Masterpieces with Monica

Mauricio Araújo de Sousa, son of Petronilha Araújo de Souza and Antonio Mauricio de Souza grew up in the city of Isabel located in the state of São Paulo. He was born on the 27th of October in 1953. He has ten children; Mariângela Spada e Sousa (07/23/1959), Mônica Spada e Sousa (9/28/1960), Magali Spada e Souza (10/05/1961), Vanda Signorelli e Sousa (11/29/1970), Valéria Signorelli e Sousa (11/29/1970), Mauricio Spada e Souza (05/12/1971), Marina Takeda e Sousa (02/10/1985), Mauro Takeda e Sousa (12/20/1986), Maurício Takeda e Sousa (05/28/1988) and Marcelo Pereira de Sousa (06/01/1998). For part of his childhood, Mauricio de Sousa lived in Mogi das Cruzes where he drew and scribbled in his scholastic notebooks. Later on, that very art went on to illustrate posters for neighboring businesses. At the age of 19 years old he moved to the city of São Paulo where, for the consecutive five years, he worked at the Jornal Folha da Manhã (now known as Folha de S. Paulo) writing as a crime journalist. In 1959, while he was still working as a journalist, he created his first character; a little dog named Blu. The character was part of a series of comic strips featuring Blu and Franklin (the little dog’s owner) and was published weekly on Folha da Manhã. It was to be the start of Mauricio de Sousa’s career. In the following years, Mauricio created comic strips, tabloids, and more characters. Characters created such as Jimmy Five, Pitheco, Chuck Billy, Bug-a-Boo, Horacio, Bubbly the Astronaut, etc. It was in 1970 that Mauricio launched the comic book “Mônica”, with 200 thousand copies published by Editora Abril. In 1986, Mauricio left Abril and took his Monica’s Gang comic books to Editora Globo, where he remained until 2006. Currently it is Panini, a multinational Italian publishing company that works with Mauricio. The intention now is to internationalize even more the characters of Mauricio de Sousa. One of Mauricio’s recent success was announced in 2006, the character of Ronaldinho Gaucho with comics being sold in 20 different countries. The editions also have a full line of children’s products licensed in Brazil as well as Europe. Today, between comic books and comic strips Mauricio’s creations reach approximately 30 different countries. Of the comic books that are the most sold in Brazil, ten of them belong to Mauricio de Sousa. Currently, Mauricio de Sousa’s comic books account for 86% of the Brazilian market in this category. As an author Mauricio holds the distinguished title of having published more than 1 billion comic books, it’s no wonder that he is considered an author that has helped individual of all ages on their journey to learn how to read. Mauricio’s constant attempt to teach, help, and inform is done so in a light-hearted and fun way. It was this attitude that help him achieve the Human Rights medal, in 1998, from Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the President of Brazil at the time. The University of Braz Cubas has honored him the title of Professor Honoris Causa for his creation of stories and characters that constructively entertain both children and adults alike; stories and characters that teach about the value of education and the act of all getting along. Mauricio de Sousa is the most famous and most awarded comic book author in Brazil. This recognition extends diverse areas within Brazil. Outside Brazil, for example, the major encyclopedias about comic books often cite Mauricio de Sousa as a reference highlighting his work as well as his characters.