'Camões, Sua Vida Aventurosa'.
Carlos Alberto Santos was a Portuguese comic artist, illustrator and painter. He was the artist of many historical comic stories in the 1950s and 1960s, most of which were published Mundo de Aventuras.
Early life and career
Carlos Alberto Ferreira dos Santos was born in 1933 in Lisbon. He began his professional career with the advertising studio of José David in 1947. His first illustration was published in the 30 April 1948 issue of Camarada, accompanying a western story by Herminio Rodrigo da Conceição.
APR
He made his first comic story in the following year in the first issue of Mundo de Aventuras, a publication by the APR agency of Aguiar and Dias (Agência Portuguesa de Revistas). The story, 'História Maravilhosa de João dos Mares', was signed with a simple "D", since it was made through José David's studio. The text was written by Augusto Barbosa. He created several other comic stories for this title, most notably a fictionalized comics biography about the Portuguese poet Luís de Camões ('Camões, Sua Vida Aventurosa'), which was published in book format in 1972. Other notable historical serials were 'O Infante Santo' and 'O Combate de Pembe'.
Santos contributed to most of APR's other publications as well. He made the cover illustrations for the APR collection 'Caderno Escolar' in 1954, and painted covers for the pulp magazines Selecções, Policial, Espaço and Guerra. He also made a comic adaptation of the Júlios Dinis novel 'Os Fidalgos da Casa Mourisca'. He has made the artwork for several collections of stickers about the history of Portugal, which APR started to produce in 1950.Santos had continued to work for Camarada with historical stories like 'O Escudo do Sarraceno', also written by Rodrigo. The stories' publication was abruptly ended in 1951 when the magazine got a publication ban.
'O Almirante das Naus da Índia'.
Editorial Dois Continentes & other publications
Santos began his association with Editorial Dois Continentes in 1954. For the paperback collection 'Heróis e Aventureiros', Santos made the illustrations for novella adaptation of the film 'Tarzan and the Slave Girl' ('Tarzan e la Schiava') by writer Luís Anselmo. In the late 1950s, he also illustrated the covers of the photo novel collection Colecção Foto-Novela, which claimed to be the first magazine of its kind in Portugal. He also had a starring role as "Professor Erik Van Damm" in the story 'Amor verdadeiro!'. He made the stories 'O Segredo da Cápsula - Uma Aventura de Tony' for Diese and 'O Almirante das Naus da Índia' for Pisca-Pisca magazine. Santos made illustrations for Editorial Bruguera in Barcelona, Spain, and for O Pirata in Portugal.
Portugal Press
Santos served as illustrator and art director for several publications of Roussado Pinto's Portugal Press in the 1970s. His war story 'Quadros da História de Portugal' appeared in Jornal do Cuto, and later also on postcards and in album format. Because he was still under contract by APR, he signed these works "M. Gustavo", a pen name derived from his love for composer Gustav Mahler. Through Portugal Press, he illustrated a great many covers for comics books with mainly Italian material, including 'Zagor', 'Mister No', 'Mandrake', 'The Phantom', 'Agente Segreto X-9', 'Tom Boy', 'Tarzan', 'Gli Aristocratici', 'Flash Gordon', 'Cisco Kid', 'Johnny Hazzard', 'Wyatt Earp' and 'Larry Yuma'.
Erotic comics
Santos also made covers for the erotic comics 'Biancaneve', 'Belzeba', 'Cinderella', 'Zakarella', 'Jane', 'Dr. Barnard', 'Anjo Negro', 'Assassino', 'Tromba', 'Karzan', 'Gatinha', 'Pompea' and 'Candida'.
Book illustrations and paintings
Over the years, the art of Carlos Alberto Santos became more and more decorative. In later years, he focused on making illustrations and book covers for publishers like Amigos do Livro, Europa-América, Scire/SEL, Ésquilo, Destarte and Elo, and authors like Raul Correia, Alice Ogando and Adolfo Simões Müller. He was also a painter. The first solo exhibition of his oil paintings of historical subjects was held at the National Society of Fine Arts in 1970. Over 40 solo exhibitions followed, and he has participated in about 50 group exhibitions. The paintings of Carlos Alberto Santos are in public and private collections and museums in Portugal, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Brazil, USA, Canada and Saudi Arabia.
Death
He passed away in 2016.
Cover paintings for 'Biancaneve and Mister No' comic books.