Sergio Macedo

Sergio Macedo was born 8 April 1951 in Além Paraíba, Minas Gerais, Brazil.{{Cite journal |last=Pereira |first=Cláudia Matos |date=January 2014 |title=Povos Indígenas em Quadrinhos: o olhar etnográfico-semiótico do artista brasileiro Sérgio Macedo |trans-title=Indigenous people in Comics: the ethnographic-semiotic look by the Brazilian artist Sergio Macedo |journal=Estúdio |language=pt-BR |issue=9 |pages=79–84 |issn=1647-6158}} He began drawing early in life. In 1954, he moved to Juiz de Fora.{{Cite web |last=Yashima |first=Humberto |date=2007-10-20 |title=Entrevista: Sérgio Macedo |trans-title=Interview: Sérgio Macedo |url=https://www.bigorna.net/index.php?secao=entrevistas&id=1192911499 |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=Bigorna |language=pt-BR}} He credited his artistic inspiration as a child to both foreign and Brazilian comic book artists, as well as realist artists. Later on, in the late 60s and early 1970s, he became inspired by American and French underground comic artists. He was self taught.

He pursued a career in illustrations for advertising and journalism.{{Cite web |date=2007-10-19 |title=Sergio Macedo |url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/m/macedo_sergio.htm |access-date=2024-07-28 |website=Lambiek }} Newspapers he contributed illustrations to in Brazil included Estado de São Paulo and Folha de São Paulo; he also contributed to the magazine Planeta. He had a solo exhibition, his first, at the Celina Art Gallery in 1970.{{Cite journal |last=Silva |first=Matheus Moura |date=2017-12-19 |title=Quadrinhos visionários de Sergio Macedo |trans-title=Sergio Macedo's visionary comics |url=https://periodicos.unespar.edu.br/sensorium/article/view/1931/1312 |journal=Art&Sensorium |language=pt |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=97–116 |doi=10.33871/23580437.2017.4.2.097-116 |issn=2358-0437|doi-access=free }} He was sent to prison in 1972 for six months. He gained perks after he drew art for the prison guards, which resulted in better treatment.{{Cite journal |last=Silva |first=Matheus Moura |date=2017-12-19 |title=Quadrinhos visionários de Sergio Macedo |url=https://periodicos.unespar.edu.br/sensorium/article/view/1931/1312 |journal=Art&Sensorium |language=pt |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=97–116 |doi=10.33871/23580437.2017.4.2.097-116 |issn=2358-0437|doi-access=free }} From 1972 to 1973, he would publish his comics in the magazine Grilo.{{Cite web |last=Naranjo |first=Marcelo |date=2004-02-10 |title=Grilo, um importante momento dos quadrinhos no Brasil |trans-title=Grilo, an important moment for comics in Brazil |url=https://universohq.com/museu-dos-quadrinhos/grilo-um-importante-momento-dos-quadrinhos-no-brasil/ |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=Universo HQ |language=pt-BR}} About that time, he and several friends founded the newspaper SOMA, which they sold on the street during Brazil's period of military dictatorship. He was interested in psychedelics, but stopped in 1975, as he viewed it as a lazy method instead of pursuing inner effort to achieve the results he wanted.

He moved to Europe in 1974, where he illustrated for the Dutch magazine Bres. He then moved to France, and began publishing comics in Métal hurlant, Circus, Heavy Metal, as well as the educational magazines J'Ai Lu, Fiction, and Galaxie. He also contributed to the Neutron and Sexbulles magazines. His first album of comics was published in 1975 by Kesselring, publishing Psychorock and Télé Champ in the following years with Les Humanoïdes Associés. He created the {{Ill|Vic Voyage|fr}} series of comics in the 1980s, first published in Circus magazine, an adventure and mystery series focusing on a man who discovers that he is of alien origin. The series was later continued through the Aedena and Vaisseau d'Argen publishers.

