Monica and Friends

Monica's Gang
Publication information
Schedule	monthly
Format	Comic strip Comic book
Publication date	1959 – present
Main character(s)	Mônica (Monica) Cebolinha (Jimmy Five) Cascão (Smudge) Magali (Maggy)
Creative team
Created by	Mauricio de Sousa
Collected editions
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Monica's Gang (originally titled Turma da Mônica in Portuguese) 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 earning his large audience and audience, plus a large development going to have new protagonists, Jimmy Five (Cebolinha) and Monica (Mônica) leading the series title. Also the characters stood out in the media with cartoons, video games, movies, a wide range of products.

The stories revolve around the adventures of Monica and her many friends in the fictional neighborhood "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 lived his childhood. However the term in the title does not revolve around only the stories of Monica and her friends neighborhood Limoeiro, and all the characters and series created by Mauricio, as Chuck Billy 'n' Folks, Tina's Pals, Lionel's Kingdom, Bug-a-Booo, among several others.

Monica's Gang was published by publishers Abril and Globo and has been published by Panini Comics since 2007. In 2008 was produced a spin-off series based on the manga-style, titled Monica Teen going in the future with the characters already teenagers.

Publication history

Cover of the first edition of Monica's Gang launched in 1970.

Maurício de Sousa, then reporter for Folha da Manhã, in 1959 decided to enter the field of comics hitherto little disputed in the country. In the same year made his first characters Blu and Franklin, and decided that would be Blu the protagonist. Both were based on his own childhood, Franklin based on Maurício himself and Blu in his pet dog Cuíca. In the following year,1960, by an editor the characters gained ground through the children's magazine Zaz Traz by publisher Editora Outubro later getting their own comic titled "Bidu" by Editora Continental, but the same year the magazines were canceled.

After that the characters returned the newspaper strips, where they developed with more characters being created and earning their own series such as Jimmy Five, The Cavern Clan, The Funnies, Horacio's World, Bug-a-Booo and Zezinho and Hiroshi (now called Chuck Billy 'n' Folks). But after so long Maurício received a complaint for the lack of feminine characters in his comics. So to avoid further controversy, in 1963 Monica was created, initially as a supporting character in the Jimmy Five strips based on Mauricio's real daughter Mônica Sousa. Over time, the success and the charisma of the character made her be the protagonist of the series alongside Jimmy Five which became his sidekick.

File:Maurício de Sousa.jpg

Maurício de Souza was responsible for the creation of the series.

The characters only returned to be published in a monthly comic magazine from 1970, by publisher Abril, initially under the title of "Mônica e Sua Turma" (Monica and Her Gang), later being changed to "Mônica" and "Turma da Mônica" (Monica's Gang), the latter title used only for merchandising. With so many of the characters ever created by Mauricio in strips of newspaper also began to appear in magazines next to Monica's Gang. At that time the area of comics was more played in Brazil, many Brazilian artists were trying to hold his own in the stalls along the publications of American comics like Donald Duck, José Carioca, Little Lulu, and many others. Even with these new comics remained with their good sales on newsstands with this soon came to Jimmy Five magazine three years later. Sales were great and with that a contract with the footballer Pelé with Maurício for the launch of a character based on him the Pelezinho, which was phenomenon among children at the time history logging in Brazilian comics.

The staff of cartoonists has grown, leading to the foundation of the Estúdios Maurício de Sousa, who produce comics with increasingly faster thus appearing more marketing projects and producing cartoons. The first attempts to make a Monica's Gang cartoon occurred in the late 60s during a deal with Cica food company that produced some commercials for television, these being commercial who originated the character Thunder, who is currently a main character of the Lionel's Kingdom. The first film was only released in 1982, As Aventuras da Turma da Mônica which was produced in partnership with Black & White & Color and distributed by Embrafilme.

Over the years, other characters gained their own magazines, like Smudge (1982), Chuck Billy (1987) and Maggy (1989). Other media have strengthened over the years and Monica-branded merchandise were launched, with products like books, toys, discs, CD-ROM and video games. A Monica-themed amusement park was created in 1993 in São Paulo, titled "Parque da Mônica" (Monica Park). In 2008 the franchise has received a manga-style comic entitled Monica Teen.

