THE PINK PANTHER SHOW

On September 6, 1969, Friz Freleng and David H. DePatie produced THE PINK PANTHER SHOW, which was a half-hour compilation of the Pink Panther theatrical cartoons and later became a showcase for subsequent made-for-TV cartoons.

It ran on NBC until September 2, 1978 when it changed networks and became THE ALL NEW PINK PANTHER SHOW.  Today, we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the series' debut.

I enjoyed this first series a lot and, since I began doing the PINK PANTHER comic books for overseas distribution in Spanish, I felt I had a special bond with the character.

In celebration of THE PINK PANTHER SHOW's 50th Anniversary, I'd like to remember some of my Pink Panther covers during that period.

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You can read all about the Pink Panther story in this excellent book by Mark Arnold:

https://www.amazon.com/Think-Pink-DePatie-Freleng-Mark-Arnold/dp/1593931697

And here's the very first PINK PANTHER cartoon, released December 18, 1964.

FERNANDO LLERA - Mini-Biography

FERNANDO LLERA is a comic book artist, editorial cartoonist, illustrator, actor and writer from Mexico City.   He created his first comic strip, "MOBSTER NICK" in 1970. Six comic book issues of MOBSTER NICK were published by NOVARO under the Domingos Alegres banner in 1973-74.     From 1974 to 1992, he wrote and drew the Spanish language versions of "THE PINK PANTHER" and "BEEP BEEP, THE ROAD RUNNER" comic books for Western Publishing Company's Latin American licensees, Editorial Novaro and later Editorial VID.  He performed as a comedian at several local dinner theaters.  In 1985, he wrote and appeared in two comedy TV series. He's also a licensed radio announcer and from 1995 to 2007, he co-hosted a daily two hour radio talk show for Grupo Radio Centro, a large Mexican radio network.  He has illustrated several humor books and his cartoons have been published in several magazines. He published some editorial cartoons for Mexico's Reforma newspaper from 2004 until 2006. He has also appeared as an actor in Mexican films: HASTA MORIR ('Til Death - 1994) and BORRAR DE LA MEMORIA (2010). He was interviewed on-screen for a feature length documentary about the NOVARO era: NOVARO, THE MEXICAN COLOSSUS (2016). Since 2006, his editorial cartoons have been appearing regularly in Excelsior, a Mexican daily newspaper. 

Revisiting my MOBSTER NICK (El Mafioso Nick) covers from 1973!

THE PINK PANTHER speaks Norwegian!

THE PINK PANTHER speaks Norwegian in these stories I did in Spanish years ago for Novaro.

Thanks to Jan Roar Hansen from the GCD, Grand Comics Database for sending me these scans!

¡SANTOS CÓMICS! TV Interview

I had lots of fun as the guest of Martín Arceo's TV show "¡SANTOS CÓMICS!" which aired Tuesday, July 19, 2016   at www.rompeviento.tv 
He proved to be a wonderful and knowledgeable host.
We talked about comic books, The Pink Panther, The Road Runner, Laurel and Hardy and editorial cartoons among many other topics and the time just flew by! Thank you for the invite, Martín!
The show can be seen and downloaded now at 
https://vimeo.com/175449818

THE PINK PANTHER sample covers from the 70s and 80s. (Novaro Publishing)

These are a few of more than 200 Pink Panther comics I did for Novaro during the 70s and 80s.

This was a VID Publishers 1990s reworking of a previous cover I did for Novaro:

Most of my later VID comics were simply recreations of former stories I had done

for NOVARO  before it went bankrupt.