Ziraldo is at the same time a singular and a plural artist, and his time is today, and always. Multiple, eclectic, synthetic, dialectic, precise in what is needed to translate time and space into strokes.

As a citizen of a world that spins, Ziraldo was always hyperactive, performing in several circles and always knowing that his vantage point was to bond with everything and everyone, to be interactive. All at the same time.

The world rotates. Turns around... The world spins, jumps, dances, acts up. The world changes. The world revolves.

Everything changes.

Reading the world, everything is created, recreated, inspired: humor, love, happiness. The world breathes art and harmony. The Zira world.

Here we see a sample of how Ziraldo´s works can dialogue and interact with you. It´s an invitation to dive in and to find refuge.

Come and play in a circle in the world of Zira.

Instituto Ziraldo

BB Asset, a Banco do Brasil company, manages more than 1,200 investment funds, serving millions of people striving to achieve their dreams. As the national leader in the sector, it oversees approximately 1.7 trillion* reais in net assets and is recognized for its management excellence, earning the highest ratings from agencies such as Fitch Ratings and Moody’s.

We develop our investment solutions to meet different goals, always aligned with each client’s profile. However, we believe our role goes beyond asset management. As the largest fund manager in the country, we are committed to contributing to a more inclusive, participatory society that is connected to what truly matters. That is why we invest in initiatives that foster environmental, social, governance, and cultural development.

Sponsoring the Mundo Zira exhibition reaffirms this commitment. Celebrating the work of Ziraldo means valuing Brazilian art, education, creativity, and childhood - pillars that inspire generations and reflect our core values. Investing in culture means investing in transformation and improving people’s lives.

BB Asset: go further with your investments.

*Dados da ANBIMA de maio de 2025

BB Asset

The design of the letters, the colors and the shape of the balloons that represent the most diverse sounds in the stories are a hallmark of Ziraldo’s graphic thinking.

Ziraldo is a drawing master of these written sounds called onomatopoeias!

AMONG SNAKES AND LIZARDS

The TV show ABZ do Ziraldo ran weekly on TV Brasil – the country’s public broadcaster – from 2009 to 2016. Over the years, dozens of writers, illustrators, and literature lovers were interviewed in relaxed, off-the-cuff conversations.

At the end of one episode, Ziraldo suggested to writer-illustrator Guto Lins that they make a book together – but “backwards”, with images giving rise to the text. That shared dream only became reality in 2024, several months after Ziraldo’s passing.

Using archival images from the Instituto Ziraldo, Guto wrote ENTRE COBRAS E LAGARTOS (Among snakes and Lizards): a tender, witty tale of a snake in the midst of an existential crisis, fed up with always being cast as the villain in human stories.

THE SEVEN AUNTS PATH

In a previously unpublished text, Ziraldo left a short note: “let’s save this for another time”. That time has arrived – thirty years after he wrote it.

The tale follows a prince who sets out to recover a lost joy, helped along the way by seven aunts – or are they seven fairies? O CAMINHO DAS SETE TIAS (The seven aunt’s path) is a poetic saga steeped in the symbolism of the number seven: seven musical notes, seven planets, seven deadly sins, seven colors of the rainbow.

Edited in June 2025 and conceived and illustrated by Adriana Lins – artistic director of the Instituto Ziraldo and the author’s niece – the project uses a visual language of geometric shapes and colors. It’s a tribute to FLICTS, Ziraldo’s first book from 1969.

At the end of the saga, readers are invited to listen to a melody composed especially for the book by musician Antônio Pinto, Ziraldo’s son.

THE BIG FISH

In PEIXE GRANDE (The Big fish), Guto Lins crafts a poetic biography of his friend, uncle, colleague, and idol, Ziraldo, inspired by images from the Instituto Ziraldo archives.

The narrative tells of a small, clever, and curious freshwater fish who loved making everyone laugh. In search of new horizons and adventures, the little fish followed the river’s flow, discovered other bodies of water, and gathered friends along a journey that ultimately led to the sea.

It’s a metaphor for the life of a boy who grew up on the banks of the Rio Doce in Minas Gerais and drew his own future – towards the salty waters of Rio de Janeiro’s beaches, the city that welcomed him and became his home.