Due to its long history in comics and animation, plus the high level of products and merchanding Brazil in the series can be considered such a competent franchise as several classic characters from the global popular culture, such as Mickey Mouse, Peanuts, Astroboy, Asterix, Tintin, and many others. For this reason is obviously remarkable wonder that the characters are part of the childhood of many Brazilian kids through the generations.

Nowadays the comics are sold in 40 countries in 14 languages.

Characters

Main article: List of Monica's Gang characters

Some of the main characters of Monica.

The Monica's Gang series has an extensive amount of main and secondary characters. It has as main protagonists Monica, Jimmy Five, Smudge, ica's Gang)|Maggy]] and Chuck Billy (the latter derived from the Chuck Billy 'n' Folks) and each has its own comic. Other characters from other series created by Mauricio de Sousa are also included on Monica's, making crossovers or quotations from each other in several storamong several other characters. The main setting of the stories is the fictional neighborhood of "Limoeiro" in São Paulo.

Most stories focus on the daily lives of the main characters and occasionally on the secondary characters; the humour usually uses various types of repetitions, allusions, appeals to the nonsense, paranomasias, sarcasm and metalanguage. The stories with Monica and Jimmy Five revolve around the conflict between the two. Jimmy Five is a troublemaker and bully who always tries to scold Monica or steal her stuffed bunny to give knots in its ears (usually having Smudge or another boy accomplice), always having Monica get her revenge by hitting him with her stuffed bunny, often leaving him bruised and with black eyes. Often Jimmy Five makes plans against her with various traps, sometimes using Franklin's inventions or talking Smudge into helping, but he always loses to Monica at the end.

Smudge's stories usually focus on his penchant for dirt and mess and his fear of water, without ever having taken a bath in life, and constantly being threatened by villains or his friends to take a bath whenever he gets away with a result at the end of the story. The stories with Maggy generally focus on her gluttony, with a superhuman ability to eat more than a normal person without ever getting fat and sometimes stealing food from her friends.

Among the villains are Captain Fray, a supervillain with the power to control garbage and dirt, and Lord Big Rabbit, a space bunny whose first appearance was in the movies. A joke often breaks the fourth wall.

Related works

Other related works which relate to the series are:

• Blu - Based on the first character of Monica's Gang it shows the character Blu as acting as a mere actor in a studio of comics.
• Chuck Billy 'n' Folks - Focuses the comic daily life of Chuck Billy, a lazy caipira boy and his friends who live on a farm in the interior of Brazil. It is what most often appear in contact with Monica's Gang. As Monica's Gang received a spin-off manga-style comic in 2013 called Chico Bento Moço (Chuck Billy Teen).
• Bug-a-Booo - Focuses on comedy stories involving monsters of horror films (ghosts, vampires, werewolfs, frankestein and even the death) in a cemetery.
• Tina's Pals - Shows a daily routine of a group of teenagers and their daily lives as dating, college, among other issues. In 2014 he received his own spin-off comic book series.
• The Funnies - Focuses on the comic adventures of Bubbly, an astronaut at space filled with aliens.
• Lionel's Kingdom - Focuses on the daily lives of a group of anthropomorphic animals of different species in a forest led by a lion king.
• The Cavern Clan - Focuses on everyday Piteco a caveman inventor who is living in the midst of a pre-history with dinosaurs.
• Horacio's World - Focuses on the life of a young dinosaur philosopher Horacio and his friends dinosaurs.
• The Tribe - Focuses on the everyday one an amazonian Indian Tom-Tom in the midst of a constantly threatened by white men forest.

