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're the most popular and most translated Spanish comic books. Their name is derived from the Spanish word "zipizape", meaning "turmoil" or "chaos."

Zipi and Zape are two young twins, mischievous, energetic, fans of soccer, and that do very badly in school. They are distinguished solely by their hair color: Zipi is blond, Zape black-haired. Other characters featured in the strip are their father, "Don Pantuflo", a professor of Philately and Colombophilia; 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 "Toby", their faithful dog.

Their stories are usually short, about 1-8 pages long, but occasionally some are longer, about 44 or 48 pages long, 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 espectacularly, including popular culture elements like aliens and mad scientists.

Publication history

Escobar's stories were published by Editorial Bruguera in the "Pulgarcito" magazine, which contained several comic strips. They later got their own magazine, "ZipiZape" (pictured at right), 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 catalogue 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 and make good use of the Internet. 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.

Derivative works

The popularity of "Zipi y Zape" has prompted the creation of derived works, like videogames, an animated TV series in 2003 and a live-action movie, "Las Aventuras de Zipi y Zape", in 1981.

External links

*imdb title|id=0406489|title=Zipi y Zape TV-Series
*imdb title|id=0082039|title=Las Aventuras de Zipi y Zape