Gus Arriola
| Gus Arriola | |
|---|---|
Gus Arriola poses with admirers in 1946.
|
|
| Born | Gustavo Arriola July 17, 1917 Florence, Arizona, U.S. |
| Died | February 2, 2008 (aged 90) Carmel, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist |
|
Notable works
|
Gordo |
| Awards | National Cartoonist Society's Humor Comic Strip Award, 1957, 1965 |
Gustavo "Gus" Arriola (July 17, 1917 – February 2, 2008) was a Mexican-American comic strip cartoonist and animator, primarily known for the comic strip Gordo, which ran from 1941 through 1985.
Gus Arriola was born in Florence, Arizona, the youngest of nine children. Arriola's father, Aquiles Arriola, had been born on a hacienda in Sonora, Mexico. Gus's mother died when he was a baby, and he was raised by an older sister in a Spanish-speaking household. He learned English by reading the Sunday comics. His family moved to Los Angeles, California, when he was eight years old. He first studied art formally in Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles, California.
Immediately after high school he spent a year working on Krazy Kat for Screen Gems, then three years animating Tom and Jerry and Lonesome Stranger for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a "sketch man", before leaving to start his own comic strip. During World War II, he directed training films for the United States Army while continuing to produce Sunday Gordo cartoons.
Although Arriola did not visit Mexico until 1961, he used the human and animal characters of his strip to introduce Mexican culture to readers throughout the world.Gordo was initially designed to be a Mexican version of Li'l Abner, with a highly caricatured style and a lazy overweight title character who spoke in heavily accented English and took naps under a tree wearing a sombrero. The character reflected popular conceptions of Mexicans at the time, particularly Leo Carrillo's portrayal of The Cisco Kid's sidekick, Pancho, on television and film.
...
Wikipedia