Pumby #199
Pumby #199 (July 1961) is a representative number from the heart of the series' first golden era — the stretch of issues in the original 26.5 × 18.5 cm format that cemented Pumby as the dominant children's tebeo in Spain, eventually surpassing all rivals in the market. The issue showcases the full ensemble of characters that defined the magazine's identity: the anthropomorphic-animal comedy strips created by the core Valencian School talent who collectively shaped Spanish children's comics throughout the Franco era. It also preserves one of the medium's most vivid examples of Francoist censorship in plain sight — the strip 'Caperucita Encarnada,' whose very title replaced the politically toxic word 'roja' (red) with 'encarnada' (crimson), a substitution mandated by the regime's guidelines. As a weekly installment produced roughly six years into the run, it documents the creative momentum of a magazine that would go on to win Spain's National Children's Magazine Award multiple times.
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The Pumby magazine was launched by Editorial Valenciana in April 1955 as a deliberate bid to capture younger siblings of the readership already buying the publisher's Jaimito, taking its name from the anthropomorphic black cat that José Sanchis Grau had introduced in Jaimito #260 in 1954. By the time issue #199 appeared in July 1961, the magazine had converted to weekly publication and Sanchis had assumed responsibility for the covers, with his Pumby strip now running across multiple installments. Editorial Valenciana, under artistic director José Soriano Izquierdo, assembled a stable of Valencian School artists — Palop, Edgar, Carbó, Nin, Cerdán, and Rojas de la Cámara among them — whose recurring characters gave the magazine a remarkably deep roster for a children's periodical of the era.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published July 8, 1961 (distribution date per Tebeosfera) by Editorial Valenciana, Valencia, as issue #199 of 1,204 in the series.
- Physical specs: stapled cuaderno format, 26.5 × 18.5 cm, 20 pages, with a full-color cover, two-color interior sections, and color interior pages; cover price 2.50 pesetas.
- Credited creators on this issue per Tebeosfera: J. Sanchis (writer and artist, Pumby strip) and Rojas (artist, identified with Arturo Rojas de la Cámara, who drew Aladino and Centaurito for the magazine).
- The issue features the core ensemble cast tied to named Pumby series: Pumby and the title strip (Sanchis); Payasete y Fu-Chinín (Palop); Becerrín y Monucho — which includes the characters Becerrín, Churumbel, and Monucho (Palop); Caperucita Encarnada with Tortuguita and El Lobo (Edgar); Trompy (Nin); Plumita (Cerdán); and Ivanchito (Carbó).
- The strip 'Caperucita Encarnada' — a Little Red Riding Hood parody running in the magazine since 1956 — used 'encarnada' instead of 'roja' (red) because the Franco dictatorship associated the word 'rojo/roja' with the Republican side of the Civil War; this naming convention was standard practice across Francoist-era Spanish media.
- Caperucita Encarnada's premise: the wolf perpetually tries and fails to menace Caperucita and her companions Tortuguita and Conejín, in short gag strips that typically occupied the back cover in full color.
- Issue #199 sits within the original compact format run (issues #35–437 per Tebeosfera), before the magazine shifted to a larger 28 × 21 cm format from issue #461 onward in 1966.
- The broader Pumby series won Spain's National Children's Magazine Award on multiple occasions (confirmed years include 1963 and 1975; see flagged note on exact years), and at peak circulation the magazine reached 56,000 copies per week.