Zipi y Zape
Encyclopedia
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
comic book characters created by José Escobar Saliente
José Escobar Saliente
José Escobar Saliente was a Spanish comic book writer and artist, born in Barcelona. He signed as Escobar, and is most famous for his creation Zipi y Zape, as well as the character Carpanta...
in 1947, and of their eponymous strip. With 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...
, they are the most popular and most translated Spanish comic books. Their name is derived from the Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
word zipizape, meaning "turmoil" or "chaos."
Zipi and Zape Zapatilla are two young twin
Twin
A twin is one of two offspring produced in the same pregnancy. Twins can either be monozygotic , meaning that they develop from one zygote that splits and forms two embryos, or dizygotic because they develop from two separate eggs that are fertilized by two separate sperm.In contrast, a fetus...
s who do poorly in school. Mischievous and energetic, they are fans of soccer. They are distinguished solely by their hair color: Zipi is blond, Zape black-haired. Other featured characters are their father, Don Pantuflo Zapatilla, a professor of Philately
Philately
Philately is the study of stamps and postal history and other related items. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting, which does not necessarily involve the study of stamps. It is possible to be a philatelist without owning any stamps...
and Colombophilia (pantuflo/a and zapatilla are both Spanish names for slipper
Slipper
A slipper or houseshoe is a semi-closed type of indoor/outdoor shoe, consisting of a sole held to the wearer's foot by a strap running over the toes or instep. Slippers are soft and lightweight compared to other types of footwear. They are mostly made of soft or comforting materials that allow a...
s); their mother, the hard-pressed Doña Jaimita; Don Minervo, their strict teacher; Peloto, the teacher’s pet (and thus the twins’ enemy); Sapientín, their genius cousin and Pepe and Felisa Plómez, the extremely annoying friends of their parents, whose undesirable visits they try to avoid or cut short.
Their stories are usually short, about one to eight pages long, but occasionally some are longer, about 44 or 48 pages, like "El tonel del tiempo" (The barrel of time) o "El laboratorio secreto" (The secret laboratory). They are humorous, based on the twins antics and their effects, since often they backfire spectacularly, including popular culture elements like aliens
Extraterrestrial life in popular culture
In popular cultures, "extraterrestrials" are life forms — especially intelligent life forms— that are of extraterrestrial origin .-Historical ideas:-Pre-modern:...
and mad scientist
Mad scientist
A mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, specifically science fiction. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral, and whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, mad scientists often work with fictional technology in order to forward their schemes, if...
s.
Publication history
Escobar's stories were published by Editorial Bruguera in the PulgarcitoPulgarcito
Pulgarcito was a weekly illustrated magazine of Spain that was published by Editorial Bruguera from June 1921 to 1986....
magazine, which contained several comic strips. They later got their own magazine, ZipiZape, which also contained several comic strips apart from the title one. The strips were later compiled in softcover and hardcover albums. When Bruguera went bankrupt, its catalog was bought by Ediciones B, the current owners of the characters rights. These classical stories can be found in softcover under the "Colección Olé" label and in hardcover under the "Super Humor" label.
The series continues after Escobar's death, now in the hands of cartoonists Juan Carlos Ramis and Joaquín Cera who have put them forward to the 21st century. Zipi and Zape are still domestic terrorists, but now are fans of the UEFA Champions League
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...
and make good use of the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. Their stories are published directly on hardcover albums under the "Magos del Humor" label. Several of these albums are later collected in the wider, hardcover "Super Humor" albums.