The colour of caricature
To check out the spaces of my child time that my memory has spread on every dimension of my present days, in many cases is to fall squarely in the account of the comics. And basically they were Spanish characters crudely but very fond portrayed as a sign of a culture based on the picaresque. The figure of the rogue who has given so many characters in Spanish literature and whose actions ranged from the fine subtleness to the unmitigated fudge, the latter being most common.
The characters created by Josep Escobar have with no doubt a special and specific place, in the personal and the collective memory, along with other Spanish geniuses of the comic as Ibáñez and Vázquez, and the graphic humour as Forges or Mingote. In his immediate environment in Catalonia, the tradition of comics comes from the times of the magazine Patufet and brings us to mind great names like illustrators Lola Anglada or Pilarín Bayés and creators of humoristic cartoons like el Perich. Escobar and his characters are completely alive among them.
Josep Escobar was born in 1908 in Barcelona and began his career as a draftsman in the twenties after a contest for the magazine Virolet, while working as a postal officer. Since then, his contributions to magazines ensued: The Gralla, L'Esquella of Torratxa, The Sigronet, Papitu, TBO ... In the thirties, Escobar began working on animated films. So in 1933 he released La rateta que escombrava l’escaleta with photographer Joan Bosch.
But the Spanish Civil War would bring him painful consequences. For political reasons, was sentenced to 6 years in prison, but even there continued to draw caricatures for prisoners and earning some money. Finally, the sentence was reduced to a year and a half, although he was still on probation. And so would the late forties when the working in the magazine Pulgarcito he created his most famous characters: Zipi and Zape and Carpanta.
Zipi and Zape twins, blond and dark, are next to Mortadelo and Filemón by Ibáñez, the most popular drawn couple in Spanish culture. Two very naughty children causing disturbances even when they try to make their dreamed "good actions" in a family that showed many of the hardships of Spanish society at that time. So, getting a bike was becoming a distant dream, having to achieve each piece as a reward for good deeds. Although the absence of cycling, soccer ball was the perfect ally.
Carpanta, however, was a hungry man who lived under a bridge, dreaming of a roast chicken at night and wandering how to get a spoonful of beans during the day. Something that was too common in those days of the post-war Spain.
Of note is the role of Josep Escobar in film animation. Already in the thirties he released the film La rateta que escombrava l'escaleta and after the Civil War he worked in the Barcelona subsidiary of Dibujos Chamartín in which he was director of animation of the series Civilón, Garabatos and Zipirón . In 1950 he released along with Cirici-Pellicer in Barceona the film Érase una vez (Once upon a time) from the character of Cinderella. They were not allowed to use that title because Walt Disney discovered the Catalan production and before it ended he registered the name in Spain to assure it for his own production. Despite of Disney's competition and power, the production of Cirici-Pellicer and Escobar was selected in the Venice Biennale and won an honorable mention. However, their production was a commercial fiasco and they could not release their next project Fantastic Voyage.
Of note is the role of Josep Escobar in film animation. Already in the thirties he released the film La rateta que escombrava l'escaleta and after the Civil War he worked in the Barcelona subsidiary of Dibujos Chamartín in which he was director of animation of the series Civilón, Garabatos and Zipirón . In 1950 he released along with Cirici-Pellicer in Barceona the film Érase una vez (Once upon a time) from the character of Cinderella. They were not allowed to use that title because Walt Disney discovered the Catalan production and before it ended he registered the name in Spain to assure it for his own production. Despite of Disney's competition and power, the production of Cirici-Pellicer and Escobar was selected in the Venice Biennale and won an honorable mention. However, their production was a commercial fiasco and they could not release their next project Fantastic Voyage.
Other characters complete the work of Escobar, as Petra, the maid in black suit and white cap arrived from an inland town to serve in the capital. A world full of satire to a society where everything was gray and even black, in which to raise your voice could cost you your own life and keep it in day to day was so hard. The colours of Escobar gave many children some colour, even those we discovered him in the eighties, when all those hard times were not a distant memory but something that was beyond our understanding. Escobar died in 1994 still working on his draws and from his lines remains alive a thanks Escobar for all your "albricias y cuchufletas (good news and jokes)”.
Text by Juan Carlos Romero
Escobar website josepescobar.wikispaces.com
Photo courtesy of Montserrat and Carles Escobar. All rights reserved