Most of his bibliography is unpublished in his home country of Brazil; while well known abroad, he is little known there. In 1989, the Swiss newspaper 24 heures said Macedo's art was of "a rare purity" and that he displayed an "ecologist-mystico-baba-futurist philosophy".{{Cite news |last=Mayer |first=Thierry |date=1989-12-31 |title="Brazil!" de Sergio Macedo ou la Bd comme conscience |trans-title="Brazil!" by Sergio Macedo or comics as conscience |url=https://scriptorium.ch/zoom/14523/view?page=1&p=separate&search=%22sergio%20macedo%22&hlid=522762429&tool=search |access-date=2024-09-05 |work=24 heures |location=Lausanne |page=48 |language=fr-CH |via=Scriptorium |issue=303 |issn=1661-2256}} Earlier in 1976, a critic from the same paper had negatively described his work in Circus, calling him "promising but long-winded" with an "annoying cosmic bucolicism", and that it was less funny than usual.{{Cite news |last=N. |first=R. |date=1976-06-03 |title=Des classiques et des revues... |trans-title=Classics and reviews... |url=https://scriptorium.ch/zoom/10406/view?page=63 |access-date=2024-09-05 |website=24 heures |location=Lausanne |page=49 |via=Scriptorium |issue=128 |issn=1661-2256}}

Many of his works take place in Pacific sea settings.{{Cite news |last=Gessler |first=Antoine |date=1986-08-30 |title=Pays des bulles |trans-title=Land of bubbles |url=http://www.e-newspaperarchives.ch/?a=d&d=NVE19860830-01.2.110.25.2&srpos=2 |access-date=2024-07-28 |website=Le Nouvelliste |location=Sion |page=23 |language=fr-CH |via=e-newspaperarchives.ch |issue=200}} Several of his works focus on indigenous peoples, as well as aliens and extraterrestrial contact. Motifs in his art include esoteric, cabalistic and visionary themes and elements. Following his joining Siderella, his works focused increasingly on extraterrestrial themes. His art has been noted for its characteristic metallic smoothness, with detailed renderings alongside heavy airbrushed highlights. His artwork is styled in a realist manner, utilizing airbrush and gouache. Joe McCulloch of The Comics Journal noted Macedo as a "smooth-edged artist", comparing him to Angus McKie, calling him "one of a class that basically vanished forever" from North American comics following the end of the Heavy Metal publication.{{Cite magazine |last=McCulloch |first=Joe |date=2011-12-13 |title=THIS WEEK IN COMICS! (12/14/11 - Amazing Heroes) |url=https://www.tcj.com/this-week-in-comics-121411-amazing-heroes/ |access-date=2024-07-28 |magazine=The Comics Journal |location=Seattle |language=en-US |issn=0194-7869}} He named Wallace Woody, Norman Rockwell, N. C. Wyeth, Inácio Justo, Jayme Cortez, Philippe Druillet, Caza, Richard Corben, and Winslow Homer as inspirations. Later in his career he named nature as his biggest inspiration.

In 2007, Macedo received the 2007 HQMIX award in the Great Master category. Macedo was one of four people to win the Prêmio Angelo Agostini for Master of National Comics award in 2022.{{Cite web |date=2022-08-29 |title=Troféu Angelo Agostini divulga vencedores da edição 2022 |trans-title=Angelo Agostini Trophy reveals winners of the 2022 edition |url=https://www.publishnews.com.br/materias/2022/08/29/trofeu-angelo-agostini-divulga-vencedores-da-edicao-2022 |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=PublishNews |language=pt-BR |issn=2526-7728}}

