It is called Purificación Campos Sánchez, but for everyone it is and will always be Purita Campos (Barcelona, ​​1937). It is also possibly the Most popular cartoonist and author of the Spanish comic. Of course she and the also from Barcelona Maria Pascual they have been the biggest. And this year Purita blows out the candles of the 80 that complies. We were precisely the 80's girls (and surely many children too) those of us who improve our reading but above all we really enjoy his most famous creation, Esther lucas.

Those are my comics from then, saved like gold on cloth, plus the acquisition of the reissue of his work a few years ago. And, although I have already read them, I have pending the albums of his new stage plus the two novels. Worth this article as a congratulation and tribute. Let there be many more, Purita. Y Thank you for so many so many good times. 

Beginnings

Purita Campos first devoted herself to illustrating for fashion magazines and then he started working for the publishing house Heath thanks to the cartoonist Manuel Vazquez. At first he was in charge of covers and later he was strip cartoonist in women's magazines like Dalia (1959) Sissi (1961) o Lily (1974). She had done Fine Arts and also wanted to be an actress. In Bruguera he rubbed shoulders with everyone the big ones of Spanish comics from Victor Mora, Vázquez or Escobar to, of course, Francisco Ibáñez.

Abroad

It was at the beginning of the 70 decade of when he started working for english magazines through the Creaciones Editorials agency. This is how he illustrated the scripts he signed Philip douglas for the series Patty's world, which was translated into Spanish as Esther and her world. This series lasted until 1988 and it came to make weekly runs of between 300 and 000 copies in many countries of the world. In the dutch market will publish from 1975 another successful series, Tina, protagonist of the homonymous magazine and that in Castilian was the character of Jana.

Esther and her world

So much has already been written about Esther that I can only do it from the heart and nostalgia. I think my first memories of his comics are 79 year, A Super lily where a cartoon of his appeared, of which they were waiting to continue. I also keep various numbers of Lily, including a tome of selections. And those in the photo, the last one, hardcover, from 1985. At that time the Super pop and dear Esther passed to a place of honor, but never to oblivion.

Their adventure, counted in first person, could be each one of us. And it is that we could all have one Rita as best friendOr a Carol, older sister who was always involved with boyfriends or jobs, a compressive mother and loving or a father we lost. We could also get angry and sad to see our mother who found another man, the uncle ted, which, in the end, we ended up accepting and loving. And besides, then we also have a little sister, Laurita, of which we have to be a babysitter.

And we could have one perfidious Doreen, that made our lives bitter whenever it could. But, and of course, we could also have (or not have) a Juanito. So blond, so handsome, so sporty, so mischievous and always making us mad.

Esther's adventures were ours, and Philip Douglas scripts knew how to reflect the adolescent world in a way like no other. Their insecurities, their shyness, their complexes, their fears, their follies, their sorrows and their joys. But admire the strokes and lines so characteristic, stylized and elegant of his design and drawing were as much or more important. The British and urban setting, the colors ... Everything was a cluster of hits so that their stories were so compelling and engaging.

And one day Esther grew up

In 2006, together with the comic and television scriptwriter Carlos Portela (1967), Purita published The New Adventures of Esther where already I had 40 years, like us. Well, we were also reflected in it. Divorced and with a daughter, patty, you don't talk to Rita and yet it is now very Doreen's friend. Also he meets Juanito again who happens to be a Chelsea manager and is married. In other words, new adventures that attract us again and that, in addition, have also taken the form of a book and two are published. The titles are Esther turns forty y Esther's choice.

Gina and Jana

New reissues of Gina and Jana, also popular characters from Purita Campos, although not as popular as Esther. First came the one of Gina, riding a 2005, a volume of 5 chapters, in black and white. And that of Jana, international model who traveled all over the world and found herself involved in mysterious cases that solved in the end.