That talented boy grew up, conquered the world, became a great artist, and continues make new friends – and readers.

THE LITTLE APPLE BUG

In O BICHINHO DA MAÇÃ (The little apple bug), launched in 1982, a tiny bug is the great joker and, from inside his apple he makes all the animals happy. From up in the tree, life was a Paradise.

But the Bug soon travelled around the world in many ways. He became the cover of notebooks and other books and began to tell ANEDOTINHAS (Little anecdotes), living adventures in many countries, as well as in outer space. How cool! The LITTLE BUG became an astronaut on Planet APPLE.

THE MOON BOY

In O MENINO DA LUA (The moon boy), written almost 20 years ago, the planets of our solar system are the characters who are always in motion. They became boys who play pula-planeta (Jump the planet), travelling in the universe, spinning around the sun, each one with his own characteristics and personality. Irmin (Mercury), Vevé (Venus), Nan (Earth), Martim (Mars), Ju (Jupiter), Saturnino (Saturn), Théo (Uranus), Tuna (Neptune), Plut (Pluto)...

Watching the boys play was a feast in Space! And Zélen, the smallest, the Moon Boy, never quit belonging to the gang.

THE LITTLE COMIC BOOK BOY

Fascinated by comics from childhood, Ziraldo believed this was his fate: to become an author of comic books. And for a long time, he seemed to be right: his little magazine Pererê was a huge success at the beginning of the 1960s.

But life took him beyond this first ambition: he became a journalist, a cartoonist, a writer, and a designer, though he never stopped loving comics.

In his book O MENINO QUADRADINHO (The little comic book boy), in 1989, Ziraldo makes a declaration of love to his childhood teachers, the illustrators of the comic books that he so loved.

It´s possible that O MENINO QUADRADINHO is his illustrated autobiography. And what great illustrations!

THE MOON BOY

O MENINO DA LUA (The moon boy) is the first book of the OS MENINOS DOS PLANETAS (The planet boys) collection, where each planet has its own temperament represented by children.

Zélen – that is his name – is a beige boy, or better, a Flicts boy like the Moon. He is solitary and trying to find his place among the planets of our solar system.

Full of references to other authors, the book is a poetic and entertaining dive into space. Ziraldo says that when he consulted a famous astronomer, the latter revealed something that, deep down, he already knew: the Universe is Flicts.

In Ziraldo´s universe, everything starts on the Moon!

THE LILAC PLANET

Ten years after FLICTS, Ziraldo writes O PLANETA LILÁS (The lilac planet), his second book for children, launched in 1979. Both of these transform the basic elements of graphic composition into poetry. FLICTS uses the primary colors and simple geometric forms and O PLANETA LILÁS uses the shapes of the letters, their outlines, their empty spaces and their mysteries.

It has already been translated into Spanish and published in Argentina in 1987, and was adapted for the theater in Brazil where it has been performed in schools and theaters since 1981.

In 2023, a special commemorative edition was launched, including additional information such as studies, drafts and typed copies of the original text, with markings and notes made by the author.

GIRL FROM THE STARS

At a school one day, while speaking to the children who had prepared some work after reading O MENINO DA LUA – which is part of the OS MENINOS DOS PLANETAS collection – a girl asked Ziraldo: “Why didn´t you put any girls on your planets?”.

And so it happened, that with the reply the girl gave to her own question, the idea of writing, A MENINA DAS ESTRELAS (The girl from the stars) was born. In this text and illustrations, Ziraldo recovers girls from different times and from other books, like Alice who lived in Wonderland and writers, such as Clarice Lispector.

A tribute to all girls, of all ages, and also to the girls in his life, his daughters, daughter-in-law and granddaughters. In 2025, Alice is personified in the audiovisual production A Arca do Ziraldo (Ziraldo´s arc).

THE LITTLE APPLE BUG

In O BICHINHO DA MAÇÃ (The little apple bug), launched in 1982, Ziraldo shows us that humor is a serious thing. A little bug who loves to joke lives in an apple and makes all the animals burst out laughing. From up in the tree, life was paradise, a real Garden of Eden. Original sin is transformed through Ziraldo’s hands into beautiful images that were awarded the Jabuti for Illustration.

