In my house they used to say 'Periplo bulgaro'. Putting the stress on the second syllable, because at our young age we had not heard much about Bulgaria and, even if it were so, the conjunction with the word periplo, which was quite foreign to us, created confusion and made us say the title of Jan's comic wrong.
Similarly, I would say 'The great super reproduction' instead of The great blockbuster which is another masterpiece by Jan from 1984 full of phrases to frame, from “Lárme un cilindrín fotero” to “But what exactly does a script girl do?”, and my brothers were dying of laughter with that.
Some adventures of Superlopez.
Then we read the 1990 comic, of course, the adventure of the most traditional superhero between the fields of roses and the Bulgarian cathedrals, while he was looking for an antidote for Al Trapone's poison. A creation of Jan that was as suggestive to us as many of his other adventures, almost always related to some trip, that fired our imagination.
Jan says goodbye to his most beloved character, Superlópez.
The brilliant Jan –pseudonym of Juan López Fernández–, born in Toral de los Vados (León, 1939), created the famous character Juan López/Superlópez in 1973, an accountant in a Barcelona office who had a secret superheroic identity to which nothing went right.
He went for some commissioned comics and initially the plots were of a 'marital' nature, although soon they were transformed, when he began to publish with Bruguera, something he did from 1974 to 1985, making it the last great success of this publisher.
He was not always alone: the screenwriter Efepé was the 'guilty' of some genius in the two deliveries of the supergroup, where the hero was accompanied by other colleagues with superpowers (and bad legs).
Pages from 'Hotel panic', an adventure of Superlopez.
After Bruguera's bankruptcy, the character passed into the hands of Ediciones B in 1987, becoming part of the multinational label since 2017 Penguin Random House. Curiously, the latter has recovered the Bruguera name as an editorial line, and that is where our beloved adventurer ends his exploits.
Originally conceived as a Spanish parody of Superman, the character was taking on a life of his own and moving away from that type of humor to address many other topics full of commitment and social criticism, although always with unforgettable gags.
The protagonist was accompanied progressively and with increasing weight by a series of extraordinary sidekicks, among which stand out Luisa Lanas (a sort of Louise Lane not at all surrendered to the charms of a mediocrity like Superlópez, but on the contrary, always with a clean bag); the climber but endearing Jaime (Jimmy Olsen); Inspector Hólmez (“Suspicious, suspicious, I take note”); the crazy inventor Escariano Avieso and his boss, Al Trapone; Chico Humitsec and Martha Hólmez; General Sintacha and a long etcetera of discoveries. Among them, one unbeatable: the ectoplasmic petisos carambales.
Jan, creator of Superlopez, thank you so much!
A few weeks ago, the publisher announced the launch of what will be the last comic of the character, geek dreams, a sword and sorcery adventure about the bullying and machismo. The reason? At 82 years old, Jan wants to retire his (our) beloved Superlópez, although in principle he does not deny that other artists continue doing so.
So, with tons of nostalgia, we we are about to say goodbye to a character who has made us travel around the world (and other galaxies, even to hell), not without first making a compilation of the destinations that we have enjoyed the most in his company.
Art by Jan, the creator of Superlopez.
- BARCELONA (The hubheads, 1983). This surreal portrait of the Transition set in Barcelona is one of Jan's most legendary pieces (and one of my favourites). Despite the traffic jams and pollution reflected, Jan's vignettes about Barcelona ooze love for it. And who has not ever said 'a coffee with milk and a croissant' leaning against the ticket office of the metro?
- HOLLYWOOD (The great blockbuster, 1985). How can this genius be a work of 1985? I read it today and it still strikes me as a fabulous sprawl of current affairs. Hollywood barely comes out, but the story takes us to the world of cinema, the stars and, here's the great thing, everything behind a great (or terrible) movie.
Covers of 'The gang of the disheveled dragon' and 'A camel got on a tram...'.
- TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (To the center of the earth, 1987). Inspired by Jules Verne's novel, this title may be one of the ones we have read the most at home, we even tried to imitate it in a comic drawn by us. The hamburgers that the protagonists take to avoid starvation during the adventure became a small obsession although, as usually happens in these cases, there was not one in reality that could come close to the flavor we imagined...
- BULGARIA (Bulgarian tour, 1989). The Alexander Nevski Cathedral in Sofia, the rose jam (yuck!), the houses of Plovdid... One of the most comprehensive tourist brochures in Jan is also an ode (or antiode) to package tours.
Pages from 'In the land of games...', one of Jan's masterpieces.
- FOOL IT (In the land of games, the one-eyed man is the king, 1988). "I want a bath and go to dinner," Luisa blurted out angrily at the reception desk of one of the hotels in this not-so-luxurious adventure. A getaway from casinos, good weather and a lot of corruption, to end up saying that... 'I'm not stupid'.
- CAMPRODON (The little pigs of Camprodon, 1989-1990). After a visit to this town in the north of Catalonia, the cartoonist devised a story set in this environment, previously taking hundreds of photographs. The famous marzipan pigs (present in that enigma, "under the bridge there is a 'serdo', and with the 'serdo', a virus") became an icon in the house of this journalist, to the point that the revelry broke out when One of my brothers recently brought the authentic Camprodon pigs to a family reunion.
Covers of 'Periplo bulgaro' and 'The cubeheads', by Jan.
- JAPAN (The band of the disheveled dragon, 1990). A business trip in the Japanese country will end in a conflict with the yakuza, and in an excuse to portray customs and landscapes of the East.
- THE PANIC HOTEL (Hotel panic, 1990). Few things are more suggestive than the idea of a stormy night that leads to an impromptu night in a decadent hotel in which very strange things happen. At home we have grown obsessed with this idea of travel-adventure, and I still delight from time to time in Jan's drawing of that dilapidated spa hotel room.
- GRENOBLE (A camel got on the tram in Grenoble and the tram is biting his leg, 1991-1992). If they offer you chocolate, say… oranges! The author, who even addressed child trafficking in The Ghost Mansion (2002), frequently included anti-drug messages in Superlópez's adventures. This cartoon was also an excuse to dream of comic book fairs and trains, as would happen later with Murder in the Toral Express (2012), a tribute to the work of Agatha Christie.
Cover of 'Sueños frikis', the most beloved antihero's latest album.
- HELL (Hell, nineteen ninety six). This is one of the works that Jan says he is most proud of and, of course, it is one of the most relevant. His script is full of humor and dramatic tension, drinks from The Divine Comedy of Dante, The devil lame by Luis Velez de Guevara and Goethe's Faust. A descent into hell, a journey of no return?
This is our ranking, but Jan has also taken us on a trip to Mexico (El Tesoro de Ciuacoatl, 1992), another great example of the great documentation work of the author, that he is completely deaf since he was 6 years old. Both the environment and the clothing of the characters evolve in each adventure, always paying extreme attention to detail.
We have also followed the 'super middle class' to Arles (The Yellow House), Tunisia (for The Sand Castle), Andorra (The Flying Mountains)... However, in an interview for RTVE in 2010 Jan he confessed to being aware of the damage that countries receive from tourists, which made her rethink his escapades.
It is undeniable –and it has been said by the author himself– that sales are not what they were. Times change, but we owe eternal gratitude to mind that he conceived geniuses such as The Lord of the Lollipops, Pandora's Box, The Longest Week, The Aliens... with which we will continue laughing, thinking, traveling, forever.