'Robô Gigante'.
Watson Portela was one of the main authors of the Brazilian comic industry during the 1980s. The versatile artist has drawn comics in many genres, including science fiction, adventure comics, erotic comics, humor comics and superhero comics, all for a variety of publishers. Portela's best-known creation is the cyberpunk adventure serial 'Paralelas'. He is equally famous for his manga-inspired comics for Grafipar and his children's work for Abril. While signing most of his work as simply "Watson", he has also published under the names Barroso and Helga.
'Paralelas'.
Early life and career
Watson Portela was born in 1950 in Camaragibe, near Recife, in the state of Pernambuco. An avid doodler since his early childhood, Portela is influenced by the American comic book artists C.C. Beck and Mike Allred, as well as Europeans like Jean Giraud, Jean-Claude Mézières, Yves Chaland and Michel Blanc-Dumont.
During the early 1970s, Portela's artwork first appeared in the local press. This included the western comic 'O Águia' (1971), in cooperation with his brother, the journalist Wilde Portela, as well as covers and illustrations for Junior, the children's supplement of the local paper Diário de Pernambuco. By 1972, Portela was a regular contributor to this paper, which he supplied with cartoons and comic stories about historical subjects. He spent most of the 1970s working as a commercial artist and also as a typist, however. Early comics efforts like three horror stories for Editorial Taika and the historical comics 'O Caçador de Esmeraldas' and 'Vida de Napoleão' for Adolfo Aizen's publishing label Ebal have remained unpublished. Portela designed the cover art of the album 'Até a Amazônia?' (1978) by the Brazilian folk ensemble Quinteto Violado.
Comic story from 'Supernatural' (Ed. Vecchi).
Vecchi
In 1978, Portela moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he began a collaboration with the publishing house Vecchi. He became a regular contributor to their digest-sized comic magazine Spektro, edited by Ota. The magazine published horror, mystery and supernatural stories from American companies like Gold Key and Charlton, but also featured locally produced stories about occult subjects by authors like Flavio Colin, Julio Shimamoto, Jayme Cortez and Eugenio Colonnese.
Paralelas
Portela was present in 'Vecchi' with the first installments of his best-known series 'Paralelas'. This surrealistic cyberpunk comic already showcased his expressive drawing style and talent for drawing beautiful women, landscapes and action scenes, obviously inspired by Moebius and the comic magazine Heavy Metal.
Chet
Other work for Vecchi was the western comic 'Chet' (1979), another co-production with his brother, which appeared in Histórias do Faroeste. The series was a rip-off of the Italian comic book 'Tex' created by Gian Luigi Bonelli and Aurelio Galleppini; and even used a modified anagram of the Italian original as its title (Tex > Xet > Chet).
'He-Man and the Masters of the Universe'.
Grafipar
By 1980, Portela moved to Curitiba, where his association with the publishing house Grafipar and its editor Claudio Seto began. He produced both science fiction and erotic stories under the pen name Barroso. For a couple of years, Portela, Mozart Couto and Rodval Matias dominated the publisher's adult-oriented publications with creations inspired by Japanese, European and US comics productions. Portela's 'A Saga de Xanadu' (1982) ran in Almanaque Xanadu and was designed in a manga style. The same goes for 'Robô Gigante' (1982), which sailed on the popularity of the giant robots which dominated youth culture in the 1980s. 'Super-Gay' was a naughty parody of the American superheroes by Marvel and DC Comics, which appeared in a one-shot book in 1982. The sci-fi oriented 'Voô Livre' on the other hand was another reference to Moebius, while the dramatic western 'Rex' was based on DC's 'Jonah Hex' (created by John Albano and Tony De Zuñiga).
Other 1980s and 1990s work
In 1982, Portela also illustrated three issues of the western series 'Colt .45' for the publisher RGE, subsequently published in France. He produced independent stories for the five issues of the magazine Inter Quadrinhos by the publisher Ondas from his hometown Recife in 1983, and then headed for São Paulo to begin an association with Press Editorial. In 1984-1985, he produced stories like 'O Cão do Inferno', 'O Machado' and 'O Alienígena', and in the following year his first solo albums, 'Paralelas' (1986) and 'Entidade Zero' (1986) were published.
