Barcelona installs Mort & Phil traffic lights honoring comic author

Barcelona has installed several traffic lights with the silhouettes of Mort & Phil, the much-loved comic book characters of illustrator Francisco Ibáñez. The artist passed away in July, aged 87. 

Mort & Phil, Mortadel·lo and Filemó, in Catalan, were the Barcelona illustrator's two most popular characters. He also created other popular series such as '13, Rue del Percebe', 'Rompetechos' and 'El botones Sacarino'. 

These traffic lights will be located in four different sites of the Catalan capital: the corner of Treball and Concili de Trento streets in the Sant Martí neighborhood, Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes Boulevard and Bac de Roda Street, Comte d'Urgell and Manso streets, and at the Ronda Sant Pere and Passeig de Gràcia boulevards.

The first traffic light to be installed, the one in Treball and Concili de Trento streets, has already been placed as it is very close to the Gabriel García Márquez Library, recently named World's Best Public Library.  

This site, in fact, has a large number of Ibáñez's stories, who was a resident of the Sant Martí district and took part in the opening ceremony of the library in 2022.  

The green light will have Mort's silhouette, while Phil's will be shown in the red traffic light. Spectators were able to see them come to life on Saturday morning during the unveiling, led by Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni. 

The maximum cost for these traffic lights are €17,036.80.

Teacher's idea 

Early in August, a few days after Ibáñez had passed away, a teacher from the Spanish region of Navarra, also named Francisco Ibáñez, shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, a picture of a potential traffic light with Mort & Phil as the silhouettes for pedestrians. 

In his post, Maestro con Ganas (Eager Teacher) asked for the community's support to see if Barcelona city council would join the opportunity to pay tribute to the comic illustrator.