Mort & Phil

Mort & Phil (Spanish: Mortadelo y Filemón) is a Spanish comic series, published in more than two 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 (Spanish: Mortadelo), the tall, bald master of disguise named after mortadella sausage, and his bossy partner, the shorter, pudgier Phil (Spanish: Filemón), named after fillet. 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. (a spoof on CIA), the Técnicos de Investigación Aeroterráquea (Aeroterrestrial Investigation Technicians). 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.