Mortadelo and Filemon

Mortadelo y Filemón is a series of humorous comics created and developed by the Spanish author Francisco Ibáñez from 1958, the most popular of his, and probably the most popular of his. all comics in Spain. Usually attached to the Bruguera school, it has also enjoyed a multitude of adaptations to other media.

The series was born under the name Mortadelo y Filemón, information agency, taking detective fiction as a comic base and with comic strips from 1 to 4 pages. From the beginning, the main characters were defined: Filemón, an angry man, with only two hairs and with the role of boss, and Mortadelo, a tall and bald man, with zero common sense and the ability to disguise himself as anything, under orders. of Philemon. In 1969 they joined the ranks of the T.I.A., a disastrous secret agency that allows them to parody spy stories, joining the list of fixed characters the despotic superintendent (or "Super") of the organization, the catastrophic scientist Professor Bacterio, the plump Secretary Ofelia or the attractive secretary Irma (currently out of service). In addition, long adventures of 44 pages began to appear. In any of its periods, the series stands out for its extremely slapstick humor, so the characters constantly suffer mishaps such as falls from great heights, explosions, being crushed by all kinds of heavy objects (pianos, safes, etc.) without their consequences usually lasting more than one or two vignettes.

Historical evolution

Primitive period (1958-1968)

Sello de correos de España

The first Mortadelo y Filemón comic strip appeared on January 20, 1958 in Pulgarcito number 1394 with the generic title Mortadelo y Filemón, information agency. At that time it was usual for humorous comic series to have a couplet as a title, generally with the name of its protagonists in the first verse. It seems that Ibáñez proposed three different names to the publisher, but that finally it was Bruguera herself who invented the definitive ones. Ibáñez had proposed "Mr. Cloro y Mr. Yesca, detective agency", "Ocarino y Pernales, special agents" and "Lentujo y Fideíno, detectives finos". The definitive names proposed by Bruguera seem to refer to mortadella (Mortadelo) and a fillet (Filemón).

In their origins, Mortadelo and Filemón, the protagonists of the series, were a parody of Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes, respectively (other reference sources sometimes cited are Newest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Enrique Jardiel Poncela and El Gordo y el Flaco). The series was created entirely by Ibáñez, although the idea of the detective couple, and that one of them could disguise himself, could have come from Manuel Vázquez Gallego (Spanish cartoonist of the same time).

In Mortadelo and Filemón, Information Agency, Filemón is the head of a detective agency and has Mortadelo as his employee and only assistant. The first stories were on a single page in black and white (except when it was on the cover) with six rows of bullet points and followed a very simple scheme: someone hires the agency's services, but when trying to accomplish the mission, something happens. mistake that leads to a complete failure of it. Discovery of the mistake usually ended in a chase or someone fainting. This structure of presentation-equivocal-outcome was extremely common in the comics of the Bruguera school.

Philemon had a hooked nose, wore a fleece jacket and hat, and smoked a pipe (in Thumb #1404 he even wore the raincoat and checkered hat characteristic of most Holmes illustrations). Mortadelo, for his part, in addition to the usual black glasses and frock coat, wore a bowler hat and umbrella of the same color. The bowler hat was also used by Mortadelo to store costumes, a resource that would prove unnecessary over time. Another characteristic of the original Mortadelo (and one that only lasted a few comics) was perpetually narrowed eyes that gave him a clueless look.

This primitive appearance was refined over time, soon acquiring an aspect similar to the current one: Mortadelo would keep his black frock coat, but the hat and umbrella would disappear; Meanwhile, Filemón gradually reduced his long, hooked nose and his clothing began to consist of a black bow tie, white shirt, red pants, and sometimes a matching jacket.

Mature stage: classical (1969-1979)

International Comic Exhibition in Barcelona (2016).

