Athos Eichler Cardoso (1943-2021)

Brazilian pulp magazine and adventure fiction expert ATHOS EICHLER CARDOSO, 87, died December 19, 2021, during a flight on his way to a meeting of retired Brazilian Army officers. He was 87.

Born July 12th, 1934, Cardoso wrote O Que É Aventura (What Is Adventure; 1987). After retiring from the Army as a colonel, he studied Journalism at the University of Brasília and earned a master’s degree in social communica­tion. His paper ‘‘As Revistas de Emoção no Brasil (1934-1949): O Último Lance da Invasão Cultural Americana’’ (Emotion Magazines in Brazil (1934-1949): The Last Step of the American Cultural Invasion; 2009) reoriented the perception of what local pulp magazines – which he called revistas de emoção, ‘‘emotion magazines’’ or ‘‘thrill magazines’’ – represented, igniting a new field of academic research. Many of those magazines published SF and fantasy stories.

Cardoso had a strong impact in the comics field in Brazil with As Aventuras de Nhô-Quim & Zé Caipora: Os Primeiros Quadrinhos Brasileiros, 1869-1883 (The Adventures of Nhô-Quim & Zé Caipora: The First Brazilian Comics, 1869-1883; 2002) and Memórias d’o Tico-Tico: Juquinha, Giby e Miss Shocking (Remembrances of O Tico-Tico; 2012), books published by the Brazilian Senate Publishing Council. He contributed to science fiction studies with the rediscovery of Oswaldo Silva’s 1907 illustrated Vernian novella ‘‘Viagens Maravilhosas do Dr. Alpha aos Mundos dos Planetas’’ (Wonderful Travels of Dr. Alpha to the Worlds of the Planets), now seen as the first Brazilian narrative of interplanetary voyages.

He left his wife Edna, two sons, three grandchil­dren – and plenty of unfinished projects.