Comic panel by Francisco Verdugo, 1899.
Francisco Verdugo Landi was a Spanish journalist and cartoonist from the late 19th century. Born in Malaga, he published his first articles in Las Noticias, a Malaga daily founded by his father Joaquín María Verdugo Delgado in 1876. He joined the Youth Literary Society from the Lyceum of Malaga, but soon moved to Madrid to pursue a career in journalism. He became an editor with Nuevo Mundo, an illustrated periodical founded by José del Perojo in 1894. He also contributed cartoons and picture stories to this magazine.
Verdugo left Nuevo Mundo to found Mundo Gráfico together with Mariano Zavala, José Campúa and Tomás García Lara. By 1914, he launched the art magazine La Esfera, together with his brother Ricardo. The magazine featured art by some of the most important Spanish illustrators of the time. Verdugo additionally contributed to ABC, Blanco y Negro, Barcelona Cómica and Por esos Mundos.