Gus Arriola / Gordo fans? Hola!

[Calamity Jon]

I grew up in Tucson, AZ, and no newspaper in the US loved Gus Arriola's "Gordo" more than the Arizona Daily Star. It gave me a nice education in at least the latter years of Arriola's acclaimed style. A couple years back, for no reason I could articulate, a particular stretch of Gordo comics came to mind and I started hunting around for resources online. There aren't many! Even the eponymous GordoComics.com has huge gaps in the strip's run, although it has a (low-res) collection of rare art. Excellent stuff if you swing by.

I've written a couple of books on comics ("The League of Regrettable Superheroes" and its sequels) and I'm interested in pitching an art book of Arriola's work in the future. I have a lot of legwork to do beforehand, but I can't miss an opportunity to dig up other fans or to introduce an appreciative audience to his craft. He's an amazing artist, his comic contributed a great deal to mainstream American culture at the time, and I am blown away that he's so little-known and underappreciated.

In the meantime, I've been running around picking up art and original strips (I've even been to UC Berkeley's special collections department to look at what they've got!). I just picked up a run of the 1945 color Sundays -- hard to find! -- and I'd love to share at least one with you (hopefully that doesn't cross any rules -- the strips aren't public domain).

Arriola's style evolved dramatically over the strip's run. These early ones owe a great deal to his time as an MGM animator.

Anyway, if you're a fan, holler, I'd love to meet more!
Cheers!
-Jon

[crashryan]

"Gordo" ran in our local newspaper (Everett, WA, Daily Herald) when I was in elementary school. I enjoyed the strip immensely and followed it through the years. I enjoyed Arriola's stories, his cute girls (!), and his remarkable Sunday strips. I've never seen another strip that combined excellent draftsmanship and imaginative design like those Gordo Sundays did. When I moved to the Bay Area in the 70s, Arriola was a frequent contributor to and supporter of the local PBS station. He was always mentioned during the fund drives. Like you I'm surprised Arriola and Gordo aren't better known.

[erwin-k]

I grew up in the St. Louis, Missouri, area with Gordo appearing in the St. Louis Post-Disppatch.

I've wondered if the sort of politically correct uproar that did in the Frito Bandido has kept Gordo in the shadows. I enjoyed the strip, but it wasn't until I was in high school that I realized that time passed for the characters, a bit like Gasoline Alley.

[Calamity Jon]

"Gordo" ran in our local newspaper (Everett, WA, Daily Herald) when I was in elementary school. I enjoyed the strip immensely and followed it through the years. I enjoyed Arriola's stories, his cute girls (!), and his remarkable Sunday strips. I've never seen another strip that combined excellent draftsmanship and imaginative design like those Gordo Sundays did. When I moved to the Bay Area in the 70s, Arriola was a frequent contributor to and supporter of the local PBS station. He was always mentioned during the fund drives. Like you I'm surprised Arriola and Gordo aren't better known.

Oh, that's great! You wouldn't happen to recall the call letters of the PBS station, would you? I'd love to see if they have any promotional material or (very unlikely, but wouldn't this be exciting) recordings.

(I'm in Redmond WA, myself, by the way! Greetings from your old home state!)
Cheers!
-Jon

[crashryan]

The PBS station would have been KQED in San Francisco. Hola to Redmond; I spent 4th grade through high school in beautiful downtown Snohomish. Do you remember Shorey's books? Each trip into Seattle was a pilgrimage to me.

[Calamity Jon]

I grew up in the St. Louis, Missouri, area with Gordo appearing in the St. Louis Post-Disppatch.

Speaking of the Post-Dispatch, I just found this on Newspapers.com today!

[Calamity Jon]

The PBS station would have been KQED in San Francisco. Hola to Redmond; I spent 4th grade through high school in beautiful downtown Snohomish. Do you remember Shorey's books? Each trip into Seattle was a pilgrimage to me.

Sadly, Shorey's is a bit before my time (I got here in 2009), but I think I have a similar feeling of making a meaningful visit every time I go to Bop Street ...

[erwin-k]

Thanks, Calamity Jon, for that Post-Dispatch feature image. That's right at five months before I moved to the S. Louis area from the Washington DC suburb of Arlington.