Media

Films

Over the years the series has received several animated films having commenced production in times that the animation was very rare in Brazil. The first animated film to be released was "As Aventuras da Turma da Mônica" (The Adventures of Monica's Gang) of 1982. After that most of the films that were released were compilations of episodes from the cartoon. Only two films have unique stories that were A Princesa e o Robô (1983) and Uma Aventura no Tempo (2007). Among the films already released are:

• Mônica e Cebolinha – No Mundo de Romeu e Julieta (1979, live-action, made-for-TV) - (Monica and Jimmy Five: In the World of Romeo & Juliet)
• As Aventuras da Turma da Mônica (1982) - (The Adventures of Monica's Gang)
• A Princesa e o Robô (1983) - (The Princess and the Robot)
• As Novas Aventuras da Turma da Mônica (1986) - (The New Adventures of Monica's Gang)
• Mônica e a Sereia do Rio (1986) - (Monica and the River Mermaid)
• O Bicho-Papão (1987) - (The Boogeyman)
• A Estrelinha Mágica (1988) - (The Magic Star)
• A Rádio do Chico Bento (1989, live-action, direct-to-video) (The Chuck Billy Radio Station)
• Chico Bento, Óia a Onça! (1990) - (Chuck Billy, Watch Out for the Jaguar!)
• Videogibi: O Mônico (1997, direct-to-video) - (The He-Monica)
• Videogibi: O Plano Sangrento (1997, direct-to-video) - (The Bloody Plan)
• Videogibi: O Estranho Soro do Dr. X (1998, direct-to-video) - (VideoComic: Dr. X's Strange Serum)
• Cine Gibi - O Filme (2004) - MovieComic: The Movie)
• Cine Gibi 2 (2005, direct-to-video) - (MovieComic 2)
• Uma Aventura no Tempo (2007) - (An Adventure in Time)
• Cine Gibi 3: Planos Infalíveis (2008, direct-to-video) - (Movie Comic 3: Infallible Plans)
• Cine Gibi 4: Meninos e Meninas (2009, direct-to-video) - (MovieComic 4: Boys and Girls)
• Cine Gibi 5: Luzes, Câmera, Ação! (2010, direct-to-video) - (MovieComic 5: Lights, Camera, Action!)

Cartoon

Main article: Monica's Gang (TV series)

The first animations of Monica's Gang emerged in the late 60s in television commercials food company Cica. The first episode of the animated series aired during the 70s, with a special Christmas on Rede Globo. The animated series has only started in 1986 with the film "As Novas Aventuras da Turma da Mônica" which was the first film to present a compilation of episodes. In the following years other episodes have been released, but through other movies in VHSs. Some episodes were also shown by Rede Globo occasionally. The series only came to be displayed on television from 2004 by Cartoon Network Brazil. In 2010 the episodes began to be shown by Rede Globo and stayed on the air until 2014. From 2012 episodes began to be produced specifically for television renewing seasons each year.

Video games

Comparison of games Wonder Boy in Monster World and Turma da Mônica na Terra dos Monstros

In the 1990s, three Monica video games were released by Tectoy for Sega consoles (Master System and Mega Drive/Genesis), consisting of romhacks of Wonder Boy games, with translated text and sprites replaced with characters from the comic.

Console	Original Wonder Boy game	Original release	Monica's Gang version	Release
Master System	Wonder Boy in Monster Land	1987	Mônica no Castelo do Dragão	1991
Master System	Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap	1989	Turma da Mônica em O Resgate	1993
Mega Drive	Wonder Boy in Monster World	1991	Turma da Mônica na Terra dos Monstros	1994

In the 1990s, MSP released three CD-ROMs with short stories complemented by minigames: Mônica Dentuça (1995), Cebolinha e Floquinho (1996) e A Roça do Chico Bento (1998). Two CDs for creating comic books with both Monica and Chuck Billy were also released.

In September 2010 it was announced by Tec Toy to produce an exclusive game for videogame console Zeebo Turma da Mônica - Vamos Brincar Nº1, but the game was canceled months later. The idea was to create a series of eight puzzle games, but due to the end of the island the project was canceled.

In 2012 was released the application for iPhones "Quero Ser da Turma da Mônica", a game where you create an digital avatar in the style of the characters. In 2013 a game was released for iOS and Android called "Coelhadas da Mônica" (Rabbit-hits of Monica), a puzzle game like Angry Birds. And in 2014 was released the game "Jogo do Cascão" (The Smudge Game) 2D platform running game with multiple stages.

