, Maurício de Sousa Productions, where he employs a great team of tracers and scriptwriters to complement his illustrations.

Today, he is the father of ten children, and drew inspiration from them for new characters such as Monica, Magali, Marina, Maria Cebolinha, Nimbus and Do Contra. Three of his children are even employed at his studio: Mônica handles licensing duties, Magali works as a scriptwriter, and Marina is a storyline developer.

The comics of Mauricio de Sousa have gained international fame, been featured on licensed merchandise, and have even been adapted for movies, television, video games, and even a São Paulo amusement park, the Parque da Mônica ("Monica's Park"). Two other Parque da Mônica facilities were also located in Curitiba and Rio de Janeiro, but they both closed in 2000 and 2005, respectively.

From 1970 to 1986, Mauricio's comic books had been published by Editora Abril, until Globo took over in January of 1987. His work has been published in many magazines and newspapers since 1959. Since January 2007, the comic book series is published by Panini Comics.

[edit] Characters

Some of Mauricio's creations include:

• Monica's Gang - Mauricio's long-running signature series.
• Chuck Billy 'n' Folks
• The Cavern Clan
• Pelézinho's Team - A tribute to Pelé that centered around young Pelézinho ("Little Pelé") and his football playing friends. Published in the 1970s.
• Tina's Pals - A series about a group of teenage friends, aimed at the adolescent audience.
• Bidu's Gang - Anthropomorphized domestic animals (dogs, cats, etc.). Bidu regularly exchanged dialogue with the “Tracer” of the comic.
• Lionel's Kingdom - Group of wild animals (both African and Brazilian) who lived under the reign of a lion king.
• Bug-a-Booo - Comic horror stories featuring a ghost, a vampire, a werewolf, a mummy, and Dona Morte ("Ms. Death"), all of whom lived in a cemetery.
• Bubbly - A Brazilian space adventurer who piloted a round ship. First published in 1975.
• Horacio - An orphaned and ethical dinosaur; a tyrannosaurus who happened to be a vegetarian and also has his own gang, like most of Sousa's creations. First published in 1963.
• Tom-Tom (name in Portuguese: Papa-Capim, or "Eat-Grass") - a Brazilian Indian child (curumim, in the tupi-guarani language), who lived in an Amazonian taba (village).
• Nicodemon - A sarcastic and evil boy, one of few main characters in Mauricio's comics to have a negative personality. Debuted in 1966.
• Ronaldinho Gaucho - Along the lines of Pelezinho's Team, this strip centers around another pint-sized football-playing youngster, this time modeled after and possessing the skills of Ronaldinho (Ronaldo de Assis Moreira). This comic premiered on December 28, 2005, and the real-life Ronaldinho was even the guest of honor at the launch party in his hometown of Porto Alegre. Ronaldinho Gaucho is syndicated worldwide, published in newspapers in Brazil, the Netherlands, England, Japan, Singapore, Brunei, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, and, most recently, the United States.

Prior to the creation of Ronaldinho Gaucho, Mauricio had also previously developed two additional footballing characters based on Diego Maradona (named "Dieguito") and Ronaldo, but they never made it to publication.

[edit] External links

• Mauricio de Sousa's website (in Portuguese)
• http://content.uclick.com/content/ron.html Ronaldinho Gaucho summary and sample strips (in English)