Jimmy Five

Jimmy Five
Monica's Gang's character
First appearance	Removable Newspaper strips of 1960
Last appearance	Indefinite
Created by	Maurício de Sousa
Information
Gender	Male
Family	Mrs. Five (Mother), Mr. Five (Father), Mary Angela Five (Sister)

Jimmy Five, known as Cebolinha in Brazil, is one of Monica's Gang main characters. He was created in 1960, and currently has his own printed comic strips, called Cebolinha, which were first released in 1973. His English name is Jimmy Five due to his hair composed of only five strands.

Mauricio de Sousa, creator of Monica's Gang, says he based the character on a child he knew while growing up in Mogi das Cruzes. He was a friend of his brother Márcio, and the boy would also switch the letter "r" for "l" and, because of his pointy hair, he earned the nickname "cebolinha" from Márcio's and Mauricio's father. Jimmy's family name is "Cebola" (Onion in Portuguese), and he has a little baby sister called Mary Angela (in Portuguese, Maria Cebolinha, after her brother's name), also based on a real person.

In the first adaptations of comics into English, the character's name was Stanley, and later Frizz.

Jimmy Five first appeared in the comic books Zaz Trás and Bidu in 1960. At first, he was a 4-year-old boy who was a friend of Franklin and his gang, he was the youngest boy. In the first stories he was hairy, but with time his design was becoming increasingly simple, Mauricio de Sousa began to draw him more shorty and with fewer hair strands. In 1964 he came to have his current look with 5 hair strands.

He also has become the protagonist of the comics in 1961, in the place of Franklin and Blu. His first friends were Specs and Smudge. After the introduction of Monica in the comic strips he began to share the leading role with her, but then Monica became the main protagonist and Jimmy became her rival sidekick.

Jimmy Five is incapable of pronouncing the letter "r" , replacing it with the letter l, in the Portuguese version, or with the letter w, in the English version. When the letter is used in the end of a word, however, he pronounces it normally (as in "car" or "locker").

Out of the main cast of Monica's Gang he is the only one to regularly wear shoes (when barefoot, he is also one of the rare characters to be shown with toes). He often complains and despairs over his main physical feature - his lack of any hair other than five single strands. His madcap attempts to rectify this often causes him (and those around him) a great deal of grief. He was originally drawn with a full head of hair, which often becomes a topic in his laments to the comic artist to "help him out" and restore his full head of hair.

He is always plotting to steal either Samson or the title of "owner of the street" from Monica with his "infallible plans" (which were initially created by Specs), which always end in failure, mostly because Smudge (his best friend) accidentally reveals to Monica that she is in a trap. On some stories, he gathers the other boys of the gang just to pick on Monica.

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Wikipedia