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First things first: Teor Letal (portuguese words for "Lethal Teor") was the title of a brazilian fanzine, published on the 1990's. The subject of this publication (and of this site) is "quadrinhos".
If you have tried to translate the portuguese text of this site by using some of the translating services, such as Altavista, then you have certainly stumbled across some strange words like "HQ", "gibi" or "quadrinhos". Those are brazilian portuguese words for "comic strip" ("Histórias em Quadrinhos" means exactly "Stories (Told) in Little Squares"). So this is what this site is all about: "Quadrinhos". |
The first known comic strip created in Brazil was "As Aventuras de Nhô Quim", by Angelo Agostini, in 1869. Since then things happened as in any other country at that time: there were several publications, mainly directed to children, filled with short "stories told in little squares". The most important of those early publications was "O Tico-Tico", that started in 1905 and lasted for no less than 50 years, with stories created by many talented artists as the brothers Alfredo and Oswaldo Storni, Messias de Mello, Max Yantok and the all-time greatest brazilian talent: José Carlos de Brito Cunha (Jota Carlos).
In the early 1930's, Adolfo Aizen began publishing the "Suplemento Juvenil", a publication that, along with brazilian strips like "Exploradores da Atlântida" (Raiders of Atlantis) by Monteiro Filho, brought to brazilian readers the comics distributed worldwide by William Hearst's King features Syndicate (Flash Gordon, Red Barry, Radio Patrol, Mandrake and so on...).
The flood of american heroes in Brazil nearly killed the local production of comics. Then, in the early 1950's, Fredric Wertham's book "Seduction of the Innocent" and the Comics Code Authority put an end to american horror comics. Brazilian comic artists at last found a genre that hadn't an american counterpart. So, during 20 to 30 years (until the 1980's), every good brazilian comic artist took a chance at creating horror comics. Well, now you know why our cover page pictures that witch and that walking skeletons under the words "Histórias do Além" (Tales from beyond). |
| To this date (February, 2004), this site contents are as follows:
Teor Letal (Lethal Teor): A monthly updated editorial;
Anos de Terror (Years of Horror): A brief history of horror in brazilian comics;
Entrevista (Interview): Brazilian horror comics writer/artist Olendino Mendes (b. 1956) tell how he began reading horror stories as a child and then, as an adult, became one of the best storytellers of his generation;
Páginas Amarelas (Yellow Pages... meaning old paper, not the telephone list!): Here we have samples of stories out of a magazine published in the early 1960's, Brazil's "golden age" of horror comics;
Mais Páginas Amarelas (More Yellow Pages): 1950's brazilian artist Luiz Saidenberg talk about his life and times during the "Golden Age" of brazilian horror comics. Also, more samples of that good old stories;
Coincidências (Coincidences): Oops! Someone did it again!
Histórias em Imagens (Stories in Images): The work of british/american photographer Muybridge and it's influence in the early modern comics, mainly in Winsor McCay's Little Sammy Sneeze;
Carrancas (That's the name of wood-carved monster heads that adorn the front of fishing boats at São Francisco river, in Brazil): two brothers trying to save a dying river. This is a comic strip by Olendino Mendes;
Ovelhas Elétricas (Electric Sheeps): this scenario, written by Olendino, introduces the concept of "Binary Entities" (intelligent pieces of software) that populated the Internet, and what would happen when they try to reach the "real world";
Lyrio Aragão: As a policeman, Lyrio Aragão Dias walked along the 1950's São Paulo lanes, knowing many strange places, situations and characters that he lately pictured in his comic strips. Dias, that died in 1968 at the age of 35, has been, for years, a forgotten genius;
CETPA-Sexo, Mentiras e HQ (CETPA - Sex, Lies, and Comics): Luiz Saidenberg narrates his bad lucks when working at the CETPA, a comics publishing company created with controversial interests in Brazil, in 1962.
Well... that's all, folks!
(Text by Armando Faveiro.) |
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