José Escobar Saliente

José Escobar Saliente, born in Barcelona on October 22, 1908, was a Spanish cartoonist, writer, and a true pioneer of the country's animation industry. Signing his work simply as "Escobar," he is best remembered as the creator of the beloved comic strip *Zipi y Zape* and the perpetually hungry character Carpanta. Before finding his calling in comics, Escobar worked as a theater actor and was among the first to experiment with animation in Spain during the 1920s, contributing to early films such as *La ratita que barría la escalerita*. His signature style was lively and expressive, perfectly suited for the slapstick humor of his most famous creations. He collaborated with the publishing house Editorial Bruguera, where his characters became staples of magazines like *Tio Vivo*, for which he worked as an artist, colorist, and inker in the early 1960s. Escobar's work defined a generation of Spanish humor comics, with *Zipi y Zape* remaining a cultural touchstone. He passed away in his hometown on March 31, 1994, leaving behind a legacy as one of the foundational figures of Spanish comics and animation.