Bug-a-Booo
Encyclopedia
Bug-a-Booo is a set of fictional Brazil
ian characters featured at the Monica's Gang
comic strips. The main location for their stories is a cemetery
. All of the characters are monsters or other supernatural
creatures, none of them being a human being. However, their stories are not intended to be scary
, actually they are sometimes classified as “Terrir”, which is a Portmanteau of the Portuguese
words “Terror” (horror
) and “Rir” (to laugh). On some of their stories, they have to deal with the fact that vampires, ghosts, zombies and mummies are no longer appreciated as characters of horror films. People instead are opting for assassins, psychopaths, serial killers, etc.
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian characters featured at the Monica's Gang
Monica's Gang
Monica's Gang is a popular Brazilian comic book series. The series was created by Mauricio de Sousa, who signs his work as "Mauricio". Plots are centered on the adventures of a group of seven-year-old friends in the fictional neighborhood of "Limoeiro" in São Paulo...
comic strips. The main location for their stories is a cemetery
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
. All of the characters are monsters or other supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
creatures, none of them being a human being. However, their stories are not intended to be scary
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
, actually they are sometimes classified as “Terrir”, which is a Portmanteau of the Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
words “Terror” (horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
) and “Rir” (to laugh). On some of their stories, they have to deal with the fact that vampires, ghosts, zombies and mummies are no longer appreciated as characters of horror films. People instead are opting for assassins, psychopaths, serial killers, etc.
Characters
- Bug-a-Booo (Penadinho) – Bug-a-Booo is the main character, a short ghost. He enjoys resting near his grave. Like the stereotypical image of ghosts he is actually invisible but wears a white sheet so he can be seen.
- Lady MacDeath (Dona Morte) – Lady MacDeath is a Grim ReaperDeath (personification)The concept of death as a sentient entity has existed in many societies since the beginning of history. In English, Death is often given the name Grim Reaper and, from the 15th century onwards, came to be shown as a skeletal figure carrying a large scythe and clothed in a black cloak with a hood...
, the personification of Death who is responsible of going after all people whose "time has come", although unlike a typical Grim Reaper her body is not made of bones. She uses her sickleSickleA sickle is a hand-held agricultural tool with a variously curved blade typically used for harvesting grain crops or cutting succulent forage chiefly for feeding livestock . Sickles have also been used as weapons, either in their original form or in various derivations.The diversity of sickles that...
to kill people, by hitting them in the head, and then she takes their souls to the purgatoryPurgatoryPurgatory is the condition or process of purification or temporary punishment in which, it is believed, the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven...
, for them to be judged and sent whether to hellHellIn many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
or heavenHeavenHeaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
(sometimes after much bureaucracy). She always carries a list with the name of the people she must kill on the day. Most of her stories feature a pursuit, sometimes punctuated with struggles faced every day by normal people. Maurico says that the purpose of creating her is "taking death less seriously, while it doesn't come to us." - Vic Vampire (Zé Vampir) – Vic is a yellow-skinned vampireVampireVampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
, and therefore, he is able to turn himself into a batBatBats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...
. He feeds on bloodBloodBlood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....
and fears crossesChristian crossThe Christian cross, seen as a representation of the instrument of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, is the best-known religious symbol of Christianity...
(even though he lives in a cemetery full of them), sunlightSunlightSunlight, in the broad sense, is the total frequency spectrum of electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. On Earth, sunlight is filtered through the Earth's atmosphere, and solar radiation is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon.When the direct solar radiation is not blocked...
, garlicGarlicAllium sativum, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and rakkyo. Dating back over 6,000 years, garlic is native to central Asia, and has long been a staple in the Mediterranean region, as well as a frequent...
and holy waterHoly waterHoly water is water that, in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Oriental Orthodoxy, and some other churches, has been sanctified by a priest for the purpose of baptism, the blessing of persons, places, and objects; or as a means of repelling evil.The use for baptism and...
. - Moe the Mummy (Muminho) – Moe is a mummy of EgyptianAncient EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
descendent. When the swabs which cover his bodies are taken out, Moe appears either invisible, as if the swabs were covering nothing, or as a dry corpse. - Frank – A reference to FrankensteinFrankensteinFrankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
, Frank is a green construct with a very weak brain, so that the virtue he least holds is intelligence. - Wolfgang (Lobisomem) – A charming werewolfWerewolfA werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope , is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse...
. While being able to talk, think and walk by two feet, he must live side-to-side with his canidaeCanidaeCanidae is the biological family of carnivorous and omnivorous mammals that includes wolves, foxes, jackals, coyotes, and domestic dogs. A member of this family is called a canid . The Canidae family is divided into two tribes: Canini and Vulpini...
instincts, like chasing cats, urinating on lamp posts and trees, and howling to the moon. He has not an "official" human from, and this form may change its personality dramatically from story to story. He has fangs, claws and yellow eyes. - Skully (Cranicola) – Skully is single skullHuman skullThe human skull is a bony structure, skeleton, that is in the human head and which supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.In humans, the adult skull is normally made up of 22 bones...
, which rests all day on top of a stone. He cannot walk nor move (although in some stories he is seen jumping around), but on the other hand, he provides fine conversations to whoever speaks to him. - Zé Cremadinho – Zé Cremadinho is nothing but the remains of someone who's been crematedCremationCremation is the process of reducing bodies to basic chemical compounds such as gasses and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high-temperature burning, vaporization and oxidation....
. However, he is still able to talk, and jumps around as much as Skully sometimes does. In most of his appearances, he is confused with dust and is "attacked" by broomsticks and vacuum cleaners. - Zé Caveira – Zé Caveira is a skeletonSkeletonThe skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...
who walks around making fun with the rest of his friends. - Sally Soul (Alminha) – Sally is Bug's girlfriend, although they are constantly seen having arguments with each other. Like Bug, she is actually an invisible ghost who wears a white sheet.
- Espírito de Porco - In BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, pranksters are sometimes called espíritos de porco (espírito meaning spirit and porco meaning pig). Justifying this, Espírito de Porco is a pig-nosed ghost who likes pulling irritating pranks on the other residents of the cemetery.