Brazilian Artist Ziraldo Passes Away

Brazilian artist Ziraldo, at the ago of 91 passed away on the 6th of April 2024 at his residence in Lagoa, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil of natural causes. Amongst the myriad of comic book characters he illustrated, the Phantom was amongst them.

Ziraldo Alves Pinto, or commonly known as just Ziraldo was born on the 24th of October, 1932 in Caratinga, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Ziraldo is an author, painter, comic creator, and journalist. His books sell into the tens of millions and have been translated into many languages. Ziraldo’s work has also been adapted to television, theater and cinema productions.

In 1954, Ziraldo joined the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper and started working on a humor column. In 1957, whilst working at O Cruzeiro magazine, Ziraldo gained national notoriety, and also in 1963 whilst working for Jornal do Brasil. Several of the characters he created became favorites with readers, including Jeremias o Bom, the Supermãe and Mirinho.

Ziraldo launched Turma do Pererê in 1960, the first Brazilian comic book produced in full color and also by a single author, featuring the character Saci (from Brazilian folklore). The comic book series was extremely popular, however it unfortunately came to an end in 1964 due to the start of the military regime in Brazil. Editora Abril picked up the series in the 1970’s, however was less successful.

During Brazils military regime, Ziraldo and other forward thinking artists created the non-conformist newspaper titled O Pasquim. The newspaper quickly became a symbol of resistance of civil society before the authoritarianism of the state. Although O Pasquim closed its operations in 1991, it’s still considered the alternative newspaper of most longevity in Brazil.

The Phantom appeared on the cover of Pasquim edition #454, published 10-16 March, 1978. The 32 page publication features art by Ziraldo on the cover, plus contains a full page article featuring the Phantom, with a second smaller article. See below the cover and 2 internal articles.

Os Zeróis, a book featuring the art of Ziraldo was published by Globo in Brazil in 2012 featuring a series of cartoons and parodies created by Ziraldo in the 1960’s, which were parodies of American Superheroes, putting them in comic situations to make critical statements on topics such as politics, society, war and rebellion. This award winning 256 page special edition book consisted of Ziraldo’s best works between 1967 and 1972. Art featuring the Phantom appear in the book.

Ziraldo has also been featured in numerous interviews, plus newspaper and magazine articles. 2 examples can be seen below from O Globo, with the article on the left published on the 12th of April, 2003 and the article on the right published on the 18th of July, 2010.