Mônica Park

An amusement park themed with Mauricio de Souza's characters, located at the Eldorado Shopping in São Paulo. It was opened in January 1993, and features a number of attractions, like the "Carrossel do Horácio" (Horacio's merry-go-round, a carousel featuring dinosaurs instead of horses), the 3-D cinema, and many more. The Parque da Mônica of Curitiba and of Rio de Janeiro were also created, in 1998 and 2001, respectively, but both were closed, in 2000 and 2005, respectively. Until the end of 2006, it had its own comic book, featuring adventures of Monica's gang at the park. When Panini Comics started to publish Mauricio's works, this magazine was replaced by Turma da Mônica.

The park was removed from ElDorado Shopping Center on early 2010, when the space occupied by it was asked back by the shopping administrators. Mauricio de Sousa had already announced that the shopping had requested the area back on July 2009. The administration of the Shopping says that the place is seeking more up to date alternatives, which fall under the consumers expectation.

Publications

Monica’s Gang and its related works are released in a number of different books. Firstly, they were published by Editora Abril, from 1970 to 1986, then Editora Globo, from 1987 to 2006. From 2007 on, Panini Comics was chosen to keep the publications.

Comic books (released monthly)

Monica's Gang titles are usually published in digest size.

• Mônica
  • Ed. Abril (1970–1986): 1-200
  • Ed. Globo (1987–2006): 1-246
  • Ed. Panini (2007-): 1-
• Cebolinha
  • Ed. Abril (1973–1986): 1-168
  • Ed. Globo (1987–2006): 1-246
  • Ed. Panini (2007-): 1-
• Cascão
  • Ed. Abril (1982–1986): 1-114
  • Ed. Globo (1987–2006): 1-467
  • Ed. Panini (2007-): 1-
• Chico Bento
  • Ed. Abril (1982–1986): 1-114
  • Ed. Globo (1987–2006): 1-467
  • Ed. Panini (2007-): 1-
• Magali
  • Ed. Globo (1989–2006): 1-403
  • Ed. Panini (2007-): 1-
• Turma da Mônica

It features mainly adventures at the Parque da Mônica, which were formerly published at the defunct “Revista Parque da Mônica”.

• • Ed. Globo (1993–2006): 1-168 (as "Revista Parque da Mônica")
  • Ed. Panini (2007-): 1-
• Ronaldinho Gaúcho

Adventures of Ronaldinho Gaúcho, interacting or not with the rest of the gang.

• • Ed. Globo (2006): 1-3
  • Ed. Panini (2007-): 1-

Almanacs

The "Almanaques da Turma da Mônica" (Monica's Gang Almanacs) bring republications of the best stories.

Bi-monthly publications

• Almanaque da Mônica (Monica's Almanac)
• Almanaque do Cebolinha (Jimmy Five's Almanac)
• Almanaque do Cascão (Smudge's Almanac)
• Almanaque do Chico Bento (Chuck Billy's Almanac)
• Almanaque da Magali (Maggy's Almanac)

Quarterly publications

• Almanaque Temático (Thematic Almanac, with several stories featuring several different characters, but with the same theme, formerly named "Coleção Um Tema Só" (One Single Theme Collection))

Biannual publications

• Almanaque Turma do Penadinho (Bug-a-Booo's Almanac)
• Almanaque Turma da Tina (Tina's Pals' Almanac)
• Almanaque Turma do Astronauta (The Funnies' Almanac)
• Grande Almanaque de Férias (Great Holidays Almanac, released during Brazil school holidays, former "Almanacão de Férias" (Holidays' Big Almanac))
• Grande Almanaque Turma da Mônica (Great Monica's Gang Almanac, a big-sized Almanac, former "Almanacão Turma da Mônica" (Monica's Gang Big Almanac))
• Almanaque Historinhas de Uma Página (Single-page strories Almanac, featuring only stories that occupies only one page at a comic book)
• Clássicos do Cinema Turma da Mônica (Monica's Gang Classics of the Cinema): parodies of movies, with republications of the Gibizão stories and sequels of them, as well as original stories ("Cascão Porker", an adaptation of the first Harry Potter film).

