Raquel Gompy is a Brazilian animator and comic artist. With 'Nérd e sua turma' (1995-1997), she was the author of the first Brazilian webcomic.
Life and career
Born in São Paulo in 1971, Raquel Gompy graduated in Publicity from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP) and worked as an animator at Estúdios Mauricio de Sousa and HGN Produções. There, she was part of the team who worked on Disney's 'Aladdin' TV show in the 1990s. Raquel's main influences are Laerte, Fernando Gonsales, Henfil, Gary Larson, Quino, Bill Watterson, Jim Davis and Charles M. Schulz.
Nérd e sua turma
In April 1995, Raquel launched the first Brazilian webcomic: 'Nérd e sua turma'. It was a comic strip about a group of geek birds with jokes about technology and behavior. The webcomic was published on a website associated with the Laboratory of Integrated Systems at the University of São Paulo (USP), where Raquel's boyfriend (and current husband) worked. The commercial internet in Brazil wasn't introduced until 1995. Before than, the use of the web was almost exclusively limited to universities. This was an important reason for the author to pick the theme of her webcomic. She first wanted to reach the audience already strongly linked to this new technology, and then expand to new readers who would arise with the expansion of the internet.
Pluma, a gata
Raquel published a total of 178 strips of 'Nérd e sua turma' until 1997, when she gave up this webcomic, dismayed because she couldn't get a financial compensation for her work. After this, she created another webcomic named 'Pluma, a gata' (2000-2010), about a cat named Pluma and her friends. This strip was published on the website Gompy, which won, in 2000, the Starmedia Award in the categories "Best Site by the Jury", "Best Site Category Leisure and Entertainment" and "Best Site by the Public". The prize was associated with Starmedia, an important Brazilian internet portal in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
'Plumo, a gata'.