Jimmy Five

Jimmy Five, known as Cebolinha[nb 1] in Brazil, is one of Monica's Gang main characters. He was created in 1960, and currently has his own printed comic book, called Cebolinha, which was first released in 1973.[1] His English name is Jimmy Five due to his hair composed of only five strands.

"Jim Five" redirects here. For Irish Gaelic footballer, see Jim Fives.
Jimmy Five
Monica's Gang's character
First appearanceZaz Traz #2 (1960)
Created byMaurício de Sousa
Portrayed byKevin Vechiatto (Turma da Mônica: Laços)
Voiced byIvete Jayme (1970s-1980s)
Angélica Santos (1980s-present)
In-universe information
GenderMale
FamilyMrs. Five (Mother), Mr. Five (Father), Mary Angela Five (Sister)
Pet dogFluffy

Jimmy's family name is "Cebola" (Onion in Portuguese), and he has a little baby sister called Mary Angela (in Portuguese, Maria Cebolinha, after her brother's name), also based on a real person.[2]

In the first adaptations of comics into English, the character's name was Stanley,[3] and later Frizz.

Concept and creation

Jimmy Five first appeared in the second issue of the comic book Zaz Traz in 1960, as a supporting character for Franklin. Mauricio de Sousa, creator of Monica's Gang, says he based the character on a child he knew while growing up in Mogi das Cruzes.[4] He was a friend of his brother Márcio, and the boy would also switch the letter "r" for "l" and, because of his pointy hair, he earned the nickname "cebolinha" from Márcio's and Mauricio's father.[5] At first, he was a 4-year-old boy who was a friend of Franklin and his gang, he was the youngest boy. In the first stories he was hairy, after Sousa returned to the newspaper strips, his design became more and more simple and began to be drawn with fewer hair strands.

Sousa liked the character and made him a separate protagonist of Franklin and Blu in 1961. He had several supporting friends in the very first comic strips, with more prominence in Specs and Smudge as his best friends and sidekicks. After the introduction of Monica (based on the Sousa's daughter)[6] in the comic strips in 1963 he began to share the leading role with her over the years. In 1964 he came to have his current look with 5 hair strands. In 1970 with the release of the comic book, Monica became the title protagonist in place of Jimmy Five, but a comic book for Jimmy Five began to be published 3 years later.

Characteristics

Jimmy Five is incapable of pronouncing the letter "r", replacing it with the letter l, in the Portuguese version, or with the letter w, in the English version. When the letter is used in the end of a word, however, he pronounces it normally (as in "car" or "locker").

Out of the main cast of Monica's Gang he is the only one to regularly wear shoes (when barefoot, he is also one of the rare characters to be shown with toes). He often complains and despairs over his main physical feature - his lack of any hair other than five single strands. His madcap attempts to rectify this often causes him (and those around him) a great deal of grief. He was originally drawn with a full head of hair, which often becomes a topic in his laments to the comic artist to "help him out" and restore his full head of hair.

He is always plotting to steal either Samson or the title of "owner of the street" from Monica with his "infallible plans" (which were initially created by Specs), which always end in failure, mostly because Smudge (his best friend) accidentally reveals to Monica that she is in a trap. On some stories, he gathers the other boys of the gang just to pick on Monica.

In some earlier stories, he devised background plans to find out the secret of her strength, but he always ended up beaten solely by her. Even with these frictions, Jimmy and Monica are still friends to each other. In the futuristic special edition stories, they are often portrayed as married or dating each other.[7][8] Indeed, in Monica Teen, they are seen kissing.[9]

It was once revealed that Jimmy is not the first one in his family to have his famous speech impediment and that it caused all his relatives (minus his father) to believe he will never be able to pronounce 'r'. However, this is disproven in the Monica Teen stories, where he is said to take up speech-language pathology sessions to correct his speech impediment;[9] however, he reverts to mispronunciation when under stress or close to girls (especially Monica).[9]

Whereas his family was always composed of his mother, father, and little sister, he once had a little brother, introduced in a 1972 story.[10] Jimmy himself even ended the story asking his readers to send name suggestions to Editora Abril (which published Monica's Gangs' comics at that time), but the toddler ended up disappearing from the stories.[10] Mauricio stated that he simply didn't have time to plan the continuation of his arrival, and the character was never featured again.[10]

