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''Memín Pinguín'' is a Mexican comic book character. He was created in 1943 by comics writer Yolanda Vargas Dulché and author Sixto Valencia in a comic book magazine called "Pepín" and given his own magazine in 1947. Alberto Cabrera took over drawing from 1953 until 1962, followed by Sixto Valencia Burgo. The original series had 372 chapters printed in sepia, and it has been republished in 1952 and 1961. In 1988 it was re-edited colorized, and in 2004 was re-edited again. Valencia worked on the reissues over the years, updating the drawings (clothes, settings and backgrounds) for the re-edits. It contains comedy and soap opera elements. However, since 2008 Valencia no longer works on the comic, having departed publishing house Editorial Vid.〔http://comicmexicano.blogspot.com/2008/04/memn-pingun-cambia-de-dibujante.html〕 In addition to Mexico, ''Memín'' remains a popular magazine in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Panama, Colombia, and other countries. At its peak, it had a weekly circulation of one and a half million issues in Mexico; as of mid-2005 it sells over 100,000 issues a week. ==Characters== The stories were partially based on recollection of the childhood adventures of Yolanda Vargas Dulché in the Colonia Guerrero near downtown Mexico City. The character of Memín Pinguín was inspired by Cuban children seen by the author Yolanda Vargas Dulché on her travels. ''Memín'' is an alteration of ''Memo'', the shortened form of ''Guillermo'', her husband's name; ''Pinguín'' comes from ''pingo'' (roughly meaning mischievous, in an affectionate tone). Memin is a restless child who is not a very good student, not because of a lack of intelligence, but for not being able to pay attention (he is surprisingly good at arithmetic). He helps his mother working in the street, selling newspapers, and as a shoe shine boy. Memin reflects the life of a poor Mexican boy in Mexico City. Memín and his mother are the only Afro-Mexican characters. Memín is accompanied in his adventures by a group of three loyal friends: *Carlos "Carlangas" Arozamena: A shrewd curly-haired boy who was abandoned by his rich father and was raised by his working class mother. He likes to solve things with his fists, and rarely shows fear. He's a tough boy with a heart of gold. He is not as intelligent as Ernestillo but he manages to get the best scores in a private school test when he moved to live with his father. He thinks his mother has an honest job until he realizes she worked as a "Fichera" (dancer in night clubs) and got involved in a fight that leaves his mother bullet injured and Carlangas in jail due to almost killing her aggressor. His mother lately reencounter with Carlos Arozamena Sr., and while they fail to reconcile they decide to bring Carlangas a better future sending him to live with his father, but Carlos got homesick and cames back to his mother's side. Finally his parents got married again, but not after Carlos Sr. got bankrupt and really learn to appreciate true love than things. *Ernesto "Ernestillo" Vargas: The intelligent and hard working one. His mother died when he was young and has since been raised by his father, an alcoholic carpenter. Ernestillo is so poor he has no shoes. Later, with the help of Ricardo and his friends, he has better clothes and helps his father to overcome his alcoholism and an accident that almost left him without a leg. He acts as the voice of reason of the group but sometimes he is not patient enough to send a "cozcorron" (noogie) to Memin. He is Memin's best friend and was involved in one of Memin's dreams when both go to China. *Ricardo "Riquillo" Arcaraz: A blond rich boy who has traveled around the world. His father decided it would be better for him to attend a public school; a self-made man, he thinks his son was being pampered too much at private schools. At first he had significant troubles fitting in, until some incidents after school led to create a bond with Memin and his friends, to the point of standing up to his mother to defend them . He learns the value of work from Memín, as well as the realities and hardships of life. For a while, he even works as a shoeshine boy with Memín. When his parents tried to get a divorce, he ran away to Guadalajara to live with his godmother, but Memin, who accompanied him, left a note to Eufrosina, leading Ricardo's parents to them. Other prominent characters as listed: *Eufrosina: She is the hot-tempered but charming mother of Memin that makes a living by taking in washing the clothes of her neighbors. She also likes to cook, specially the "tortas de miel" (bread with honey) that Memin loves to eat. However, when she got angry to Memin punishes him by hitting his butt with a table with a nail attached. Her main stories were concerned to adopt a pretty girl that was abandoned in a park while Memin was playing even the poverty of the family; later she tries to get a job in New York City but not without having Memin lost and then confronting Memin homesick attitude after an unfortunate job in a mansion. A more memorable story puts her sick and with the need of a kidney transplant after suffering because of Memin cheating his notes in school. *Trifon: A obeseboy that comes from the North of Mexico. In his first appearance is picked on by Memin because of his obesity to the point to have Memin jumping over his stomach. Later, he got severely ill while Memin decided to not take Communion; however Memin is not able to make Trifon realize he is acting bad even after slapping him in the face. Later, Memin got really repentant when he learns about Trifon's illness and got scared when he did not find him after his Communion, just to know that he is cured. Lately is a prominent character in the Memin's adventure in Monterrey and Texas, because he helps Memin and his friends to get some hospitality from his aunt Canuta. In a later adventure, he dies bringing an uproar among fans and pushing the creator to avoid killing another characters. *Professor Romero: The teacher of Memin's class, he is a very comprehensive teacher while also very strict, going to the extreme to punish Memin sometimes due to his laziness. However, he manages to help his students to help Ernestillo and his father to overcome the alcoholic problems of Ernestillo's father. Some stories later, Memin was punished to study with the lower grade kids and while doing this makes a mischief that pushes the teacher really angry so she went to Professor Romero's classroom to complain about it; however Romero stands for Memin and, in the process, the teachers fell in love and they are married later. During their honeymoon they find Memin's gang lost after they follow a fake treasure map and manages to bring them back to their parents. Later adventures were involved around Memin's incapability to study. Although ''Memín'' is a comedy comic, it resembles soap operas in that the comic's story is a continuous one. Every week, the newest publication of ''Memín'' begins where the last publication had left off. In addition, because of the elements involved in the comic magazine's story, such as poverty, parental abandonment, death and alcoholism, often there are dramatic moments in the magazine as well. Based on the popularity of Memín, Yolanda and her husband Don Guillermo de la Parra were able to found Editorial Vid, a comics publishing company that eventually published hundreds of titles of Mexican comics, some of them written by Yolanda and her husband. Some of these titles also had stories related to black people, such as "Rarotonga", "Majestad negra", and "Carne de Ebano", but only Memín was set in Mexico. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Memín Pinguín」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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