1969 marks the beginning of the maturity of this series, with some major changes:

• Long comics begin, which usually have 44 pages and are usually organized in self-conclusive episodes of 4 faces that usually narrate the events of one day. The reason for this structure was that these episodes would be published weekly; initially in the magazine Great Thumb and later in the magazine Kill him.. The argumental thread of the comics serves only as a means of structuring the chapters and as a basis for chaining the comical situations. Apart from the serialized publication they were also published in full form in the Olé collection.
• In this new stage of Mortadelo and Philemon, humor is not based only on the discovery of an equivocal, but multiple humorous resources are continually employed: parody, visual jokes, absurd humor, entanglements, word games, etc.
• Mortadelo and Filemon are part of the T.I.A., an organization with clear reminiscences of the C.I.A. The references to Holmes, who have already disappeared for a long time, are replaced by the parody of the stories of spies, very common at the time. The clearest reference of this time is the series Superagent 86premiered in Spain two years before the publication Atomic sulfate; this series reflects a world of incompetent spies, secret entries and even "zapatophones" (phone-based shoes) very similar to that of the adventures of Mortadelo and Filemon.
• The drawing style is almost completely defined, as well as the personalities of the two detectives, now converted into "secret agents". In addition, new characters were incorporated into the stories: Superintendent Vicente, Professor Saturnino Bacterio and, in 1978, Secretary Ofelia. Other characters, including their peculiar gallery of villains, do not become recurrent.

The first extensive story is Atomic Sulfate (Big Thumb, 01-27-1969 to 06-30-1969). In this comic, the drawing style is unusually detailed, with clear influences from the Franco-Belgian school, especially from Franquin.;chicharrón gang", Safari callejero); 1970 (Courage and... to the bull!, The case of the cod); 1971 (Chapeau the "esmirriau", The box of ten locks, Magín the magician, A the painting hunt!), and 1972 (The inventions of Professor Bacterio, Gatolandia 76 or Operation Bomba!). In these first long adventures, Ibáñez experiments with the structure of the cartoons, giving the comics a less rigid appearance and also achieving greater expressiveness; however he soon returns to the rigid structure of five rows of panels.

An archetypal adventure from this period could be The Diamonds of the Grand Duchess (Mortadelo, 07-72 to 10-72). In the first episode the story line is described, while in the following episodes the search for the corresponding diamonds takes place for ten consecutive days, each of which is hidden in a different place (they manage to find them, although the end of each episode it's disastrous one way or another, especially in the case of the latter). Ibáñez continues making long stories like El otro "yo" of Professor Bacterio, The Circus, Opposition Contest or The Hooligans, where the character of the plump secretary Ofelia appears for the first time.

Mature stage: modern (1979-1989)

The division of the mature stage into two: classical and modern can be controversial; however, differences can be established between the two. One of these differences is the number of bullet rows. Until El transformador metabólico (Mortadelo, February to March 1979), the stories had five rows of cartoons, but from then on they went to four. Taking into account that the number of pages does not change, this implies a decrease in the total number of panels per adventure. They therefore lose some density, both in history and in the visual aspect.

Another difference (which does not necessarily have to coincide in time with the change in the number of cartoons) is that the stories start to have some references to the present, which would give reason to call the first adventures classic, whose stories are more timeless. In addition, the use of scatological and repeated gags from other albums increases. Some of them are Las gente de Vicente, Air hijacking, In Germany (made for the German public where the series was very successful) or Spatial cocoa. It was also at this time that the first "apocryphal" comics began to appear, that is, those not made by Ibáñez, such as Que viene el fisco or El crecepelo infallible, since Bruguera wanted to squeeze the maximum success from the agents.

Between 1986 and 1987, Ibáñez even lost the publication rights of his characters, which had been registered by the Bruguera publishing house, establishing a period of approximately 5 years, which divides the modern mature stage in two, and they produce several apocryphal stories such as A la caza del Chotta or La medium Paquita. Ibáñez, for his part, would create another Mortadelo and Filemón story for Ediciones Junior S.A. It would be the adventure Terrorists! , where the character of Miss Irma would appear for the first time, created as a kind gesture towards the secretary of one of his German publishers.

Contemporary stage (1990 to Present)

It is characterized by Ibáñez's recovery of the rights of his characters so that they can star in original adventures in his own handwriting. Likewise, Ibáñez decided to eliminate the secretary Irma from the cast of recurring characters, as a gesture of goodwill towards the real secretary on whom he based himself to create the character, who died at the beginning of the decade.

