Session of April, 11: From "Generation Circo" to Folha de São Paulo, the new wave of Brazilian graphic humor of the 1980's
In our previous session in the course, we entered into the domains of Brazilian graphic humor, as it emerged in the particular context of political environments of the dictatorship, installed in the country at 1964: in such a framework of the presentation, we have examined the contaminations of these political disputes against the military regime, especially in the perspective of the development of the styles of verbal satire and visual criticism of authoritarian aspects of Brazilian government of the time. We have also explored the ways in which cultural vindication of these sorts of graphic humor somehow merged with the commercial viability of these publications – particularly expressed by the case of O Pasquim.
These two variables of the consolidation of graphic humor (political and cultural surroundings) are at the root of what I defined as the sense of modernity in this genre in the case of Brazilian creators: the success of O Pasquim laid the grounds for the development of all sorts of experiments in terms of artistic and political endeavors, in the field of visual satire. And the end of the military regime, a process that lasted a good portion of the 1980’s, was the context under which a lot of these new forms of editorial, graphic, visual and textual humor have finally emerged – and even encountered a solid readership – especially among the young ones. On the steps paved by the fits generation of O Pasquim, we saw the emergence of a new group of artists operating these new forms of humor – either in terms of thematic, or especially for my interest, regarding style and narrative strategies.
In our case, we are going to explore two main contexts of these new generations of Brazilian artists of graphic humor: in the line already suggested by many cultural historians (such as David Kunzle and Ian Gordon), I recognize the importance attributed to certain media vehicles in the promotion of these newer sources for humor, all deriving and carried through in a context of Brazilian printed formats and editorial houses; in line with the previous session of this course I then call our attention to the new profiles of a “newspaper culture”, as some of these vehicles have their focus directed to the sort of production emerging for a new generation of cartoonists, such as Angeli and Laerte Coutinho. At the source of this phenomenon of recognition is obviously an alternative (sometime underground) culture of publications, fully dedicated to these new styles of humor, with considerable commercial success (somehow at the shadow of famous predecessors, such as O Pasquim).
The second context I bring here is the one concerning the discursive aspects of this type of humor, in the double manifestation of the thematic, on one side, and the style and narrative profiles of contemporary graphic humor, on the other: in line with my predilection for the poetic perspective of the analysis of these materials of a discursivity (stylistic and narrative) of graphic humor), I will venture on those aspects connected with the stylistic profiles of drawing, and mainly with the narrative models adopted by these new artists, in the ways they produce their particular sense of humor through jokes and gags. Notwithstanding, I must introduce these issues with the help of considerations concerning the political surroundings that condition the appearing of these new sorts of visual satires – for they invoke a different perspective of the very subjects inspiring the discursive production of laughter.
We should then start by these last allegations about the political surroundings of the newer generation of artists and creators of Brazilian graphic humor, in the 1980´s: first and foremost, these are times of considerable agitation in Brazilian politics, with the crisis of the military regimes, in several areas – in the poor performance of Brazilian economics, with hiper-inflation and huge unemployment, but maninly with the strenghtening of political opposition of democratic forces against the military status quo, as a result of the progressive opening of political liberties (beginning with Amnesty, the return of the political exiles, and the significant victory of opposition in the State Government´s elections of 1982). Such is a period in Brazilian politics that reflects considerably in the turns one might start to notice in the kinds of humor produced in several sorts of publications. Apart from the case of O Pasquim, which remained with a larger part of its satirical focus directed towards Brazilian politics, one could also hint on the new sorts of thematic choices emerging as genuine trends of graphic humor.
