Phantom Comic Book Artist Walmir Amaral Biography Book

A book on the life of Brazilian artist Walmir Amaral was released earlier this year, co-published by Editora Criativo and GRRR! in Brazil.

The biography book is titled ‘Walmir Amaral: O Cowboy Dos Quadrinhos‘, which translates to ‘Walmir Amaral: The Comic Book Cowboy‘ is written by Matheus Moura. It’s published with Portuguese text, containing 80 black and white pages measuring 21cm x 28cm, rich in text and images.

The book features the life of Walmir Amaral de Oliveira (also known as Walmir Amaral), a Brazilian comic cover artist and story creator, best know for his work on Fantasma comic books in Brazil, who sadly passed away on the 1oth of January, 2024.

Credited for illustrating the covers of in excess of 150 Phantom comic books and writing around 25 Phantom stories, Walmir Amaral is a well know artist/creator especially to fans of the Phantom in Brazil. He worked extensive on the Phantom for great publishing houses such as RGE (Rio Gráfica Editora) and Saber.

The front cover of Walmir Amaral: O Cowboy Dos Quadrinhos can be seen above. It’s described by the publisher as:

Walmir Amaral, from Rio de Janeiro, joined the RGE publishing house as an apprentice when he was 16. He left 34 years later as a Master. During these three and a half decades, he drew everything: comics about heroes, children’s comics, adventures, horror, war, and of course, westerns, his great passion. The highlights include the Black Knight and the Avenger. The latter, created for the Continental publishing house, became the greatest traditional cowboy in Brazil.

But it was with the American character Phantom that Walmir truly became famous, having drawn hundreds of pages and covers for the famous “Wandering Spirit”. With a modern, cheerful, bold and unmistakable style, Walmir reigned supreme on newsstands in the 60s, 70s and 80s, with hundreds of his covers on display on the shelves.

After retiring from comics and another long career as an illustrator of textbooks, Walmir enjoyed the final period of his career reaping the rewards he had sown. He won awards, released luxury albums and drew for pleasure until he passed away in January 2024, with a full sense of duty fulfilled. This biography is here to prove it. Enjoy!

A sample of internal pages can be seen below.