However, even after recovering the rights, Ibáñez continued to rely on collaborators for a time, giving rise to several more apocryphal stories. As for the scripts, now the stories not only have even more references to the present, but they also involve Mortadelo and Filemón very directly with the real events that are taking place, giving rise to comics such as El atasco de influences or The New Category are either based on things that were in style at the time the adventure was published like Dinosaurs. In these early years there are several comic strips that, even bearing Ibáñez's signature, scholars of his work consider that they are not his, which is why they call them "apocryphal with stamped signature", among them The Boorish Rescue, The Inspector General or The Great Sarao. The editor Julia Galán questioned Ibáñez for delivering material of such poor quality, both graphically and plot-wise, which would later lead to a renewal of the series.

Starting in 1996, magazines disappeared and comics were published directly in album format, reaching the zenith of graphic perfection: highly detailed, large and expressive characters with greatly improved color and fill effects that were they become completely coherent between cartoons, clearly differentiating themselves from the chromatic nonsense of the publications of yesteryear. It also becomes progressively larger, including characters and speech bubbles, and the vignettes have more space in the decoration.

The tendency to incorporate current affairs is even more evident. The agents are participants in the arrival of the euro to the European Union, the economic crisis of 2008 and the Spanish corruption case of "los papeles" of Bárcenas, giving rise to albums such as The euro has arrived!, ¡Tijeretazo! or El Tesorero, among other adventures related to the most recent.

Characters

Francisco Ibáñez (2004).

The recurring characters of the series are its two protagonists, Mortadelo and Filemón, who are the ones who give it its name, and other members of the T.I.A. (Aerial Research Technicians), such as El Súper, their grumpy boss; his oronda secretary, named Ofelia and the disastrous scientist of the organization, Professor Bacterio and his cat & # 34; Hydrocarbon & # 34;. In any case, another series of characters with much less tradition can be highlighted, including the peculiar gallery of villains.

For a few episodes, Irma appeared, who is the antithesis of Ofelia: a pretty face and a voluptuous body, with blond hair being the only point in common with the "Supermarket" secretary. In some episodes, other Ibáñez creations appear, such as Rompetechos (the most common among the rest), Pepe Gotera and Otilio, or 13, rue del Percebe.

Adventures, Editions, albums and publications

As of 2023, up to 221 long adventures (44-46 pages) have been published since its creation. These long adventures originated and began to be serialized in various Bruguera Editorial magazines in 1969, in a 4 to 6 page regime, as well as in full and individual album format (Aces del Humor Collection), to later do the same in later publications. of Ediciones B, once the first publishing house disappeared. It was not until 1996 when they began to be published only in complete and independent album format. All of them have been made mostly by their original author, Francisco Ibáñez, but in past times, also by other apocryphal authors (some of them identified and others unknown). Some of these apocryphal adventures have never been republished, being a single publication, rare collector's items today. More information at Bruguera Equip.

Currently, the two active publications where they publish the individual albums of the characters are, firstly, Magos del Humor, in which the most recent adventures since 1987 are released, and, later, in the Olé Collection in its 4th Edition, started in 1993, where they are published later and at a lower price. The latter was less and less advertised and had a very limited distribution, making it very difficult to locate it in stores or kiosks, a situation that changed from 2013, when the publisher itself decided to reissue discontinued issues of the collection on a more or less constant basis (1 number per month), in no specific order. Even with everything, it is still difficult to find copies of it.

Also, after the two previous ones, these comics are unified in compilation volumes, in the Super Humor and Top Comic Mortadelo collections, started in 1993 and 2002, respectively, with regular and normalized circulation, although the latter ended in the year 2018.

In the Olé Collection!

Originally, these comics were serialized in magazines such as Pulgarcito or Mortadelo. Subsequently, they have been compiled in albums of the Olé Collection!, until in the mid-90s, with the disappearance of magazines, this became their first form of publication. There are other compilation collections such as Súper Humor, Magos del humor, etc. Books with jokes and various curiosities are also published, such as Guide to life for today's youth, Guide to life for today's student, A T.I.A Agent's Guide to Life and Draw Them Yourself!

The Olé! Collection compiles most of the long comics created, although, in its first two classic editions, it mixes short old ones with modern ones in a random order, which ignored the chronological order of the same. These long, modern and independent comics, from 44 to 48 pages each, appeared followed by short comics of between one and eight pages, until completing 60 pages in each Album.

