Editorial Bruguera
Encyclopedia
Bruguera was a Spanish
publishing house based in Barcelona
, which was devoted mainly to the production of popular literature and comics. It was created in 1910 as El Gato Negro, changed its name in 1940 and came to possess, as indicated by Jesús Cuadrado:
It was dissolved in 1986 and briefly revived as part of Grupo Z in 2006 but today only Bruguera Mexicana S.A continues publishing and editing books -mainly western
- in Mexico
, Latin America
and the United States
.
which proved very successful. They published another twenty magazines including Charlot (1928) with content of Film Fun
.
After Juan Bruguera's death in 1933 his sons, Pantaleón and Francisco Bruguera Grane, succeeded him.
In 1947 the publishing house increased profits with other comics such as El Campeón (1948), Super Pulgarcito (1949), Magos de la Risa (1949) and El DDT (1951); romance novel
s of Corín Tellado
and western novels
(notably the ones of Marcial Lafuente Estefanía) and adventure comics such as El Cachorro or Capitán Trueno
. In 1957 a group of comic artists tried to secede from the publisher and founded their own magazine Tío Vivo, but they didn't succeed and in 1960 the magazine was acquired by Bruguera. Bruguera also published a comic for girls Sissi.
By then, Bruguera was one of the largest publishers of comics in Spain, among with Cliper, Hispano Americana y Toray
. Over time, the family business also became a truly multinational publisher, being implemented in several countries in Latin America.
is clear. They also published in Spain Franco-Belgian comics
such as Asterix
or Blueberry, always beating their competitors.
In the 1970s they increased their production of comics, taking advantage of their feature characters and combining new and old material
In the literature field, they lost lawsuits against Corín Tellado
and Marcial Lafuente Estefanía in 1974, so they started to publish material by Jorge Amado
, Jorge Luis Borges
, García Márquez, Juan Marsé
o Juan Carlos Onetti
. They also launched two pocket book collections: Libro Clásico and Libro Amigo.
by Gabriel García Márquez
became big best-sellers, despite this the publishing house filed for bankruptcy on 7 June 1982. In 1986 it was acquired by Grupo Z and transformed into Ediciones B.
It was briefly relaunched under Ediciones B from 2006 to 2010.
, the role played by the editorial Bruguera after the Spanish Civil War was fundamental, especially its humorous publications, with characters such as Don Pío (1947) by Peñarroya, El repórter Tribulete (1947) by Cifré, Doña Urraca (1948) by Jorge, Zipi y Zape
(1948) by Escobar
, El loco Carioco (1949) by Conti
, La familia Cebolleta (1951) by Vázquez, El doctor Cataplasma (1953) by Martz Schmidt, El caco Bonifacio (1957) by Enrich
, Mortadelo y Filemón
(1958) by Ibáñez
, Rigoberto Picaporte (1959) by Segura, Agamenón (1961) by Nené Estivill and Aspirino y Colodión (1966) by Alfons Figueras
. Directed by Rafael González Martínez. These artists were able to set up an easily recognisable style (called Escuela Bruguera), halfway between children's entertainment and satire of manners.
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...
publishing house based in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, which was devoted mainly to the production of popular literature and comics. It was created in 1910 as El Gato Negro, changed its name in 1940 and came to possess, as indicated by Jesús Cuadrado:
It was dissolved in 1986 and briefly revived as part of Grupo Z in 2006 but today only Bruguera Mexicana S.A continues publishing and editing books -mainly western
Western
Western may refer to:* Western , a category of fiction and visual art centered on the American Old West** Western fiction, the Western genre as featured in literature* Western music, a type of American folk music-In geography:...
- in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
El Gato Negro
It was founded in 1910 by Juan Bruguera Teixidó under the name El Gato Negro and specialising in popular literature, joke books and especially in comic magazines. They followed the example of the Spanish comic magazine TBO (founded in 1917) and in 1921 they created PulgarcitoPulgarcito
Pulgarcito was a weekly illustrated magazine of Spain that was published by Editorial Bruguera from June 1921 to 1986....
which proved very successful. They published another twenty magazines including Charlot (1928) with content of Film Fun
Film Fun
Film Fun was a British comic book that ran from 17 January 1920 to 15 September 1962, when it merged with Buster, a total of 2225 issues. There were also annuals in the forties and fifties. It had been renamed Film Fun and Thrills in 1959...
.
After Juan Bruguera's death in 1933 his sons, Pantaleón and Francisco Bruguera Grane, succeeded him.
Classical phase
Pantaleón and Francisco Bruguera changed the name from El Gato Negro to Editorial Bruguera in 1939.In 1947 the publishing house increased profits with other comics such as El Campeón (1948), Super Pulgarcito (1949), Magos de la Risa (1949) and El DDT (1951); romance novel
Romance novel
The romance novel is a literary genre developed in Western culture, mainly in English-speaking countries. Novels in this genre place their primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and must have an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Through the late...
s of Corín Tellado
Corín Tellado
María del Socorro Tellado López , known as Corín Tellado, was a prolific Spanish writer of romantic novels and photonovels that were best-sellers in several Spanish-language countries...
and western novels
Western fiction
Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 1900s and Louis L'Amour from the mid 20th century...
