Monica’s Gang

Monica and her gang is a character created by Mauricio de Souza, check it out, please. 

Source: www.maganews.com

Toon History

Monica’s Gang:  it all started 50 years ago....

In July 1959 Maurício de Sousa published his first cartoon in a São PauloState newspaper.  The first character he created was a cute little dog called Blu (Bidu)

Brazil at the end of the 1950 was going through a boom.  Brasília, the future capital of the country, was being built. In 1959 an 18-year-old called Roberto Carlos was setting out as a singer and Bossa Nova was just beginning.  Meanwhile, in São Paulo city, a young man called Maurício de Sousa was working as a crime reporter for Folha da Manhã (now Folha de São Paulo).  Maurício was a journalist but his passion was making up stories in cartoon strips. On July 18^th 1959 the young reporter had his first cartoon strip published in the newspaper he worked at.  It was a simple story, with only two characters: the dog, Blu (Bidu) and his owner Franklin (Franjinha). Soon afterwards Maurício left his career as a journalist to become a full-time cartoonist.

The first comic was published in 1970

The first characters created by Maurício de Sousa were boys. After Blu and Franklin came Jimmy Five (Cebolinha), Pitheco (Piteco), Smudge (Cascão) and Chuck Billy (Chico Bento).  In the years that followed, Maurício was inspired by his young daughters, Mônica and Magali, to create them as his first girl characters. In the 1960s Maurício’s stories were published in newspapers. The first comic with Monica’s Gang was published in 1970 (see picture). Later the cartoon characters appeared in films, on TV and in educational projects. Global soccer stars also inspired Maurício to create two characters: Pelezinho (1976) and Ronaldinho Gaúcho (2005).

Áudio – Aasita Muralikrishna

Na edição impressa da revista Maganews você poderá conferir mais sobre a trajetória de Maurício de Sousa e ainda, o sucesso da Turma da Mônica Jovem e a homenagem que o quadrinista paulista está preparando para Michael Jackson

Imagens – Litera / Maurício de Sousa Produções

Vocabulary

1 gang – turma

2 cute – simpático

3 boom – fase favorável

4 to set out – iniciar

5 meanwhile – enquanto isso

6 cartoon strips – tiras em quadrinhos

7 soon afterwards – pouco tempo depois

8 full-time – tempo integral

9 comics - gibis

10 toon-history – história em quadrinhos (toon = forma abreviada de “cartoon”)