Sergio Aragonés
Sergio Aragonés Domenech (/ˌærəˈɡoʊnɪs/ ARR-ə-GOH-niss, Spanish: [ˈseɾxjo aɾaɣoˈnes ðoˈmenek];[a] born September 6, 1937)[1] is a Spanish/Mexican cartoonist and writer best known for his contributions to Mad magazine and creating the comic book Groo the Wanderer.
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Aragonés and the second or maternal family name is Domenech.
Sergio Aragonés
Spanish
Cartoonist, writer
- Shazam Award, Best Inker (Humor Division), and Best Humor Story in 1972;
Inkpot Award 1976;
Harvey Award Special Award for Humor in 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2001;
National Cartoonist Society Comic Book Award for 1986, Humor Comic Book Award for 1973, 1974, and 1976, Magazine and Book Illustration Award for 1989, Special Features Award for 1977, Gag Cartoon Award for 1983, and Reuben Award in 1996;
Adamson Award for Best International Comic-Strip or Comic Book work in Sweden, 1985;
Eisner Award, Best Short Story in 2001
Among his peers and fans, Aragonés is widely regarded as "the world's fastest cartoonist".[2] The Comics Journal has described Aragonés as "one of the most prolific and brilliant cartoonists of his generation".[3] Mad editor Al Feldstein said, "He could have drawn the whole magazine if we'd let him."[4]
Early life[edit]
Born in Sant Mateu, Castellón, Spain, Aragonés emigrated with his family to France, due to the Spanish Civil War, before settling in Mexico at age 6. Aragonés had a passion for art since early childhood. As one anecdote goes, Aragonés was once left alone in a room by his parents with a box of crayons. His parents returned sometime later to find that he had covered the wall in hundreds upon hundreds of drawings. Aragonés recalled his early difficulties in Mexico, saying, "I didn't have too many friends because I had just arrived. You're the new kid, and you have an accent. I've always had an accent ... When the other kids make fun of you, you don't want to get out of the house. So you stay at home, and what do you do? You take pencils and start drawing."[3]
Aragonés used his drawing skills to assimilate. "The earliest money I ever made was with drawings", he remembered. "The teacher would give us homework, which would consist of copying Chapter Eleven, including the illustrations ... a beetle or a plant, the pistil of a flower, or soldiers – that type of thing. All the kids who couldn't draw would leave a square where the drawing was, and I would charge them to draw that. The equivalent of a few pennies ... That's probably why I draw so fast, because I drew so many of them."[3]
He made his first professional sale in 1954 when a high school classmate submitted his work to a magazine without telling Aragonés. He continued to sell gag cartoons to magazines while studying architecture at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where he learned pantomime under the direction of Alejandro Jodorowsky. "I joined the class", Aragonés recalled, "not to become a mime but to apply its physical aspects of movement to my comics."
Aragonés taught Mexican Popular Art at the University of Mexico, and became engaged to one of his American students, Lilio Chomette. In 1962, Aragonés moved to the United States, where he married Chomette and settled with her in New York.[5]
Art collector Jeff Singh spoke with Sergio at a convention and wrote. "A friend told me that Sergio's father was a film director/producer in Mexico. I asked about this and it is true. His father didn't want the family on set for fear of actors and workers befriending the family in order to win favor with the father. Among the projects worked on, his father did work for the Irish McCalla TV series Sheena, Queen of the Jungle which was filmed in Mexico (in 1955). On one of the rare occasions Sergio was on set the stuntman didn't show up. Sergio had to put on the Sheena costume and did some stunts which I understand included swinging from a vine and diving into water. He was in his early teens at this time. He said they were pretty distant shots as despite the wig and costume he didn't look at all like Irish. Irish was not on set that day and he lamented never having got to meet her."
Arrival in the United States[edit]
According to the artist, he arrived in New York in 1962[6] with nothing but 20 dollars and his portfolio of drawings. After working odd jobs around the city, Aragonés went to Mad's offices on Third Avenue hoping to sell some of his cartoons. "I didn't think I had anything that belonged in Mad," said Aragonés. "I didn't have any satire. I didn't have any articles. But everybody was telling me, 'Oh, you should go to Mad."[7]
Since his knowledge of English was not very extensive, he asked for the only Mad artist he knew of that spoke Spanish, Cuban-born artist Antonio Prohías, creator of the comic strip "Spy vs. Spy". Aragonés hoped Prohías could serve as an interpreter between him and the Mad editors. According to Aragonés, this proved to be a mistake, since Prohías knew even less English than he did. Prohías did receive Aragonés very enthusiastically and, with difficulty, introduced the young artist to the Mad editors as "Sergio, my brother from Mexico," temporarily leading to even further confusion, as the Mad editors thought they were meeting "Sergio Prohías."[7] Mad editor Al Feldstein and publisher Bill Gaines liked what they saw, and Aragonés became a contributor to the magazine in 1963. His first sale was an assortment of astronaut cartoons which the editors arranged into a themed article.[8]
When associate editor Jerry DeFuccio encouraged Aragonés to submit more material in the future, the cartoonist took it to heart, producing a full article on motorcycle cops overnight. He returned to the Mad offices the following morning, and made his second sale. In 2022, Aragonés told an interviewer, "I was back at the door before they opened. They were asking, "What happened? What do you need?" I said, "No, I have your articles here." They couldn't believe it. I had drawn close to 15 ideas and they loved it."[9]
With little money and no connections in the United States, Aragonés spent so much time at the office that publisher Gaines allowed him to sleep there overnight. "I don't think any other company would have been so generous or friendly," Aragonés recalled 57 years later.
Aragonés worked continuously for Mad from 1963 to 2020, only stopping because the magazine transitioned into an almost-all-reprint format. His final new material appeared in an issue otherwise entirely filled with Aragonés reprints. It was the 491st issue to include new work by Aragonés, second only to Al Jaffee (509 issues).[10] "They told me, 'Make Mad your home,'" said Aragonés, "and I took it literally."
Marginals[edit]
Aragonés has a featured section in every issue called "A Mad Look At...", typically featuring 4–5 pages of speechless gag strips that are all related to a single subject, such as "Gambling," "UFOs" or "Pizza." Aragonés became famous for his wordless "drawn-out dramas" or "marginals" which were inserted into the margins and between panels of the magazine. The drawings are both horizontal and vertical, and occasionally extend around corners. Prior to Aragonés's arrival at Mad, the magazine had sometimes filled its margins with text jokes under the catch-all heading "Marginal Thinking." Aragonés convinced Feldstein to use his cartoons by creating a dummy sample issue with his Marginals drawn along the edges. The staff of Mad enjoyed his marginals, but did not expect him to be able to maintain the steady stream of small cartoons needed for each issue.[11] Aragonés has provided marginals for every issue of Mad since 1963 except one (his contributions to that issue were lost by the Post Office). Associate Editor Jerry DeFuccio said, "Writing the 'Marginal Thinking' marginals had always been a pain in the butt. Sergio made the pain go away."[12]
Aragonés is a very prolific artist; Al Jaffee once said, "Sergio has, quite literally, drawn more cartoons on napkins in restaurants than most cartoonists draw in their entire careers."[13] In 2002, writer Mark Evanier estimated that Aragonés had written and drawn more than 12,000 gag cartoons for Mad alone.[14] His new marginal gags in the April 2024 Mad marked the 509th issue that Aragonés has contributed to, the most of any writer or artist. He passed Al Jaffee, whose work had appeared in 508 Mad issues between 1955 and 2020.[15]
