Thursday, September 13, 2007

Carlos Zefiro - Vintage Erotica From Brazil








Carlos Zéfiro was the pseudonym of Alcides Aguiar Caminha, a Brazilian artist who drew underground erotic comics between the 1950's and 1970's. His small publications, or catecismos, were 24-32 pages long, crudely drawn and circulated clandestinely during that time. It was sold discreetly in newsstands and street markets, and slowly developed a cult following. They were the initiation manuals to many young man, before the age of explicit sex magazines and movies. It wasn't until one year before his death in 1992 that Carlos Zéfiro's identity was finally revealed in an interview to Brazilian Playboy magazine. He had hidden this secret identity even from his wife and family, who didn't suspect of his parallel life as an erotic cartoonist. It turned out that he was a public servant and feared legal action against his work, resulting in the loss of his government job. During the dictatorship era in Brazil an investigation began looking into the author of such pornographic work but the results came out inconclusive. Today, his work is very much prized as nostalgia and the original editions of the booklets he published are highly collectible and hard to find.
In 1997, original illustrations from Zéfiro's work were used on singer Marisa Monte's album cover and inserts, bringing a new found interest in his career.
To view more of his original work click here. Warning NSFW.

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