Unfortunately news has reached us thanks to phans Helio Guerra and Andreas Eriksson that Brazilian artist Walmir Amaral has sadly passed. Born 1939 and aged at just 17, he began his professional life as an artist for Brazilian publisher RGE (Rio Grafica Editora).
For many phans, they likely have not heard of him with only one of his stories ever being published outside of Brasil (see note). However, by many phans he is seen as the grandfather of Phantom and comic art in Brazil with him writing and or drawing over 25 created Phantom stories and drawing over 150 known Phantom covers. This number is likely to increase as further research continues.
On top of his Phantom work, he worked at RGE from 1957 to 1986 as writer, editor and artist. A more detailed biography of his work can be found in the Phantom's World #8.
Regular Frew readers would have seen his work in the Phantom's World series in issue #8 which was the story "Operation Brasil" by José Menezes, Walmir Amaral, and Wanderley Mayhé, you can watch / listen to our review here and here. The cover was also drawn by Walmir Amaral.
For those interested, we have included a video comparison of the English and original comic of this story below.
Editors Note: Our research shows two Brazil RGE created stories being published by Frew and not by any other publisher. One of these "Operation Brazil" is credited to Walmir Amaral and the other printed in Frew #1763 is currently credited by an unknown RGE creator and Adir Teixeira. The research on many creators from the RGE series is unknown with the information still to be found.
