Bug-a-Booo (Turma do Penadinho in Portuguese) is a Brazilian comic strip, created in 1963 by Mauricio de Sousa. All of the characters are monsters or other supernatural creatures, such as ghosts and vampires. In some comics, they have to deal with the fact that vampires, ghosts, zombies and mummies are no longer appreciated as characters of horror films. People instead are opting for assassins, psychopaths, serial killers etc.
Characters[]
- Bug-a-Booo (Penadinho) – Bug-a-Booo is the main character, a short ghost. He is actually invisible, but wears a white sheet so he can be seen. He is dating Sally Soul.
- Lady MacDeath (Dona Morte) – Lady MacDeath is a Grim Reaper, the personification of Death who is responsible of going after all people whose time to die has come, although unlike a typical Grim Reaper, sometimes her body is not pictured as made of bones. She uses her scythe to kill people by hitting them in the head, and then she takes their souls to the purgatory, for them to be judged and sent either to hell or heaven (sometimes after much red tape). She always carries a list with the name of the people she must kill on the day. Most of her stories feature a pursuit, sometimes punctuated with struggles faced every day by normal people. Mauricio says that the purpose of creating her is "taking death less seriously, while it doesn't come to us."
- Vic Vampire (Zé Vampir, full name being José Morcego Vampiro) – Vic is a yellow-skinned vampire, therefore, he is able to turn himself into a bat. He feeds on blood (sometimes ketchup or strawberry jam when he can't find any neck to bite) and fears crosses (even though he lives in a cemetery full of them), sunlight, garlic and holy water. Vic has the power to turn other people into vampires by biting their necks, although he is rarely shown successfully doing that.
- Moe the Mummy (Muminho) – Moe is a mummy of Egyptian ancestry. When the bandages that cover his body are taken out, Moe appears either invisible, as if the bandages were covering nothing, or as a dry corpse.
- Frank – A reference to Frankenstein, Frank is a green construct with a very weak brain. He is not very intelligent and was created by Dr. Frankestoin.
- Wolfgang (Lobi) – A charming werewolf. While being able to talk, think and walk by two feet, he must live side-to-side with his canidae instincts, like chasing cats, urinating on lamp posts and trees, and howling to the moon.
- Skully (Cranicola) – Skully is single skull, which rests all day on top of a stone. He cannot walk nor move (although in some comics he is seen jumping around), but on the other hand, he provides fine conversations to whoever speaks to him.
- Sally Soul (Alminha) – Sally is Bug's girlfriend, although they are constantly seen arguing with each other. Like Bug, she is actually an invisible ghost who wears a white sheet to be seen.
- Sid Skully (Zé Caveirinha) – He is a clumsy skeleton and is always losing his bones.
- Al Ashmore (Zé Cremadinho) – Al Ashmore is nothing but the remains of someone who's been cremated. However, he is still able to talk, and jumps around just like Skully does sometimes. In most of his appearances, he is mistaken for dust and attacked by broomsticks and vacuum cleaners.
- Little Boy Boo (Pixuquinha) - Bug's nephew. He is a child ghost.