Another important aspect of this other context of Brazilian graphic humor is the fact that its main geographical center has shifted, from Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo – an issue that brings with it significant changes in terms of the main topics brought to the fore – not to mention a singular atmosphere that comes with it. Not by chance, this is an aspect outlined by many of those who studied the emergence of these manifestations of graphic humor in Brasil at the 1980s – specially in what regards a sort of an urban cultural background more characteristic of Brazil’s biggest city, as punk rock:
The punk ideas had a noticeably different twist to previous counterculture ideas such as “underground”: while underground was restricted to alternative market and reached a relatively small audience, punk ideas achieved a dual impact. For one thing, they were borrowed by media, which incorporated their style to broaden audience appeal, and thus ensure a fashionable aesthetic. On the other hand, punk influenced the creation of a lively youth culture such as have never seen before. (SILVA, 2005: 103)
Let us consider, for example, the emergence of a whole new generation of creators, in that new environment of graphic humor, in the context of Brazilian process of re-democratization, in the mid-1980s: first of all, it is characterized by the relative continuity of editorial and publishing strategies epitomized by the template brought through the artists of O Pasquim – i.e., in sorts of alternative publishing houses, serving as hosts for a variety of genres of social and political satire (textual and visual), and directed at targeted audiences (in this case, mainly the younger generations of readers and appreciators).
This is the case of the editing house Circo, created by Antonio de Souza Mendes (also known as Toninho Mendes), and which served as the main platform for the creations of people like Luiz Gê, Angeli, Glauco, and Laerte, the most important representants of this second generation of modern Brazilian graphic humor. In a way not entirely surprising, the appearing of Circo, a bi-monthly journal dedicated to graphic humor, by 1986, while assembling many of these new works on social satire and graphic humor: for many historians of this particular context of cultural production in Brasil, such was a period of the commercial viability of these sorts of publication, something illustrated by the fact that other journals experimenting exclusively with humor were also circulating – such as O Planeta Diário, created in 1984, by younger members of O Pasquim, in Rio de Janeiro.
In all these publications, apart from the novelty of the young creators, and the considerable success obtained by most of these journals, what emerges as a differential aspect is the fact that the politically independent aspect of humor is now accentuated, in view of the relative openness of Brazilian politics of that period. In the case of the artists under Circo Editorial, this was a particularly important element of distinction – as mentioned earlier, in face of the predilection for satirizing young urban life situations (as in this case of a short story by Luiz Gê):
As we evaluate this small episode, we can notice how distant from the traditional political and social satire is this piece: it makes a subtle reference to Brazilian historical realities of colonization, merging it into a contemporary piece of ordinary urban life in Sâo Paulo: a couple in a car is overwhelmed by the sight of a group statue crossing the streets: for those living in the city, this is are the recognizable features of a piece installed in its South part, paying homage to the pioneers who explored minerals in the 17th century – something nowadays viewed with a considerable charge of suspicion, especially in regards to slavery. As the segments of the group of explorers end their crossing the street, the woman in the cars pleas to the husband to leave the place, even with the red light still on – only to be crashed by another figure, this time that o Borba Gato, a main figure in this context of pioneers and explorers in the state of São Paulo, during colonization.
First of all, some guidelines for the references mobilized in this
piece: as mentioned just above, all those iconographies explored by Luiz Gê are
particularly striking to readers, in their celebrating of particularly somber
aspects of the formation of national and local identities – something
associated with the exploration and predation of the countryside, in search of
minerals and gems – and, again, in strict association with slavery, a
particularly dear topic for Brazilian colonial history. The graphic narrative
does address those issues, apart from a very oblique perspective, maybe
informed only in retrospect, given the contemporary processes of de-monumentalization
of those sites, as a global tendency of identitarian activists.
For our perspective, what is interesting in this sequence is the set of graphic procedures that Luiz Gê employs, in order to produce an almost cinematic quality of the sequence, thus resulting in the somehow incongruent and absurd conclusion of the episode: first and foremost, the lighting of the whole story, a reminder of the “noir” style of 1940’s Hollywood cinema – an aspect of the filmic nostalgia, proper of the whole visual culture of the 1980’s; besides it, the particular framings of a series of those panels – particularly the ones used to represent the movement of the segments of the group statue, as they cross the street in front of the couple in the car.
Such employment involves something that the sculpture already suggests as a global tonus of all the figures, in their attitudes and postures – all indicating the performance of their efforts. But the comics add something to these effects, by the introduction of diversified points of view in each frame, with variations of framing, distancing and visual perspectives, all resulting in the cinematic quality of the sequence. And since the episode has a humorous context, the conclusion with the intervention of a related celebratory image – that of Borba Gato – assumes the flair of incongruence that wraps the scene with the tinctures of a punchline.