In 1988, the character is published for children in a collection of small books. Later, exclusively dedicated to humor, and still for children, the book AS ANEDOTINHAS DO BICHINHO DA MAÇÃ (The little anecdotes of the little apple bug) is published.

In 1991, Ziraldo creates a new series with the Little Bug, using social and political themes, now for adults and published in comic strips in the Folha de São Paulo newspaper. And, in 2025, THE LITTLE APPLE BUG is adapted for the screen in an audiovisual production for children, called A Arca do Ziraldo (Ziraldo´s Arc).

A VERY NUTTY TEACHER

The book UMA PROFESSORA MUITO MALUQUINHA (A very nutty teacher) was freely inspired by an unforgettable teacher from Ziraldo’s childhood and is a tribute to all teachers who help their students build their own happiness.

A teacher who “flew into the room (like an angel) and had stars in her gaze”. For her class of 30 students, she was a mix of a fairy godmother and a movie star!

She taught her class in a different way, using games and jokes and, above all, introducing them to the pleasure of reading.

By writing the text using the first-person plural pronoun, Ziraldo includes his gang of friends as narrators of the story and also cites Tom Jobim: “It’s impossible to be happy alone”.

This is another of Ziraldo’s books that became a feature film.

NINA GIRL, TWO REASONS NOT TO CRY

The book MENINA NINA, DUAS RAZÕES PARA NÃO CHORAR (Nina girl, two reasons not to cry) took two years to be written, and tells a story based on true events when the pain of yearning takes hold of us.

Published in 2002, it contains precious illustrations and words of great truth.

“Here you will find a story that belongs to us, because it speaks of the inevitable, that is so difficult to accept, but immensely real. Don’t worry, Ziraldo is a master who, with his cotton-candy colored hair, holds our hands and offers us support to deal with difficult subjects. By his side, we feel safe to carry on.”

And, continuing with the words of writer and psychologist Alexandre Coimbra Amaral seen in the preface of the 20-year commemorative edition, “to read any of Ziraldo’s books is to receive a nostalgic passport to a place and time where we have been, with eyes that are mindful of the drawings that frame the words that defined us. We then felt that someone understood us.”

FLICTS

FLICTS is Ziraldo’s first book for children, in 1969. It tells the story of a color that is not found anywhere in the world. There are no images in the book, only solid colors.

Though different from the regular children’s illustrations at that time, FLICTS was an enormous success in sales and among critics (poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade wrote a passionate chronicle about the book). Even the first astronaut to step on the moon, Neil Armstrong, during a trip to Brazil that year, confirmed the conclusion of the story: the Moon is really Flicts.

With this huge success, Ziraldo discovered his vocation as an author of children’s books.

In 1972, composer Sérgio Ricardo wrote a lovely melody for the show directed by Aderbal Freire – that accompanies the movement of the pages of FLICTS in this exhibition. This installation began a wave that continues throughout Brazil: a theater production of the story about the solitary color called Flicts.

THE NUTTY BOY

The book O MENINO MALUQUINHO (The nutty boy) was launched in 1980 and tells the story of a very regular boy who had “an eye that was bigger than his stomach, ants in his pants and wind beneath his feet”.

He was a rascal, a playful and rowdy boy, a poet and a great friend of a very fun-loving gang. A boy who, like all boys, grew up. And he discovered that he hadn´t been a nutty boy, but just a happy boy.

The original book has already been translated into several languages; it became a film (in reality two), a theater production, a television series, a cartoon, a comic strip and even an opera, and it continues to transform boys and girls of all ages into nutty kids. In Brazil, it surpassed 4 million copies.

A TURMA DO PERERÊ

Created by Ziraldo in 1960, was the first genuinely Brazilian comic book. Ziraldo, a visionary, created a group with characters from the Afro-Indian culture, as well as characters inspired by animals of Brazilian fauna.

Since then, the stories brought love for nature that anticipates the ecological thinking of the present day. The “Mata do Fundão”, the place where the stories take place, is a forest that covers every corner of the country. Comic book was so successful that it sold 120,000 copies a month.

The last issue dates from April 1964. Since the 1970s, the comics were re-released in several different media.