Josep Coll was a Spanish comic artist, and one of the main contributors to the humorous TBO magazine during the 1950s and 1960s. As a member of a middle-class family, he had to begin working in a quarry at the age of 12 during the Spanish Civil War. However, he managed to pursue an education at the School of Industrial Arts and Crafts in Barcelona on the side. He began his professional career in the mid-1940s, contributing to magazines like Chispa, Mundo Infantil, PBT, KKO, Pocholo, Nicolas, Timoteo and La Risa. Among his early characters were 'Cejudo Gorílez' for Pocholo and 'Cocodura, el Conde de Calvatiesa' for Chispa.
Un par de Aficionados
By 1949 he began a long and versatile cooperation with TBO magazine. Coll's many TBO comics knew no recurring characters, but were in stead created crowded with archetypes like tramps, castaways, police officers, criminals, cannibals, hunters, African porters, etc. His work was also characterized by its mainly visual humor that always ended in failure of the protagnist.
El Recreo de Doradito
In addition to TBO, Coll drew for La Risa, Álex, Tururut and L'Infantil, for which he created one of his few serials, 'En Bufa i en Pumpun'. He left comics in 1964 and worked as a bricklayer until 1981, which proved to be a financially more rewarding profession.
Una Ganga Inaprovechable
He retuned in 1981 with new comic book work for Primeras Noticias. On Friday, 15 July 1984, José Coll y Coll, who suffered from severe depressions, was found dead in his bathtub with an electrical cable around his neck. In that same year, a first book collection of his work was published, called 'De Coll a Coll'.
Panico en la playa