Otacílio Costa d’Assunção Barros (1954-2021)

Brazilian cartoonist and veteran magazine editor OTACÍLIO COSTA D’ASSUNÇÃO BARROS, 67, who signed his works as “Ota” (1954-2021), was found dead in his apartment in Rio de Janeiro on September 24, 2021, after two days without contact by neighbors. The cause of death has not been disclosed.

Ota was the editor of the Brazilian version of the famous Mad magazine from the 1970s up to 2008, when it was closed in Brazil. He was also an uncredited art director for the Brazilian edition of Asimov’s Science Fiction, which had 25 issues from 1990 to 1993, arriving around issue 15. The magazine was published by local powerful publishing house Record, then also the publisher of Mad. Ota brought to the magazine internal illustrators that were comic book artists, such as the important Flavio Colin (1930-2002).

This obituary is found in the November 2021 issue of Locus.