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.

Cine film

Ciné film (sometimes Cine, no acute accent) is the term commonly used in the UK to refer to the 9.5 mm, 16 mm, 8 mm and Super 8 motion picture film formats used for home movies. It is not normally used to refer to professional formats such as 35 mm or 70 mm film, and is incorrect if applied to any video format. In the US, "movie film" is the common informal term for all formats and "motion picture film" the formal one.

Cine film literally means "moving" film; deriving from the Greek "kine" for motion; it also has roots in the Anglo-French word cinematograph, meaning moving picture.

Although there had been earlier attempts, typically employing larger formats, the introduction of the 9.5 mm and 16 mm formats in the early 1920s finally succeeded in introducing the practice of showing rented "play-at-home" copies of professionally made films, which, in the case of feature-length films, were usually much shortened from the originals.

More significantly, these new cine film gauges were the first truly practical formats for making casual amateur "home movies" of vacation trips, family gatherings, and important events such as weddings. Amateur dramas and comedies were sometimes filmed, usually just for fun and without any aspiration to artistic merit.

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".

Mauricio de Sousa

Mauricio de Sousa (Portuguese pronunciation: [mawˈɾisju dʒi ˈsowzɐ] 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, and created Monica's Gang. Sousa's characters were inspired by children he knew from his childhood and by his own children. His later style is slightly reminiscent of that of Osamu Tezuka, a famous Japanese manga artist and personal friend.

Story

Mauricio de Sousa was born in Santa Isabel on October 27, 1935. His father, Antonio Mauricio de Sousa, was a poet, 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.

Today, he is the father of ten children, and drew inspiration from them for new characters such as Monica, Maggy, Marina, Mary Angela. Nimbus and Nick Nope.