Pumby #168
Pumby #168 holds a distinct place in the run as the magazine's dedicated Christmas special (Extraordinario de Navidad) for 1960 — one of only a handful of oversized holiday issues integrated into the regular numbering during the series' early years. Its lead story, 'El Doctor Mekano,' is a Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) adventure that shows Sanchis deploying the full ensemble of Villa Rabitos at holiday capacity, weaving the absurdist fantasy and rapid visual gag rhythms that made the magazine the dominant children's tebeo in Spain. The issue also represents a snapshot of the magazine's creative peak: roughly five years into its run, Pumby had already surpassed all rival Spanish children's comics in reach, and the Christmas specials functioned as prestige showcases for the breadth of its anthology cast. 'El Doctor Mekano' was later selected for reprint in the deluxe Libros Ilustrados collection, confirming its standing as one of the stronger stories from this period.
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The Pumby magazine was launched by Editorial Valenciana on 23 April 1955, built around a cat character — Pumby, 'el gatito feliz' — that José Sanchis Grau had introduced the previous year in issue #260 of Valenciana's Jaimito magazine. Sanchis, a Valencia-born artist trained at the San Carlos Academy, had been developing strips for Valenciana since 1948, and Pumby gave his boundless surrealist imagination its ideal home. By 1960, the biweekly magazine was at the height of its cultural reach, and the Christmas Extraordinario format (already established with issues #93 and #119 in 1958 and 1959 respectively) had become a fixed annual tradition. The multi-artist anthology structure of the magazine meant that characters like Payasete y Fu-Chinín, Trompy, Cangurito, Peluca, and Perico Fantasías — each drawn by different contributors from the Valenciana stable — all received their own strips alongside Sanchis's headline Pumby adventures.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Pumby #168 was the official 'Extraordinario de Navidad 1960' — the Christmas special issue for that year, integrated directly into the magazine's regular numbering sequence.
- The lead story is 'El Doctor Mekano,' a Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) adventure in which Pumby, Blanquita, and Profesor Chivete save their hometown of Villa Rabitos from the villainous Doctor Mekano — running 9 pages in a mix of full color (5 pages) and two-tone/bitono (4 pages).
- 'El Doctor Mekano' was later reprinted in Pumby (1967, Valenciana) — Libros Ilustrados #7, the deluxe 80-page reprint album series launched in 1967, confirming the story's enduring appeal within the Valenciana catalogue.
- The issue's creator is José Sanchis Grau (19 June 1932 – 2 August 2011), the Valencian artist who created Pumby in 1954 for Jaimito #260 and served as the magazine's primary creative engine throughout its run.
- Pumby was a multi-strip anthology magazine: alongside the headline Pumby story, each issue carried a roster of supporting series featuring different characters — among them Payasete y Fu-Chinín, Trompy, Cangurito, Peluca, and Perico Fantasías — drawn by various artists from the Valenciana stable including Palop, Karpa, and others.
- By 1960, Pumby had become the leading tebeo in the Spanish children's market, outpacing rivals such as Hipo, Monito y Fifí and Yumbo from Ediciones Clíper.
- The magazine ran for 1,204 ordinary issues plus 44 extraordinary/special issues between 1955 and 1984, published by Editorial Valenciana — one of the two dominant Spanish comic publishers of the era alongside Barcelona's Editorial Bruguera.
- The Pumby Christmas specials (Extraordinarios de Navidad) began with #93 in 1958 and #119 in 1959; #168 in 1960 was the third in the annual holiday tradition, which continued unbroken through #377 in 1964 and beyond.
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