Gat Perich international award winner 2000

forgespremi2000Forges

Antonio Fraguas de Pablo, known as Forges (Madrid, 17 de gener de 1942), is a Spanish cartoonist. His pseudonym is the Catalan translation of his Spanish surname. Son of a Catalan mother and Galician father, he grew up in a large family being the second oldest of nine children. He was a bad student, but an avid reader of Richmal Crompton and his “William Brown” books. He studied in Madrid Telecommunication Engineering, which he did not finish. In 1956 at the age of 14 he began working as a technician and as an image mixer for Spanish television since 1962. He left the staff of TVE and Coordinator of Study in 1973 to dedicate his time as a professional cartoonist. He published his first drawing in 1964 in the newspaper Pueblo, guided by the hand of Jesús Hermida, and soon onto Informaciones, where Jesús de la Serna commissioned him the editorial joke. He did his military service in the army and married and had three daughters and a son. In 1970 he began to collaborate with the magazine Diez Minutos and with humorous magazines Hermano Lobo, Por Favor and El Jueves, weekly charts Sábado Gráfico and Interviú, Lecturas, etc. In 1982 he published the editorial joke for Diario16 and later in El Mundo and in 1995 started drawing the editorial cartoon for El País. He directed two films by "País S.A." (1975), and "Vengador Justiciero y su pastelera madre " (1977) and four series in television comedy, "The Muliñandupelicascarabajo" (1968), "Nosotros" (1969) and "24 horas aquí" ( 1976), TVE and "Deforme Semanal" (1991) for Telemadrid. For radio he has participated in programs like "Protagonistas" by Luis del Olmo and "La Ventana" by Javier Sardà and Gemma Nierga and now he does "No es un día cualquiera" for RNE by Pepa Fernández. Much in favour of new digital technologies, he has illustrated more than 80 volumes of computing for dunces. An anthology of his work appears daily on his website www.forges.com. A curiosity: Antonio Fraguas "Forges" never wanted to be a member of any jury, and never even submitted a cartoon personally or by third parties in any contest, but has won prizes such as the Prize for Freedom of Expression of the Unión de Periodistas de España; he is also an Honorary Member at the School of Journalists of Catalonia and possesses the Creu de Sant Jordi, the highest Catalan decoration. He has also won the Antonio Sancha Award from Spanish Publishers and The International Gat Perich Humour Award. On 7 December 2007, the Cabinet of Spain granted him (“incomprehensibly” he claims) the Medal gold Merit at Work..