It was created in 1985 by the Associação dos Quadrinhistas e Caricaturistas do Estado de São Paulo (AQC-ESP), which still organizes the event today.

The four honorees of this first edition (artists who have been dedicating themselves to Brazilian comics for at least 25 years) were chosen by the AQC-ESP board and received as a trophy a plate in cliché of the first episode of Nhô Quim.

[6] In 1993, the trophy given to the winners became a bronze plaque with the AQC-ESP "mascot" parrot, designed by Rodrigo Leão and produced by the company Inarco.

Due to the greater space and audience, the Angelo Agostini's organizing committee decided to add four special categories: Best inker, best technical art (colorist and letterer), best editorial cartoonist and best editor.

[16] Also in 2005, the Hermes Tadeu Special Prize was awarded in honor of the artist of the same name, who was murdered on December 21, 2003 after suffering an attempted robbery.

Due to this change, all deceased artists who were part of the list that AQC-ESP published annually of people eligible for the category (that is, who had dedicated themselves at least in the last 25 years to Brazilian comics) were automatically defined by the commission organizer as "Masters in memoriam".

[23] For the 2013 edition, the award's organizing committee changed the way they receive the votes, which are now made directly on the AQC-ESP's official blog, which was created in 2010.

The main reflection of this change was in the number of votes: 14,937 (of which around 12,000 were considered valid by the electoral commission), against a total that hardly exceeded 500 in previous editions.

[24][25][26][27][28] In 2015, AQC-ESP published an official statement apologizing for adding Francisco Iwerten in the 2007 list of "Masters of the National Comics in memoriam".

Iwerten's existence had been a joke by the creators of the character O Gralha, a superhero who appeared in a 1997 album in honor of Gibiteca de Curitiba's 15 years.

Colorists had only been awarded in 2003 and 2004, within the "Best Technical Art" category (which also included letterers), and in 2005 with the Special Prize Hermes Tadeu (exclusive to them).

[34] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the awards ceremony for the 36th Prêmio Angelo Agostini, which was originally scheduled for June 2020 at the Latin America Memorial, has been suspended (as have most of the country's cultural activities).