MORTADELO Y FILEMON

Another European comic book series I've been reading lately is MORTADELO Y FILEMON.  Drawn by Frederico Ibanez, it's a Spanish comic about a pair of goofy secret agents for TIA (Spanish for "Auntie"). Mortadelo is a bald master of disguise ("mortadela" is a Spanish sausage, which his head resembles), who can even transform into animals.  He must keep all his costumes under his collar, because his glasses and collar are the one constant in his disguises.

I first encountered the series in the French translation MORTADEL ET FILEMON when I was 14. (I could follow French comics with a dictionary.) I read three of their early adventures, including their first:  in THE ATOMIC SULFATE they entered the realm of a Nazi-like dictator to recover an insectide developed by the inept Dr. Bacterio, which made insects huge!  In another they took on the ten crooks in the Pork Rind Gang, and in the third they searched for a bull carrying a cache of crucial microfilm.

Recently I obtained several in the original Spanish through the miracle of Ebay and started writing translations of them with the help of Collins' excellent Spanish-English dictionary.  The first was THE ATOMIC SULFATE.  Later I translated CRITTER WEAPONS, a satire of biological warfare; THE CANDIDATE, with their boss Mr. Superintendent running for elective office; and NIGHTMARE, a NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET parody with Freddy entering their dreams.  The next one I'll be translating is FORMULA 1, a comedy about auto racing.

These stories largely have a pretty episodic structure, with lots of slapstick humor of the sort that little kids like.  Among the supporting characters, my favorite is the zaftig secretary Ofelia, whom the two heroes are constantly driving to distraction.  I'd like to see her in a story of her own!