Graphic Humour, Spain

Just recently I selfishly acquired this from a friend...well, he didnt object in me taking it, but I keep thinking that maybe I was just a bit too greedy....but then again, if I left it with him he would have just used it for postage most probably so I just want to think that I kinda saved it :D

If you take a good look you will actually see that the issue is presented as a souvenir sheet that is made up of one stamp, plus 11 cartoons in a comic strip format with no postage value (kinda weird on the other hand, to create a stamp sheet like this and then kinda make it useless...cos if you just use the stamp and leave the rest it kinda ends up being destroyed and looks terrible....so I guess this was meant for collectors only...I mean, the face value of the stamp is not really something you could use on every day mail now, is it?). It features a dedication penned by the graphic humorist: “For the entire philatelic work force, with affection (2014).”

Antonio Fraguas de Pablo, known as Forges, was born in Madrid in 1942. Beginning as a technician at the national television station TVE when he was very young, in 1973 he decided to devote himself professionally to graphic humour. During this initial period, he published his first drawings in the daily newspaper Pueblo (in 1964) and in Informaciones, and began to collaborate with the humour magazines Hermano Lobo, Por Favor and El Jueves. In 1982 he began working at the newspaper Diario 16 drawing editorial jokes. Years later, he began appearing in El Mundo, the paper that he helped to found. In 1995 he started publishing a daily comic strip in El País that he still signs today. Exhibiting a sense of humour that is caustic, realistic and loaded with current references, Forges depicts a critical vision of current events in his drawings, with thought-provoking characters and situations from everyday life. He uses popular language, with invented words, such as strozá, gensanta, bocata and esborcio, that simulate vocabulary picked up directly from the streets. Among his most well-known characters, which undoubtedly reflect the ad hoc nature of society, are: Mariano and his wife Concha, the island castaways that combat loneliness with imagination, Los Blasillos (the Blasillo family) in rural Spain, the deranged football fans and the enfuriated office worker. Phrases such as “Don’t forget...” repeated day after day for different reasons, emphasise events that occupy the front pages of the news.

it was issued on October 9, 2014

anyways, the theme for today's Sunday Stamps is illustrations, and this kinda (at least according to me), fit into the definition...so I thought it would be nice to share it with you, cos personally, I really love this one!
Now, it is in Spanish, so I hope you can get the idea about what it is all about...now with my limited knowledge of Spanish, I would refrain from translating these...plus, translating humour is like destined to result in a failure...

for more illustrations of this and other kinds, make sure to visit today's Sunday Stamps!