  • Mrs. Five (Dona Cebola, lit. Mrs. Onion) – Jimmy's mother. Spends most of her time as a housekeeper, sometimes complaining about this. She is always worried about her weight.
  • Mr. Five (Seu Cebola, lit. Mr. Onion) - Jimmy's father. Similar to Smudge's father, he is drawn simply as an adult Jimmy, the only differences being his nose and his height. He's very affectionate to his family and hard working with his job at a local business company. Unlike Jimmy, he does not suffer from speech impairments.
  • Mary Angela (Maria Cebolinha) – Jimmy's little sister, also introduced in 1960 in the comic book Zaz Traz.[6] Her baby mind makes her a very curious and active person, which leads Jimmy to near-insanity, as he is the one to look for her when his parents are not home. Mary is based on Mauricio de Sousa's oldest daughter, Mariângela Spada e Sousa.[5][6]
  • Fluffy (Floquinho) – Jimmy's dog. Originally, the dog belonged to his cousin from the countryside, but ended up becoming Jimmy's.[11] Due to his long hair, no one can tell his head from his tail, and vice versa. This long hair caught many reader's eyes, and after years of arguments between fans on what breed he really belonged to it was announced his breed as being Lhasa Apso.[12] Apart from his head and tail problem, another recurring gag in his strips is the fact that his long hair can hide plenty of objects (at one point hiding a missing airplane and its pilot, a missing cruise ship, a hot-dog vendor, and the mailman all at once).
  • Nutty Ned (Louco, lit. Crazy man) – Nutty is a former psychiatric hospital inhabitant, and no matter how hard the doctors try to get him, he always manages to escape (despite the fact that, in some original stories, he is living in a nonsensical house whose real replica can be found at Parque da Mônica in São Paulo). He often appears at Jimmy Five's strips, irritating Jimmy with his insanity. In Portuguese, Nutty Ned always calls him "Cenourinha" (Little Carrot, in confusion with his Portuguese name "Cebolinha", literally, "Little Onion"). His strips are meant to be nonsensical and surreal, where Nutty Ned breaks the laws of physics. His crazy actions are often based on funny word plays and/or puns, and confusions caused by Jimmy's incapability to pronounce the r letter.

Reception and Legacy

Just like Monica, Jimmy Five is considered one of the great icons of Brazilian comics, and sometimes is even more popular than Monica. In December 2010 a special issue called "Cebolinha 50 Anos", of which celebrated the 50 years of the character was published.[13] In 2019, the footballer Everton Soares started to adhere to the nickname "Cebolinha" in honor of the character, Everton admitted to being a fan of Monica's Gang and was later presented with a art made by Mauricio de Sousa.[14][15] In 2018 a Graphic Novel focused only on Jimmy Five entitled "Cebolinha: Recuperação" was published, having been made by the artist Gustavo Borges.[16] The comics are very popular in Brazil and Portugal, the U.S. is the country closing the podium.


Notes
  1. "Cebolinha" means both chives and the diminutive for onion, in Portuguese

References
  1. Cebolinha at Turma da Mônica's official website Archived 2008-01-30 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Mary Angela at Mônica's Gang official website Archived 2009-06-21 at the Wayback Machine
  3. http://www.planetagibi.com.br/2010/03/monica-em-ingles-real-one.html
  4. Maurício - 70 anos - MundoHQ Archived 2008-01-29 at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Quem inspirou os personagens da Turma da Mônica?". Mundo Estranho (in Portuguese). Editora Abril. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  6. "Personagens da Turma da Mônica inspirados nos filhos de Mauricio de Sousa". O Globo (in Portuguese). Grupo Globo. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  7. de Sousa, Mauricio (1998). "Parque 2023". Mônica 35 anos (in Portuguese). São Paulo: Editora Globo. p. 113.
  8. de Sousa, Mauricio (1993). "30 anos". Mônica 30 anos (in Portuguese). São Paulo: Editora Globo. p. 233.
  9. "Mônica e Cebolinha se beijam em nova fase da turma" (in Portuguese). G1. 20 August 2008. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
  10. de Sousa, Mauricio (June 1972). "O Irmãozinho". Mônica (in Portuguese) (2nd ed.). São Paulo: Panini Comics. pp. 40–61. Check date values in: |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  11. de Sousa, Mauricio (9 June 2000). "Here comes Fluff, the 'toon pup". Monica's Gang official website. Archived from the original on 27 October 2009. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
  12. de Sousa, Mauricio (2002). "A Raça do Floquinho". Cebolinha (in Portuguese) (1st ed.). São Paulo: Editora Globo. pp. 56–591.
  13. http://www.universohq.com/reviews/cebolinha-50-anos/
  14. "Cebola "mais antigo" brinca com xará uruguaio e vê confusões por apelidos". www.globoesporte.globo.com. 2016-03-11.
  15. https://gauchazh.clicrbs.com.br/esportes/noticia/2019/06/virei-fa-diz-mauricio-de-sousa-sobre-everton-cebolinha-cjxakl6cs009q01pkq6a45s7z.html
  16. Naliato, Samir (24/09/2018). "Cebolinha – Recuperação: confira as primeiras imagens da Graphic MSP". Universo HQ. Retrieved 14/11/2018. Check date values in: |accessdate=, |date= (help)
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