Psychorock was published in Métal hurlant in 1976. The English version was published the next year in Heavy Metal (the American version, which partially consistent of reprints from the French publication), and was translated by Sean Kelly and Valerie Marchant.{{Cite magazine |last1=Patten |first1=Frederick |date=February 1979 |title=Miscellaneous |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K9P1T0doSpkC&pg=PA11 |access-date=2024-07-28 |magazine=Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Review |publisher=Wildside Press |location=Vista |page=11 |language=en |via=Google Books |volume=1 |issue=1 |isbn=978-0-89370-624-1 |issn=0739-649X}} The comic is split into five stories, all of which depict humanity being guided by a greater cosmic intellect. McCulloch described Psychorock as "a work that couldn't exist in quite this way at any other time, certainly not in English-translated form in an ostensibly mainstream comics outlet", calling its illustrations both funny and eerie. He noted its depiction of aliens, as well as "giant-breasted women and long-haired hippie dudes [...] lounging bare in floating space gardens." Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Review argued it promoted the flower power generation of the 1960s in all five stories; they called the hippie elements of the plot slightly dated, but argued that people were still interested in plots about the interaction between aliens and humanity.

{{Main|Timeless Voyage}}

His comic {{Lang|fr|Voyage Intemporel}}, published in 1982, was written by Appel Guery, who also lived in Tahiti.{{Cite journal |last=Mayer |first=Jean-François |author-link=Jean-François Mayer |date=April 1999 |title="Our Terrestrial Journey is Coming to an End": The Last Voyage of the Solar Temple |journal=Nova Religio |language=en |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=172–196 |doi=10.1525/nr.1999.2.2.172 |issn=1092-6690 |translator-first1=Elijah |translator-last1=Siegler}} This comic focuses on a group of UFO believers who are taken away by a flying saucer before a great cataclysm destroys the earth.{{Cite magazine |last=David |first=Marc |date=1996-01-10 |title=Jouret et Di Mambro la recommandaient: La BD qui annonçait le massacre |trans-title=Jouret and Di Mambro recommended: The comic book that foretold the massacre |url=https://scriptorium.ch/zoom/196663/view?page=26 |access-date=2024-09-05 |magazine=L'Illustré |location=Lausanne |pages=26–27 |language=fr-CH |via=Scriptorium |issn=1420-5165}}{{Cite episode |series=La Fraternité |last1=Morath |first1=Pierre |last2=Lemasson |first2=Eric |network=Radio Télévision Suisse |date=2023-02-08 |number=1 |minutes=42 |language=fr-CH}} It later received some attention for its connection to two cult leaders. After the comic came out, the religious group the Order of the Solar Temple bought hundreds of copies and distributed it within the movement as recommended reading. The Solar Temple would later go on to commit mass suicide in Switzerland in 1994, thinking that by killing themselves, they would not die but "transit"; one possible method this transit was that they would be picked up and taken to another world by a flying saucer. He compared it to the apocalypse in the Book of Revelation, put into New Age terms. He also said this comic was not "merely a comic strip", as it was a message of the beliefs of an actual UFO religion from France; Guery was the leader of a group called Siderella.{{Cite book |last=Abgrall |first=Jean-Marie |author-link=Jean-Marie Abgrall |title=Les sectes de l'apocalypse: gourous de l'an 2000 |publisher=Calmann-Lévy |year=1999 |isbn=978-2-7021-2954-8 |location=Paris |page=95 |language=fr |chapter=Sectes Ufologiques}} Discussing it in the aftermath of the Solar Temple suicides, the Swiss magazine L'Illustré said it took on a "particular resonance" and was "fiercely premonitory" in light of the OTS's interest in it.

{{Lang|fr|Pacifique Sud}} is part of the {{Ill|Vic Voyage|fr}} series, which focuses on the titular protagonist, a "super boatman". It contains a New Age and science fiction based narrative. According to Guillaume Molle, the story "gave a voice" to the Polynesian natives reflecting on the impact of Christian missionaries to their traditional religion practice, despite the sci-fi narrative. He praised it for what he called a very accurate depiction of Polynesian life.{{Cite book |last=Molle |first=Guillaume |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ws6TEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA67 |title=Comics and Archaeology |publisher=Springer Nature |year=2022 |isbn=978-3-030-98919-4 |editor1-last=Kamash |editor1-first=Zena |page=67 |language=en |chapter=Panels from the South Seas: Pacific Colonialism, Archaeology, and Pseudoscience in Francophone Bande Dessinée |access-date=2024-07-28 |editor2-last=Soar |editor2-first=Katy |editor3-last=Broeck |editor3-first=Leen Van |via=Google Books}}

