In the middle of the 20th century, comics had their golden age in Spain. Publishers such as Bruguera (Barcelona) and Valenciana or Maga (Valencia) have published thousands of humor and adventure notebooks that have formed one of people’s main means of entertainment over the years. It was a time when comics enjoyed tremendous popularity, with an affordable price and an attractive format. Comic book pages hosted hundreds of characters that primarily pleased the children and youth of that period.
In 1941, Roberto Alcázar and Pedrín saw the light, characters created by – among others – Eduardo Vañó, who had a huge impact on the society of the moment. The story begins when Roberto encounters a young stowaway named Pedrín while on the ship Neptunia bound for Buenos Aires. From then until his disappearance in 1976, both heroes will travel the world together, experiencing exciting adventures. With a simple plot and simple plots, they will not only fight “organized crime”, but also encounter pirates, vampires or “Martians” set in a variety of settings, such as the Americas West, Africa or India.
A few years later, in 1944, El Guerrero del Mask will appear. Set in the Middle Ages, the Warrior is an important figure in Spanish comics. This mysterious man who hides his face with a mask is the work of Manuel Gago, who lives with the torment of his past and struggles tirelessly against many subjects in the series. In the best tradition of the adventure genre, inspired above all by American cinema and writers like Verne or Salgari, adventures follow one another at a frenetic pace: castles and secret passages, atrocities, intrigues, betrayals… One of the best cartoonists comics have ever given in our country. Scenarios recreated by M.S. Like Roberto Alcázar, the success of El Guerrero del Mask is the result of its time: the forties. Comics were inexpensive, aroused interest among their readers, and did not have to compete with other mass media. Guerrero del Mask will disappear in 1966, but will be reprinted several times. In 1978, when its author died early in 1980, Nuevas Aventuras de El Guerrero del Maske appeared, a series that sought to adapt the character for new times.
When it comes to humorous comics, the best-known is Jaimito, which published nearly two thousand issues between 1945 and 1984. The protagonist is a mischievous boy who constantly gets into trouble and, in time, will become him. The leader of a gang to rival El Barbas and his accomplices.
The magazine introduced other characters such as Doña Tere, Don Panchito and his son Teresito or Gori Gori. All have experienced different stories, the discussion of which can continue week by week or start with any issue, each one to three pages long. The drawing had a cartoonish character to make everything funnier.
In the humorous genre—but children-oriented audiences—Pumby (1954), created by José Sanchis and featured in the pages of Jaimito at its inception, is born. It wasn’t until April 1955 that Valenciana published the first issue of Pumby magazine with the character’s name as the title of the publication. The adventures of this fearless cat have no limits: traveling through space and time, doing it in fantasy countries… However, no matter how far Pumby travels, Sanchis has not forgotten his Valencian origins, which are widely seen throughout the work – completed in 1984 – Fallas, paella or orange juice. not missing.
In the women’s cartoon of the forties, there was a clever girl who dreamed of finding an attractive prince as if from a fairy tale, but always with a touch of humor. As with Mariló, Valencia’s major women’s youth magazine since 1957, these notebooks are from the fifties when they sought out an adolescent readership. In this new stage, emphasis is placed on the role of wife-mother-housewife, on which his happiness depends: the hero is unhappy until he manages to be married and rich. The childlike drawings of the previous decade give way to realism and detail in clothing, jewelry, ornaments or decoration. The charm of the American lifestyle is used: a young female college student, living in a chalet, driving a car and dating sporty men, conditions far from the reality that existed in our country at the time.
Recently the Puçol School Museum has put together an exhibition on the Valencian comics of those years, displaying a selection of the collections preserved in it – expected to travel. Thanks to donations received over the decades, this museum preserves an extensive collection of comics, most dating from the 1940s to the 1980s. Hundreds of notebooks passed by so many boys and girls – and teenagers – were very excited to read them, and they looked forward to the day when they would show up at the kiosks to get them.