Brigitte Montfort: The Ones Behind Both Characters (3rd and Last Part)

6) Benicio:

Born in 1936 in the city of Rio Pardo, State of Rio Grande do Sul, south of Brazil, José Luiz Benicio da Fonseca, aka Benicio, has had a pivotal role in the success and in the popularization of Brigitte Montfort: he was the designer that, based on the concept delivered by the character´s creator, has better materialized her image on the covers of the ZZ7 Collection books.

Having the eroticism as an indispensable component to develop each new cover, which was a recurrent request from Editora Monterrey, his talent led many people to believe that the books covers were, in fact, the actual responsible for a so high level of pocket books sales. This is explainable by: a) the existing dictatorship in Brazil at that occasion, which censorship was used to keep limited or inaccessible material with nudity or sexual content; b) by the reasonable consumer price of each pocket book containing at least one erotic scene; c) and, in fact, by the superb work of the designer. It is not unusual to notice reports or confessions of masturbation from ones that nowadays are seniors of over 50, as the covers of these pocket books were the only accessible material containing what was considered closer to a sexy or nude scene. Benicio, then, has proportioned male readers the feeling of having a very intimate relationship with Brigitte Montfort.

But Brigitte was very successful with women as well. In Benicio’s words: “Brigitte represented the emancipated and free woman, rebel and more intelligent than men, who was used to fight against dictators, bad politicians and hypocrite concepts of that time. Brigitte became to be an addiction and an outlet for the repressed youth of that occasion”. For women, therefore, Brigitte was a benchmark not only due to how she looked like but also due to her behavior as well as to her life style – and this had, naturally, a lot of contribution from Lou Carrigan’s texts.

Almost a goddess, with long and black hair, blue eyes, sensual legs, skin as golden as a peach, polyglot and extremely intelligent. In order to define how the character would look like and how to design her in different scenes and positions, Benicio was firstly inspired by a playmate he has seen in one of the editions of the Playboy magazine (from USA as it was not edited in Brazil at that time) and later by a person who was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil named Maria de Fátima Monteiro, aka Maria de Fátima Priolli (after the marriage with the local entrepreneur Mário Priolli). Maria de Fátima was used to be a teacher of elementary school and member of the high society. She became notorious when she was supposed to participate of the contest for Miss State of Guanabara at the age of 20. Due to private reasons, she declined to participate but, at that occasion, the specialized press and good part of the public have considered her to be one of the most beautiful women of Brazil.

José Alberto Gueiros, the Director of Editora Monterrey, and Maria de Fátima were friends and she noticed from him, years later, that she was Benicio’s muse. “He once told me that she was very proud to have inspired the character. I never had the opportunity to hear it from her because we never met in person. She was used to appear in several magazines at that occasion, it was before her marriage”, said Benicio.

No doubt that inspiration was necessary to attend the detailed instructions Benicio was used to receive from José Alberto Gueiros for a new cover. Check out part of the letter Gueiros sent to Benicio for the cover of the book #41 of the Red Series named Pleasure's Travel (“Viagem de Prazer"): “Brigitte Montfort wearing a blouse made of Italian 'foulard', extremely ‘décolletée’, going out of the transparent cockpit of one of these modern helicopters. She naturally shows the legs while moving”.

Identical recommendation has been given for the next edition, The Prince and the Queen (“O Príncipe e a Rainha”): “Brigitte, absolutely gorgeous in a blue bikini, is on the jumping board of an American-type ultra-luxurious swimming pool. You can design her sit down on the jumping board, ultra provocative. She should not be in a position of who is about to jump, as this would make her to appear too much robust, very muscular; we want her looking like a pussy cat, very seductive - but also like a snake coiled to strike”.

  

The covers of the first editions of the ZZ7 Collection Red Series having Brigitte, Giselle and occasionally other characters were designed by a Dutch guy known simply as Hack, and although he was considered a great illustrator and was used to take care of other books from Editora Monterrey, he had never been credited on the pocket books like Benicio had later. The first books of the Red Series also contained five inside illustrations each, probably designed by Hack as well.