In the older editions of this collection, the album did not even bear the title of the long comic that was inside, such as the numbers Alone in the face of danger, You can't win para sustos and Dos turulatos muy guapos, which contained the adventures Dog Mission, Alí-gusa-no's plan and The case of the little gentlemen, respectively, which did have their independent publication in the subsequent edition Olé!. The old version of the Olé collection also included certain long adventures from the 80s, totally apocryphal, such as The Boorish Rescue or The Gypsy Curse, which were left out of Olé ! most recent as individual titles.

Other numbers are nothing more than compilations of short comics about Mortadelo and Filemón, both from his time in his Information Agency, and after being part of the T.I.A. Albums such as What a Crazy Couple, Occasion Detectives, Boiling Again, and most recently, Agencia de Información, A lot of agents, A mole and two cockles, Pitorreo a domicilio, The rest, all battered, People of fine smugness, Two halters and a donkey, Save whoever can! Help!, Three narrow cerebellums, The morning mess, Ceporros in full idyll, Kings of laughter or Alegres aventuras, were examples, many of them were also combined with other comic strips featuring more Ibañez characters: Pepe Gotera and Otilio, Roofbreaker and The Saccharine Buttons. There have also been compilations of purely apocryphal short stories such as The psychedelic cake, The bag or life and From boat to boat and other stories

Abroad

Comics have been published in Europe under many different names. They have an excellent reception in Germany, which is why an entire issue was dedicated to them (In Germany) and exclusive apocryphal comics were published, such as Vom Affen gelaust und losgesaust and Nur kein Gehetze - wir haben Arbeitsplätze, which remain unpublished in Spain. The title varies from one language to another (you can see the different covers here):

Logo of the German magazine Felix (with El Gato Félix and Mortadelo and Filemon).

• Clever " Smart in Norwegian, Czech and German
• Mort " PhilIn English.
• Paling " KoIn Dutch.
• Mortadelo e Salaminho in Portuguese (Brazil)
• Mortadela e Salamão in Portuguese (Portugal)
• Flink och Fummel in Swedish
• Flip & Flop in Danish
• Mortadel et Filémon in French (also Futt et Fil)
• Mortadella e Filemone in Italian (also Mortadello and Polpetta)
• ¢Üτιρι・ και σμφωνι・ (Antirix kai Symphonix, pronounced Andirix ke Simfonix) in Greek
• Älli ja Tälli in Finnish
• Zriki Svargla & Sule Globus in Serbian
• Mortadel·lo i Filemó in Catalan
• Mortadelo eta Filemon in euskera
• Mortadelo e Filemón in Galician
• Mortadelo i Filemon in Polish
• Mortadelc pa File in Slovenian
• Dörtgöz ve Dazlak Turkish
• SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR in Chinese
• Русский in Japanese

The Spanish editions have also been sold in many Latin American countries, while the French one has done the same in Belgium and Luxembourg, etc.

Other authors

During the mature stage, much of the published material was written and drawn by people other than its true original author Francisco Ibáñez; however, because these contributions were often anonymous, it is difficult to know which stories or drawings are really Ibáñez's. The only ones officially accredited as "not Ibáñez" are those signed by the Bruguera Equip (during the time that Ibáñez lost the rights to his characters), some short stories whose script appeared signed by Jesús de Cos and a collection of little-known adventures, published in the form of books in black and white, signed by Ibáñez and José Cubero Valero. Apparently most of these "bastard" they were published without Ibáñez receiving any financial remuneration for them (and perhaps without his consent), although it seems that between 1987 and 1990 Ibáñez signed adventures that were not drawn by him.