(notably the ones of Marcial Lafuente Estefanía) and adventure comics such as El Cachorro or Capitán Trueno
Capitán Trueno
El Capitán Trueno was the hero of a series of Spanish comic books, created in 1956 by the writer Víctor Mora and illustrated mainly by Miguel Ambrosio Zaragoza . The comics were published continuously between 1956 and 1968, eventually becoming the most popular Spanish hero comic of all times: at...
. In 1957 a group of comic artists tried to secede from the publisher and founded their own magazine Tío Vivo, but they didn't succeed and in 1960 the magazine was acquired by Bruguera. Bruguera also published a comic for girls Sissi.
By then, Bruguera was one of the largest publishers of comics in Spain, among with Cliper, Hispano Americana y Toray
Toray
is a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan that specializes in industrial products centered around technologies in organic synthetic chemistry, polymer chemistry, and biochemistry. Its founding business areas were fibers and textiles, as well as plastics and chemicals...
. Over time, the family business also became a truly multinational publisher, being implemented in several countries in Latin America.
Other directions
Since the mid 60s, they launched new magazines such as Din Dan (1965), Bravo (1968) and Gran Pulgarcito (1969) in which the influence of televisionTelevision
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
is clear. They also published in Spain Franco-Belgian comics
Franco-Belgian comics
Franco-Belgian comics are comics that are created in Belgium and France. These countries have a long tradition in comics and comic books, where they are known as BDs, an abbreviation of bande dessinée in French and stripverhalen in Dutch...
such as Asterix
Asterix
Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix is a series of French comic books written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo . The series first appeared in French in the magazine Pilote on October 29, 1959...
or Blueberry, always beating their competitors.
In the 1970s they increased their production of comics, taking advantage of their feature characters and combining new and old material
In the literature field, they lost lawsuits against Corín Tellado
Corín Tellado
María del Socorro Tellado López , known as Corín Tellado, was a prolific Spanish writer of romantic novels and photonovels that were best-sellers in several Spanish-language countries...
and Marcial Lafuente Estefanía in 1974, so they started to publish material by Jorge Amado
Jorge Amado
Jorge Leal Amado de Faria was a Brazilian writer of the Modernist school. He was the best-known of modern Brazilian writers, his work having been translated into some 49 languages and popularized in film, notably Dona Flor and her Two Husbands in 1978...
, Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
, García Márquez, Juan Marsé
Juan Marsé
Juan Marsé is a Spanish novelist, journalist and screenwriter, born in Barcelona on January 8, 1933 as Juan Faneca Roca.His mother died in childbirth, and he was soon adopted by the Marsé family. At age 14 he started to publish some of his writings in Insula magazine and in a cinema magazine while...
o Juan Carlos Onetti
Juan Carlos Onetti
Juan Carlos Onetti was an Uruguayan novelist and author of short stories.A high school drop-out, Onetti's first novel, El pozo, published in 1939, met with his close friends' immediate acclaim, as well as from some writers and journalists of his time...
. They also launched two pocket book collections: Libro Clásico and Libro Amigo.
The end
In the early eighties books such as Chronicle of a Death ForetoldChronicle of a Death Foretold
Chronicle of a Death Foretold is a novella by Gabriel García Márquez, published in 1981...
by Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
became big best-sellers, despite this the publishing house filed for bankruptcy on 7 June 1982. In 1986 it was acquired by Grupo Z and transformed into Ediciones B.
It was briefly relaunched under Ediciones B from 2006 to 2010.
Comics
In the field of comicsSpanish comics
See also List of Spanish comicsSpanish comics are the comics of Spain and they are among the most important comics traditions in Europe. Comics in Spain are usually called tebeos, historietas or cómics.-Origin and definition:...
, the role played by the editorial Bruguera after the Spanish Civil War was fundamental, especially its humorous publications, with characters such as Don Pío (1947) by Peñarroya, El repórter Tribulete (1947) by Cifré, Doña Urraca (1948) by Jorge, Zipi y Zape
Zipi y Zape
Zipi y Zape are the names of two iconic Spanish comic book characters created by José Escobar Saliente in 1947, and of their eponymous strip. With Mortadelo y Filemón, they are the most popular and most translated Spanish comic books...
(1948) by Escobar
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...
, El loco Carioco (1949) by Conti
Carlos Conti
Carlos Conti Alcántara was a Spanish comic artist and writer. He created characters such as El loco Carioco - Biography :...
, La familia Cebolleta (1951) by Vázquez, El doctor Cataplasma (1953) by Martz Schmidt, El caco Bonifacio (1957) by Enrich
ENRICH
ENRICH is a 125-item questionnaire—completed separately by a couple—that explores conflict resolution, role relationship, financial management, expectations, sexual relationship, personality compatibility, communication, marital satisfaction, and more...
, 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...
(1958) by Ibáñez
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....
, Rigoberto Picaporte (1959) by Segura, Agamenón (1961) by Nené Estivill and Aspirino y Colodión (1966) by Alfons Figueras
Alfons Figueras
Alfons Figueras i Fontanals was a Spanish comic artist and writer. He created characters such as Aspirino y Colodión or Topolino, el último héroe...
. Directed by Rafael González Martínez. These artists were able to set up an easily recognisable style (called Escuela Bruguera), halfway between children's entertainment and satire of manners.