In all likelihood, Luiz Gê´s work is less situated in the canons of graphic humor, and his inclusion in Circo’ s team in mainly a result of the fact that this editorial house is less focused towards satire than it is directed to contemporary varieties of short graphic narratives – in continuity with the spirit of alternative comics of the same period in the United States (with authors like Robert Crumb and Harvey Pekar). In the case of Circo editorial, the artists more engaged with visual humor per se are, undoubtedly Laerte and Angeli: and since we shall dedicate ourselves to evaluate Laerte’s style in the last sessions of the course, let me concentrated a little on the case of the latter.
Angeli is responsible for most of the commercial success of Circo’s publications, especially with his universe of characters in “Chiclete com Banana”: these are individuals representing different aspects of São Pualo’ s cultural nightlife of the 1980’s, which ended up being transferred to the daily strip session of Brazil’s most influential newspaper, Folha de São Paulo: while published in a magazine with the same title at Circo, “Chiclete” have lasted for more than 10 years, with a circulation unusually high for this type of segmented publication in graphic humor. Angeli’s characters remained alive for at least two generations of readers, to the point that his creator decided to kill of his most popular ones, the junkie girl Rê Bordosa, in 1987.
The commercial success and cultural recognition of all these characters also reflected the fact that they have circulation in the cultural section of the most important Brazilian newspaper, Folha de São Paulo: functioning as a most visible instance of a particular zeitgeist of this Brazilian metropolis, the characters encountered in the newspaper (and its peculiar strategy of hiring their own creators in the daily strip segment) served as flagships of this vehicles strategy for poisoning itself in the marketplace of Brazilian most national newspapers. To this day, artists like Angeli and Laerte still publish their cartoons and strips in this same space, having established their artistic and cultural identities on the platform of this journal.
If we consider, on the hand, some issues regarding the thematic choices of these artists, important differences might emerge from this analysis – regarding the particular cases of Angeli and Laerte: the kind of humor that is aimed though the character composition of Angeli’s work is a result of the way he addresses urban realities of São Paulo as sources fo composiing a storyworld: given the humorous profile he invests to these characters, what jumps out for viewers is a sort of “documentary” feel of these strips – since they are rooted in a particularly realistic connection with nightlife realities Angeli represents in his graphic humor. In his narrative universes, these are punks, drop outs, losers, wannabes, all of which compose a sort of social portraiture of a segment of urban realities that lends a sort of tipological aspect to his humor.
Different from his case is that of Laerte’ s most acknowledged work of that period, the Piratas of Tietê: although grounded in some references coming from the geography of Brazil’ s greatest city (from starters, by mentioning its most important river), the style of Laerte is somehow less concerned with the landscape of urban “types” than with the production of a sense of “mythology” of the deepest undergrounds – less referred to cultural categories, as in Angeli) and more to a kind of “metaphysical” meaning attached to it. The pirates represent a sort of allegory of urban perversities undermining social rules and constraints of normal behaviour: their actions and attitudes emerge always in contrast with social correctness and human solidarities – for nor even among themselves are these characters capable of some restraint or for expressing any sense of morality or loyalty.
I what concerns us here, it is the case of start exploring the aspects of these differences in style that are more characteristic of a poetic approach to these sorts of graphic humor in contemporary Brazilian comics: at this point, I shall direct myself here to the work of Laerte, addressing in it those aspects I previously outlined as proper to a poetics of graphic humor – mainly those related to the qualities of his style of drawing, as well as the ones involved in the narrative constructions of humorous situations – all of which is somehow affected by the transformations this creator have imposed on her own work, and on traditions and canons of humorous drawings and narrative incongruity.
References:
PICADO, Benjamim e ARAÚJO, Jônathas Miranda de. “Actins, Disjunctions, and Passions in Graphic Narratives: narrative virtualities in The Adventures of Tintin”. In: The Comics of Hergé : when the lines are not so clear. (Joe Suttlif Sanders, ed.). Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2016: pp 33-46
SILVA, Nadilson Manoel da. “Brazilian Adult Comics: the age of market. In: Cartooning in Latin America (John A. Lent, ed.). Creeksill, N.J.: Hampton Press, 2005: pp. 101-118;
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