Counterculture · 1969–1991 · Latin America & Caribbean
O Pasquim Satirical Press
Also known as Pasquim, Brazilian alternative press cartoons, Imprensa nanica
A weekly satirical tabloid from Rio de Janeiro that made cartoonists co-editors: hand-lettered headlines, cartum and caricature, and long interview and chronicle columns on one dense newsprint page. Unlike American underground comix it is a newspaper, with irony and Rio vernacular as cover under military censorship. Its staff were arrested in 1970 and the paper bombed; copying its look is not sharing its risk, nor a decorative retro skin.
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01
How it works
- Run cartoons beside long columns of text so the joke and the argument share one page.
- Letter headlines and mastheads by hand, loose and irreverent, rather than setting a formal newspaper face.
- Cover political criticism in irony, mock-names and in-jokes that the censor cannot quote.
- Pack the tabloid page densely, mixing cartoon, caption, column and ad at newsprint economy.
- Print mostly in black on cheap newsprint and let the drawing carry the cover.
- Give the paper a recurring cartoon mascot and a conversational Carioca voice.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: first issue in late June 1969 (26 June in most accounts), conceived by the cartoonist Jaguar with the journalists Tarso de Castro and Sérgio Cabral
02
Its design choices
From Stylogeny’s vocabulary of design choices: defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.
- Layout & composition
- Space & hierarchy
- Typography
- Colour
- Surface & texture
- Imagery
- Medium & production
- Tone & intent
- Avoids
- Generous white space, Framed panels, Gradients, Gloss & highlights, 3D render, Authoritative & institutional, Luxurious & glamorous, Calm & contemplative
Palette
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#e8e0cc -
#1a1a1a -
#8a8575 -
#d8cfb4
Typefaces
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Hand-lettered mastheads and headlines
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Cartoonists' own hand lettering
Known for
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O Pasquim, first issue, Rio de Janeiro, 26 June 1969
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Jaguar
co-founder; creator of the rat Sig; drew the strip Chopiniks, scripted by Ivan Lessa
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Ziraldo, Millôr Fernandes, Prósperi and Fortuna
cartoonist contributors
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O Pasquim issue no. 1,072, 11 November 1991
the last edition
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Make something in this style
Say what you need, and Stylogeny’s image studio draws it from O Pasquim Satirical Press’s design choices and checks it against them. It takes about a minute, and you get a link to share.
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Where it comes from, and what it’s close to
Before it
The style it grew out of, and the styles it borrowed from.
Nothing earlier is recorded: in the atlas it is a starting point.
After it
The styles that grew out of it.
No later style in the atlas grew out of it yet.
Alike in its design choices
Styles that make many of the same choices, related or not, besides those above.
05
Often taken for
O Pasquim Satirical Press has no real works recorded yet, so these are its nearest styles by its choices alone, with the choices that tell them apart.
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Black Panther Party Graphics
Black Panther Party Graphics is one of O Pasquim Satirical Press’s nearest styles by choices; no real work of either fits the other better.
Choices that tell O Pasquim Satirical Press and Black Panther Party Graphics apart Choice O Pasquim Satirical Press Black Panther Party Graphics Monochrome defining occasional Limited spot colours occasional defining Horror vacui defining occasional Collage & layering occasional defining Restrained accents characteristic — No shared descent in the atlas: they reached these choices separately.
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Underground Comix
Underground Comix is one of O Pasquim Satirical Press’s nearest styles by choices; no real work of either fits the other better.
Choices that tell O Pasquim Satirical Press and Underground Comix apart Choice O Pasquim Satirical Press Underground Comix Column grid characteristic — Framed panels avoids defining Layered information characteristic — Sequential narrative — defining Extreme scale contrast characteristic — No shared descent in the atlas: they reached these choices separately.
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Il Male Newspaper-Forgery Satire
Il Male Newspaper-Forgery Satire is one of O Pasquim Satirical Press’s nearest styles by choices; no real work of either fits the other better.
Choices that tell O Pasquim Satirical Press and Il Male Newspaper-Forgery Satire apart Choice O Pasquim Satirical Press Il Male Newspaper-Forgery Satire Light ground characteristic — Photomontage — defining Distortion & exaggeration characteristic — Limited spot colours occasional defining Stylised figuration characteristic — No shared descent in the atlas: they reached these choices separately.
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Turkish Weekly Humour Magazines (Gırgır to Uykusuz)
Turkish Weekly Humour Magazines is one of O Pasquim Satirical Press’s nearest styles by choices; no real work of either fits the other better.
Choices that tell O Pasquim Satirical Press and Turkish Weekly Humour Magazines apart Choice O Pasquim Satirical Press Turkish Weekly Humour Magazines Monochrome defining occasional Framed panels avoids defining Column grid characteristic — Gradients avoids occasional Single focal point occasional defining No shared descent in the atlas: they reached these choices separately.
— means the choice isn’t among the style’s recorded choices. Critics recorded each work’s choices with the styles’ descriptions in view, so this shows whether the descriptions hold together, not proof that they are right.
06
Combine it with
Styles O Pasquim Satirical Press pairs well with or plays against, from the research. Each is worked out as a combination: which style gives the type, the colours and the forms.
- International Typographic Style Contrasts · A rigid grid and neutral type are the opposite of Pasquim's dense, hand-lettered, cartoon-filled page.
- Underground Comix Pairs well · Share the hand-drawn, irreverent cartoon line, but borrow Pasquim's column-and-interview newspaper page for a more journalistic result.
- Tropicália Graphic Design Pairs well · A contemporary Brazilian counterculture; Tropicália's colour and collage can lift Pasquim's monochrome page.
- Turkish Weekly Humour Magazines (Gırgır to Uykusuz) Pairs well · Another cartoonist-led weekly where satire and local idiom carry political commentary under pressure.
- Il Male Newspaper-Forgery Satire Pairs well · Another satirical newspaper with cartoons; Il Male differs by forging real papers' front pages rather than publishing an original tabloid.
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Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Pasquim
- https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Pasquim
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_(cartoonist)
- https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziraldo
How Stylogeny researches and checks a style: where the facts come from.