Inside illustrations of the following books (all from Red Series) in order of posting: No Caso Dos Discos Voadores Part 1 - Book #5, No Caso Dos Discos Voadores Part 2 - Book #6, Sangue Na Grécia - Book #10, No Mistério Do Átomo Z Part 1 - Book #7:

Benicio’s cooperation with Editora Monterrey started by indication of Ronaldo Graça, another illustrator that was used to work for Monterrey, to José Alberto Gueiros: "Graça told me that there was a guy in Porto Alegre (south of Brazil) that had the capability to illustrate like the North American designers, an excellent artist. I then wrote to Benicio explaining that I wanted to change the look of our books, and he started to cooperate", said Gueiros.

Two similar scenes, firstly illustrated by Hack in the Red Series and later by Benicio in the Blue:

Exactly like Lou Carrigan, Benicio has first developed the character of Brigitte Montfort and just some time later has worked with the character of Giselle, as he has designed the covers of all the books of the ZZ7 Collection Blue Series.

Apart of the fact that Benicio has designed some brand new covers for the Blue Series of the ZZ7 Collection, even to replace the covers he had previously designed for the Red Series for the same story (the Blue Series were a re-publication of the Red Series), after a certain time Editora Monterrey decided to repeat covers for different books inside the same Series, among different Series or even among different collections. Anyway, It is estimated that Benicio has designed a total of approximately 460 covers for all the Series of ZZ7 Collection.

Blue Series covers of the previously mentioned books: "Viagem de Prazer" and "O Príncipe e a Rainha", again designed by Benicio:

Example of cover design that has been used three times, twice in the Blue Series:

Example of cover design used in both Red and Green Series of the ZZ7 Collection as well as in another Collection named "Coleção Pecado". Brigitte Montfort is a character of the first book only (Red Series):

The relationship between Benicio and Editora Monterrey was not limited to the ZZ7 Collection, so he has also designed covers for other books or collections. The popularity of the ZZ7 Collection has naturally contributed to the popularity of Benicio, who has developed a lot of illustration works for magazine editorials, motion picture and real-estate industries, consumer goods advertising and others. Benicio remains working at his studio in Rio de Janeiro and the link to his home-page is given below, as well as examples of his remarkable work.

A "Smoking Cobra" Brazilian Army soldier fighting during the WWII in Italy:

Piece of advertising:

Muses of a lifetime:

  
An advertising for the segment of real-estate: 

Pieces for the Brazilian motion picture industry:

Editorial for the Brazilian Playboy magazine:

Other interesting works:

From the draft to the final result:

In January of 2011, Benicio was surprised by having noticed that one of his works was hacked in Germany: the cover of the album named "Circus Maximus" from the MC Morlockk Dilemma launched that year is a perfect copy of the cover of another album from 1982 called "Amar Pra Viver ou Morrer de Amor" from the Brazilian singer Erasmo Carlos. "That was the first time that I faced a problem of this kind. The lawyers have negotiated an amicable solution and the case was solved with the removal of the cover from the market", said Benicio. Check it out:

7) Helio Do Soveral

There is no any explicit evidence on the books, but it is supposed that Helio Do Soveral has contributed with José Alberto Gueiros, Director of Editora Monterrey, by writing one or more books in the beginning of the ZZ7 Collection, probably some of the ones that are claimed to be self-narratives from characters like Brigitte Montfort or John Pearson (for instance, Olhar Para A Morte – Book #12, O Trono Escarlate – Book #13 or Whisky 33 – Book #18, all from Red Series).

Known as the writer of 19 aliases, Helio Do Soveral has written approximately 230 books, most of them destined to adolescent readers. Apart of that, he has written screenplays for radio soap-operas as well as for radio and TV shows, and his work includes entire theatrical plays.

In 1965 José Alberto Gueiros invited Soveral to create his own spy character, someone that should supercede the success of Giselle and Brigitte Montfort in the Brazilian market of pocket books. He was very well aware that this mission would not be easy and that his creation should be something completely out of the box. His most famous character, therefore, was born under this challenge: Keith Oliver Durban, aka K. O. Durban and most known as Knock-Out Durban.

