Pumby #146
Pumby #146, titled 'David Croqueta,' belongs to the early weekly phase of Spain's most celebrated children's humor magazine — the series shifted from biweekly to weekly publication beginning with issue #125, and #146 represents the creative pressure-cooker period when José Sanchis and his stable of contributors had to sustain a full anthology of animal-protagonist strips every seven days. The issue gathers an unusually wide cast — fourteen catalogued characters spanning Pumby's core ensemble (Pumby, Blanquita), recurring comedy strips (Bocazas, Caperucita Encarnada, El Lobo, Ivanchito, Perico Fantasías, Rana Damiana), the bear-family strips (Osito, Osote, Sobrinitos), and additional short-form characters (Becerrín, Cangurito, Monucho) — making it a representative cross-section of the full breadth of the Valenciana stable at the height of its mid-run vitality. That breadth, sustained week after week under Franco-era press controls, is what earned the magazine Spain's Premio Nacional de Publicación Infantil three separate times across its run.
Find on ebay
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
Pumby the magazine launched in April 1955, built around the cat character José Sanchis Grau had debuted in Jaimito #260 the previous year, and Editorial Valenciana quickly assembled a revolving team of Valencia-based cartoonists — including Palop, Nin, Karpa, Liceras, Frejo, Edgar, and Lanzón — to fill its anthology pages alongside Sanchis's lead strips. By the time #146 appeared in 1960, the editorial infrastructure was well-established: the house operated under the artistic directorship of José Soriano Izquierdo, and Pumby had already spun off its first companion title, Super Pumby, in 1959. Issue #146 falls in what collectors and historians regard as the magazine's 'golden period,' when print runs reportedly reached as high as 56,000 copies and the weekly rhythm demanded consistent, prolific output from the entire artist pool.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Issue #146 carries the story title 'David Croqueta,' in which Pumby literally steps through a cinema screen to participate in another character's adventure — a playful meta-fictional device characteristic of Sanchis's storytelling style.
- By issue #146 the magazine had transitioned from biweekly to weekly publication (the shift occurred at issue #125), placing this issue in the high-output weekly run that would continue through issue #1070.
- The title character, Pumby (the 'Happy Kitten'), was created by José Sanchis Grau, who first published the character in Jaimito #260 in 1954 before the standalone magazine launched in April 1955.
- Fourteen characters are indexed in this issue, drawn from multiple recurring series: the Pumby lead strip, the bear-cub family strips (Osito, Osote, and the Sobrinitos), comedy strips featuring Caperucita Encarnada and El Lobo, the frog character Rana Damiana, and the supporting ensemble of Villa Rabitos residents.
- Caperucita Encarnada (a comedic Red Riding Hood parody with El Lobo) and Ivanchito are confirmed among the most persistent recurring series in the magazine, appearing across many years of the run alongside the Pumby lead.
- Editorial Valenciana — founded in Valencia in 1932 by Juan Bautista Puerto and shaped artistically by director José Soriano Izquierdo — was the leading publisher of Spanish children's comics alongside Barcelona's Editorial Bruguera, and Pumby became its most enduring humor title, running for 1,204 numbered issues through November 1984.
- The magazine won Spain's Premio Nacional de Publicación Infantil in 1963, 1966, and 1975, cementing its status as the benchmark of the domestic children's comics market.
- Stories and characters from early issues of Pumby — including this era — were later reprinted in the prestige 'Libros Ilustrados' series (1967–1974, 57 volumes) and in spin-off Super Pumby, giving the content of this period a significant second life in repackaged formats.
Cast · 14 characters
Full credits
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.