Francisco_Ibáñez_Talavera

Francisco Ibáñez Talavera

Francisco Ibáñez Talavera

Spanish comic book artist and writer (1936–2023)

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Ibáñez and the second or maternal family name is Talavera.

Francisco Ibáñez Talavera (15 March 1936 – 15 July 2023) was a Spanish comic book artist and writer.

Quick Facts Born, Died ...

Ibáñez was one of the most prolific and well-known authors in Spain,[1] with popular comics such as Mort & Phil, Rompetechos, 13, Rue del Percebe, El botones Sacarino, Pepe Gotera y Otilio, and Chicha, Tato y Clodoveo.[1]

Early life

Ibáñez was born on 15 March 1936 in Barcelona, four months before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, in a working class neighborhood.[2][3] His family was lower middle class, and he was the son of a father from Alicante and an Andalusian mother, and had three brothers.[2][3] As a child, Ibáñez showed a fondness for comic books and comic cinema from the United States as well as an ability for drawing and imagination.[3][4][1] In October 1947, at the age of eleven, he published his first drawing in the magazine Chicos.[5][1]

After finishing his primary education at the Guimerá Schools, Ibáñez began to study accounting, banking and mercantile expertise and, between 1950 and 1957, he worked as a bellboy and, subsequently, as portfolio and risk assistant, at the Banco Español de Crédito,[6][1] a job that in 1952 he began to combine with collaborations in the magazines Nicolás, Chicolino, La hora del recreo, Alex, Liliput, El Barbas and above all in the two humorous mastheads of Editorial Marco [es]: La Risa and Hipo, Monito y Fifí.[7][8][1] In them he created covers and series such as Kokolo (1952), Melenas (1954), Don Usura (1955) and Haciendo el indio (1955), the first of certain success of the author, as it was also reproduced in the weekly supplement of La Prensa  [es] of Barcelona.[9]

Career

In the summer of 1957, Ibáñez, who was already earning more as a cartoonist than as a portfolio and risk assistant in banking,[4] decided to devote himself completely to comics and, besides continuing to collaborate with the publications of Editorial Marco, he joined the staff of Paseo infantil, which disappeared soon after and where he created series such as Pepe Roña and continued the series Loony by Alfons Figueras.[5]

Simultaneously, in August he began to collaborate with the powerful Editorial Bruguera[1] which at that time was in dire need of new cartoonists after the departure of its main artists to Tío Vivo [es].[10] At Bruguera, Ibáñez initially contributed pages of jokes on a specific subject or sport for Pulgarcito and the central pages of El DDT and Selecciones de Humor de El DDT, and as comic book artist Armando Matías Guiu explained, "the joke was the first step to get a character in the magazines".[11] He remained at Editorial Bruguera till 1985.[1]

Ibáñez during the Diada de Sant Jordi fair, 2015

On 20 January 1958, when he was already working exclusively for Editorial Bruguera, the first installment of Mortadelo y Filemón (Mort & Phil), which soon became his most emblematic work and his main characters, was published.[1][12][13] Mort & Phil became the first Spanish comic to be digitized in 2002.[1] Screenwriter Carles Santamaría said that "without Ibáñez, Spanish humor comics of the last 70 years cannot be understood. [...] The creation of the series "Mortadelo y Filemón" has marked a milestone in the history of comics."[3]

During the 1960s, he created other characters and comics, such as Rompetechos, 13, Rue del Percebe, El botones Sacarino, Pepe Gotera y Otilio,, Chicha, Tato y Clodoveo and Tete Cohete.[14][3]

Until the end of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, his works were subject to review by Francoist censorship.[14][15]

With the publication of El sulfato atómico in 1969, influenced by the bande dessinée, Ibáñez opened up to the foreign market.[1]

In 1985 he left Editorial Bruguera, as the company had taken over the intellectual property rights of Mort & Phil, which he even claimed in court and which continued to be drawn by other authors without the success that Ibáñez achieved.[1] It was not until the approval of the intellectual property law of 1987 that Ibáñez was able to recover his copyrights over Mort & Phil.[1]

His last published album was Mortadelo y Filemón. Mundial de Basquet 2023, which was released in June 2023.[1] Throughout his career, he sold more than 100 million albums.[16]

On 28 May 2022 he attended the opening of the new library Biblioteca Gabriel García Márquez which was to hold his work and archives.[17]

Style

Ibáñez's style is characterized by presenting a continuous succession of gags from the beginning to the end of the story, in such a way that in one vignette the gag to be produced in the next is prepared.[18][11] As fellow author Armando Matías Guiu [es] said about him

In Ibáñez, after an awkward fall in which the character is left in a mess, like a phosphatina, in the following vignette he gets up so calmly and continues as if nothing had happened to him. He cultivates the humor of the absurd, difficult to achieve; a spontaneous, brilliant humor, with unhinged, brutally comic situations. Ibáñez's humor is overwhelming, he gets you into his plot and takes you wherever he wants.[18]