Monthly publications

• Turma da Mônica Jovem

Annual publications

• Mônica Especial de Natal (Mônica’s Christmas Special, featuring Christmas-related strories only, former "Mônica Edição Especial de Natal" (Monica’s Special Christmas Edition))

Defunct publications

• Pelezinho
  • Editora Abril (1977–1982): 1-60
• Almanaque do Pelezinho (Pelezinho’s Almanac)
  • Editora Abril (1977–1986)
• As melhores piadas (The Best Jokes)
  • Editora Abril (1976–1978)(1986)
• Tiras Especial
  • Editora Abril (1974–1975)
• Bidu (Blu)
  • Editora Continental (1960)
• Gibizinho da Mônica (Monica’s Little Comic, pocket comic book)
  • Editora Globo (1991–1998): 1-84
• Almanaque do Gibizinho (Little Comic’s Almanac)
  • Editora Globo (1997–2001): 1-46 ; 2ª série: (2003–2006): 1-40

Gibizão

This huge-sized comic book (even bigger than the Almanacão) by Editora Globo had only nine editions.

• Batmenino Eternamente (Batboy Forever)- parody of Batman Forever, with Jimmy Five as Batman, Smudge as Robin, Bucky as Alfred and Monica playing Dr. Chase Meridian. The villains are "Frankler" (Franklin as Riddler) and "Nimbus Nope" (a version of Two-Face where Nimbus and Nick Nope are fused together).
• Horacic Park - parody of Jurassic Park. The sequels were later spoofed in the "Clássicos do Cinema": O Imundo Perdido: Horacic Park (The Lost World: Jurassic Park; the title is a pun turning mundo, "world", into Imundo, "dirty") and Horacic Park III (Jurassic Park III).
• Os Doze Trabalhos da Mônica (The Twelve Labors of Monica) – Parody of the Labors of Hercules, slightly modified (for example, the Erymanthian Boar becomes Thunder).
• Romeu e Julieta (Romeo & Juliet) – adaptation of a movie of the gang. It transforms the William Shakespeare's story, providing a less tragic end to "Romeo Montague Five" and "Juliet Monicapulet".
• Comandante Gancho (Captain Hook) – parody of Hook.
• Mônica e os Bárbaros (Monica and the Barbarians) - republication. Monica travels on a time machine created by Franklin and helps a warrior on a fictional Hyborian Age land, with elements of Conan the Barbarian.
• Superparque (Superpark) – Some superheroes are on vacation and go to the Parque da Mônica.
• Coelhada nas Estrelas (Star Warp) - parody of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The rest of the original Star Wars trilogy was spoofed in the "Clássicos do Cinema" line, with the sequels O Feio Contra Ataca ("The Ugly Strikes Back", parody of The Empire Strikes Back) and O Retorno de Jedito ("Return of the Jedito", parody of Return of the Jedi).
• A Volta ao mundo em 80 Garfadas (Around the World in Eighty Meals) – Parody of Around the World in Eighty Days.

Monica outside Brazil

Monica's Gang and related works have been published in 40 countries in 14 languages, including Greek and Japanese.

Italy

La banda di Monica Characters: Monica, Cipollino (Jimmy Five), Patacca (Smudge), Magalì (Maggy), Tito (Bucky), Frangetta (Franklin), Nimbus, Gaio (Sunny), Maria Cipollino (Mary Angela), Vic Vampiro (Vic Vampire), Fantasmino (Bug-a-Booo), Osti Nato (Nick Nope), Piteco and many others.

Indonesia

Monika dan kawan kawan Comics are published there since 1997: Monika, Jimmi Lima (Jimmy Five), Dekil (Smudge), Maggy, and Ciko Bento (Chuck Billy).

External links

• Official website Template:Pt icon
• Official website Template:En icon (Archive)