Continuing with the previous post “Comic characters: superheroes”, in this entry I dedicate it to the issue of comic characters: superheroes of Hispanic origin, by this I mean that they are those produced in Spain by authors and illustrators. And finally, I will start the subject of the Manga comic.
To see the characteristics of the comic, I recommend that you read this previous entry.
Next, I expose the list, of which I consider to be Spanish superheroes that we find in comics.
List of Spanish superheroes:
1. Superlopez
2. Captain Thunder.
3.Pafman
4.Iberia Inc.
5. The Eagle and Captain Spain
6.Supersonic Man
7. The Masked Warrior
8. The Wild Boar
After the name of each superhero, I expose the sources that I have consulted, and that I consider to be of interest to the reader:
1. SUPER LOPEZ
Superlopez was born on the planet Chitón under the name of Jo-Con-El and, after sneaking into a rocket, he arrived on Earth as a baby. You can see the similarities with the story of Superman, who was born on Krypton and was called Kal-El. After landing, the boy is adopted by the López family —an elderly couple living in Lérida— under the name of Juan López Fernández. To name the character, Jan was looking for a name that would be a paradigm of a very ordinary average personality, and that he finally found in his own.López grows up trying to lead an ordinary life while striving to control his superpowers and fight evil. Already in his maturity, the character begins to work as a regular accountant in an office in Barcelona. Subject to pressure from his boss and the whims of his girlfriend Luisa Lanas, he fulfills himself and evades the daily routine by acting as a superhero under the alter ego of Superlópez, often futilely trying to understand what is happening around him and advancing based on blows. until solving the problems luckily.
Wikipedia
Coincidence or not, this year the film Superlópez is released, previously it will be presented in October 2018 at the Sitges festival, and in November we will be able to see it in cinemas.
movie trailer
Technical sheet of the film
Every illustration has its origin, and the origin of this enigmatic character lies in the cartoonist Jan. Yes, you read that right, cartoonist, that is, comic book author.
According to Wikipedia, cartoonist is the professional who scripts, draws or labels comics, although it can also refer to the colorist and inker and less frequently to the editorial coordinators or editors.
Jan is the pillar of humor comics in Spanish. For more information, I recommend that you read the Wikipedia article because it contains relevant information.
2. CAPTAIN THUNDER
The protagonist is Captain Thunder, a Spanish knight from the Middle Ages at the time of the Third Crusade (late twelfth century). Accompanied by his friends Goliath and Crispin, and sometimes also by Sigrid, Trueno’s girlfriend and queen of the island of Thule, he travels the world in search of adventures that allow him to express his status as defender of justice and liberator of the oppressed.
Wikipedia
This character is the predecessor of El Jabato, which I will highlight below.
Creator: Victor Mora
3. PAFMAN
The main characters of the comics are Pafman, a bumbling superhero accompanied by an anthropomorphic cat and an inventor who cause many disasters in his fight against supervillains.
Wikipedia
Cera was one of the authors with the most collaborations with Ediciones B magazines in the 90s, with works for TBO, Super Mortadelo and Super Zipi y Zape magazines.
Joaquin Cera, creator
As a curiosity, he left this link:
Pafman, LOGROÑO City defender
4. IBERIA INC.
Wikipedia
Creators: Rafael Marin and Carlos Pacheco,
It tells the adventures of a group of contemporary superheroes at the service of the Spanish government: Trueno, Lobisome, Melkart, Aquaviva, Drac de Ferro, Dolmen, Trasnu and Traka. Font
I understand that they are like the Fantastic Four in the most Spanish style.
5. CAPTAIN SPAIN AND THE EAGLE
These two characters have been created by Marvel and both are of Spanish nationality. Captain Spanish Superheroes, Spain’s national pride, Carlos Fraile, appears in Marvel’s Ultimate Universe. He was a soldier in the Spanish Army who was selected by the Spanish Government to represent the country in the European Defense Initiative program. The intent of this program was to create a series of European soldiers who are given muscle implants and given a special suit like Captain America so that they can have super strength, speed, endurance, and even the ability to fly.
Font
6. SUPERSONIC MAN
This character does not have its origin in the comic, but in the movie.
After the success of Journey to the Center of the Earth, the director received some offers to do more movies with special effects. The one that interested him most was an Italian-American proposal to make Captain Electric. He seemed like a real technical challenge and he decided to accept it. The first thing was to change the name since it sounded like an appliance and they chose the name of Flash Man. Shortly after they received a protest from Dino de Laurentiis’ production company for the similarity it had with the title of their project to make Flash Gordon. They changed the name again to Supersonic Man.
Wikipedia
Film
7. THE MASK WARRIOR
The protagonist lives with the terrible remorse of having served Islam as the son of Ali Khan, and only after many battles does he consider himself worthy of the love of Ana María, with whom he finally marries.
Wikipedia
The masked warrior, article by Manuel Gago. 04/08/2018
8. THE PIG
He is a peaceful peasant who, enslaved by Rome and forcibly turned into a gladiator, soon leads a gladiatorial rebellion and manages to escape from the circus, later dedicating himself to traveling the world as a wandering vigilante. His usual clothing consists of a short skirt (generally red in the colored version), which reveals his legs protected by metal greaves, and leather sandals on his feet, as well as a shiny scale armor (“lorica squamata”, which in the first notebooks he would have snatched a Carthaginian general in the city of Zaal).
Wikipedia
Creator: Victor Mora
It should be noted that in 2016 the Superheroes with Ñ Exhibition was organized, whose main theme was the Spanish comic illustrators, organized by ABC.
More information
The comic tells the story and the adventures in a different way from the novel, because it is accompanied by illustrations.
But there is a diverse typology about the comic format, and by that I mean its reading order, I am referring to the Manga comic. Its most distinctive feature:
In Japanese, panels and pages are read from right to left, and most manga that are translated into other languages follow this order. The most popular and recognized style of manga has other distinctive characteristics, many of them influenced by Osamu Tezuka, considered the father of modern manga.