'Foroclock Rolmobs contre Moritury: on a volé le discobole' (Pilote #304, 1965).
Francisco Pérez Espinosa was active in the Spanish comic industry of the 1950s and 1960s. His cartoons and funny strips appeared in magazines like La Risa and Sandalio, and he also contributed to the war and romance comic books by Ediciones Toray. Later in life, he had a successful career in real estate, before returning to cartooning for the Murcia regional press. Espinosa continued several series by other artists, including Francisco Ibáñez' 'Los Tres Mosquitos' and Raf's 'Levy Berzotas', 'Mr. Cha-cha-cha, Director de Cine' and 'Sherlok Gómez'. His most notable self-created comic series was 'Nadine, Claudine et leur Papa' (1967-1968), printed in the French girls' magazine Frimousse. He has signed his work with various pseudonyms, including Paco Pérez, Charles Kito by and Quito, but was best known as Kito.
Early life and career
Francisco Pérez Espinosa was born in 1937 in Los Ramos, a small town in the Murcia plain. Fascinated by drawing since his early childhood, he was sixteen years old when his first drawings were published in the Murcia newspaper Línea. From 1953 on, he created characters representative of each of the local soccer teams, predicting. The feature made guesses, in verse, which team would win or lose, under the title "Our Beautiful Predictions". Two years later, in search of better career opportunities, he moved to Barcelona. There, he got in touch with the comic artist José Escobar, who encouraged him to pursue his cartooning ambitions.
Comic strip by Kito for the Almanaque 1961 Hazañas Belicas.
Spanish comics
In Barcelona, Kito had his first job with the magazine Sandalio, published by Exclusivas Ferma. For this magazine, he created the character 'Paco Carpeta', a cartoonist who spends his life looking for work. His cartoons also appeared in Pim Pam Pum by Editorial Ferma. In 1956, Kito joined the art team of Editorial Marco, where he got acquainted with comic creators like Francisco Ibáñez, Raf, Juan Martinez Osete and scriptwriter Carlos Bech. In the publisher's art studio, he did lay-outs for the magazine Hipo, Monito y Fifí, replacing in-house cartoonist Emilio Boix. Kito also did the coloring for Martínez Osete's pages. By 1958, Marco's top cartoonists Raf and Ibáñez had left to join publisher Bruguera. Together with Javier Pont, A. Pueyo, J. Cebrián and Esparch, Kito took over several of their features. In La Risa magazine, Kito drew episodes with Raf's greedy character 'Levy Berzotas', film director 'Mr. Cha-cha-cha, Director de Cine' and the detective 'Sherlok Gómez'. He also continued Ibáñez's musketeer parody 'Los Tres Mosquitos'.
Between 1960 and 1961, after completing his military service, Kito joined Ediciones Toray. He was assigned to the new girls magazine Babette, for which he drew the title comic and a cartoon page with humor about girls. However, the magazine was canceled after only one issue, due to censorship of the Franco regime. Kito continued to work for Toray as a contributor of funny back-up features to the chivalry comic book 'Fulgor', annuals of the war title 'Hazañas Belicas' and the romance book 'Rosas Blancas Extra'.
'Nadine, Claudine et leur Papa' (1968).
France
In 1961, Kito moved to Paris, France, where he submitted his cartoons to magazines like Marius, Le Rire, Le Herisson, París Presse, Pilote and Frimousse. Notable in Kito's cartoons was the frequent appearance of pretty girls. For issue #304 of Pilote magazine, he drew the short story 'Foroclock Rolmobs contre Moritury' (1965), about a detective in 1880s London, scripted by René Goscinny. In the girls' magazine Frimousse of Éditions de Châteaudun, he created the feature 'Nadine, Claudine et leur Papa' (1967-1968), about two fifteen-year-old girls and their father.
Real estate
After getting married to a French woman, Kito moved back to Spain. In Barcelona, he was offered a job with the publishing house Bruguera. Having experienced better working conditions and payment with French magazines, Kito declined and instead took a job with a real estate agency, where he eventually worked himself up to commercial director. All the while, he remained close friends with the cartoonists Manuel Vazquez, Francisco Ibáñez, Raf and Carlos Bech. At one point, he even sold a villa to Ibáñez. Vazquez in turn regularly added small nods at Kito, adding signs saying "Parcelas Kito" ("Kito parcels") in his comic pages.
Murcia cartoonist
In 1974, Kito and his wife relocated to Águilas, a town in the Murcia region. There, he picked up cartooning again, working for the regional newspapers La Verdad de Murcia, El Diario de Murcia, La Voz de Murcia, El Más Deportivo, La Opinión de Murcia. In La Verdad de Murcia, he created 'Pincelada Deportiva', a sports page similar to the one that started his career, giving funny commentary and predictions of sports events. Enjoying great popularity, Kito's work also printed in other newspapers of the same publisher, La Verdad de Elche and La Verdad de Alicante.
Final years and death
Later in life, Kito left cartooning for good and began making impressionist oil paintings for bullfighters. Francisco Pérez Espinosa died on the night of 21 December 2020.
'La Liga de Quito', sports cartoons for La Opinión (8 October 1990).