São Paulo Diaries

Meeting Paulo Stocker

I think of the greatest talents one can have is to be able to draw, create illustrations and create a story with those images, which is the gift of the cartoonists. As someone who has always loved cartoons, it is always fascinating to talk to professionals - and it’s even nicer to randomly bump into someone whose work you admire. 

So when I was walking up Rua Augusta with a friend last Sunday, I saw someone was painting traces on the wall that I could recognise - it was Paulo Stocker. One of my favourite cartoonists!

Stocker was born in the state of Santa Catarina, down south, and has lived in São Paulo for the last 13 years and most of his work is inspired by SP, its people and architecture. 

We had a quick chat and he was rather nice. When I pointed out his work is somewhat different to the mainstream cartoonists we see in the major newspapers in São Paulo, he said that the broadsheet press wants “nonsense” - ie. violence, controversial jokes and so on, to generate more audience interaction - but he decided to go down a different, anti-establishment path. 

According to Stocker, one of his main characters, Clovis, is a partial reference to himself: “a bit clumsy, romantic, touchy and sometimes a bit sad.” The character also has a daughter, a personage created at the same time Stocker’s baby girl was born: “so that she could be proud of me.” 

“I’ve found that people actually wanted poetry,” he said, before climbing up the stairs to continue his job.

Check out Paulo Stocker’s work on Facebook.