Opposite to James Bond, K. O. Durban had an anarchistic mindset and refused to be subject to the orders from the government of any country. He was the owner of an independent island in the Pacific Ocean where he lived with other 6 inhabitants: Gerda Offenbach, his German fiancé that was attended on Mondays; Consuelo, his jealous Spanish fiancé attended on Tuesdays; 瓣 莲 花 (Petal of Lotus), his Chinese fiancé for Wednesdays; Buffalo’s Daughter, his red-skin fiancé of North-American origin who was attended on Thursdays only; Jandira, his Brazilian mulatto fiancé for Fridays and M’Bata, his African origin fiancé for Saturdays. On Sundays K. O. Durban was used to rest. The flag of the island was white having in the middle the figure of two arms showing the famous gesture ‘up yours’, his message to the rest of the world.

His main enemy, Mary Escalder Roosevelt, aka Maiden of the World, was completely in love for him but she is the only woman of his relationship that he never laid down with. At the peak, K. O. Durban Collection sold 70,000 units per book. The Collection comprises 40 books with 20 double adventures.

A Tribute From Benicio dated 1998: Helio Do Soveral at 80, his main character K. O. Durban and some of his fiancés, joined in Aloana Island:

Born on 30 September 1918 in Setúbal, Portugal, Helio Do Soveral Rodrigues De Oliveira Trigo has emigrated to Brazil very young, lived in Rio de Janeiro during approximately 60 years and passed over in Brasília on 21 March 2001.

Sources:

Photos of Benicio and illustration scannings: www.benicioilustrador.com.br/ 

Photo of Helio Do Soveral: http://memorialsoveral.blogspot.com.br/
Cover scannings: Own collection

Some cover scannings obtained in the internet

Quotes from Gonçalo Junior´s article published in Brazilian Playboy, edition March 2013
Dagomir Marquezi's article published on VIP Exame Magazine, May 1998
Dagomir Marquezi's article published on Status Magazine, 1981

Brigitte Montfort: Por Trás De Grandes Mulheres Sempre Existem Grandes Homens (Parte 2)

4) Lou Carrigan

Trata-se de alguém muito especial e de extrema importância no desenvolvimento da Coleção ZZ7. Ainda que ele não seja o efetivo criador da personagem Brigitte Montfort, sempre a tratou como tal e, mais que isso, estabeleceu um relacionamento apaixonado cuidando com extremo carinho de seu caráter, provendo-a de vícios e virtudes e tornando-a um exemplo de ser humano exemplar que ele mesmo lamenta não existir. Entre muitas outras coisas, Lou foi quem deu a Brigitte a oportunidade de encontrar o grande amor de sua vida, Angelo Tomasini, também conhecido como Número Um; e foi quem escolheu os nomes dos seus filhos: Bridget e Héctor.

Lou Carrigan desde 1996 até 2010:

  

Batizado Antonio Miguel de los Ángeles Custodios Vera Ramírez, nasceu em Barcelona, Espanha no dia 2 de Julho de 1934 e, não por acaso, Brigitte Montfort comemora o seu próprio aniversário nessa mesma data. Para uso no dia a dia, adota uma versão reduzida do seu nome – Antonio Vera Ramirez – e Lou Carrigan tornou-se o mais famoso pseudônimo entre tantos outros que adotou como escritor, tais como Angelo Antonioni, Angela Windsor, Milton Hamilton, Lou Constantine Carrigan ou mesmo Antonio Vera. Além das convincentes estórias de espionagem – nos anos 70 alguns leitores no Brasil acreditavam que Lou Carrigan era um agente aposentado da CIA ou alguém que tinha fortes conexões com aquela Agência, pois algumas estórias não pareciam totalmente frutos de ficção – Antonio Vera Ramirez também escreveu livros policiais, de horror, romances e até mesmo estórias de faroeste usando os pseudônimos mencionados acima (alguns estadunidenses podem não acreditar, mas os espanhóis eram tão bons em colocar estórias de faroeste nos livros quanto os italianos nas telas de cinema). Por outro lado, ele sempre adotou o pseudônimo Lou Carrigan para escrever as aventuras de Brigitte, nunca outro.

