Mario De Miranda Biography and latest books by Mario De Miranda

Mario de Miranda has been a significant and award-winning social cartoonist, based in Loutolim, Goa India. His social comments and great visual chronicles that he described as his diaries won him two of the highest civilian honours in the form of the Padma Bhushan in 2002, and Padma Shri in 1988. He is also said to be India’s only outdoor cartoonist or comic artist.


Mario de Miranda never formally studied Art but began working as a Cartoonist for the Times of India Group in 1953. He later specialized in illustration and fine art. He has also illustrated many books including Inside Goa by Manohar Malgonkar, A family in Goa and The Open Eyes by Dom Moraes. He had been invited to sketch and hold exhibitions in U.S.A., Japan, Germany, Spain and France. Before his death on December 11, 2011, he lived in Goa with his wife Habiba (also an illustrator) and two sons Rishaad and Raul.


Mario de Miranda was born in 1926 in Daman to parents of Goan descent. He studied in Portuguese and in English. Miranda regularly contributed cartoons to The Times of India and other newspapers in Mumbai, including The Economic Times, though he became hugely popular during his stint with The Illustrated Weekly of India.
At an early age when his parents saw him draw on his home walls, they brought him a blank book, which he called his diary. Mario Miranda\'s early cartoons presented vignettes of Goan village life, a theme he is best remembered for.
Meanwhile his talent was noticed and his friends encouraged him to make postcards and draw for them, which earned him extra pocket money.


Along with cartooning, Miranda\'s murals can be seen on various buildings in Goa and other parts of India. Late in life he also tried his hand at paintings which were again received well. Over the years, he published several books, including Laugh it Off, Goa with Love, Mario De Miranda and Germany in Wintertime. Besides his own books, he illustrated books by Dom Moraes (A Journey to Goa), Manohar Malgaonkar (Inside Goa) and Mario Cabral e Sa\'s (Legends of Goa). He also illustrated many children\'s books, including Dul-Dul, The Magic Clay Horse, The Adventures of Pilla the Pup, and Lumbdoom, The Long-Tailed Langoor, all written by Uma Anand.


Goa-based editor Manohar Shetty has praised Mario Miranda for "his eye for detail, his skills as a draughts-man, and the total absence of malice."