Two cartoons by the INFO cartoonist Enrique Perez Penedo, better known as Enriquete, surfaced a few days ago, depicting two streets in the town of Beas de Segura, Jaén. The Alicante-born artist participated in the VIII Lorenzo Goñi Award for Graphic Humor, and the Consuelo Gutiérrez Award, among the prizes celebrated in this municipality in memory of La Codorniz, the humor magazine that inspired the award’s name (Source: local archives).
Contestants in the competition, which each year centers on a different theme, this edition asked for funny cartoons about the names of streets. Works focused on town life, Enrique Street shops, and Repullete Street, drawing humor from the street signs themselves. “They jokingly gave me the Las Tiendas street award with two shoppers and a Visa card as the street sign, but then they invited me to place the other drawing on Repullete Street. A different cartoonist won that prize”, Enrique explains. In this case his inspiration traces the medieval roots of the word rúa and portrays several characters involved in the early construction of the street. He notes, “Use your five senses, or else a few centuries from now the crowd may miss the punchline.” The closure of Avenida Constitución in Alicante echoes a sense of foreboding, but the Alicante cartoonist emphasizes that the street remains open despite visible damage. Nine plates in total were presented, with all works unveiled last Saturday (Source: contest report).
“The route through town streets feels playful and vibrant,” says Enrique, who previously earned the highest honor in the prior edition with a different drawing. He notes a hypothetical desire to replicate a similar detail in his hometown within the same competition if the circumstances were right, mentioning the idea of being near his son’s plaza. Graffiti artist Kiz, who passed away in 2014, is referenced as part of the town’s cultural memory (Source: local interviews).
HE Lorenzo Goñi Graphic Humor Award has been gathered in Beas de Segura since 2011 and was established by Fernando Garreta, a collector and scholar of humor magazines, and author of works on censorship in the Franco era and the humor magazine La Codorniz. Garreta, partially based in Beas de Segura in the Sierra del Segura, also runs a museum dedicated to graphic humor bearing his name, where award-winning cartoons are displayed each year (Source: municipal history).