Note: This article originally appeared in the print version of Canon.
Reflections On Gordo: The Work of Gus Arriola
By Alex Eklund
I remember the first time that I saw the work of Gus Arriola. I was instantly struck by the loving attention he paid to the design of the title he put into every Gordo strip. Every opening image pulled his readers into the mood he was setting and into the world of his characters. Like Will Eisner, he didn’t waste any space which could be used in creating a more immersive storytelling experience.
Gordo is a cartoonist’s masterclass of visual tools to engage the reader. From spotting blacks to clear character gesturing. Gus knew what would make an image striking. The characters are almost always in motion and when they aren’t they are posed so that they articulate the emotion and thoughts they are experiencing in that moment.
The characters of Gordo are grounded. They feel like real humans whose stories play out as they would in real life. In the strip reprinted here, the loving uncle Gordo tries to ensure that his nephew gets the sleep he needs to be healthy, but the nephew doesn’t want to go. Instead, the nephew wants to grow to become a scientist and he wants to learn about the stars in order to ensure he is ready. In each strip the characters feel believable and the conflicts they have feel tangible.
Like many other cartoonists of his day Gus Arriola was an astounding letterer. The consistency, clarity and playfulness of his letters is undeniable. Though unlike many other strips of the same time period Gus pushed what lettering could be in comics. In the panel at left you can see him changing text size, utilizing caricature to emphasize the emotion, and manipulating punctuation to take what could have been a simple drawing of a tantrum into a triumph of what lettering can be in the hands of a master cartoonist.
Gus Arriola was appreciated by many of his contemporaries in comics. Charles Schulz attributed the quote “(Gordo is) probably the most beautifully drawn strip in the history of the business.” He worked creating strips nearly every day for 45 years though rarely has his work been reprinted and when reprinted his strips are never complete reproductions of an artistic time period. His color stips are especially vivid, showcasing his passion for the natural world.
Gordo is due to a level of thoughtful criticism. Like many other strips of its time there are topics, like physical child punishment, which can be distasteful to modern readers. Also like many creators of color during his time period Gus utilized racial stereotypes of his day. In Gordo these were latino stereotypes to make the material “appeal” to a white readership. That being said, Gus was recognized by Mexico as a cultural ambassador for his positive representation of Mexican cultural history and mythology.
After reading Gordo I was instantly captivated by the genius of its creator Gus Arriola. My hope is that at some point Gordo is lifted with other newspaper strips like Walt & Skeezix by Frank King and Dick Tracy by Chester Gould. In this strip, it is my hope that Gus was thinking of Winsor Mccay’s classic Strip Little Nemo in Slumberland ending with a disconcerted boy coming to terms with their place in the world.