Its sequel, {{Lang|fr|Pacifique Sud 2: Le mystère des atolls}} was published the next year.{{Cite news |last=Sterchi |first=Jacques |date=1986-07-11 |title=Pacifique, Moyen Age et futur |trans-title=Pacific, Middle Ages and Future |url=https://scriptorium.ch/zoom/428007/view?page=29 |access-date=2024-09-05 |website=Journal de Nyon |page=IX |language=fr-CH |via=Scriptorium |issue=77}} The book has Vic Voyage meet advanced spirits while accompanying rich tourists to Pacific Islands, whereupon he travels into an underwater temple and receives a prophecy for the Earth. Le Nouvelliste praised Pacifique Sud 2, published the next year by Editions Aedena, calling its illustrations "hyper-realistic" with an "almost magical usage of color", and complimented its narrative as "breathtaking"; overall, they called it an "excellent and long-awaited" work. The Journal de Nyon called it "an apotheosis of mind-blowing kitsch" with little depth instead of symbolism, comparing it to a bad American TV show. Overall the reviewer called it "not unpleasant"

Another entry in the series, Brazil!, was first published in Europe in 1989, before being published in Brazil as Xingu! in 2007.{{Cite news |last=Minuano |first=Carlos |date=2007-10-15 |title=Ataque ao xingu |trans-title=Attack on Xingu |url=https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/fsp/folhatee/fm1510200704.htm |access-date=2024-09-09 |work=Folha de S.Paulo |language=pt-BR |issn=1414-5723}} It is 72 pages long. According to Macedo, the book is based on his experience living with the Kayapo people with his wife for several months in 1987; he credited this period as teaching him about the problem indigenous people had faced and life more generally. The book focuses on a group of adventurers, including Vic Voyage, who visit the Xingu Indigenous Park, encountering the problems they face such as land disputes and invasions. The book incorporates real events as well as fictional characters.

The Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, reviewing the later Brazilian version, praised it as "faithfully shows elements of everyday life in the villages, such as handicrafts, body painting, shamanism, the forest and animals". 24 heures's Thierry Mayer positively reviewed it, calling it a "veritable manifesto in the form of a hymn to the Amazonian Indians" and praising its illustrations and its providing of "food for thought" to the reader. He said his artwork, which he described as "strikingly truthful", authenticated the subject matter, and further praised its balance of a variety of narrative elements. He did note that Macedo had included a "few kitschy space-time visions" in the work.

Asked which of his own works was the best, he picked Lakota. Published in the United States, the book received the Benjamin Franklin Award in 1997 for the best multicultural work. The book is an illustrated one from the point of view of the Lakota people in the Indian wars; Wild West praised the artistic quality and the historical ties present in the work, though noted not everyone would agree with Macedo's view of history.{{Cite journal |date=April 1997 |title=Reviews in brief |journal=Wild West |language=en |volume=9 |issue=6 |pages=89 |issn=1046-4638}}

In 1980, he joined Appel Guery's UFO group Siderella, after which he supposedly received visions of extraterrestrials. He moved to Moʻorea in French Polynesia in 1982, in what the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo described as a "search of the hippie dream"; he stated he "got used to living barefoot." Another commentator says he moved to French Polynesia with Guery. He said that while he liked moving to different places and discovering new cultures, he disliked the cold of Europe and the "gray and sad view" of life he perceived Europeans as having. Macedo surfs regularly. In an interview he stated that he had never owned a television. He is married to a Tahitian woman.

