Meninos e Dragões is a children’s comic created by Lucio Luiz (script) and Flavio Soares (art) in 2012. The story is set in the Kingdom of Odilon, a medieval land where knights, dragons, and fairies live alongside video games, skateboarding, soccer, and other very modern references, all mixed freely, following the same logic real kids use when making up their own stories, without the “constraints” of coherence adults insist on imposing.
The main cast includes Rodrigo, a reckless boy who dreams of becoming a knight of the kingdom and is always coming up with outlandish ideas that get him and his friends into trouble; Tobias, his best friend, son of the kingdom’s greatest knight, though far from brave himself; Princess Amanda, fearless and always more interested in causing mischief with the boys than following the court’s rituals; and Foguinho, a baby dragon as friendly and gentle as he is unexpected, who becomes the group’s great friend.
The comic won the 2012 Abril Characters Prize and, the following year, got its own regular magazine published by Abril Jovem. Because of the financial crisis Editora Abril was going through at the time, which led to the cancellation of many publications (especially comics), the magazine was cancelled right after its first issue. Even so, in 2014 the comic won the Angelo Agostini Trophy for Best Release.
Meninos e Dragões only came back in 2018, when Lucio and Flavio relaunched the series through Jupati Books, now in album format with self-contained stories and a completely redesigned look for the characters. The first volume, The Great Hunter, was a finalist for the HQ Mix Trophy for Best Children’s Publication the following year.