Comic art by Adolfo Samper.
Adolfo Samper Bernal is Colombia's first comic artist. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in his birthcity Bogota. Starting in the early 1920s, he was a regular contributor to magazines like Cromos (1921-61), El Grafico (starting in 1922) and Universidad (1921-29). It was in 1924 when he first drew the character of 'Mojicón' (19 February 1924 - 1938) on the back pages of Mundo al Dia. The gag comic was directly based on Walter Berndt's newspaper comic 'Smitty' in the Daily News, with both child protagonists sharing the same design. After a while, Samper began two more strips in the paper's interior pages - 'La Hermana de Mojicón' and 'Los Filipicines'.
In the second half of the 1920s, Samper studied plastic arts in Europe and he began publishing caricatures in Diario Nacional. Starting in 1931, when Mundo al Dia ceased publication, he began contributing to El Espectador, which he continued doing until 1952. From the 1930s onwards, he also published cartoons and caricatures in El Liberal (1946-51), Sabado (1943-53), Batalla (with the comic 'Godofredo Cascarrabias', 1944-45), La Republica (1954-65), La Patria (1960-62) and El Pais (1960-62). Among his later comic characters was 'Don Amancise', who appeared in Sábado and El Liberal starting in 1951. Adolfo Samper retired in the late 1970s.
'Godofredo Cascarrabias'.