'The Fat Woman and Zacharias'.
Michalis Gallias was a prominent Greek cartoonist, journalist and illustrator, working for several newspapers and magazines. He is best-remembered as the creator of the long-running cartoon feature 'The Fat Woman and Zacharias' (1942-1997?), about a giant woman and her tiny husband.
Early life and career
Born in Piraeus in 1914, Michalis Gallias (Μιχάλης Γάλλιας) enrolled at the Athens School of Fine Arts, but did not finish his studies. Even though he desired to become a painter, he was quickly absorbed into the world of popular magazines. In 1933, at the age of 19, Gallias joined the weekly magazine Evdomas ("Seventh"), designing cover titles and illustrating serials. Subsequently, he collaborated with a great many newspapers and magazines, including Bouketo, Pantheon, Akropolis, Eleftheros Logos and the satirical Roma weekly The Romeiko. In the mid-1930s, his cartoons additionally appeared in the cheeky magazine Fal-Fal ("Frou-Frou").
'The Fat Woman and Zacharias'.
The Fat Woman
In Thesauros magazine, launched in 1938, Gallias was initially an illustrator for serials, signing his work with "Michelle". Later, he became the magazine's most popular cartoonist through his feature 'The Fat Woman' ('Χοντρή'), which first appeared on the Thesauros cartoon page in 1942 and ran until the magazine's final issue in 1967. These satirical cartoons starred a tiny and humble man called Zacharias, who suffers all the time from his giant, nagging wife. Originally, the couple also had a son, but he soon disappeared. Later on, their dog Bombos was added to the gags.
Even though Gallias' creation was very popular in Greece, the concept and characters were directly copied from the Turkish cartoon feature 'Tombul Teyze', created by Ramiz Gökçe. Still, 'The Fat Woman' entertained Greek readers for decades. Originally appearing on the back cover of Thesauros, the editors noticed that fans of the strip simply read the cartoons in the newsstand and didn't buy the magazine. So after a while, the feature moved to page 3.
After the cancellation of Thesaurus magazine in 1967, the cartoonist joined Dimitris Angelopoulos and Costas Papachristophilou in the launch of the new magazine Okogeniako Thesauro ("Family Treasure", Οικογενειακό Θησαυρό), where his unlucky couple reappeared. Some sources say that Gallias left the magazine shortly after the start, leaving behind his creation. However, it seems that the artist has continued to create the feature, at least in 1969 he was still the artist. Some 1970s episodes use sequential narratives and even speech balloons. Family Treasure magazine lasted until 1997.
In 1962, a film based on the cartoon, 'The Fat Woman and Zacharias' ('Η χοντρή και ο Ζαχαρίας'), was written by Dimitris Papandreou and directed by Ilias Machiras. The movie, however, has not survived and is considered one of the lost treasures of Greek cinema.
Illustrations from 'Adventures of Policeman Bekas'.
Other features
Among Michalis Gallias' other creations was the 1945 stand-alone humor comic strip feature 'Bómpo ton Achtýpito' ("Bobo the Untouchable") for the pulp magazine Maska, edited by the Turkish-Greek journalist Apostolos Magganaris. Between 1960 and 1967, Gallias illustrated the detective serial 'Adventures of Policeman Bekas' by Greek crime novelist Yannis Maris for the newspaper Apogeumatini. In 1971, a first book collection was published. In 2012, publisher Agra launched a new book collection.
Self-portrait.