Mario Vale

"Mario Vale has lived in Belo Horizonte for many years. Exactly fifty-seven years ago, when he arrived in the capital of Minas Gerais on the beak of a stork with light strokes and a beautiful design. Mario is the beloved son of Steinberg, brother of Folon, Goffin, Puig Rosado and Paul Flora and I am just saying this to show off, because few people here in Brazil know this family of Mario. These artists that I have just mentioned are the greatest cartoonists of the 20th century. If Mario's stork had flown in the Northern hemisphere he would certainly have been placed in their maternity ward. Over these European brothers, however, Mario has one prevalence: the exact political awareness and more his commitment to the search for a fair world, which is an inescapable characteristic of any artist from a country like ours. It is easy to see this in the drawings in this book and, of course, in the high quality of the art that Mario makes with the creativity of his pure line. Besides what he shows here, Mario illustrates and creates award-winning children's books and holds workshops with children from Belo Horizonte - from Sion to the slums - working on paper, colours, glue with an amazing ability to, as they say in Minas, invent fashion. We hope to see other books like this, where adults will have more fun and learn more than the happy children who know the other books that Mario Vale makes for them" Ziraldo