{{refbegin|colwidth=25em}}

• {{Cite book |last=Macedo |first=Sergio |title=O Karma de Gargoot |publisher=Massao Ohno |year=1973 |language=pt |author-mask=2}}
• {{Cite book |last=Macedo |first=Sergio |title=Fume, c'est du Macédo |publisher=Kesselring |year=1975 |language=fr |author-mask=2}}
• {{Cite book |last=Macedo |first=Sergio |title=Psychorock |publisher=Humanoïdes Associés |year=1976 |language=fr |author-mask=2}}
• {{Cite book |last=Macedo |first=Sergio |title=Télé Champ |publisher=Humanoïdes Associés |year=1978 |language=fr |author-mask=2}}
• {{Cite book |last=Macedo |first=Sergio |title=Caraïbes |publisher=Éditions Glénat |year=1981 |language=fr |author-mask=2}}
• {{Cite book |last=Macedo |first=Sergio |title=Voyage Intemporel |title-link=Timeless Voyage |publisher=Éditions Glénat |year=1982 |language=fr |author-mask=2}}
• {{Cite book |last=Macedo |first=Sergio |title=Les Aventures de Mike the Bike et Molly |author-mask=2 |year=1982 |language=fr |publisher=Editions Neptune}}
• {{Cite book |last=Macedo |first=Sergio |title=Eldorado 1: Le Trésor de Paititi |year=1983 |language=fr |author-mask=2 |publisher=Éditions Glénat}}
• {{Cite book |last=Macedo |first=Sergio |title=Eldorado 2: A La Recherche D'Agharta |year=1985 |language=fr |author-mask=2 |publisher=Éditions Glénat}}
• {{Cite book |last=Macedo |first=Sergio |title=Pacifique Sud 1 |year=1985 |language=fr |author-mask=2 |publisher=Éditions Aedena}}
• {{Cite book |last=Macedo |first=Sergio |title=Pacifique Sud 2: Le mystère des atolls |year=1986 |language=fr |author-mask=2 |publisher=Éditions Aedena}}
• {{Cite book |last=Macedo |first=Sergio |title=Brazil! |author-mask=2 |year=1989 |language=pt |publisher=Le Vaisseau d'argent}} (later published in 2007 in Brazil as Xingu!)
• {{Cite book |last=Macedo |first=Sergio |title=Lakota: An Illustrated History |author-mask=2 |year=1996 |language=en |publisher=Treasure Chest Publications}}
• {{Cite book |last=Macedo |first=Sergio |title=Honu iti ē |author-mask=2 |year=2000 |publisher=CTRDP}}
• {{Cite book |last=Macedo |first=Sergio |title=La Légende de Tuivao |author-mask=2 |year=2002 |language=fr |publisher=Éditions des Mers Australes}}
• {{Cite book |last=Macedo |first=Sergio |title=Te Tere O Te Tupuna |author-mask=2 |year=2003 |publisher=CTRDP}}
• {{Cite book |last=Macedo |first=Sergio |title=Povos Indígenas em Quadrinhos |author-mask=2 |year=2012 |language=pt-BR |publisher=Zarabatana Books}}

{{refend}}

{{reflist}}

• {{Cite book |last=Knigge |first=Andreas C. |title=Comic-Lexikon |date=1988 |publisher=Ullstein |isbn=978-3-548-36554-1 |series=Ullstein-Bücher Ullstein-Sachbuch Populäre Kultur |location=Frankfurt/M Berlin |language=de}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Silva |first=Matheus Moura |date=2023-07-11 |title=Ayauhuaya: Processos inconscientes, arte e espiritualidade |journal=O Mosaico |language=pt |volume=16 |issue=1 |doi=10.33871/21750769.2023.16.1.7418 |issn=2175-0769 |doi-access=free}}
• {{Cite book |last=Filippini |first=Henri |title=Dictionnaire de la bande dessinée |publisher=Bordas |year=1989 |isbn=978-2-04-018455-1 |location=Paris |pages=553–554 |language=fr |chapter=Vic Voyage}}

Category:1951 births

Category:People from Além Paraíba

Category:Brazilian comic strip cartoonists

Category:People associated with the New Age

Category:Living people