/ARTS WEEKLY/BRAZIL: Bitter Comics Win Awards, But Not Readers

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

By Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 11 2003 (IPS) - Lourenço Mutarelli is a one-of-a-kind graphic artist, a creator of comics for adults, with a unique taste for tough environments, the urban underworld and dark humour. His strange universe has earned him many awards, but not much of a following.

However, the few who do read his comics are faithful. Over the last decade they have waited anxiously his latest books. Each one has taken Mutarelli at least a year to draw and narrate. He has so far published nine “albums”, as they are known in Brazil.

Sales of these collections of comics are assured, but limited. Total publication of each title is just 2,000 copies, which leaves the artist living hand to mouth, possibly providing him more material for the gloomy environments of his comic strips.

But after winning an array of prizes and praise from some cultural critics that he is “the best artist in this genre in Brazil,” Mutarelli could see his readership grow. One of his works “O Dobro de Cinco” (The Double of Five) will be published in Spain this year.

And it does not end there. His only novel, “O Cheiro do Ralo” (The Stench of the Drain), which he penned last year, is being made into a feature-length film by Heitor Dalia, who said he could identify with the sick, depressive underworld of the cartoon artist-cum-novelist.

The novel tells the story of the monotonous, meaningless life of a Sao Paulo used merchandise dealer whose shop is impregnated with the fetid smell of a bathroom drain.

After repeating apologies to customers about the odour thousands of times, he finally decides to cover the drain with cement. But then he discovers that he had grown dependent on the foul smell.

Mutarelli reflects a certain bitter culture of Sao Paulo, the metropolis that grew fastest in the 20th century as immigrants from many countries and the rural poor from throughout Brazil settled there, establishing immense neighbourhoods that extended to the horizon.

The artist grew up in those neighbourhoods, coexisting with people of the middle-class, like himself, and with the impoverished of the “favelas” (slums). But he suffered rejection from both of those social classes.

“O Dobro de Cinco” will be translated to Spanish, expand the potential international audiences for his comics, which are already applauded in Portugal. The 110-page book is an adventure of down-and-out detective Diomedes, a character who has appeared in Mutarelli’s previous works.

Hired to find a famous magician who has disappeared, Diomedes ends up entangled in a mess – one that includes murder.

His mission leads him to meet different people and decadent surroundings: a bankrupt circus, a woman who reads tarot cards, and innumerable swindlers, including the person who hired him.

Meanwhile, his wife cheats on him, sleeping with the television repairman.

The tenebrous and surrealistic environment of the underworld in which the story takes place is accentuated by artwork in black and white – but mostly black – and by deformed characters whose most unpleasant traits are highlighted.

Diomedes is a perhaps questionable tribute to Mutarelli’s father, an old police chief who retired in poverty. To contribute to the family budget, the artist’s mother worked as a seamstress.

Diomedes becomes a private detective after retiring from the police force. But he is the complete opposite of the stereotypical detective in crime novels. In addition to being grossly overweight, with an unusual head, he is a failure who suffers psychological problems, which multiply his need for praise.

But he is also capable of great gestures of solidarity and tenderness. He rejects all lies and feels guilty about withholding information from his clients.

Because he creates comics like this – with a unique psychological profile and characters that reflects the daily lives of the poor and the down and out, and with his trademark dash of pessimism and acidic humour – Mutarelli wins praise from critics, but will unlikely win much fame.

Translations and films based on his works, however, will bring his strange universe to new readers and audiences, however limited.

*****

+ Lourenço Mutarelli (http://www.devir.com.br/hqs/mutarelli.htm)