   

Para cada livro de bolso contendo 200.000 espaços de tipografia, que são suficientes para preencher aproximadamente 125 páginas no formato 15 x 11cm, Lou Carrigan era remunerado pelo equivalente a USD 500 pela Editora Monterrey. Muitas das aventuras eram mais longas e, consequentemente, eram divididas em dois livros. A única exceção foi a edição comemorativa de número 200 (“Todo O Ouro Do Mundo”) que foi lançada com 250 páginas. Uma vez submetida à Editora Monterrey, Lou Carrigan perdia completamente o controle sobre as ações para lançamento dos livros no Brasil e, não raro, José Alberto Gueiros, editor e sócio da Editora Monterrey, fazia modificações nos originais para que as aventuras ficassem mais dramáticas e, naturalmente, mais picantes. Ele chegou até a criar novos personagens para incluí-los nas estórias. Como resultado disso, a maioria das aventuras publicadas no Brasil não corresponde exatamente às mesmas publicadas na Espanha ou em Portugal, mesmo contendo o mesmo título.

  

O contrário também ocorreu quando a Editora Monterrey decidiu republicar as aventuras tanto de Giselle quanto de Brigitte Montfort numa nova série de livros de bolso denominada ZZ7 Série Azul (SA) – as publicações originais que foram até aqui referidas são chamadas de ZZ7 Série Vermelha (SV). Diferentemente da SV, a SA não inclui estórias de outros personagens que não sejam Giselle e Brigitte e também não inclui outros autores que não sejam J. F. Krakberg e Lou Carrigan, exceção às aventuras que foram narradas em primeira pessoa pelos próprios personagens. Lou Carrigan teve, então, a oportunidade de re-visitar alguns dos originais de J. F. Krakberg (suposto pseudônimo de José Alberto Gueiros) e chegou até a fazer modificações nos títulos dessas aventuras. Assim, o livro de J. F. Krakberg chamado “O Crime Sagrado” publicado na SV tornou-se o livro de Lou Carrigan denominado “O Fogo Sagrado” na SA. O mesmo ocorreu com alguns outros livros da coleção.

  

Além de promover essas mudanças, Lou presenteou a SA com aventuras inéditas e que nem mesmo posteriormente foram incluídas na SV: “Os Minutos Marcados”, “Não Vale Contar Até Três”, e “Adeus, Mr. Grogan”.

Lou Carrigan escreveu sua primeira aventura tendo Brigitte Montfort como personagem em 1965 e parou apenas em 1992, pois ele concordou com o pedido da Editora Monterrey de continuar até que a SV alcançasse a edição de número 500 (“Uma Espiã Para A Eternidade”). Todavia, no final do ano 2000, ele foi contatado por Juan Alberto Fernández Nunes, naquela época diretor e o último proprietário da atualmente falida Editora Monterrey, que solicitou o seu apoio para lançar novos livros sobre as espiãs no mercado brasileiro. Mas desta vez o foco seria a mãe, Giselle.

Apesar de que Lou nunca havia escrito tendo Giselle como personagem e apesar de que o maior desafio seria criar um argumento absolutamente convincente de que ela não teria sido executada na prisão de Cherche Midi no dia 15 de Março de 1944 como acreditava-se até então (inclusive por sua própria filha, Brigitte Montfort), Lou aceitou o pedido de Juan Alberto e escreveu quatro novas aventuras de Giselle Montfort no formato usual de 200.000 espaços cada e as enviou em Maio de 2000: “Giselle, Mon Amour”, “Uma Tumba Em Versailles”, “Um Corpo Sem Coração” e “Operação Extermínio”. Esses livros nunca foram publicados e sequer sabe-se se chegaram a ser traduzidos para o Português, pois Juan Alberto faleceu não muito tempo depois vítima de um acidente. Todavia, Lou Carrigan decidiu disponibilizar esses quatro livros na versão original em Espanhol sob o título genérico "Giselle, La Espía Resucitada" no site de compras http://lulu.com e a um preço bastante acessível (é necessário cartão de crédito internacional para aquisição).

Contando as aventuras de Brigitte Montfort que foram escritas por J. F. Krakberg e posteriormente re-visitadas, considerando os três livros inéditos lançados na SA, considerando outros dois livros lançados exclusivamente numa Série Vermelha Especial e, finalmente, considerando a edição comemorativa número 200 da SV que equivale a duas unidades, Lou Carrigan  escreveu exatamente 482 livros de 125 páginas cada (ou 482 vezes 200.000 espaços) exclusivamente sobre a personagem Brigitte Montfort (desconsiderando-se os últimos quatro livros que tem Giselle como protagonista). Como 34 aventuras são duplas, ou seja, foram necessários 400.000 espaços para concluí-las, a coleção é formada de exatos 448 títulos.

