Carioca & Moe

[PAULO BARRETO]

Greetings, earthlings...

        DAVID:

        [Jose Carioca on top?] Maybe his title has been Brazil's
best-selling Disney comic book (I'm not sure; they said Uncle $crooge
was selling more, but that's stats for the '70's), but common sense
assures no parrot could beat Mickey, Donald or even $crooge in
popularity.  Anyway, no Disney title sells more than Mauricio titles
(Mo^nica, Cebolinha, etc.) - I'm sorry, but that's not *my* fault... :)

        [Hard Haid Moe] "Brazil must beat out even Italy as a place
where absolutely everything Disney can sell."  Not exactly so...
Actually, Brazilian market in general (not only Disney) depends a lot
on economical fluctuation, and not even Abril (the local Disney
publishing monopoly) is safe from some failures.  So most Disney
projects are short-term based.  The comparison to Italy makes sense, as
Abril (not surprisingly, controlled by an Italian family) has been
emulating Italian Disney for a long time - I guess, it became more
ostensible in January 1981, when all Brazilian Disney titles were
cropped some milimeters and turned exactly the size of Mondadori
standard titles.

        "Even the most obscure characters are very popular in Brazil."
Yes and no: it depends on "obscurity" concept.  Jose Carioca has a long
comic tradition and has always been popular (even so, he's not free from
those "repackaging" gimmicks <G>).  But many once-popular characters
have been less frequent, or worse, disappeared completely.  Eega Beeva
had his own 16-page entry in '77 _O Grande Livro Disney_, sharing the
same space as a "happy few" selected mainstream and major feature
classic characters, was a regular in Mickey comic book (check out
fantastic "Space Patrol" series), was long used in Brazilian stories,
and suddenly vanished from our comics.

       I'd list many other once-popular characters, but I don't know
their English names (some have been created in Brazil, which makes it
even worse for an international newsgroup).  Now for some exceptions:
Fethry's popularity goes up and down, but the excellent job by Brazilian
studios (stressing on his job at $crooge's paper) keeps him as a quite
successful character.  He has a Brazilian-developed superhero identity
(Morcego Vermelho), a cowboy comic-in-comic alterego (Pena Kid) and a
nephew (called Bichou in France, as far as I can remember).  Fethry
title was short-lived, though.  I'm also baffled by Moe's popularity; I
can't quit wondering what his wacky fortnightly has to do with
competition with Mauricio's Chico Bento and the general popularity of
country subjects (as in Brazil's music, TV and cinema).

        [Jose dressing like a rap musician] I'd not expect he would keep
on wearing his traditional WWII suit in 1994's Rio, but the change was
realy annoying.  Unlike Mickey on that album, Jose is going to be
*always* dressed in those basketball shoes (his feet have always been
pretty fine!), loud trousers and back-turned cap.

        The best stories by Cannini (Canini? Caninni? Canninni?) may be
longer than 8 pages, but there's still much material suitable for
Gladstone - if Disney Co. hasn't boycotted them as "sub-standard"... :-)
How do you want to get those stories?

           _____m__(0/\0)__m_____  Paulo Barreto