'Joe Carioca'.
Eli Leon was a longtime artist of Brazilian Disney comics for Abril publishers. He was born as Eli Marcos Martins Leon in Fernandópolis, São Paulo, in 1954. He joined Abril in the 1970s, and he had a large production of 'Duck' and 'Carioca' stories for the Brazilian magazines, such as Mickey, Pato Donald, and Zé Carioca. During the 1980s, he illustrated several 'Hard Haid Moe' stories for Urtigão.
'Joe Carioca'.
Leon was the only artist that remained at Abril, when the Brazilian studios closed down in 1997. At this time, Leon produced some 'Hercules', 'Ze Carioca' and 'Tarzan' stories. He has also drawn the Ducks for Denmark, but most of his production since 2003 is for the Dutch publisher Sanoma. In his 'Carioca' stories for the Dutch weekly he added cameos of characters known mainly in Brazilian stories like Rosinha and her father, Rocha Vaz, Afonsinho, Anacozeca and Pedrão. Between 2014 and 2016, Leon returned to illustrating Zé Carioca stories for Editora Abril in 2021 for Culturama, the publisher who took over Disney comics in the country in 2019.
Cover illustrations for Zé Carioca.