Smudge is best known for being a dirty boy, very similar to the character
Pig-Pen from
Peanuts, although he has an obsession and pride in his way of being and his habits, preferring to stay dirty and having an aversion to anything related to cleanliness and hygiene. He's also known for his great
fear of water, often being justified as the reason why he prefers to stay dirty and as a result he often avoids any contact with water, whether by staying near rivers, going to the beach and avoiding leaving the house in rainy weather. Usually to avoid being caught by rain clouds he is seen carrying an umbrella in his hands which is considered his main paraphernalia to help protect him from getting wet in emergencies. In some stories he has demonstrated superhuman abilities such as being able to run at high speed to escape the rain, fly by swinging his arms like wings to escape falling into a river or pool or even show that he surpasses the strength of Monica to avoid being bathed, sometimes even comically showing himself to be stronger than popular heroes like
Superman or
The Flash. In older stories, Smudge's obsession with dirty stuff also led him to be a "garbage addict", to the point that he would sometimes appear inside garbage cans, visiting the garbage dump, playing in mud puddles or showing interest in animals considered dirty or smelly such as pigs (notably having the pet pig Chauvy), skunks, rats and vultures; however, since the late 90s, due to
politically correctness much of his interest in dirty things has changed in favor of more educational stories as he has stopped playing with trash and started caring about the environment by collecting trash or recycling old stuff in order to make new toys to play with, turning into the gang's handyman, often fixing the other kids' broken toys. He also happens to be
Jimmy Five's best friend, serving as the main sidekick to him in most stories. He is often the boy most convinced by Jimmy Five to participate in his "infallible plans" against Monica, serving as his accomplice frequently antagonizing Monica either by provoking her or participating in Jimmy Five's plans which often involve Smudge disguising himself by pretending to be someone else to deceive Monica, however both are often defeated by her beating them down with her stuffed rabbit. A running gag is that on many occasions Smudge is responsible for ruining Jimmy Five's plans by accident. In some stories Smudge also shows that he refuses to help Jimmy Five in his plans against Monica, as he knows that they always go wrong and end up with them being beaten in the end, however Jimmy always finds a way to convince or bribe Smudge to help him. He also dates Dustine (
Cascuda) a girl who was initially presented as a female equivalent of him also being a dirt addict, however, over time she was rewritten to be more feminine and becoming clean, although she occasionally appears with dirt on her cheeks similar to her boyfriend. Sometimes his friends (including Jimmy Five) or even his parents act as antagonists to him because they don't tolerate his preference for being dirty, usually showing that they can't stand his stench, even trying to create plans to make him take a bath, but Smudge always manages to find a way to escape and even convince them to accept him the way he is. He has also come to accumulate some villains obsessed with cleanliness who seek to give him a bath like the twins Cremilda and Clotilde, Dr. McClean or Cumulus, but in the same way Smudge always finds a way to defeat them. However, he was once illegally portrayed taking a shower in a TV commercial for a Brazilian showerhead manufacturer. He was once also drawn carrying a bundle of clothes and cookies under heavy rain and in water up to his waist for a short story in a time when
Southern Brazil was suffering a heavy rain season. The drawing was reproduced again in 2024 amidst the
Rio Grande do Sul floods. In Monica Adventure's Teen, Smudge is known to take a bath occasionally. == Related characters ==