13, Rue del Percebe
Encyclopedia
13, Rue del Percebe is a Spanish comic book created by Francisco Ibáñez
that debuted in the pages of Tío Vivo magazine on March 6, 1961 and quickly became highly popular.
13, Rue del Percebe is a single panel that takes up the whole page that represents an humorous view of a building and the people who inhabits it. Each apartment is a panel in itself, with fixed characters with defined personalities. Usually each panel is not related to the others and can be read in any order, but sometimes an event affects more than one neighbor, and read in order the comic effect is more pronounced.
that is always imagining ingenious ways to evade his creditor
s, and by a poor black cat that is always been tortured by a cruelly ingenious mouse.
The third floor is inhabited by a clumsy thief who's always stealing useless things and his long-suffering wife. Next door, there are a family with three mischievous young boys.
In the second floor there lives an elderly woman that's always having trouble with the animals she buys or adopts (usually dogs, but she also had others, including a whale
), and a hopeless tailor with a lot of nerve (before this, a crazy scientist lived there with his monster, in an obvious parody of the monster of Frankenstein
).
In the first floor dwell an incompetent veterinarian
with an equally impossible clientele, and an overcrowded guesthouse run by a stingy woman.
In the ground, there's a grocery run by Mr. Senén, a distrustful and stingy man who's always cheating on his clients with the weight and genuiness of his merchandise (though sometimes he does get his comeuppance). At his side, there's the porter's lodge with its gossiping porter. Mr. Hurón lives in the sewer's entrance in front of the building, and is often seen chatting with the porter or fending off the hazards which come with living in the sewer.
Lastly, there's the elevator
. Through inanimate, the elevator's troubles are a running gag on the strip. Either it does not work properly, it's stolen, removed for repairs (and replaced with alternative elevation methods like a cannon
or a bellow
), or replaced by newer versions commissioned to a mixed list of builders (like a maker of chess
pieces or a glassworker
).
Sometimes, another of Ibañez characters, Rompetechos, also visits the building, mostly causing Mr. Hurón some form of grief.
, based on Ibañez's most well-known characters, Mortadelo y Filemón
. In the movie, Filemón's mother lives in 13, Rue del Percebe and her neighbors are the strip characters.
This strip was also the inspiration for the successful TV series Aquí no hay quien viva
.
Francisco Ibáñez Talavera
Francisco Ibáñez Talavera , Spanish comic book artist and writer. Born in Barcelona, he is the creator of several comic book series, the most famous of which is Mortadelo y Filemón....
that debuted in the pages of Tío Vivo magazine on March 6, 1961 and quickly became highly popular.
13, Rue del Percebe is a single panel that takes up the whole page that represents an humorous view of a building and the people who inhabits it. Each apartment is a panel in itself, with fixed characters with defined personalities. Usually each panel is not related to the others and can be read in any order, but sometimes an event affects more than one neighbor, and read in order the comic effect is more pronounced.
The inhabitants
The flat roof is inhabited by a debtorDebtor
A debtor is an entity that owes a debt to someone else. The entity may be an individual, a firm, a government, a company or other legal person. The counterparty is called a creditor...
that is always imagining ingenious ways to evade his creditor
Creditor
A creditor is a party that has a claim to the services of a second party. It is a person or institution to whom money is owed. The first party, in general, has provided some property or service to the second party under the assumption that the second party will return an equivalent property or...
s, and by a poor black cat that is always been tortured by a cruelly ingenious mouse.
The third floor is inhabited by a clumsy thief who's always stealing useless things and his long-suffering wife. Next door, there are a family with three mischievous young boys.
In the second floor there lives an elderly woman that's always having trouble with the animals she buys or adopts (usually dogs, but she also had others, including a whale
Whale
Whale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...
), and a hopeless tailor with a lot of nerve (before this, a crazy scientist lived there with his monster, in an obvious parody of the monster of Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
).
In the first floor dwell an incompetent veterinarian
Veterinarian
A veterinary physician, colloquially called a vet, shortened from veterinarian or veterinary surgeon , is a professional who treats disease, disorder and injury in animals....
with an equally impossible clientele, and an overcrowded guesthouse run by a stingy woman.
In the ground, there's a grocery run by Mr. Senén, a distrustful and stingy man who's always cheating on his clients with the weight and genuiness of his merchandise (though sometimes he does get his comeuppance). At his side, there's the porter's lodge with its gossiping porter. Mr. Hurón lives in the sewer's entrance in front of the building, and is often seen chatting with the porter or fending off the hazards which come with living in the sewer.
Lastly, there's the elevator
Elevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
. Through inanimate, the elevator's troubles are a running gag on the strip. Either it does not work properly, it's stolen, removed for repairs (and replaced with alternative elevation methods like a cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
or a bellow
Bellows
A bellows is a device for delivering pressurized air in a controlled quantity to a controlled location.Basically, a bellows is a deformable container which has an outlet nozzle. When the volume of the bellows is decreased, the air escapes through the outlet...
), or replaced by newer versions commissioned to a mixed list of builders (like a maker of chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
pieces or a glassworker
Glassblowing
Glassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble, or parison, with the aid of a blowpipe, or blow tube...
).
Sometimes, another of Ibañez characters, Rompetechos, also visits the building, mostly causing Mr. Hurón some form of grief.
Other media
Some of the characters from this strip appear in the movie La gran aventura de Mortadelo y FilemónLa gran aventura de Mortadelo y Filemón
La gran aventura de Mortadelo y Filemón is a 2003 Spanish language film based on the popular Spanish comic book series Mortadelo y Filemón by Francisco Ibáñez Talavera. The film was directed by Javier Fesser and stars Benito Pocino and Pepe Viyuela....
, based on Ibañez's most well-known characters, Mortadelo y Filemón
Mortadelo y Filemón
Mort & Phil is one of the most popular Spanish comics series, published in more than a dozen countries. It appeared for the first time in 1958 in the children's comic-book Pulgarcito drawn by Francisco Ibáñez...
. In the movie, Filemón's mother lives in 13, Rue del Percebe and her neighbors are the strip characters.
This strip was also the inspiration for the successful TV series Aquí no hay quien viva
Aquí no hay quien viva
Aquí no hay quien viva is a Spanish television comedy focusing on the inhabitants of the fictional building in Desengaño 21, Calle Desengaño being a street between the Districts of Gran Via and Chueca in Madrid...
.