 

A Editora Monterrey ainda lançou outras séries da coleção no mercado brasileiro, tais como a Série Verde (SVd), Série Amarela (SAm) e Seleções (Negra), mas isso é uma outra história.

Observação: foi disponibilizado no YouTube o filme completo chamado "Los Buitres Cavarán Tu Fosa", algo como "Os Abutres Cavarão Sua Cova", no qual Lou Carrigan é roteirista em parceria com Juan Bosch e Roberto Gianviti. Trata-se de um faroeste de produção ítalo-espanhola do ano de 1971 com versão original em espanhol e sem legendas.

5) John Lack

Este escritor foi o autor de dois livros da SV: o de número 14 “Fogo No Egito” (que não trata de uma aventura de Brigitte Montfort) e o de número 31 “Brigitte Montfort Contra A Morte”. A maioria dos fãs não sabe, mas além de J. F. Krakberg e Lou Carrigan, John Lack é o único escritor que assina pelo menos uma aventura tendo essa espiã como protagonista. Nenhum dos seus livros foi incluído na SA ou em quaisquer outras Séries da coleção.

 

Continua na Parte 3

Fontes:
Fotos de Lou Carrigan: Lou Carrigan e Bolsi & Pulp
Digitalizações de capas: Lou Carrigan e acervo próprio
Algumas digitalizações de capa foram obtidas na Internet
Citações da reportagem de Gonçalo Junior para a Playboy de Março 2013

Brigitte Montfort: The Ones Behind Both Characters (2nd Part)

4) Lou Carrigan

This is a very special one. Although he is not the effective creator of Brigitte Montfort, Lou always treated this character as his own and has effectively established a passionate relationship by taking extreme care of her evolving until she retired. Among other things, Lou is the one who provided Brigitte the opportunity to meet the love of her life, Angelo Tomasini, aka Number One, and has even chosen the names of the children she had: Bridget and Héctor.

Photos: From 1996 to 2010

  

Born Antonio Miguel de los Ángeles Custodios Vera Ramírez in Barcelona, Spain in 2nd of July of 1934, it is not a coincidence that Brigitte Montfort is used to celebrate her own anniversary at this same date: 2nd of July. He frequently uses a short form of his name – Antonio Vera Ramirez – and Lou Carrigan is the most famous alias among others he has adopted as writer, such as Angelo Antonioni, Angela Windsor, Milton Hamilton, Lou Constantine Carrigan or even Antonio Vera. Apart of the very convincing Brigitte Montfort´s spy stories – in the 70’s some readers in Brazil believed that Lou Carrigan was a former agent of CIA or someone with special connections there as most stories did not appear to be totally fictional – Antonio Vera Ramirez has also written stories associated with police, fright, romance and even westerns under the above mentioned aliases (it may not be believable to US naturals, but Spanish writers put western stories in books so well as Italians directors in the big screen). On the other hand, he has never used an alias other than Lou Carrigan to write Brigitte Montfort´s adventures.

  

For each pocket book containing 200,000 typing spaces, enough to fulfill 125 pages in the format 15 x 11cm, Lou Carrigan was used to be remunerated at an equivalency of USD 500.00 by Editora Monterrey. Most of the adventures were longer and, consequently, they were printed in two pocket books, except the commemorative edition #200 (“All The Gold From The World” or "Todo O Ouro Do Mundo") which was printed with 250 pages. Once submitted to Editora Monterrey, Lou Carrigan had no more control over his written stories and in the beginning with frequency, José Alberto Gueiros, the editor and partner of Editora Monterrey, was used to make changes on the originals in order to turn the adventures more dramatic and naturally spicy. Sometimes he has even created some new characters and included in the originals. As a result of that, most of the adventures published in Brazil are not exactly the same published in Spain or in Portugal, even carrying the same title.

