Sergio Aragones, famed cartoonist for MAD is also known in Los Angeles as a bon vivant, and man about town!
I’ve known Sergio for many years, through CAPS and NCS when I belonged to those clubs, and occasional cartoon get togethers. He really is a fascinating man – married three times, and was a real ladies man with starlets and others in Hollywood before that. He’s charming, and a big talker – but he has the creds, from MAD Magazine mostly. Of course, those were the days when MAD was monthly, not quarterly, and they took all the contributors (cartoonists and writers) on trips around the world every year! (As well they should, since they have a really awful old-fashioned and stingy Work for Hire contract.)
Anyway, Sergio has a studio up on hot Ojai, which I visited once, on a day spa trip up there. Very fun, and so is he.
I knew from seeing a thumbnail of this that this was one of his early drawings, and so it is – 1978. From the 99Cent Chef Blog, who is a character himself, doing a roundup of hot dogs in Los Angeles.
On a much sadder note,? one of the best editorial cartoonists in our generation, Paul Conrad, died last week. I didn’t know him as well as Sergio – only briefly met him at Impolitic, a gallery in Santa Monica that we both had our work in. Impolitic had great parties, and I think he came to most of them, although he didn’t seem interested in anyone, and just wanted to chat about his cartoons. He was a great talent.
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