Pumby #213
Pumby #213 is a representative installment of what comic historian Juan Antonio Ramírez described as a magazine capable of standing as a genuine alternative to Disney's dominance in the Spanish children's market — a publication that would go on to win Spain's National Children's Magazine Award in 1963, 1965, and 1975. Published in 1961, the issue arrives at a creatively fertile moment for the franchise: that same year, creator José Sanchis launched the superhero alter ego Super Pumby, whose orange-juice-powered adventures were inspired by Sanchis's fascination with Superman, signalling the series' willingness to absorb and affectionately parody international pop-culture currents. As a multi-strip anthology uniting the work of Sanchis, Palop, Edgar, and other pillars of the Valencian school of Spanish comics, each issue in this run showcases the collaborative workshop model that set Editorial Valenciana apart from its Barcelona rivals and shaped an entire generation of Spanish readers. The presence of Caperucita Encarnada — whose very title reflects the Francoist regime's ban on the word 'roja' (red) and its substitution with 'encarnada' — gives the issue a quiet socio-linguistic dimension that makes it a small document of mid-century Spanish cultural history.
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The Pumby magazine was launched in April 1955 by Editorial Valenciana, the Valencia-based publishing house co-dominant with Editorial Bruguera in the national Spanish comics market, after the eponymous cat character debuted in issue #260 of the sister magazine Jaimito in 1954. The magazine's creator and primary artist throughout its run was José Sanchis Grau (1932–2011), a product of the Valencian school who had studied Fine Arts at the San Carlos Academy and began drawing professionally at sixteen. At the time of issue #213, the magazine was appearing biweekly in the 26.5×18.5 cm format used for issues #35–437, with interior pages alternating color and two-color printing, and it carried the subtitle Publicación Infantil. The anthology format meant that Sanchis was joined by a roster of Valenciana regulars — including Palop (Becerrín, Payasete y Fu-Chinín), Edgar (Caperucita Encarnada), Grema (Barbudín), and Nin (Trompy) — each contributing self-contained humor strips that distinguished Pumby from the more acerbic slapstick of the rival Bruguera school.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Pumby ran for 1,204 regular issues plus 44 special issues published by Editorial Valenciana between April 1955 and November 1984, making it one of the longest-running Spanish children's comic magazines of its era.
- Issue #213 falls within the 1961 publication year; the next numbered Christmas special in the series is #220 (Extraordinario de Navidad 1961), confirming #213 as a regular 1961 biweekly issue.
- At the time of publication, the magazine measured 26.5×18.5 cm — the standard format used for issues #35 through #437 — with covers in full color and interior pages alternating color and two-color printing.
- The title character Pumby was created by José Sanchis Grau, who wrote and drew every installment of the lead strip; the surrounding anthology strips were contributed by fellow Valenciana artists Palop, Edgar, Grema, Nin, and others.
- Caperucita Encarnada, one of the series indexed in this issue and drawn by Edgar from 1956 onward, uses the word 'encarnada' rather than 'roja' (red) because Francoist censorship treated the word 'roja' as politically suspect, associating it with the losing Republican side of the Civil War.
- Payasete y Fu-Chinín, the strip featuring two child characters dressed as a clown and a stereotyped Chinese boy, was created by Palop in 1959 and became the Pumby series he contributed to for the longest continuous period.
- 1961 is the year Sanchis introduced the Super Pumby concept — an orange-juice-powered superhero version of the cat inspired by his admiration for Superman — whose adventures later ran in the spin-off magazine Super Pumby.
- Dolmen Editorial later published modern reprint collections of classic Pumby adventures (from 2018), confirming the strip's continued recognition as a foundational text of Spanish children's comics.
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