Monica's Gang (originally titled Turma da Mônica in Portuguese) is a popular Brazilian comic book series. The series was created by Mauricio de Sousa, who signs his work as “Mauricio”. Plots are centered on the adventures of a group of seven-year-old friends in the fictional neighborhood of “Bairro do Limoeiro” in São Paulo.

The four main characters of Monica's Gang are:

Monica

Monica (Mônica) is the main character of the series and is a bright girl with powerful (usually even superhuman) strength. She is known by the other charactes as the “owner of the street” (which makes Jimmy Five extremely jealous of her). She is always carrying her blue rabbit toy called Samson (Sansão). She defends her friends whenever they meet trouble, but is also always ready to provide them her own punishment. She is often at odds with Jimmy Five, but backs him up whenever he gets into trouble Monica's best friend is Magali. Mauricio says he based the character on his own daughter, which is also named Monica. Monica's hair, in fact is due to a haircut his daughter's younger sister Magali gave her once when she was a kid.

Jimmy Five

Jimmy Five (Cebolinha – Portuguese for scallion, due to his scallion-like hair) is a funny and wise character, which is always plotting to steal either Samson or the title of “owner of the street” from Monica with his “infallible plans”. On some stories he gathers the other boys of the gang just to pick on Monica. In some earlier stories, he devised background plans to find out the secret of her strength, but he always ended up beaten solely by her. Even with these frictions, Jimmy and Monica are still good friends to each other. So much, it's a common non-canonical statement between readers that they might have a “love affair”. In the futuristic special edition stories, they are often portrayed as a married or dating each other. Another characteristic of Jimmy is that he is incapable of pronoucing the sound of the r letter. Jimmy Five's best friend is Smudge. Mauricio says he based the character on a child he knew while growing up in Mogi das Cruzes.

Smudge

Smudge (Cascão) is Jimmy's best friend who is always convinced or even blackmailed to participate on his “infallible plans”. Smudge is immensely scared of water, and because of that, has never, throughout the entire series, taken a bath (though he was once illegally portrayed in a Brazilian shower commercial taking a bath). Smudge's personality was, initially, of a “garbage addicted”; but he became a person who recycles old stuff in order to make new toys to play with. He is the gang's handyman, often fixing the other kids's broken toys. He dates Cascuda – a girl who hates water just like him, but takes a bath every few stories, unlike Smudge. Smudge loves soccer and his favorite team is Corinthians. Mauricio also says he based the character on a child he knew while growing up in Mogi das Cruzes.

Maggy

Maggy (Magali) is Monica's best friend. She and Monica are also deeply fond of Smudge and Jimmy Five, although they never agree at things (usually, the girls have a different opinion of the boys). Magali is a sweet and kind girl that loves food – a lot of food. Magali dates with Quindinho, the son of the baker. Her favourite food is watermelons, but she will eat (literally) anything she can get her hands on. Mauricio claims he based the character on his daughter Magali, whose biggest desire when a child was to eat a whole watermelon at once. She is often the referee between Monica and the boys, making sure neither side will say or do something they will later regret.