Monica's Gang is a very popular comic book in Brazil. The characters are so iconic, each one with their own strong characteristics, that even those who are not really into cartoons knows them really well. As one of the many Brazilians that grew up reading Monica's Gang adventures, I always thought it would be nice to have more adult adventures of them.
I'm also still in the hype for Stranger Things, so I wanted to create a concept that plays with this supernatural monster from a hellish dimension vs. the young heroes from the neighborhood thing.
~Hope you enjoy and more details of the project below:
For this project I used my Photocom technique, in which I mix photos, image edition and digital illustration. Below you can see the source images I used in the composition.
The title of this piece, Turma da Mônica - Rastros (*press SAP*: Monica's Gang - Trails), is a reference to the title of their first live action movie Turma da Mônica - Laços (*press SAP*: Monica's Gang - Bonds).
... The little joke here is that in Portuguese Rastros and Laços are two words that rhymes, while one (Laços) is cute and sweet (the original movie) and the other (Rastros) is dark (like my version) ~hehe.
... It's the details, you know?
Here are the characters individually. I made sure to keep the characteristics that makes them such memorable and unique characters.
This is Smudge/ Cascão, known for not being a big fan of showering (eeewww). He's always carrying his umbrella to protect himself from being washed even by the rain or any water lol. He's called smudge because of this dirt smudge in his face (which you can see in both, the original and my version). But in the adult version is more like a war painting, let's say.
The hunky guy in green is Jimmy Five/ Cebolinha. His 5 hair locks and wrong pronouncing of the words is what makes him so funny. He has a tattoo of an ugly Monica (the picture he used to draw everywhere to make her mad). But now that they are a couple, he did it as homage to her. He keeps being a clever (yet kinda dumb) guy, but now with some MUSCLES and tattoos.
(Where do I find myself one of this, tough?)
Both, him and Smudge carries a tattoo that says Infalíveis (Infallible) because in the original version, when they're planning something to annoy Monica, Jimmy says it is an Infallible plan. But it is never, and it only gets him in trouble and usually knocked out by Monica, lol.
This is Fluffy, Jimmy's dog. He's a green Lhasa apso and in the original comics you can't tell which side is his head and which is his butt, lol. I thought it would be fun to make him a giant dog to give some fiction-horror-fantasy-action cryptid adventure mood to the illustration.
Then, Maggy/ Magali. My favorite character because she's the one I relate the most with, and that's because she eats every food she sees on her way. The different between us is that the chick never seems to get fat, because of it. She has a cute watermelon hair accessory that reference to her favorite food in the comics. The cutie she's with is Mingau/ Vanilla, her cat.
Finally, our main girl, Mônica. She's best known for her big front teeth, short dark hair, and wearing only the same red outfit 99% of the times. She also has a very strong personality, short patience (specially for Jimmy) and gets mad really easily. Mônica is carrying her plush rabbit Samson (which, in my version, has been destroyed by the monster - who's going to be destroyed by Monica, of course).
Fun fact: The picture in her shirt is from the first ever edition of Monica's Gang comics, released in 1970.
That's it for today, folks! Hope you have enjoyed my project and if you didn't know Monica's Gang universe before, gift yourself with this treasure of Brazilian pop culture.
See ya.
