Roberto Alcázar y Pedrín

• Title — Roberto Alcázar y Pedrín • Format — Adventure booklet • Publisher — Editorial Valenciana • Date — 1940–1976 • Issues — 1219 • Schedule — Biweekly (1941–1961); weekly (1961–1976) • Creators — Juan Bautista Puerto / Eduardo Vañó Pastor • Writers — Juan Bautista Puerto; José Jordán Jover; Federico Amorós; Pedro Quesada; Vicente Tortajada • Artists — * Eduardo Vañó Pastor • Alberto Marcet • Vicente Vañó • Genre — * Adventure • Fantasy • Crime • Science fiction • Horror • Subcat — Spanish comics

The series was published by Editorial Valenciana in landscape-format adventure booklets (17 × 24 cm), with color covers and initially sixteen black-and-white interior pages (later reduced to ten with smaller artwork) on a weekly schedule. Although traditionally dated to 1940, Vicent Sanchís demonstrated in his 2010 book Tebeos mutilados that publisher Juan Puerto did not obtain authorization to release it until late January 1941. A total of 1,219 issues appeared by the end of the run in 1976, plus annual almanacs containing bonus material and 88 issues of the vertical-format magazine Roberto Alcázar Extra (1965–1971), as well as stories in Jaimito and newspaper supplements. It has been reprinted several times, beginning with a 1976 edition that took liberties with the original. By 1958 its print run exceeded 100,000 weekly copies.

Most scripts were written by José Jordán Jover, a former Republican Army commander who had endured Francoist repression. Other contributors included Federico Amorós, Pedro Quesada, and Vicente Tortajada.

Comics historian Pedro Porcel Torrens identifies four creative periods: • First period (1940–1945, issues 1–93): Plots resolved through violence, inspired by serial novels of Emilio Carrere, Anthony Hope, and Edgar Wallace. The covers were highly expressive despite rough interior art. • Second period (from 1946): Pedro Quesada scripted longer, more violent stories with better-developed Villains. • Third period (to 1965): Returned to self-contained booklets; settings diversified, with film rather than feuilleton literature as the main influence. • Fourth period (1965–1976): New artists such as Alberto Marcet and Vicente Vañó joined, while the fantastic element diminished.

Roberto Alcázar, always impeccably dressed in suit and tie, is the protagonist. According to some scholars, his surname recalls the Siege of the Alcázar of Toledo—a staple of Francoist propaganda —and his appearance was allegedly modeled on José Antonio Primo de Rivera. Artist Vañó denied this, explaining that the hero's original surname was to be Alcaraz and that the visual model was himself. Pedro Porcel Torrens instead argues that Alcázar's look simply reflected the archetype of the respectable man of the time. Initially described vaguely as a journalist, Alcázar later becomes an Interpol agent hunting criminals worldwide. According to Antonio Lara García, he stood "halfway between Dick Fulmine by Cossío and the English detective archetype." In the first issue, Alcázar discovers Pedrín (Pedro Fernández) as a stowaway on a ship bound for Argentina and "adopts" him as his sidekick. Pedrín begins as a street urchin whom Alcázar must reform; he adds comic relief through colorful slang while gleefully helping beat up villains—often exclaiming "¡Aprende, tío feo!" or "¡Toma, tío pelao!" — and occasionally shows interest in money and women. Their enemies include gangs of gangsters, mad scientists, and, at times, classic Universal-style monsters. The main recurring villains of the second period—Svimtus the Diabolical Hypnotist, Professor Graham, and the oriental prince Sher-Sing—were known collectively as The Accursed Trio. Stories are set in exotic locales portrayed through stereotypical, Eurocentric lenses. Typical pulp devices include talking statues, hypnosis, hooded villains, and gorillas. Science is generally viewed with suspicion (except for astronautics), as are hippies.

The series is marked by a naïve style—simple backgrounds, static framing, and broad genre simplifications. Porcel writes that: "the lack of individual traits among heroes and villains, combined with the constant change of settings, produces a strong sense of timelessness."

• In 1968, Luciano Valverde filmed a short movie titled The Last Adventure of Roberto Alcázar y Pedrín. • In the 1980s, cartoonist Pàmies published Roberto el Carca in El Víbora, featuring Roberto el Carca and Zotín. • In the 1990s, Miguel Ángel Gallardo and Ignacio Vidal-Folch parodied it in Roberto España y Manolín.