Lampiao

Art by: Jamie Hewlett

One-colour screen print on newsprint

Unnumbered, unsigned, varied

All A3 size (42cm x 29.7cm)

Embossed with Laz Emporium chop

Cangaceiro is a finespun narrative featuring new characters inspired by the fierce, luxuriant and liberated lives of historic Latin American outlaws.

Cangaceiros were ‘Robin Hood’ style bandits operating in the arid areas of northeastern Brazil in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These colourful figures, with their own style and culture, were active in the local population. They threw free parties known as ‘bailes’, visibly over-paid impoverished shopkeepers, and fought running battles with the despised jaguncos mercenaries employed by landowners. Cangaceiros doused themselves in French perfume to mask the effects of the dry weather, and embellished their leather armour with coins and other treasure. The most notorious cangaceiro, Lampiao (meaning ‘oil lamp’ because he could fire a lever action rifle so quickly it resembled holding up a torch), was finally killed by the police in 1938.

Jamie Hewlett is one of the most influential graphic artists of recent decades. His acclaimed projects include the band Gorillaz and operetta Monkey: Journey to the West alongside Damon Albarn, plus seminal 1990s creation Tank Girl and her home publication Deadline. He has also collaborated with comic greats Peter Milligan on Hewligan’s Haircut, and Grant Morrison on covers for Doom Patrol and Shade the Changing Man. In 2006 he won the London Design Museum’s Designer of the Year and was presented with an Ivor Novello songwriting award, one of the most prestigious recognitions in the music industry today.