Angelo Agostini was an Italian-born Brazilian illustrator, journalist and founder of several publications, and although born in Italy, is considered the first Brazilian cartoonist.
Brazilian comics started in the 19th century, adopting a satirical style known as cartoon, charges or caricature that would later be cemented in the popular comic strips. The publication of magazines dedicated exclusively to comics, in Brazil, started at the beginning of the 20th century. Brazilian artists have worked with both styles. In the case of American comics some have achieved international fame, like Roger Cruz with X-Men and Mike Deodato with Thor, Wonder Woman and others.
Events in the year 2015 in Brazil:
Prêmio Angelo Agostini, sometimes also called Troféu Angelo Agostini, is the most traditional comics award in Brazil. It was created in 1985 by the Associação dos Quadrinhistas e Caricaturistas do Estado de São Paulo (AQC-ESP), which still organizes the event today.
Adolfo Aizen was a Russian-born Brazilian journalist and editor. He grew up in Salvador, moving to Rio de Janeiro at the age of 15. In Rio, he worked at the publisher O Malho, responsible for the magazine O Tico-Tico, the first magazine to publish comics in Brazil. In 1945, Aizen founded Editora Brasil-América Limitada (EBAL), which would become the most important Brazilian comic book publishing house until the 1980s, being responsible for publishing comics like Superman, Batman and Prince Valiant, among others. In 2000, Aiezen was awarded posthumously with the title of "Master of the National Comics" by Prêmio Angelo Agostini.
Antônio de Souza Mendes Neto, better known as Toninho Mendes, was a Brazilian editor. He started working in the 1960s, going through several publishers and alternative newspapers, such as Movimento and Versus. In 1984, Mendes founded Circo Editorial, considered the most important Brazilian publishing house of alternative comics in the 1980s and 1990s. Circo featured artists such as Laerte, Angeli and Glauco, among other important names in the Brazilian underground comics that achieved prominence in the publications published by Mendes. The story of Circo publishing house was told by Mendes himself in the book Humor Paulistano: a experiência da Circo Editorial, 1984-1985, which won the Troféu HQ Mix in 2015 in two categories: "Best Theoretical Book" and "Best Editorial Project". Mendes also won the Troféu HQ Mix in 2011 in "Best Erotic Publication" category for Quadrinhos Sacanas, a collection organized by him which published anonymous erotic comics created between the 1950s and 1980s.
Master of National Comics is one of the awards held by Prêmio Angelo Agostini, the most traditional Brazilian awards dedicated to comics.
Rodolfo Zalla was an Angentine comics artist. He started drawing comics while still in Argentina in 1953, but his career gained prominence after moving to Brazil with fellow comic artist José Delbo in 1963. He started producing comic strips of characters such as Targo, O Vingador and O Escorpião. He has worked for several comic book publishers and has produced stories in various genres, such as war and terror. He also produced Disney Comics about Zorro for editora Abril. In 1985, he was awarded the Prêmio Angelo Agostini for Master of National Comics, an award that aims to honor artists who have dedicated themselves to Brazilian comics for at least 25 years. He remained active drawing comics until his death in 2016, at 84 years old.
Eugenio Colonnese was an Italian-born Brazilian comic artist. Son of a Brazilian mother and Italian father, Colonnese moved to Argentina as a child, where he began his career in 1949, working for several Argentine magazines. He moved to Brazil in 1964. Three years later, he created the Estúdio D-Arte with Rodolfo Zalla, with whom he produced several comic books for several Brazilian publishers. In 1967, Colonnese created his main characters: Mirza, a Mulher-Vampira and O Morto do Pântano, which, although they have similarities, respectively, to Vampirella and Swamp Thing, were created some years before these characters.Colonnese worked mainly with horror comics, but he also worked with other genres and did illustration for educational and advertising comics. In 1985, he was awarded the Prêmio Angelo Agostini for Master of National Comics, an award that aims to honor artists who have dedicated themselves to Brazilian comics for at least 25 years.
Gedeone Malagola was a Brazilian comics artist and editor. He started his career in the 1940s, drawing for the newspaper A Marmita. He worked for several comic book publishers until he founded his own, Editora Júpiter. His main works were in the 1960s at GEP, where he created the superheroes Raio Negro, Hydroman and Homem Lua. In the late 1960s, Malagola wrote unofficial stories of the X-Men for GEP. In 1986, he was awarded the Prêmio Angelo Agostini for Master of National Comics, an award that aims to honor artists who have dedicated themselves to Brazilian comics for at least 25 years.
Flavio Colin was a Brazilian comic artist and illustrator, considered one of the most important comic artists in Brazil. He began his career in the 1950s with an adaptation for the comic book radio series As Aventuras do Anjo, influenced by Milton Caniff, but began to gain prominence with the development of his own stylized artist style. In 1987, he was awarded with the Prêmio Angelo Agostini for Master of National Comics, an award that aims to honor artists who have dedicated themselves to Brazilian comics for at least 25 years. He also won the Troféu HQ Mix in 1994 and 1995. Flávio Colin died in Rio de Janeiro on 2002.
Cláudio Seto was a Brazilian journalist, visual artist, comic artist, poet, photographer, cultural animator and bonsai artist. Of Japanese descent, at age nine he went to study at a Zen monastery in Japan, where he took the opportunity to visit Osamu Tezuka's studio on weekends. When he returned to Brazil in the 1960s, he was hired by Edrel publishing house, where he published stories about samurai and ninja, who were still little known by Brazilians. Seto is considered the forerunner of the use of the manga style in Brazilian comics and his best-known character was O Samurai. In the 1970s, he moved to Curitiba to work at the Grafipar publishing house, which had hired some of the best Brazilian comic artists of the time. In 1988, he was awarded with the Prêmio Angelo Agostini for Master of National Comics, an award that aims to honor artists who have dedicated themselves to Brazilian comics for at least 25 years.
