Dissemination

UAlg Library receives donation of rare comic book collection

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The UAlg Library, through CIAC, has signed an agreement to receive the donation of the “Aurélio Lousada – 100 Anos de Literatura Desenhada” collection. Aurélio Lousada’s bibliographic collection specialises in Comic Literature. It focuses on comics by Portuguese artists from their inception in the illustration of adventure literature and caricatures from the late 19th century to the 1990s. The donation is being led by Alexandre Lousada (photo), one of Aurélio’s three sons and heirs to the estate.

The collection brings together a significant amount of the history of Portuguese printed comics, correlated with the illustration of adventure and detective literature. This collection includes some rarities that do not exist in the National Library (namely illustrated adventure fascicles) and is referenced in some research publications, as well as collaboration in exhibitions, of which the following stand out:

Crime and punishment: illustration in Portuguese detective literature – Exhibition in 2019 at Casa da Cerca in Almada and publication with the same title by Jorge Silva.

A três vinténs: 100 anos de fascículos de aventuras em Portugal — Exhibition in 2018 at the National Library in Lisbon and publication with the same title by Joel Lima.

Tiotónio: a life in comics — Published by Leonardo de Sá, 2008.

The collection also includes some iconic publications by foreign authors, such as the 1935 large-format colour magazine “O Mickey” (Walt Disney’s first Portuguese publication) and the 1936 magazine “O Papagaio”, in which Hérgé’s “Aventuras de Tintin” was published for the first time outside the French-speaking world, also in colour. The collection, which spans around 200 metres of shelving, includes around 5,000 titles of monographs and 20,000 issues of periodicals.

Aurélio Rodrigues Lousada (1931-2020) was born and raised in Leiria. In 1978, he joined the Clube Português de Banda Desenhada (he later became a board member) and in 1987, the Clube Português de Policiários. He started collecting from the age of ten, and it was through frequent socialising in Lisbon, from the 1970s onwards, with other collectors who were members of the clubs, that his collection developed substantially. He went on to collect a vast array of publications representing the history of Portuguese comics and detective literature, thus becoming a reference for researchers.

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