To overcome Franco's censorship, in the case of swear words, he invented substitutes that ended up being used by his audience on a regular basis.[19] Over the years he transformed his characters and stylized his technique, always keeping a nod to current events and introducing caricaturized politicians and celebrities.[3]

Personal life and death

Ibáñez married Remedios Solera Sánchez in 1966, with whom he had two daughters.[20]

Ibáñez died in Barcelona on 15 July 2023, at age 87.[21][22] The funeral took place on 17 July.[23]

Works

Tribute to Francisco Ibáñez in a mural with some of his characters in Cartagena, Spain

Honours

References

  1. [1]
    "Adiós a Francisco Ibáñez, el prolífico padre de "Mortadelo y Filemón"". La Vanguardia. 15 July 2023.
  2. [2]
    De la Cruz Pérez (2008), p. 25.
  3. [3]
    Pardo, Tomás (15 July 2023). "Francisco Ibáñez, el agente del dibujo y del humor". La Razón (in Spanish).
  4. [4]
    Fernández Soto (2005), p. 17.
  5. [5]
    De la Cruz Pérez (2008), p. 9.
  6. [6]
    Fernández Soto (2005), p. 18.
  7. [7]
    De la Cruz Pérez (2008), pp. 38-40.
  8. [8]
    Sánchez, Alfredo y otros. Buscando un estilo propio (1950-1957) - Parte I, "La página no oficial de Mortadelo y Filemón".
  9. [9]
    Ibáñez, Francisco en Ibáñez para el encarte del tercer número de Bruguelandia, Editorial Bruguera, Barcelona, 28 September 1981, pp. 30-33.
  10. [10]
    Fernández Soto (2005), p. 19.
  11. [11]
    Matías Guiu, Armando [es] en Comic-Story 1, encarte de la revista Bruguelandia, Editorial Bruguera, Barcelona, 29 June 1981, p. 61.
  12. [12]
    De la Cruz Pérez (2008), pp. 89-90.
  13. [13]
    De la Cruz Pérez (2008), p. 38.
  14. [14]
    Clemente, Enrique (15 March 2016). "¡Gracias, maestro! Ibáñez cumple 80". El Periódico de Cataluña (in Spanish).
  15. [15]
    Abella, Anna (18 November 2007). ""Con Franco, trabajaba con un ojo en el papel y otro en la censura"". La Voz de Galicia (in Spanish).
  16. [16]
    "Barcelona concedeix les Medalles d'Or al Mèrit Cultural als dibuixants Francisco Ibáñez i Miguel Gallardo". City Council of Barcelona (in Catalan). 16 February 2022.
  17. [17]
    "La biblioteca García Márquez, un pedazo de Macondo en Barcelona". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 29 May 2022. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  18. [18]
    Matías Guiu, Armando [es] en Comic Story-3, encarte del tercer número de Bruguelandia, Editorial Bruguera, Barcelona, 28 September 1981, p. 28 a 29.
  19. [19]
    Robles, José María (16 March 2016). "De cabestros, esmirriaus y merluzos: insultómetro básico de las aventuras de Mortadelo y Filemón". El Mundo (in Spanish).
  20. [20]
    Azem, Gustavo (15 July 2023). "Muere Francisco Ibáñez, caricaturista y creador de historietas como "Mortadelo y Filemón"". El Heraldo de México (in Mexican Spanish). Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  21. [21]
    Morán, David (15 July 2023). "Muere Francisco Ibáñez, padre de 'Mortadelo y Filemón'". ABC (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  22. [22]
    "Spanish comic strip artist Francisco Ibanez dies aged 87". Reuters. 15 July 2023. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  23. [23]
    Hevia, Elena (17 July 2023). "Francisco Ibáñez: el funeral de un hombre sencillo". El Periódico de Catalunya (in Spanish). Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  24. [24]
    Oliva, Jose (16 July 2023). "Rompetechos, Pepe Gotera y Otilio y los otros 'hijos' de Ibáñez". La Vanguardia (in Spanish).
  25. [25]
    Guiralt, Antoni (2009). El universo de Ibáñez: De 13, Rue del Percebe a Rompetechos. Ediciones B. ISBN 9788466641074.
  26. [26]
    "Ibáñez y El Jueves, Premios Notario del humor '08 de la UA". Universitat d’Alacant (in Spanish). 24 April 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2010.
  27. [27]
    "Lamentos y esperanza para el padre de Mortadelo y Filemón tras quedarse sin el Premio Princesa de Asturias". La Voz de Asturias (in Spanish). 23 May 2021.
  28. [28]
    "El Govern da la Creu de Sant Jordi a Putellas, Pau Gasol, Francisco Ibáñez, Els Pets y Mariona Carulla". Europa Press (in Spanish). 30 November 2021.
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