Álvaro de Moya was a Brazilian journalist, professor, researcher, comics artist, illustrator, writer and TV producer. He was one of the pioneers in academic research on comics in Brazil and one of those responsible for the First International Exhibition of Comics, held in São Paulo in 1951. Moya worked on the Disney comics published by Editora Abril, published novel adaptations at the EBAL publishing house, and made cartoons, illustrations and articles about comics for several newspapers. His first book, Shazam!, published in 1970, is considered one of the most important for Brazilian research on comics. In 1989, he was awarded with the Prêmio Angelo Agostini for Master of National Comics, an award that aims to honor artists who have dedicated themselves to Brazilian comics for at least 25 years.
Walmir Amaral is a Brazilian comic artist. He worked at the publishing house Rio Gráfica Editora (RGE) from 1957 to 1986, where he produced covers and illustrations for several licensed characters, especially for Lee Falk's The Phantom. In the 1960s, Amaral began writing and drawing the comics for O Anjo, a radio character previously drawn by Flavio Colin. Amaral was also one of the creators of the project Gibi Semanal, in which he worked as editor and writer. The comic book featured weekly publication of comic strips and stories of characters such as Beetle Bailey, Popeye, Peanuts, Frank and Ernest, Tarzan, Rip Kirby, The Cisco Kid, The Spirit, Dick Tracy, Lucky Luke, among many others. In 1990, he was awarded with the Prêmio Angelo Agostini for Master of National Comics, an award that aims to honor artists who have dedicated themselves to Brazilian comics for at least 25 years.
Primaggio Mantovi is an Italian-born Brazilian comics artist. Born in Italy, he moved with his family to Brazil at age nine. He began his career at publishing house Rio Gráfica Editora (RGE) in 1964, where he produced around 200 magazine covers and wrote and illustrated comics about western and humor. In 1972, he released his own character at RGE, the clown Sacarrolha, who had his own comic book that was quite successful at the time. Mantovi also created the comic strip Dr. Zoo, o Veterinário, which was published in newspapers in Brazil, Cuba and the Netherlands. From 1973, Mantovi also worked with Disney comics at editora Abril, being responsible for the coordination of "Escolinha Disney", an Abril project that sought to create new talent for the then great Brazilian production of Disney comics. In 1991, he was awarded with the Prêmio Angelo Agostini for Master of National Comics, an award that aims to honor artists who have dedicated themselves to Brazilian comics for at least 25 years.
Waldyr Igayara de Souza was a Brazilian comic book artist and editor. He started his career working for the Outubro and Taika publishing houses, as well as the studio Alcântara Machado Propaganda, along with Lyrio Aragão, Julio Shimamoto and Luiz Saidenberg. In 1961, he started working at editora Abril, being one of the first Brazilian artists to work with Disney comics at the publishing house. He created the character Dugan Duck, nephew of Fethry Duck. The character was quite successful in Brazil and Italy, being the only duck with a yellow color. Igayara also worked as editorial director of Abril's children's division for 20 years, creating important children's magazines such as Recreio e Alegria. In 1993, he was awarded with the Prêmio Angelo Agostini for Master of National Comics, an award that aims to honor artists who have dedicated themselves to Brazilian comics for at least 25 years.
Fernando Ikoma is a Brazilian painter and comic book artist of Japanese descent. He moved to Curitiba at the age of 14, where he started working as an apprentice shop window designer. At 19, Ikoma started to work with comics in search of a better financial situation. He worked as a comic artist at EDREL, EBAL and Abril publishing houses. His main creation in the comics was the character Fikom, published by EDREL in the 1970s and whose adventures took place in the world of dreams, a place where his alter ego, the ugly Mukifa, could play the role of a beautiful hero. He also wrote the book A Técnica Universal das Histórias em Quadrinhos. Ikoma, however, left comics after some years to work as a painter.
Deodato Borges was a Brazilian journalist, broadcaster and comics creator. In the late 1950s, Borges created the radio series As Aventuras do Flama for Borborema AM radio station, in Campina Grande, starring the superhero Flama that the author had created while still in his childhood. With the great success of the program, Borges created in 1963 a Flama's comic book that attracted a legion of fans and became one of the first Brazilian comics superheroes. In addition to his radio work, Borges was also general director of Diários Associados in Paraíba state and was TV and radio director. In 1973, he became the culture editor of the newspaper O Norte, in João Pessoa, introducing comic strips. In the 1980s, together with his son Mike Deodato, he created the sci-fi saga 3000 Anos Depois, reprinted in the American market as Fallout 3000, where he was credited as Mike Deodato Sr., as well as other works. In 1999, he was awarded with the Prêmio Angelo Agostini for Master of National Comics, an award that aims to honor artists who have dedicated themselves to Brazilian comics for at least 25 years.
Edson Rontani was a Brazilian illustrator and fanzine editor, known for having created the first Brazilian fanzine about comics.
Paulo Hamasaki was a Brazilian illustrator and comics artist. He started his career in the 1960s, when he also created his best-known character: Venus, a ninfa espacial. He was the first art director at Estúdios Mauricio de Sousa, after helping Sousa in the design of a new children's supplement for the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper. In 1971, Hamasaki worked in the women's magazine Contigo, published by Abril publishers, publishing the adventures of Cris A Repórter. In the 1980s, he worked at Grafipar publishing house and later became an independent editor. In 1996, he was awarded with the Prêmio Angelo Agostini for Master of National Comics, an award that aims to honor artists who have dedicated themselves to Brazilian comics for at least 25 years.
