Miguel Ambrosio Zaragoza (31 August 1913 – 30 September 1992), better known as Ambrós, was a distinguished comic strip

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

, most famous for the comic book series

Capitán Trueno El Capitán Trueno (lit. "Captain Thunder") is the hero of a series of Spanish comic books, created in 1956 by the writer Víctor Mora and illustrated mainly by Miguel Ambrosio Zaragoza (Ambrós). The comics were published continuously between ...

(Captain Thunder).

Career

Ambrós started his professional life as a

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

, and taught children until the end of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. After Franco took over in 1939, he quit teaching, due to political and moral reasons; he did not want to be a mouthpiece for

Falangist Falangism () was the political ideology of three political parties in Spain that were known as the Falange, namely first the Falange Española, the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (FE de las JONS), and afterwa ...

ideals. He went to work with his parents in the

field Field may refer to: Expanses of open ground * Field (agriculture), an area of land used for agricultural purposes * Airfield, an aerodrome that lacks the infrastructure of an airport * Battlefield * Lawn, an area of mowed grass * Meadow, a grass ...

s instead. In 1946, he met with Juan Puerto, founder of the ''Editorial Valenciana''. Ambrós showed him the comic that he had been working on, ''El Guerrero del Antifaz'' (The Masked Warrior), and, impressed, Puerto opened the possibility for Ambrós to draw some humorous comic strips for his editorial. In the same year, Ambrós left

Albuixech Albuixech (, modern Valencian spelling: , ) is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Horta Nord in the Valencian Community The Valencian Community is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most popul ...

for

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, where he began to make a living drawing comics for an array of small magazines, including his adventure series ''Dos Yanquís en África'' (Two Yankees in Africa), published by Bergis Mundial, and a range of comics for the weekly magazine, Chispa. His first substantial success came when he was asked to illustrate the series ''El Caballero Fantasma'', (the Ghost Horseman,) written by Federico Amorós. Published by Grafidea, the series followed a character with noticeable similarities to el Zorro. Things hit a halt when another publisher, Saturn, demanded that the character be killed, as they had already a series named El Caballero Fantasma. Rather than stop publishing the series, Amorós carried it on, but from the perspective of the Ghost Horseman's protégé, ''El Jinete Fantasma'' (The Ghost Rider.) Rather than damage sales, as had been expected, sales went through the roof. Due to the success of El Jinete Fantasma, Ambrós was rewarded by a contract with the famous ''Editorial Bruguera''. While working for Bruguera, he illustrated Pulgarcito's ''La nave del tiempo'' (The Time Ship), of which ten annuals were published. His greatest fame yet was to come in 1956, when he was approached with the job of developing and illustrating

from the synopsis provided by the writer, Víctor Mora.

was published both in Pulgarcito magazine and as a biweekly comic book. After the 22nd edition, a new Capitán Trueno comic book was published every week, pushing Ambrós into a frenetic work schedule. Until the 35th edition, Ambrós did all illustration on his own, but thereafter, he was assisted in the creation of many editions (36, 38-45, 47-168 and 173-175) by a

colourist In comics, a colorist is responsible for adding color to black-and-white line art. For most of the 20th century this was done using brushes and dyes which were then used as guides to produce the printing plates. Since the late 20th century it is ...

by the name of Beaumont. Capitán Trueno occupied a central place in Pulgarcito magazine also. Shifting 350,000 copies at its peak, it achieved an unequalled level of popularity for a Spanish comic. However, this resounding success did not bear any financial reward for Ambrós, who was working at a frantic pace for a relatively meagre sum. Thus, he quit Capitán Trueno after edition 175. In 1960, he moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

to try to start a career as a painter, but he failed to find fortune and returned to

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

in 1964, where he would work for Bruguera yet again. Although he did not want to start drawing Capitán Trueno again, preferring to draw

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, a feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer. Creat ...

and Rintintin comic strips and to illustrate the magazine's short stories, he was obliged to draw 'Trueno Extra' comic books from September 1964 onwards. He would only illustrate three editions. He left Bruguera in 1965 and started to work for the Editorial Valenciana, for whom he drew many comic strips, including El Corsario de Hierro, (The Iron Privateer,) another Víctor Mora character. In 1981, Ambrós retired from the world of comic books, and, except for a one-off edition of Capitán Trueno for Editorial Toutain's ''History of Comics'', he would never return. He received the ''Gran Premio del Salón del Cómic'' prize for his contribution to comics in 1989, and he would die three years later. Capitán Trueno, and, indeed, the history of Spanish comics, would be very different without Ambrós' input.

Sources

External links

An interview with AmbrósCapitán Trueno, online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ambros 1913 births 1992 deaths Spanish comics artists People from Horta Nord