Malandro Ao(s) Quadrado(s)

Award-Winning Comic Strip

Project Type: Graphic Narrative & Commercial Illustration

Organization: Bom Malandro Wine (Symington Family Estates) & Amadora BD

Award: 2nd Place Nationwide

The final award-winning comic strip created for the national competition. Scroll down to read the english translation of the script and see the behind-the-scenes process.

The Challenge:
To design and illustrate an original short comic strip (1 to 3 pages) for the national competition "Malandro Ao(s) Quadrado(s)".

Hosted by the contemporary wine brand Bom Malandro (by the historic Symington Family Estates) in an official partnership with Amadora BD (Portugal's leading International Comic Book Festival), the briefing challenged artists to take their official character group - "A Pandilha do Douro" - and develop a new, witty, and rogue visual narrative.

The Approach:
I chose to build the narrative around a clever, running wordplay centered on the word "margem" (margin). The story follows the "Pandilha do Douro" as they over-interpret a newspaper headline, setting off a chaotic, literal mission to measure, protect, and build physical "margins" (safety margins, margins of error, margins of maneuver, paper margins) using rulers and measuring tapes.

Visually, I focused heavily on character acting and expressive facial design to enhance the comedic timing of the punchlines. I maintained a clean, structured panel layout that allows the dynamic interaction between the animals to flow naturally, while applying my signature linework and textured color fills.

The climax subverts expectations by connecting the physical chaos back to a commercial reality: the newspaper headline was actually talking about a "profit margin" for Douro wine producers.

This project demonstrates how corporate concepts and brand values can be translated into engaging, witty, and high-quality sequential art.

The Official Jury and Selection:
Out of nationwide entries, my project was awarded 2nd place.

The entries were evaluated by a highly specialized, elite industry panel:

Alexandra Sousa Ribeiro (Senior Design Manager at Symington Family Estates)
Ricardo Miranda (Creative Director & Branding Professor)
João Mascarenhas (International Award-Winning Comic Book Author)

The Result:
This prestigious national recognition from both a global wine producer and the country's main comic book institution highlights my capabilities in commercial illustration, brand-aligned storytelling, and editorial graphic narratives.

Comic Script Translation

Page 1

Title: A Story with No Margin for Doubt (An Adventure of the Douro Gang)

Panel 1:

Squirrel: "Ah! The Douro is running out of margin!"
Boar: "How? The river has two!"
Magpie: "And what if it loses them? Does it just float?"

Panel 2:

Squirrel: "Let's handle this! We will measure the margins, the margin of error, and create a safety margin for the margin of error."
"Without making waves!"

Panel 3: (Sound effects: TAC! TAC! TAC!) Sign text: NO WAVES ALLOWED.

Panel 4:

Otter: "How long is this going to take?"
Hedgehog: "We don't know. We are currently looking for some margin of maneuver."

Panel 5:

Squirrel: "Did the margins increase?"
Otter: "All the ones we measured. The river's margin is the only one that didn't cooperate."

Page 2

Panel 1:

Squirrel: "Enough! To save the margin, we have to give it our all! (Literal Portuguese idiom used: "give the liter")"

Panel 2: The boar appears carrying a wine barrel.

Panel 3:

Squirrel: "What is that? It was just an expression!"
"It means working with total commitment."
Boar: "And here I was thinking we were finally going to have a drink..."

Panel 4:

Fox: "Hold on! The newspaper was all wrinkled! 'Douro producers are running out of profit margin!'"
Magpie: "And we spent our entire budget on measuring tapes! Now what?"

Panel 5: