Don Catarino y su apreciable familia

The main protagonist, Don Catarino, got his first animated short film in 1934 of the same name, but the film is lost and only one screenshot exists. In 1954, Don Catarino got his first comic book series which had 14 issues.

• Name — Don Catarino • Series — Don Catarino y su apreciable familia • First Minor — El Heraldo de Mexico • First Date — (January 1, 1921) • Last Date — 1960 • Creator — Fernández Benedicto (script) Salvador Pruneda (design) • Designer — Salvador Pruneda • Significant Other — Ligia (Wife) • Children — Ulogio (son) Tanasia (Daughter) • Origin — Silao, Guanajuato • Nationality — Mexican • Extra Header — In other Media • Lbl31 — Short Film • Data31 — Don Catarino (1934) • Lbl32 — Comic book series • Data32 — Don Catarino (1954) (14 issues) (List of Issues) • Lbl33 — Original Comic series • Data33 — Don Catarino y su apreciable familia (1921 – 1948)

• Don Catarino: the main protagonist of the comic strip. He is an ordinary man, originally from Silao, Guanajuato, who decides to move to Mexico City with his family. • Ligia: Don Catarino's wife • Ulogio: Don Catarino and Ligia's son • Tanasia: Don Catarino and Ligia's daughter • Alien: There is also an unnamed alien character who appeared in the 1954 series.

Don Catarino emerged at the end of the armed phase of the Mexican Revolution. At that time, there was an attempt to construct a cultural identity using indigenous elements considered distinctly Mexican, but simultaneously, elements of the American way of life were beginning to be integrated into the national culture. In the comic strip, with illustrations by Pruneda, North American influences are evident, especially from the comic strips of Frederick Burr Opper and George McManus. Fernández Benedicto based his design on "Don Catarino Culantro," who had appeared in a series of satirical articles published in La Risa. In Don Catarino, Carlos Fernández Benedicto, writing under the pseudonym Hipólito Zendejas, revived the colloquial language of Mexican Spanish, employing provincial turns of phrase rarely used in cities. Popular sayings, humorous expressions, and mischievous antics were frequent. The comic strip's success led to a continuation, and the characters ventured beyond Mexico into distant lands like Europe, Africa, and the Pacific islands, where absurd stories unfolded, such as Mexican colonialism in a territory inhabited by cannibals who were forced to use a Spanish riddled with spelling errors. The comic strip discontinued in 1923 when the newspaper El Heraldo was shut down due to its support for the Delahuertista rebellion.

After a brief stint in El Demócrata in 1926, Don Catarino appeared in the pages of El Nacional, where it remained until its final demise. During its time in El Nacional, the strip was written exclusively by Salvador Pruneda, who tried to make the scripts as similar as possible to those of Zendejas. In 1934, Don Catarino was adapted to a short animated film, but the film is currently lost. In 1954, a comic book titled Don Catarino emerged, published by Salvador Pruneda himself, of which only a few issues managed to reach the market. The comic strip series ended in the 1960s, making it the first long-running comic series In Mexico.

In 1919, Salvador Pruneda had his first contact with Cartoonists in Hollywood, where he met other Mexicans who worked in the animation industry, such as Bismarck Mier and Salvador Patiño. On January 1, 1921, he created the comic strip series Don Catarino y su apreciable familia (Don Catarino and his esteemed family). In 1923, he attended the first sound film tests in Hollywood and collaborated with Walt Disney.

When he returned to Mexico in 1928, he had acquired sufficient technical expertise to establish a new studio that produced newsreels. Bismarck Mier and Salvador Patiño collaborated with Salvador Pruneda to make an animated short film featuring Don Catarino in 1934. Carlos Sandoval, who met Pruneda and his collaborators when they were producing this short, claims that he saw eight or ten seconds of the experiment. The film was left unfinished and unfortunately remained as an attempt. The film is entirely lost and there is only one screenshot found online.

in 1954, Salvador Pruneda decided to revive the character to a Comic book series called Don Catarino. The series released 14 issues. Each issue costed 60 cents. The series became unsuccessful. After those 14 issues, Pruneda decided to end the series entirely.

• Issue 1 (July 25, 1954) – Don Catarino is seen holding a pistol in the cover. • Issue 2 (August 1, 1954) – Don Catarino shows his muscles in the cover. • Issue 3 (August 8, 1954) – Tanasia, Don Catarino's daughter, does an experiment in the cover. • Issue 4 (August 15, 1954) – Don Catarino is seen doing an investigation in the cover. • Issue 5 (August 22, 1954) – Lost • Issue 6 (August 29, 1954) – the recurring alien character appears in the cover. • Issue 7 (September 5, 1954) – A thief is trying to murder the unnamed alien character in the cover. • Issue 8 (September 12, 1954) – Don Catarino is seen holding the Mexican flag on the cover. • Issue 9 (September 19, 1954) – Don Catarino dresses up as an alien on the cover. • Issue 10 (September 26, 1954) – Lost • Issue 11 (October 3, 1954) – Lost • Issue 12 (October 10, 1954) – Lost • Issue 13 (October 17, 1954) – Lost • Issue 14 (October 24, 1954) – Lost