Among the blacks who drew the adventures of Mortadelo and Filemón without being accredited, we can mention the names of Ramón Bernardó, Ramón María Casanyes, Mart-Os and even a first-rate author like Raf, who collaborated anonymously in The crazy embassies, although in this case his work was reduced to inking. Juanma Muñoz deserves a special mention, who joined Bruguera in 1978 and ended up specializing in the inking of all of Francisco Ibáñez's characters. When he left the publishing house, Juanma joined the Bruguera Equip as a cartoonist, creating Mortadelo and Filemón comics together with the scriptwriters Jesús de Cos and Jaume Ribera. When the publishing house closed, Muñoz contacted Ibáñez, who accepted him into his work team at Editorial Grijalbo. From then on, a fruitful collaboration began that would last for more than three decades, in such a way that many define him as the right hand of Ibáñez. The work of Jan, author of Superlópez and well accredited as Juan López, is also notable, who illustrated with his characteristic style some numbers for the collection Risa Loca.

Features

Jokes and recurring situations

There are certain recurring themes and situations in comics:

• Mortadelo and Philemon are always assigned the most dangerous missions, so they try to avoid the most unique forms, although they are always caught by other agents (many times they are captured in other countries or even on other planets).
• Mortadelo always screws up and Philemon takes all the blows (sometimes they get both).
• Philemon usually rides in cholera with Mortadelo and chases him with some kind of weapon or object dumped while Mortadelo escapes disguised, usually as an animal (insect, reptile, bird, cat, etc.). But sometimes it's Mortadelo who ends up chasing Filemon.
• Mortadelo is always at the gresca with Bacterio, because he still holds grudge for his "remedy to the baldness", cause of the hair loss of Mortadelo.
• The Super is usually beaten because of the disastrous performances of Mortadelo and Filemon.
• The Super treats his agents in a despotic way.
• Ofelia tries to get pretty and flirty, but Mortadelo and Philemon end up ruining her day.
• Ofelia walks behind Mortadelo (and to a lesser degree from Filemon), pulling her lattice and dreaming of being corresponded.
• Bacterium usually fails in its inventions, resulting in unexpected things (sometimes just the opposite for what the invention was created). Sometimes the invention works exactly as expected, but it does in delicate situations for Mortadelo and Philemon, who end up suffering inopportunity.
• The Super tends to pursue Mortadelo and Philemon when they fail on a mission, when they mock him or when they ignore him by explaining to them the details of a mission.
• Mortadelo and Philemon always flee when the Super wants them to try out an invention of Professor Bacterio.
• Filemon doesn't like Mortadelo being tested for costumes at all times.
• Bacterio usually proves each of its new inventions for the health and personal nature of one of the members of the company, as workers, secretaries (Ofelia to a greater extent) and other agents, with dire results.
• Mortadelo and Philemon try to link with Irma without much success, having Mortadelo more of luck.
• In the first short comics, Filemon is always screaming and giving orders to Mortadelo.
• The acronyms of criminal agencies always form acronyms as A.B.U.E.L.A. or S.O.B.R.I.N.A.
• The T.I.A. has secret entrances in the most hidden places, such as a simple sign of traffic or a commercial sign of a circus, to the circle of the sun seen from the Earth, but only the agents know how to enter, being traps for the rest of the marchers.
• As most of the adventures end in disaster, when there is no persecution, Mortadelo and Philemon are often seen fleeing through the most inhospitable and remote places on the planet (the Gobi desert, the Saharan, the Golan Heights, the Columbretes Islands, the Easter Island, the Antarctica, etc.) while on their side, a diary realizes the unguised of turn, at the time that the couple is aware Variants of this end can be seen with Mortadelo reading the newspaper or listening to a radio section.
• Mortadelo and Filemon tend to catch the evil one in turn because they, believing that he is a normal person, give him an unintentional blow (sometimes other agents take credit).
• When Bacterio tries an invention with someone he ends up having fled, persecution, fight or death (the latter of whom he has tried it).
• When Mortadelo and Philemon try to kill some hidden criminal, this one does not take a scratch and Mortadelo or Philemon or both take all the sticks, while if it is about protecting someone, they kill him slowly until he is seriously injured or in other cases shaved, and therefore he prefers to go to hell than to be with those two agents.
• The most commonly used intersection, perhaps 95% of cases is "rays!"
• The sandwiches with angry drawings are associated with situations where the characters express a more serious anger and are usually associated with what would be pronounced tacos. That's why it's easy to see in those snacks a burst, a hateful retrete, an insulted character with some kind of mutilation and the ever-present Chinese lyrics.
• The rest of the characters that may appear in a comic, whether they are companions of Mortadelo and Filemon, clients of the T.I.A. or people of the street, usually have all their names one thing in common, they all end up in "-ez" and the name almost always makes reference to one of the characteristics of the character in question, so for example, a very rich man is often called "Petrólez", or "Místeret The names of the cacos have no established archetype, their aliases are of the most variopinto, like the "Cuco", "Pies de mico", "the Grapas", "the Bombs", etc.
• There is no clear definition of the goods of Mortadelo or Filemon, although they always sin from having neither white nor to move use the most variopintos vehicles provided by the T.I.A., the truth is that in some comics, Filemon, Mortadelo or both have a car or a motorcycle, almost always new and almost always end it by riding in a tree or rolling in a ravine. The same happens with the houses, they always live on a 30th or 35th floor and if they destroy it from a bomb, the next day they have accommodation again.
• While the characters never age, they adapt to the times, in this way, stories from the 70s - 80s reflected the technology of the time and in the current comics, they speak in "euros" and use mobiles, although the essence is always the same.
• The characters always talk about you, can be direct influence from Sherlock Holmes and Watson, who both talk about you even being old known.
• Sometimes, even if Mortadelo or Filemon fall from a 20th floor and destroy the pavement in the fall, they only make a chic.
• In scenes of persecution, Mortadelo is able to "give the switch" in a matter of seconds and take someone's car, who thinks he's still driving.
• At the least awaited moment appears some eggplant, for example as the fruit of a tree in the street.
• Generally, when they get an impact (usually an explosion or a punch) they end up on another continent.

