Forges: Google Doodle celebrates Spanish graphic humorist’s 80th birthday; Here are some interesting facts about Antonio Fraguas de Pablo

Google Doodle celebrates the 80th birthday of Spanish graphic humorist Antonio Fraguas de Pablo, otherwise called Forges on January 17, 2022.

Who was Antonio Fraguas ‘Forges’ de Pablo?

Antonio Fraguas ‘Forges’ was born on January 17, 1942, in Madrid, Spain as Antonio Fraguas de Pablo. His artistic name depends on the translation to Catalan of the word fraguas.

Born in Madrid, was baptized with the name Rafael Antonio Benito Fraguas de Pablo. He was a Spanish cartoonist, author, television writer, and film director.

He studied in Madrid secondary school (at the Cervantes Institute) and telecommunications engineering – which he didn’t get done – and Social Sciences.

In 1956, at age 14, Antonio Fraguas ‘Forges’ de Pablo started working as a telecine technician at Televisión Española and as an image mixer around 1962.

He left the TVE staff as a Study Coordinator in 1973 to dedicate himself professionally to graphic humor.

He had published his first drawing in 1964 in the newspaper Pueblo, by the hand of Jesús Hermida, and afterward continued to Informaciones.

In 1970 Antonio Fraguas ‘Forges’ started to team up in Diez Minutos and worked in the humor magazines Hermano Lobo, Por Favor and El Jueves, and in the weekly Sábado Gráfico, Interviú, Lecturas, and so forth.

Beginning around 1982 he published the editorial joke in Diario 16 and later in El Mundo, yet he left this newspaper in the wake of having been one of its seven founders, and in 1995 he proceeded to sign El País’ editorial joke.

As a comedian, Antonio Fraguas ‘Forges’ used very personal black-line sandwiches and a stylized language removed directly from the road. «Inventor» of words and lexical figures of speech (gensanta, stupendo, bocata, firulillo, esborcio, jobreído, gürtélido, tontolcool, and so on), he was one of the few comedians with an ear delicate to famous language.

In 1992 Forges’ novel Doce de Babilonia shows up. Forges uncover himself as a genuinely strong and organized novelist, albeit maybe he is at fault for inordinate reliance on graphic humor in the “hooligan” way to deal with his humorous features.

Antonio Fraguas ‘Forges’ de Pablo directed two movies (País S.A., 1975, and El bengador Gusticiero y su pastelera madre, 1977) and four humor series on TV, El Muliñandupelicascarabajo (1968), Nosotros (1969) and 24 horas aquí (1976), on TVE; and Deforme semanal (1991), on Telemadrid with his brother José María Fraguas.

In radio, Forges took part in programs like Protagonistas, by Luis del Olmo and La Ventana by Javier Sardá and Gemma Nierga, and before his death he was on No es un día cualquiera, by RNE, with Pepa Fernández.

Costumbrismo and social analysis possess a key spot in his work. Forges’ strength was the basic vision of the circumstances of daily life. Forges made a broad iconography of characters and comic circumstances that reflects the idiosyncrasy and sociology of contemporary Spain.

Antonio Fraguas ‘Forges’ won the Antonio de Sancha Prize (2001), of the Madrid editors, and the Gat Perich International Humor Award. On 7 December 2007, the Council of Ministers of Spain awarded him the Gold Medal of Merit in Labor.

In November 2009 the Association of Booksellers awarded him the Legend Award, for his constant defense of reading and books through his drawings.

In April 2011, the Council of Ministers of Spain awarded the Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts. Moreover, it gets the Onda Mediterránea award in 2011. In December of that same year, it got the Emilio Castelar award, in the strength of Communicative Efficacy, of the Cadiz columnists.

In May 2012, Antonio Fraguas ‘Forges’ de Pablo got the FAO Award for the scattering of the world’s food issue in his drawings. Likewise in 2012, he gets the award of Honor Member of the Burgos Orfeón, for the repeated appearance of a said institution in his jokes, and the Notary Award for Humor awarded by the University of Alicante.

In 2013, the Rodolfo Benito Samaniego Foundation, in Alcalá de Henares, awarded him the Prize for Coexistence, Peace and Freedom.

In October of this same year, he got the Liber Press distinction, alongside Joan Manuel Serrat and Eduardo Punset, in Gerona.

In December 2013, he got the Pedro Antonio de Alarcón National Journalism Award in its twelfth edition, in acknowledgment of his career.

In 2014, Antonio Fraguas ‘Forges’ was awarded the Artemio Precioso Prize for his work about the climate.

In the event of his 50 years of profession, he published a coupon for the ONCE and a sheet of postal stamps with drawings and his names by Correos and he was named Doctor honoris causa by the Miguel Hernández University in Elche.

In November of that same year, he was awarded, collectively by the jury, the Ibero-American Graphic Humor Award Quevedos.

What’s more, in 2014 Antonio Fraguas ‘Forges’ introduced and directed the TV program Pecadores impequeibols in La 2 de TVE.

Antonio Fraguas ‘Forges’ de Pablo died on 22 February 2018 at 76 years old in Madrid, a victim of pancreatic cancer.

He is likewise an Honorary Member of the Journalists Association of Catalonia and owns the Creu de Sant Jordi, the highest Catalan honor.

On 28 January 2016, Antonio Fraguas ‘Forges’ was likewise named Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Alcalá.

On January 17, 2022, Google featured a Doodle on its homepage for celebrating Forges’ 80th Birthday.