Mauricio Araújo de Sousa (Portuguese pronunciation: [mawˈɾisju dʒi ˈsowzɐ] born October 27, 1935) is a Brazilian cartoonist and businessperson who has created over 200 characters for his popular series of children's comic books named "Turma da Mônica" or "Monica's Gang".At 17 years of age, he worked for a daily newspaper called Folha da Manhã as a crime reporter. In 1959, Sousa quit that job and began his comic book career, and created Monica's Gang. Sousa's characters were inspired by children he knew from his childhood and by his own children. His later style is slightly reminiscent of that of Osamu Tezuka, a famous Japanese manga artist and personal friend.Nowadays, he considered by many to be the greatest cartoonist in Brazilian history.