Monica and Friends

Maurício de Sousa, then-reporter for Folha da Manhã, in 1959, decided to enter the field of comics hitherto disputed in the country.[5] In the same year made his first characters Blu and Franklin, and decided that Blu would be the protagonist.[5] Both were based on his own childhood, Franklin based on Maurício himself and Blu on his pet dog Cuíca.[5] The main inspirations of Monica and Friends were through American comics like Peanuts and Little Lulu, which have inspired some recurring themes like the boys' club. In the following year of 1960, 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. However, the magazines were canceled that same year.[6]

After that the characters returned to newspaper strips, the character Jimmy Five which had won great popularity in the previous magazines has become protagonist of their own strips of newspaper next to Blu and Franklin in 1961. Seeing potential in the character, Mauricio went on to create several supporting characters to appear in the Jimmy Five strips, like Smudge and Specs. But after so long Maurício received a complaint for the lack of feminine characters in his comics.[5] So to avoid further controversy, in 1963 Monica was created, initially as a supporting character in the Jimmy Five strips (at first as the Specs' little sister) based on Mauricio's real daughter Mônica Sousa.[5] Over time, the success and the charisma of the character made her be the protagonist of the series alongside Jimmy Five which became her sidekick. Also in 1963, Mauricio began to create new projects of comic strips with other characters without links with Monica and Jimmy Five, like Zezinho and Hiroshi (now called Chuck Billy 'n' Folks), The Cavern Clan, Bug-a-Booo, The Tribe and Raposão (now called Lionel's Kingdom).

Cover of the first edition of Monica and Friends launched in 1970.

The characters only returned to be published in a monthly comic book 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 the comics of Monica's Gang. At that time the area of comics was more competitive 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, Monica's Gang remained with their good sales on newsstands and with this soon came to the Jimmy Five's solo comic book three years later. Sales were great and with that a contract with the footballer Pelé was made for the launch of a character based on him, the Pelezinho, which was a phenomenon among children at the time, marking time in the history of Brazilian comics.[7] Pelezinho was one of the few black characters made by Maurício, and his design wasn't the most flattering to the black community, with a pale colored circle around the character's mouth to represent his lips, a concept made infamous by the black face depiction of African people. In late 2013, however, Pelezinho's design was updated to reflect more modern sensibilities.[8]

The staff of cartoonists has grown, leading to the foundation of the Estúdios Maurício de Sousa, that produce comics with the characters created by Mauricio de Sousa, and other marketing projects and cartoons of the characters. The first attempts to make a Monica and Friends cartoon occurred in the late 60s during a deal with Cica food company that produced some commercials for television,[9] these being commercial who originated the character Thunder, who is currently a main character of the Lionel's Kingdom stories. 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 comic books, like Smudge (1982), Chuck Billy (1982) 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).[10] In 2008 the franchise has received a manga-style comic entitled Monica Teen.[11]

Nowadays the comics are sold in 40 countries in 14 languages.[12]

Some of the main characters of Monica.

The Monica and Friends series has an extensive amount of main and secondary characters. It has as main protagonists Monica, Jimmy Five, Smudge and Maggy and each has its own comic book. Other characters from other series created by Mauricio de Sousa are also included on Monica and Friends, making crossovers or quotations from each other in several stories, among several other characters. The main setting of the stories is the fictional Lemon Tree Street (Rua do Limoeiro).

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 often focus on his penchant for dirt and mess and his fear of water, having never bathed in his life, and constantly being threatened by villains or his friends to take a shower, with him always succeeding in not getting wet and staying dirty. 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 Raider, a space rabbit whose first appearance was in the movies. A joke often breaks the fourth wall.

An amusement park themed with Mauricio de Souza's characters is 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 and her friends at the park. When Panini Comics started to publish Mauricio's works, this comic was replaced by Turma da Mônica (Monica and Friends).

The park was removed from Eldorado Shopping Center on early 2010, when the space occupied by it was asked back by the shopping administrators.[19] Mauricio de Sousa had already announced that the mall had requested the area back in July 2009.[19] The administration of the Shopping said that the mall was seeking more up-to-date alternatives, which fall under consumers' expectations.[19]

In March 2015, it was announced that the park would be reopened at Shopping SP Market .[20]

In the late 60s a line of dolls with characters Monica, Jimmy Five, Thunder, Horacio and Lucinda was manufactured by Trol Company, this was the first merchandising of the franchise.[21] The character Thunder became mascot of a tomato sauce brand of the food company Cica in the late of 60s. An extensive line of toys and other products with the characters began to be manufactured since the 70s by various toy companies and remain heavily sold to the present in Brazilian stores. During the 80s, the franchise also came to have its own store network. The Lojinha da Mônica and Trenzinho da Mônica, had branches in several states of Brazil, selling products related to characters. In 2013, the franchise was restarted in the form of an e-commerce portal.[22]

Monica and Friends and related works have been published in 40 countries in 14 languages, including Spanish, Greek and Japanese.[23]

In Germany, comics were published between 1975 and 1980 under the name Fratz und Freunde and years later as Monica und Ihre Freunde.[24] In the UK, comics have already been published under the name Frizz and Friends for a short time. In Italy, some comic books and classic episodes of cartoon were distributed on DVDs in the 90s, the cartoon was broadcast on Rai Due channel under the title La Banda di Monica.[25] In Indonesia, the series is published under the title Monika dan kawan kawan, the comics are published there since 1997, along the comic books of the characters Jimmi Lima (Jimmy Five) and Ciko Bento (Chuck Billy N' Folks).[26] In China the comics were distributed to schools in 2007, receiving years later adaptation of the cartoon, in 2011 one of the albums was awarded to children's literature.[27][28]

There were plans for distribution in the United States and some Latin American countries, but they never came to fruition (with the exception of the proper cartoon broadcast dubbed into Spanish in some Latin American countries), however translated comics in English and Spanish are sold directly in Brazil. Episodes of the cartoon dubbed in English are available on YouTube.[29]