Graphic details

A very recurring (not to say constant) graphic detail in Ibáñez is the presence of one or more triangular-shaped cobwebs in the corners of the rooms. This element could be interpreted as a subtle clue to help the reader distinguish the nooks from the corners, something not insignificant considering the monotonous colors of the backgrounds.

It is also common to see mice in some cartoons, performing all kinds of actions.

The comics have another characteristic of Ibáñez: the humor in the background of each cartoon. At the bottom of the cartoon, outside the main action, there are various humorous elements. Thus, for example, we can find a spider in disguise, a mouse chasing a cat, a pot from which an eggplant sprouts instead of a flower, two buildings kissing, a sign forbidding parking camels, a pencil with a man on the ear, the sun with a scarf, a man with two heads, etc. One of these elements became very well known after 9/11: in a view of New York, in which a statue of Francisco Ibáñez is seen next to the Statue of Liberty in the 35th anniversary special, you can see in the background the Twin Towers, and there is a crashed plane in one of them, given that the comic is from 1992, it is obviously nothing more than an unfortunate coincidence. These elements give a special touch of humor to the cartoons, although the author includes fewer and fewer elements of this type, reserving them for covers and larger scenes.

Language

The language that Ibáñez puts into the mouths of his characters is peculiar. Words and expressions currently in reduced use ("colodrillo", "beodo", "corcho", "sapristi", "mofa y befa", "merluzo", "trolebús", "futesas", etc.) are common in the universe of Mortadelo and Filemón. Universe that began, as has been said above, in the year 1958, at which time the common language of comics was identified with the talk of the street.

Another characteristic of language is that the protagonists talk to each other about you, even when they are old acquaintances. Something less and less common both in Spain and in the rest of the Spanish-speaking countries, perhaps with the exception of Colombia where the use of usted is more widespread even among strangers or people from different levels in a hierarchy, but a sacred norm for a large part of the 20th century.

Transcendence

For Salvador Vázquez de Parga, Ibáñez expanded with this series "the current of absurd and crazy comedy", "characterized by the continuous succession of gags within each story", which previously had only been cultivated by Martz Schmidt in Pulgarcito, causing the Bruguera School to move away from "testimonial and often critical humor" that had characterized it until then. The influence of this comic series has also been pointed out in Spanish films such as Imperfect Crime and R2 and the Case of the Headless Corpse In the latter, the actor who plays the protagonist assures that the character is reminiscent of Mortadelo because of his fondness for disguises.

