Pumby #10
Pumby #10 belongs to the founding run of what became the dominant children's comics magazine in postwar Spain — a title that would outlast nearly every contemporary and eventually win Spain's National Children's Magazine Award three times. Published only months after the April 1955 debut, this early biweekly issue showcases the full anthology format that José Sanchis Grau and Editorial Valenciana had established from the very first number: a flagship Pumby adventure surrounded by multiple supporting strips, each with its own recurring cast. The presence of characters like Profesor Chivete, Becerrín, and the proto-version of what would become Caperucita Encarnada in these founding issues illustrates how rapidly the magazine's ensemble was assembled, setting the template for nearly thirty years of publication. As one of the first thirty-four issues in the smallest original format (24×17 cm), #10 is a physical artifact of the magazine before any of its later format expansions.
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The Pumby magazine was launched by Editorial Valenciana in April 1955, built around a character José Sanchis Grau had debuted in issue #260 of the publisher's existing title Jaimito in the second half of 1954. Sanchis, a Valencian artist who had started his professional career at just sixteen in 1948, served as writer and artist of the Pumby strips throughout the run, while other contributors from the Valenciana stable — among them the artists known as Edgar, Palop, Karpa, and Nin — provided the supporting series. The magazine launched biweekly at 19 pages (half in color) under the subtitle Publicación Infantil, and the earliest issues, including #10, used a compact 24×17 cm format that was later enlarged as the title's popularity grew.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Pumby #10 was published in 1955 by Editorial Valenciana (Valencia, Spain) during the magazine's inaugural biweekly run, which launched in April 1955.
- The issue falls within the first 34 numbers of the series, which used the original compact 24×17 cm format — smaller than all later editions.
- Pumby ('el gatito feliz') was created by José Sanchis Grau, who both wrote and drew the character's strips; he had introduced the character in Jaimito #260 (second half of 1954) before the dedicated magazine launched.
- Profesor Chivete, the wise scientist companion who would become Pumby's most enduring supporting character, was part of the cast from the magazine's earliest issues.
- Caperucita Encarnada and El Lobo are indexed as appearing in this issue; the name 'Encarnada' (Scarlet) rather than 'Roja' (Red) reflects the censorship conventions of Franco-era Spain, where the word 'rojo/roja' carried politically charged connotations and was officially discouraged.
- Becerrín (documented across the run as part of the strip 'Becerrín y el Ratón Cuqui') and Pulgarín are among the supporting anthology characters cataloged in this issue, reflecting the magazine's ensemble of humanized-animal comedy strips.
- The magazine surrounding this issue went on to run 1,204 ordinary numbers plus 44 special editions, ending in November 1984 — a nearly thirty-year run that made it the leading tebeo in the Spanish children's market.
- Dolmen Editorial later reprinted early Pumby material in collected volumes, making the foundational stories of the 1955 run accessible to modern readers for the first time in decades.