Cover illustrations for Tovem Radical and Arise.
From 1987 on, Portela was present in the youth titles of Editorial Abril. He drew for the celebrity comic book based on Brazilian television presenter, actor and singer Gugu Liberato (Revista do Gugu, 1988-1990), and the children's comic based on Brazilian comedy group 'Os Trapalhões. He also drew the adventures of 'As Gatinhas' for the two issues of the girls' comic book Jovem Radical (1988) and provided artwork for licensed properties like 'He-Man' (from the Mattel toy-line). In Heróis da TV, Portela was one of the authors of comics based on Japanese live-action heroes like 'Jaspion', 'Spielvan' and 'Changeman' in license of Toei Company and Toho Co.. Other authors involved in these productions were writers Marcelo Cassaro and Alexandre Nagado and the artist Arthur Garcia. Watson Portela also provided cover art to Brazilian editions of DC/Marvel comic books like 'Crisis on Infinite Earths', 'Captain America', 'The New Teen Titans' and 'Superman'. He drew the backgrounds for a Brazilian graphic novel starring Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge, 'Patrulha Do Universo' (1991), with character art by Eli M. Leon (characters) and inking work by Antônio de Lima.
'Spielvan'.
With Primaggio Mantovi, Portela provided the artwork for the 'War-Man' project (1988) of the Pão de Açucar group, which consisted of posters and comics for a freely distributed magazine. In 1989, he contributed science fiction stories to Pau-Brasil magazine of Editora Vidente. The same publisher also released a four-issue mini-series of Portela's cyberpunk series 'Paralelas'. With Gustavo Machado, Portela drew the comic book 'Didi Volta para o Futuro' (Abril Jóvem, 1991), largely a children's comic take on the film trilogy 'Back To The Future' (1985-1990). Both personal and economical reasons forced him to largely retire from the comic industry during the 1990s, doing only contributions to fanzines in Recife. During this period, Portela did provide the 27th installment of the drawing course 'Curso Prático de Desenho' by Editora Escala (1998), which dealt with manga art..
'El Último Vôo Livre' (2005).
Work in the 2000s and 2010s
Portela briefly returned to the forefront on 2001 with the critically acclaimed albums 'Paralelas II' and 'A Ultima Missão' at Ópera Grafica; the latter being a collaboration with Eugenio Colonnese. He was also present in the Brazilian edition of Playboy magazine with illustrations. He left the mainstream media once again and launched his own Fanzine Paralelas (2003), in which he published both new and old material. Between 2004 and 2008, he produced independent material for the alternative label MRD, such as the series 'Ecos da Vida' and new collections like 'O Último Voo Livre' and 'Entidade Zero 1/2 do Fim'. He was however largely absent from the market during the 2000s, but from 2010 on he started presenting new material to publishing houses in cooperation with his agent and son Rafael Portela. In 2011, it was announced that Portela would be drawing 'Cabeça Oca e os Elfos de Terra Ronca', the first graphic novel based on Christie Queiroz's cartoon character 'Cabeça Oca'. The book was released in December 2014. Devir Livraria released a book collection of Portela's trademark work 'Paralelas' in 2015.
Recognition
Watson Portela is widely considered as one of the major artists of Brazilian comics. In 1986, the São Paulo Association of Comic Artists and Cartoonists awarded him their Ângelo Agostini Prize in 1986 for his contributions to the national comic industry. He was also recognized by his publisher Abril, who awarded him their annual Prêmio Abril de Jornalismo in 1988. He received the 2015 Troféu HQ Mix in the category Grandmaster from the Association of Cartoonists of Brazil (ACB) and the Institute of Graphic Arts of Brazil (IMAG).
'Cabeça Oca e os Elfos de Terra Ronca' (Promo, 2011).