Audiovisual adaptations

Animation

Between 1965 and 1970, a series of animated short films about Mortadelo and Filemón were made, produced by Estudios Vara. Although the intention of the animators was to create a television series, they did not have the capacity to make as many episodes as they wanted. required by the medium, so the 16 short films that were created were divided into two films (see Cinema section), each short lasts approximately 6 minutes. They are independent and original, since they are not based on any comic strip that has appeared so far.

Years later, in 1994, the eponymous animated series for television itself was created, the work of BRB Internacional and Antena 3. It consists of 26 episodes divided into two seasons of 13 episodes lasting 20 minutes each. This time they are based on the long adventures created by Ibáñez.

In November 2014, Mortadelo y Filemón contra Jimmy el Cachondo, the third feature film based on the characters, was released. This time it is a 3D animated film, again directed by Javier Fesser. On this occasion, the characters were represented more faithfully to what can be seen in comics: more lively, innocent and festive content, more suitable for a youth-adult audience (whom Ibáñez has always addressed), although it still kept (to a lesser extent, yes) coarse, coarse and rude aspects, which the two previous installments boasted, harshly criticized for it. In this animated feature film, the voices of the main characters are provided by Karra Elejalde (Mortadelo) and Janfri Topera (Filemón).

Cinema

At the beginning of the 1970s, several animated films were released, the first two of which were a combination of short films (Festival de Mortadelo y Filemón, 1969, and Segundo Mortadelo y Filemón festival, 1970) and the third, which can now be considered a proper feature film, El armario del tiempo (1971). All of them were directed by Rafael Vara Cuervo. El armario del tiempo also gave rise to a series of books, with stills from the film and divided into volumes (each volume, a short film).

The comics have also been taken to the movies with real characters in The great adventure of Mortadelo and Filemón, released in 2003, directed by Javier Fesser and starring Benito Pocino in the role of Mortadelo and Pepe Viyuela in the role of Philemon.

His second film, Mortadelo y Filemón. Mission: Save Earth, was released in 2008 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the characters. Pepe Viyuela repeats as Filemón, but this time Mortadelo was played by Eduard Soto (known for the character El Neng de Castefa) due to discrepancies with the actor who had previously played the character, Benito Pocino.

Video Games

In the 1980s, two official video games were made for 8-bit platforms: Mortadelo y Filemón (1988) and Mortadelo y Filemón II: Street Safari (1989), both distributed in Spain by Dro Soft, which were accompanied by several unofficial adaptations, such as Morta y File (1985) and The Sinking of the Titanic (1986), both of which appeared in ZX magazine, or En busca de Mortadelo (1988), among others. There are several later video games for PC about Mortadelo and Filemón: Mortadelo and Filemón: A Cinema Adventure, Mortadelo and Filemón: The Atomic Sulfate, Mortadelo and Filemón: The Weather Machine, Mortadelo and Filemón: Two Bogus Cowboys, Mortadelo and Filemón: Terror, Fright and Awe, Mortadelo and Filemón: The Corvino Band (made up of Balls and Kicks and Roman-style Mamelukes) and Mortadelo and Filemón: The Sixth Sect (consisting of Moscow Operation and Cleopatra's Beetle )., which was made by VEGA.

Theater (musical)

Mortadelo y Filemón came to life in the musical "Mortadelo y Filemón, the miusical", which premiered in June 2008 at the Teatro Campoamor in Oviedo and which in September that same year he performed at the Tívoli Theater in Barcelona. Directed by Ricard Reguant and produced by Zebra Producciones and Mucho Ruido Records, "The miusical" tells how Mortadelo (Jacobo Dicenta) and Filemón (Juan Carlos Martín) are in charge of the security of the work "El Fantoche de la Operetta", on which a curse falls.

In popular culture

Ninots de Mortadelo and Philemon represented in the Fallas de Valencia.

• Child group Parchís It has a song called "Mortadelo and Filemón", where it speaks precisely of these two characters.
• In the television contest Who wants to be a millionaire?, Enrique Chicote, the only contestant who won the 50 million (the maximum prize of the program), said having successful one of the last questions (about the hotentotes) thanks to having read in a comic of Mortadelo and Filemon the password "these guys with mustache have a hotentote face".
• Serbian footballer Nenad Mirosavljević was nicknamed "Mortadelo" during his passage through Cadiz C. F.