Google celebrates the 80th anniversary of the birth of graphic humorist Antonio Fraguas, ‘Forges’ – Spain’s News

In the work of the Madrid cartoonist occupies an exceptional place for manners and social criticism. Forges transferred his critical view of everyday life situations through an extensive iconography of comic characters and situations that reflects the idiosyncrasy and sociology of contemporary Spain.

Another of its particular characteristics was the use of thick black line speech bubbles, as well as, a style taken directly from the street. ‘Inventor’ of lexical words and idioms, such as ‘gensanta’, ‘stupendo’, ‘bocata’ or ‘tontolcool’, he was one of the few humorists with a sensitive attention to popular language. Graphically he was the father of the curse word crossed out in the texts of his drawings, achieving an ‘attenuated lexical expression’ for some of his characters of pure popular colloquial language.

Beginnings in TVE

From a Catalan mother and a Galician father, ‘Forges’ lives his childhood in a large family. He was a poor student but a great reader of Richmal Crompton and his books on William the Menace. He attended the Ramiro de Maeztu Institute in Madrid his first school years, and the first courses of high school in the Sacred Hearts. At the age of 14, he made the leap into the world of work in Spanish Television, but in 1973 he left it to dedicate himself professionally to graphic humor. His first drawing was published in the newspaper ‘Pueblo’ in 1964 and later became part of ‘Informaciones’.

Antonio Fraguas continued to draw in different media, thus increasing his popularity. His cartoons, which helped many readers to understand and process the evolution of Spanish society, filled countless pages of newspapers in our country. Thanks to boundless creativity and great talent, ‘Forges’ wrote novels, picture books, TV scripts and even directed movies.

Despite the fact that ‘Forges’ never wanted to be a member of any jury, and that he did not participate in any contest or award either, had several awards for which it is not necessary to apply, such as the Prize for Freedom of Expression of the Union of Journalists of Spain; He was also a Collegiate of Honor of the Association of Journalists of Catalonia and was in possession of the Creu de Sant Jordi, the highest Catalan decoration. But these are just some of the awards that the Madrid cartoonist holds.

Antonio Fraguas died of pancreatic cancer on February 22, 2018, but his memory lives on in the memory of his millions of readers and will be eternal in his works.

Historical milestones or designated dates

The Internet is a great newspaper library and therefore you can consult the most important doodles, such as the Gregorian calendar, as well as its history or creators here.

These little virtual works of art, like the anniversary of the determination of the speed of light, can be purchased and even decorated with any type of object such as t-shirts, stamps or skateboards through its virtual store.

The history of the doodle

Google usually decorates the letters of its logo to celebrate the anniversaries of famous people or key dates in the world of science or culture, such as the birth of Charles Chaplin, the Nobel winners, the anniversary of ‘Don Quixote’ or either some relevant or novel event or the Gregorian calendar.

The famous search engine has surprised with interactive doodles, such as the one that commemorated the 30th anniversary of ‘Pac-Man’, which allowed the famous video game to be played.

Other outstanding doodles were the one dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the birth of John Lennon, with a video that reviewed the imagery of the Beatle; the 60th anniversary of the publication of ‘The Astronauts’ by Stanislaw Lem, with several mini-games, or the incredible one dedicated to Les Paul, recreating a guitar inspired by the six-string master that allowed users to compose songs.