Mort & Phil


Mort & Phil is a Spanish comic series, published in more than a dozen languages. It appeared for the first time in 1958 in the children's comic-book magazine Pulgarcito drawn by Francisco Ibáñez. The series features Mort, the tall, bald master of disguise named after mortadella sausage, and his bossy partner, the shorter, pudgier Phil Pi. Initially, they were private detectives operating as Mortadelo y Filemón, Agencia de Información, but now both serve as secret agents in the T.I.A., the Técnicos de Investigación Aeroterráquea. "Tía" is the Spanish word for "aunt".
The series frequently uses slapstick humour whereby the characters constantly suffer mishaps - such as falls from heights, explosions, and being crushed by heavy objects. Thanks to cartoon physics, the effects rarely last more than one panel.

Overview

Mort and Phil are a pair of idiots, and no matter what kind of mission they are assigned they always manage to get it wrong. The results are almost invariably extremely violent, and most often directed towards Phil. At the T.I.A., which combats "enemy organisations" like R.A.N.A. or A.B.U.E.L.A., they interact with their boss, the bad-tempered Superintendente Vicente; with Professor Bacterio, a black-bearded, disastrous scientist parodying James Bond's Q; and with the fat, blonde secretary Ofelia, a parody of Moneypenny, whose attempts at seducing Mort or Phil always fail.
Outside Spain, the series is especially popular in Germany as Clever & Smart. After the 1980s, the albums have featured current news, like computer sabotage, the AVE, Islamic terrorism, Spanish and European politics, and specials for the Olympic Games and the football World Cup.
Ibáñez likes to introduce whimsies unrelated to the action, especially in front covers. Examples have included a water tap sprouting from a tree, two mice chatting, and a vase containing a foot or an eggplant. In the final page of the album El 35 aniversario, featured a New York scene with an aeroplane crashing into the World Trade Center. This attracted attention after the 9/11 attacks of 2001.
Ibáñez issues several albums a year. One animated series and some animated films were also produced. There are two live-action movies based on the series, one of them made in 2003 in Spain titled La gran aventura de Mortadelo y Filemón. A second movie was released in 2008, , marking the 50th anniversary of the series.

Characters

Mort (Mortadelo)

Mort is a bald detective with pebble glasses and a long nose who usually wears a black frock coat. He is always fighting with Phil, his partner, mostly because he tends to mess things up, usually to Phil's discomfort: his profound lack of skills to make his disguises believable and common sense have often made him a danger to everyone around him. His favourite hobby is wearing all sorts of disguises - professional and historical clothes and gear, animals, inanimate objects, even small-sized vehicles like miniature blimps and mopeds - which he mostly dons for special tasks or when he is on the run from Phil or his boss, and which all include his signature collar which obscures part of his mouth. He holds a grudge against Bacterio because he used to have lush hair until Bacterio offered him a supposed medicine against baldness, which actually made his hair fall out. His real name, Mortadelo, comes from "mortadela", a kind of sausage.

Phil Pi (Filemón Pi)/"Jefe"

Mort's partner and friend. He only has two hairs on his head and wears a white shirt with a black bowtie and red trousers. He usually insults Mort because Mort is quite clumsy, but is often at the receiving end of any mishaps which come their way, mostly in the shape of their outraged boss. Mortadelo habitually addresses him as "Jefe".
As the leader of the two-man team, Phil is an educated man and an expert in a variety of fields. In the movies, however, Filemón seems to be just as ditzy as Mortadelo, but his "bad luck streak" drastically increases.

Vicente /"El Superintendente"

Called for short "Súper" or just "El Súper", Vicente is Mort and Phil's boss. While he, as the head of the organisation, lives in splendour, indulging himself in expensive beverages and Cuban cigars, he keeps the T.I.A.'s operatives on an extremely tight budget. Vicente is bald and has a dense moustache, which makes him the object of mocking abuse by his underlings as a human walrus. He is very short-tempered and usually gets angry with Mort and Phil because they fail in their missions, making a mess of everything - occasionally at the expense of his own possessions. Just as often, however, he ends up as the one being chased by his underlings, as his frequently short-sighted assignments cause them no end of grief. He usually fails in initially introducing the missions properly to Mort and Phil, who run away to ridiculous hiding places at the first thought. He owns a variety of wild animals that he uses to coerce the pair.

Professor Bacterio

The T.I.A.'s black-bearded scientist and chief inventor. Mort blames him for his baldness and therefore the doctor is the unwilling prime recipient of Mort's practical jokes. His inventions, which are intended to assist Mort and Phil in their assignments, often fail quite spectacularly, mostly because they either achieve the opposite of what they are supposed to do, or work perfectly but fail at the most inconvenient moment. His name comes from bacteria.

Ofelia

The fat and vain secretary of Superintendente Vicente. She is still single and would like to become involved with someone, but so far her attempts have been in vain. She is quite touchy her lack of luck with a relationship and being called fat; she reacts with corresponding violence when either of topics are brought up; and with her considerable weight, this is nothing to be ignored. She was the first female character created for the series.

Irma

The bombshell secretary of El Súper. Both Mort and Phil have a huge crush on her, but she is not interested. This character disappeared from the series after only 24 volumes.

F. Ibañez

The creator of the series himself has a number of cameo appearances, either by name or in cartoon form. Mostly he is portrayed as the bald and bespectacled "Artist of the Nation", in perhaps the same league as Pablo Picasso. On several occasions, the series' characters often long to be "as rich as Ibáñez".

"Rompetechos"

"Rompetechos" is a small man in a black suit, with an oversized head, receding black hair and a small moustache. He is always put in as a comic relief character; his short-sightedness causes him to react in ways which causes some inconvenience to Mort and Phil if they happen to cross his path. He has his own comic series and makes cameo appearances in Ibañez's other works.

The Minister

Vicente's boss. His appearance changes constantly throughout the series. In recent appearances has been replaced by a caricature of the President of the Government of Spain.

Señora Superintendente

The wife of Vicente. She is in charge of their household.

Bestiájez

The giant agent of the T.I.A. He usually has to hunt down Mort and Phil because they do not want to do their missions. A rather minor character, his face has changed many times in the past. Many other agents appear, most of them having descriptive surnames ending in "-ez".

Tete Cohete

is a fifteen-year-old boy who is an enthusiastic amateur mechanic and inventor. He habitually tinkers with mechanical devices, turning many of them into rocket-powered or hazardous contraptions, and because he neglects to warn other people about his modifications, often causes a lot of grief to any adults in his vicinity.
Tete Cohete was the main protagonist for another Ibáñez comic series which ran from 1981 to 1986. He makes infrequent cameos in other Ibáñez titles, particularly Mortadelo y Filemón and El botones Sacarino.

Parody characters

There are also parodies of numerous celebrities and political personalities such as Ronald Reagan or José María Aznar.

Albums

In order of publication:

Between 1969 and 1971

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There was an animated series in 1994 titled Mortadelo y Filemón with Spanish voice actors. It also had an English dub that only released in the United Kingdom.

Film adaptations

Between 1965 and 1970, Rafael Vara directed 16 short animated films which were united in two films. In 1970 he made a proper feature film, El armario del tiempo.
There are two live action films based on the comic: ' by Javier Fesser and ' by Miguel Bardem.
Javier Fesser directed the 3D animated film .

Video game adaptation

A video game based on Mort & Phil, entitled El sulfato atómico, was developed by the Spanish company Alcachofa Soft, creator of . It sold above 40,000 units. According to its lead designer, it was developed on a small budget.

In other languages