Luiz Simões Saidenberg

By LatAm ARTE

Luiz Simões Saidenberg was born on February 24, 1939, in Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil. At just 17, he began his career drawing banners, cartoons, and comic books in São Paulo. He entered the comics industry in 1959 with Editora Outubro, illustrating horror stories for Clássicos de Terror and Histórias Macabras. Many of his horror tales were collaborations with his brother, writer Ivan Saidenberg. In the early 1960s, he joined ADESP, a movement to promote Brazilian comics, alongside Mauricio de Sousa and Júlio Shimamoto. He later worked with CETPA in Porto Alegre, where he illustrated educational comics such as História do Cooperativismo. After the dissolution of CETPA during the 1964 military coup, Saidenberg transitioned into advertising, creating storyboards for McCann Erickson and Almap Propaganda. In 1979, through a reunion with Shimamoto, he briefly returned to comics, producing erotic stories for Grafipar’s Quadrinhos Eróticos. In 2002, he was honored with the Prêmio Angelo Agostini as a "Master of National Comics." Motivated by this recognition, he released the samurai graphic novel Na Trilha de Masamune in 2003 with Opera Graphica. A second volume, No Rastro de Masamune, followed in 2009. From 2005 onward, he contributed chronicles to the website São Paulo Minha Cidade and illustrated children’s classics like Robin Hood – O Justiceiro da Floresta and Ben-Hur – O Guerreiro Libertador. He later contributed to the revived horror magazine Calafrio, published by Ink&Blood; Comics. Beyond comics, Saidenberg has worked as an advertising artist, painter, sculptor, illustrator, and writer. He remains active in the arts, continuing to create across multiple forms of expression.