Jimmy Five

Jimmy Five (originally Cebolinha – which means both chives and the diminutive for onion, in Portuguese) is one of Monica's Gang main characters. He was created in 1960, and currently has his own printed comic strips, called Cebolinha, which were first released in 1973. His English name is Jimmy Five due to his hair composed of only five strands.

Mauricio de Sousa, creator of Monica's Gang, says he based the character on a child he knew while growing up in Mogi das Cruzes. He was a friend of his brother Márcio, and the boy would also switch the letter "r" for "l" and, because of his pointy hair, he earned the nickname "cebolinha" from Márcio's and Mauricio's father. Jimmy's family name is "Cebola" (Onion in Portuguese), and he has a little baby sister called Mary Angela (in Portuguese, Maria Cebolinha, after her brother's name), also based on a real person.

Characteristics

Jimmy Five is incapable of pronouncing the sound of the r letter, replacing it with the letter l, in the Portuguese comics, or with the letter w, in the English version. When the letter is used in the end of a word, however, he pronounces it normally (as in "car" or "locker").

Monica's Gang

Monica's Gang (originally titled Turma da Mônica in Portuguese) or Monica & Friends is a popular Brazilian comic book franchise created by Mauricio de Sousa.

The series was originally based on a newspaper comic strip in which the protagonists were Blu (Bidu) and Franklin (Franjinha), launched by the newspaper Folha da Manhã in 1959. Over the years the series has been gaining a large audience, with new characters constantly being added to the lineup. Jimmy Five (Cebolinha) and Monica (Mônica) were eventually given their own comic books, hence the title "Monica's Gang." The characters and comics were eventually adapted into cartoons, video games, movies, theme parks and a wide range of products.

The stories revolve around the adventures of Monica and her many friends in the fictional neighborhood of "Limoeiro" in São Paulo. The neighborhood was inspired by the neighborhood of Cambuí, in Campinas and the city of Mogi das Cruzes, where de Sousa spent his childhood. However, the comic books do not simply revolve around the stories of Monica and her friends. Other characters created by de Sousa include Chuck Billy 'n' Folks, Tina's Pals, Lionel's Kingdom and Bug-a-Booo.

Monica (Monica's Gang)

Monica is the main character of Monica's Gang (Turma da Mônica) comic strips. She was created in 1963. Mauricio de Sousa based the character on his own daughter, who is also named Monica. Monica's hair is influenced by a haircut his older daughter Mariângela gave her once when she was a kid. In 2007, Monica became a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.

Concept and creation

Monica was based on Mauricio de Sousa's daughter in childhood. The reason for its creation was due to a complaint of the lack of female characters in Mauricio comics. At that time, newspaper strips of Blu and Jimmy Five were produced. When Monica made his first appearance was in a strip of Jimmy Five in 1963, first as a secondary rival of main character. However Monica went on to appear with ever more emphasis over the years later taking the main character position of Jimmy Five.

In the first strips Monica was a younger and little girl, she had an angry face and her hair was different, but Mauricio improved his visual over the years giving to Monica a cute and friendly appearance. Since 1970 she has been considered the main character among all comics created by Mauricio de Sousa, so emerged the "Monica's Gang".

Chuck Billy (Chuck Billy 'n' Folks)

Chuck Billy (Chico Bento in the original Brazilian strips) is the main character from Chuck Billy 'n' Folks, created by Brazilian cartoonist Mauricio de Sousa. He is the biggest work of Mauricio after Monica's Gang, and he has his own cartoon magazine and even some VHS and DVD movies, following Monica's steps.

History

He was created back in 1961, inspired on Mauricio's real life grandfather's brother, whose stories were told by his grandmother, who would inspire a character from the same universe: Vó Dita, described as Chuck's grandmother. It first came to public in 1961, in a short cartoon with two other characters, his best friend Benny and his Japanese friend Taka.

Back in the 1980s, the cartoon was polemic due to the dialogues. Mauricio was trying to represent how a hillbilly would talk by writing his lines with typical mistakes and incorrections of Brazilian Portuguese (actually the caipira dialect, which is not considered a dialect in Brazil). Later on, that was adapted and every mistake is indicated either in bold or some variant ways.

Chuck Billy 'n' Folks

Chuck Billy 'n' Folks (Turma do Chico Bento) is a Brazilian comic strip and part of the Monica's Gang comic book series. The stories are centered on Chuck Billy (originally named Chico Bento) and his friends and parents, who are all caipiras and live in the small Vila Abobrinha (Zucchini’s Village), a fictional location on the countryside of Brazil. The only characters who don't live on the countryside are Chuck's cousin, Zeca, and his parents, who live on the city. A distinct feature of this part of the characters is that they go to school, different from Monica and her friends.

Characters

Main characters