Captain Thunder and Albuixech

El Capitán Trueno (Captain Thunder) was the great comic book character who stimulated the imagination and testosterone of Spanish youth during the 50s and 60s.

He was created by writer Víctor Mora and illustrator Miguel Ambrosio Zaragoza (Ambrós), selling at its height up to 170,000 copies every week.

It was inspired by Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant, and was a truly international success, syndicated in several Latin American countries, Italy, Greece, Portugal and France.

It had the privilege of being censored during Franco’s dictatorship, as the great prude couldn’t conceive that Trueno and his sidekick Sigrid, Viking Queen of Thule, travelled the world together asexually and unmarried.

As to his other sidekicks, Crispin and Goliath, no insinuations were made., but justice was enforced and bullies justly chastised.

I have never read a Capitan Trueno comic, but even so was surprised to come across his statue in the humble village of Albuixech, just north of Valencia, where it seems that Ambrós was born, and where various paintings pay homage to him in the cultural centre.