  

The opposite also happened when Editora Monterrey decided to republish both Giselle and Brigitte Montfort´s adventures in a new series of pocket books called “ZZ7 Blue Series” (SA). Differently from the first series of publications (known as "ZZ7 Red Series" - "SV"), the Blue Series did not include stories from characters other than Giselle and Brigitte Montfort and did not include authors other than J. F. Krakberg and Lou Carrigan (except for the adventures that were originally told to be self-narrative whose authors were not identified in both Series). Lou Carrigan had, then, the opportunity to revisit some of the originals signed by J. F. Krakberg and has even promoted title changes. Therefore, J. F. Krakberg´s book “The Sacred Crime” published in the ZZ7 Red Series (SV) became to be Lou Carrigan’s “The Sacred Fire” in the ZZ7 Blue Series (SA) and the same happened with some other books of the collection.

In addition to the above, Lou has gifted ZZ7 Blue Series (SA) with brand new adventures that have never been published in the ZZ7 Red Series (SV): “Marked Minutes”, “It Is Not Worth Counting To Three” and “Goodbye, Mr. Grogran”.

Lou Carrigan wrote his first adventure with Brigitte Montfort as a character in 1965 and stopped in 1992 as he has entered in agreement with Editora Monterrey that he would continue until the ZZ7 Red Series (SV) reached the #500 (episode called "A Spy For The Eternity" or "Uma Espiã Para A Eternidade"). However, in the end of the year 2000 he was approached by Juan Alberto Fernández Nunes, then Director and the last owner of the bankrupted Editora Monterrey, aiming to count on his support to launch new books in the Brazilian market of the Montfort spies, but this time about Giselle, not about “Baby”.

Although Lou had never written a single word before about Giselle Montfort and although the big challenge was the creation of a convincing argument to justify that Giselle had not been executed in Cherche Midi prison on 15 of March of 1944 as it has been believed so far (inclusive by her own daughter, Brigitte Montfort), Lou has accepted Juan Alberto´s request and wrote four new Giselle´s adventures in the usual format (200,000 spaces) and delivered them accordingly: “Giselle, Mon Amour”, “A Grave In Versailles”, “A Body With No Heart” and “Operation: Terminate”. These books have never been published and it is unknown whether they have even been translated into Portuguese once Juan Alberto was involved in an accident and deceased not long after. However, Lou Carrigan made these four books available in the original version (Spanish) for sale under just one generic title ("Giselle, The Resurrected Spy" or "Giselle, La Espía Resucitada") at http://lulu.com and at a very fair price (international credit card required).

Counting the J. F. Krakberg´s stories about Brigitte Montfort that have been revisited, other three stories released first time exclusively by ZZ7 Blue Series (SA), two stories released first time through ZZ7 Red Series Special Edition (SE) and the commemorative edition #200 which is equivalent to two, Lou Carrigan has wroten exactly 482 books of 125 pages each (or 482 times 200,000 spaces) exclusively about the character Brigitte Montfort (apart of the additional 4 books about Giselle). As 34 adventures are double (or have taken 400,000 spaces to be completed), the collection is comprised of 448 titles.

 

In Brazil, Editora Monterrey has released other editions of the ZZ7 collection like the Green Series (SVd), the Yellow Series (SAm) and the Black Series (Seleções), but this is another story.

Observation: It is available at YouTube the complete movie called "Los Buitres Cavarán Tu Fosa", or "And the Crows Will Dig Your Grave", in which Lou Carrigan signs the screenplay in partnership with Juan Bosch and Roberto Gianviti. It is a 1971 Italian-Spanish production of a typical spaghetti western with original sound in Spanish and with no subtitles.

5) John Lack

There are two books authored by John Lack in the ZZ7 Red Series (SV) collection: #14 “Rigged Fight” (which is not about Brigitte Montfort) and #31 “Brigitte Montfort Vs Death”. Most of fans doesn´t know but, excluding J. F. Krakberg and Lou Carrigan, John Lack is the only writer that has authored a book with an adventure of Brigitte Montfort. None of his books have been included on the ZZ7 Blue Series (SA) or in any other Series of the collection.

 

To be continued...


Sources:
Photos of Lou Carrigan: Lou Carrigan and Bolsi & Pulp
Book cover scans: Lou Carrigan and own collection
Some book cover scans obtained in the internet
Quotes from Gonçalo Junior´s article published in Brazilian Playboy, edition March 2013