A humorist from the leading staff of Mad magazine: Who is Sergio Aragones?
When he was five years old, he decorated the walls of the house of a wealthy family, where he went as a guest with his parents, with Native American paintings.
Mexican cartoonist. He was influential in developing world humor with his cartoons published in Mad magazine. Sergio Aragones Domenech was born in Seville, Spain. His family immigrated to Mexico when he was six years old. His interest in painting started at a very young age when he was still in Spain. When he was five years old, he decorated the walls of the house of a wealthy family, where he went as a guest with his parents, with Native American paintings. Aragones' student years passed in Mexico. He was a 16-year-old high school student when his first cartoons were published. While attending the Faculty of Architecture, he drew cartoons for the weekly magazine Manana. After a while, he started working with Don Pascual, who is considered the most important person in Mexico's cartoon industry. He prepared promotional and commercial films for television. On the other hand, he made documentary films whenever possible.
Sergio Aragonés Domenech (born September 6, 1937) is a Spanish/Mexican cartoonist and writer best known for his contributions to Mad magazine and creating the comic book Groo the Wanderer.
Another activity that Aragones carried on in those years was teaching Mexican folk arts such as ceramics and silverwork to US students at the same university. One of these students, Lilio Chomette, helped him connect with the cartoon community in the USA. In 1962, he went to Los Angeles and sent a series of cartoons about astronauts to Mad, one of the most prominent humor magazines in the world. These were printed in issue 76 of the journal with the headline "Mad in American Space Studies." In the same year, nearly two thousand of his cartoons were published in various magazines, thus making Aragones famous around the world.
Then he went to New York and started working at Mad. He soon returned to Los Angeles, married Lilio Chomette, and went back to New York, this time to settle down with his wife. After that, he worked continuously at Mad. His cartoons for other magazines are very few. Besides caricatures, he prepared book covers and brochures. Furthermore, he continued his film studies. His films were mostly long documentaries such as "Bullfights in Mexico".
Aragones deals with the usual events and serious affairs of daily life from a different perspective. With a sarcastic and somewhat scathing expression, he tries to show the side of them that can be considered both ridiculous and tragic at the same time. The most important cartoon series are “Long Live Astronauts”, “Long Live Shadows”, “Long Live Karate”, “Long Live Water Sports”, and “Long Live Monsters”.