educational comic from Strong
Ricardo Oliván Turrau was born in Huesca, Aragón, and is the brother of comic artist Enrique Oliván (Oli). He studied to become a teacher and worked in this profession for two years before starting to draw cartoons in the España supplement Don José. He settled in Barcelona after completing his military service in 1963. He worked as a window dresser and continued to work as a cartoonist for La Codorniz, although these cartoons are often attributed to his brother.
He also began a collaboration with the publishing house Bruguera as a cartoonist, and the daily El Noticiero Uinversal, for which he made a weekly page in cooperation with his brother. He additionally did agency work for publishers in Sweden, France and Holland, and contributed to the magazine Matarratos.
Since the 1970s he has worked on children's comics for publishers like Bruguera, Druida and Juventud. Over the years, he has contributed to magazines like DDT, Can Can, Din Dan, Mata Ratos, Sacarino, Mortadelo and Tio Vivo.
Oliván took care of entertaining and educational sections in Bruguera magazines. They consisted of gag cartoons attached to didactic texts, like the section of 'El Profesor Cerebelo'. He contributed similar work to Strong, a magazine published by Argos. The Oliván brothers edited the comic magazine JAuJA for Ediciones Druida in the 1980s, for which Ricardo made the 'Gimnasio Mental' feature in 1982. He has since published in satirical magazines like El Jueves and Avui, and produced artwork for publishers in Germany and Holland.
El Profesor Cerebelo