Mônica E A Guarda Dos Coelhos

Monica (Portuguese: ''Mônica'') is a Brazilian fictional character and Mauricio de Sousa's best-known creation. Introduced in 1963, she serves as the main protagonist and title character of the ''Monica and Friends'' (''Turma da Mônica'') comic book series and media franchise.

De Sousa based the character on his second daughter, also named Monica, with whom the fictional character shares some physical characteristics. In her first appearances, she was a supporting character to Jimmy Five, but was gradually made the principal character. An eponymous comic book series began publication from 1970.

Concept and creation

Monica was based on Mauricio de Sousa's daughter in childhood. The reason for her creation was due to a complaint of the lack of female characters in Mauricio comics. At that time, newspaper strips of Blu and Jimmy Five were produced. When Monica made her first appearance was in a strip of Jimmy Five in 1963, at first as a secondary rival of main character.

In the very first strips, Monica appeared as a 4-year-old little girl (who was sometimes considered Specs' younger sister). She behaved aggressively and was kind of a bully. She used to wear shoes and had an angry face. Monica's hair was influenced by a haircut her older daughter Mariângela gave her once when she was a kid. But Mauricio improved her visual over the years giving to Monica a cute and friendly appearance and making her more naive and kind. However her characteristic of beating the boys (mainly Jimmy Five) with her rabbit was maintained, only reversing the roles making the boys act as antagonists to Monica often creating plans to defeat her. For most of the 60s she was considered a supporting role for Jimmy Five, however her popularity increased significantly at the end of the same decade when Mauricio received a contract with the food company CICA (a defunct and now Unilever-owned Brazilian company) to use Monica and Thunder (another Mauricio de Sousa character) to appear in television commercials.

With the popularity of Monica in the TV commercials in 1970 Mauricio made a new contract for a series of comic books with his characters, but with Monica as the title character instead of Jimmy Five.

Characteristics

Monica is a 7-year-old, toeless, strong and decisive girl, who does not tolerate impertinence, but at the same time, has her moments of femininity. She lives with her parents, has a little dog called Ditto (Monicão), and does not let go of her blue stuffed rabbit called Samson (Sansão). This rabbit, which she loves so dearly, is also a weapon against boys. Especially Jimmy Five (Cebolinha) and Smudge (Cascão), who are always teasing her and calling her roly-poly, toothy, and shorty. She is described as possessing powerful (usually even superhuman) strength, which she uses to fight boys who tease her or to defend herself and her friends. She is known by the other characters as the "ruler of the street". She is often at odds with Jimmy Five (Cebolinha), but backs him up whenever he gets into trouble. Monica's best friend is Maggy (Magali). Monica's also very shy to date boys, and she often causes trouble when she tries to talk or impress them. Her buckteeth (more precisely the maxillary central incisor) are her trademark, but also the main reason for people to call her toothy.

Relatives and friends

Parents

Monica is the daughter of ''Seu Sousa'' (lit. ''Mr. Sousa'') and ''Dona Luísa'' (lit. ''Mrs. Luísa''). Sousa is based on Mauricio de Sousa himself (as his surname indicates), but he is a separate character. He works in a business company. Luísa is housewife, but also works as a designer for pieces of furniture. Unlike the other parents, Sousa and Luísa are the only ones who do not share any facial similarities with their child.

Samson

''Samson'' (''Sansão'', in the original) is Monica's blue rabbit toy. He is not only Monica's favorite toy but also the "weapon" that she uses on whoever calls her by names she doesn't like. Samson is a constant victim of Jimmy Five, Smudge or other boys who love to tie his ears in knots. Initially, he didn't have a name, "Samson" was suggested by Roberta Carpi, in 1983. It was based on a yellow toy rabbit stuffed with straw that the real Monica had when she was 2 years old. Originally in the very first strips Samson was also yellow, but was later changed to blue to match the new rabbit plush that Mauricio's daughter won in place of the old one in a TV show in her 7 years. In the first comic strips that appeared constantly was used as a weapon to beat and scare the boys of the neighborhood (mainly Jimmy Five). In a strip from the same time it was revealed that the reason boys were afraid of the rabbit was because Monica carried a brick inside him to beat them, but this idea was dropped over time when Monica went on to demonstrate super strength. In some old stories is also revealed that inside him lives an elf-like imp. The character also has a female pink counterpart called Dalila (lit. ''Delilah''), who rarely appears in comics and is used more in marketing. The real-life Samson was exposed in 2013 in a museum in honor of Monica's 50th birthday.

Ditto

''Ditto'' (''Monicão'' – a portmanteau

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