Groselho

Bráulio Romão Serqueira (26 April 1899 – 15 September 1974), better known by his pen name Groselho, was a Brazilian cartoonist. He is famous around the world for having created Roman Odysseys, the comic book series that is considered the most famous South American comics in the world. Before becoming a cartoonist, Groselho was a history teacher, he loved history and this admiration greatly influenced him when he created his magnum opus.

Early life
Born into an upper-middle-class family in Bragança Paulista, São Paulo, Groselho already showed signs of interest in drawings in his childhood, even winning a competition for best child cartoonist at his school, but this was against his father's will, a private school teacher who did not accept that his son did not follow the same profession as him, a Mathematics teacher, however, even if the son had decided to drop cartoons and dedicate himself to becoming a teacher, it was certain that he would not be a mathematics teacher, since he was very average in that subject, but he showed a lot of development when in history lessons. When he was 19, he studied pedagogy, after graduating in pedagogy, he also graduated in history, having then trained as a teacher in history.

Start as cartoonist
Groselho continued as a teacher until 1927, when he decided to invest in a career as a cartoonist, resigning from the school where he worked, after which he traveled to Europe where he spent around 3 months, and in that term he passed through Italy, where the inspiration for his magnum opus came, while he is drawing a antropomorphic she-wolf, upon returning to Brazil, continued to improve his way of drawing anthropomorphic animals, one day while he was in a square, he lost one of his drafts, this same draft was found by the editor-in-chief of the newspaper O Paulista, Augusto Domingos and Silva.

A few hours later, he found his address, and when the boy arrived, he handed him a note, with the location where the Grupo Paulista headquarters were located, Augusto revealed himself as editor-in-chief of the newspaper O Paulista, one of the most acclaimed newspapers in the state at the time,Before leaving, the journalist also told Groselho that a test was being held for a cartoonist for the youth supplement of the newspaper, named Paulistinha, and that if Groselho wanted to compete, it was better to hurry, as vacancies were running out. Groselho after that decided to reflect a little, and the next day, he took a train to São Paulo, getting there he went to the address, and when he got there there were still 3 vacancies left, one of those ended up being occupied by him, another that also occupied one of these vacancies was none other than Cícero Plinta de Arruda, who would be one of his partners for years and help him create Roman Odysseys.

Groselho ended up passing the test in first place, among others who passed were Cícero and Jair de Barreto, who would become partners with Groselho in creating his magnum opus. Therefore, Groselho started working on Paulistinha, he then called Cícero and Jair to discuss a partnership, which ended up being accepted, so Groselho, Jair and Cícero would work together to make comics for Paulistinha, Jair would be responsible for the illustration together with curselho, while Cícero would not only be an illustrator of the scenarios, he would also be the writer of the stories.

Creation of Roman Odysseys
In October 1927, Groselho had already arrived at Paulistinha with the idea of a comic story that would take place in the Roman Empire, with anthropomorphic animals, and that would be starred by a Wolf and his servant, a female Goat, who would engage in a big theft case and they would try to solve it when the wolf's family comes in as part of the bandits' scheme, the wolf was later named Gnaeus, and the goat was named Octavia, both names were given by Cícero Plinta, before it was followed, the drawing style of the story was much debated, Groselho supported a more realistic drawing model, while Jair de Barreto supported a more cartoonish model, Jair's model won, and so the story began, Jair also helped Groselho to draw in a more cartoonish way, and Cícero was responsible for the plot and the scenarios

After two months of production, Paulistinha began serializing on December 15, 1927, the first Roman Odysseys story, The Jewels of the Roman Aristocrat, the story was serialized for 8 months and ended its serialization on August 7, 1928, after that, the adventure gained a comic book format, being a commercial success.

After the success of The Jewels of the Roman Aristocrat, Groselho decided make another story starring Gnaeus, this time without Octavia, in the ancient city of Mediolanum, this idea resulted in the 2nd Roman Odysseys story: The Golden Enoch, serialized by Paulistinha from 21 September 1928 to 4 September 1929. Likewise The Jewels of the Roman Aristocrat, The Golden Enoch gained a comic book format after the end of his serializiation.

The Golden Enoch was even more successful than The Jewels of the Roman Aristocrat, leading Grupo Paulista to ask that Groselho, Jair and Cícero continue to make stories of Roman Odysseys, so several stories followed, such as:
 * Octavia among the Legionnaires (1931)
 * The Lost Note of Caesar (1934)
 * The Necklace of Lopolus (1935)
 * The Knife of Lucretia (1937)
 * Gnaeus in Corythus (1938)

Among these, however, the most outstanding is The Children of Nero (1933), which featured the protagonists Marcus and Pompeia, fictional children of Nero and stepchildren of Poppaea Sabina, portrayed as cheetahs, while Nero is portrayed as a tiger and Poppaea as a deer. Marcus and Pompeia became so popular that they ended up being admitted as protagonists of the series in the 40s.

8 Years after the debut of Marcus and Pompeia, it was Festinia's turn to have her first appearance, in The Harp of Nero (1940), which slightly introduced the character, Festinia appeared again in the later story, Journey to the East (1941), which marked her permanence once and for all and also sealed the personality of the character, Festinia was idealized by Cícero Plinta, who also idealized Marcus and Pompeia, and it is known today that she was initially quoted to be a Serval, but the idea was abandoned and Festinia took the form of a Lynx.

Floria was the last of the 6 protagonists to be introduced, she first appeared in Amicus Meus (1947), as an old friend of Gnaeus who moves to Rome after her mother's death, and who seeks to start a new life in the city, but is framed for something she did not commit (stealing the profits of an influential commander), and ends up being taken to prison, Gnaeus however is the only one who believes in his friend's innocence and tries to prove that she is not the criminal they are looking for, and reveal to everyone who the real thief is.

Floria was also the only protagonist outside of Gnaeus and Octavia that Groselho created.

Rise and international recognition
In the 1930s, Groselho convinced Grupo Paulista to look for international publishers to translate the comic books of Roman Odysseys, so the first ones to accept publishing the Brazilian work in their countries were Blackie and Son (United Kingdom), Cupples & Leon (United States) and Arnoldo Mondadori Editore (Italy).

in Italy in particular, the series is acclaimed by many, including the dictator Benito Mussolini, who made a collection of the Roman Odysseys comic books while he governed italy, this admiration of the Italians for the work of Groselho, Jair de Barreto and Cícero Plinta be responsible for the three were decorated as Knights of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, second class of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, in 1961.

In the United States, the fame of Roman Odysseys came during the late 40s, when the story Voyage to the New World (1945) was published there, the story addresses a journey by Gnaeus, Octavia, Marcus, Pompeia, and Festinia, who arrives in the territory where the United States is located, and are received by hostile Indians, some of whom are led by the Algonquian mare Nadie, they are rescued by good-natured Indians led by the ocelot Itzina, the ocelot tells the protagonists that Nadie and her Indians stole the idol of her tribe, and since then, her tribe lives in immense darkness, so Gnaeus and his partners undertake to rescue the idol of the tribe of Itzina, facing Nadie and her tribe of bad nature.