Rating: 4.5/5 – Learn to draw & pick up girls!
I’m on record as being a huge fan of Aragonés, his Groo the Wanderer and Mad Magazine “marginals” are some of the very best cartooning that exist. Each issue is loaded with fun stuff, usually a funny story, some picture puzzles (like “find the 10 stars in this image loaded with crazy comedic stuff” or “what is different between these 2 images”), short gag strips, and what I consider to be the star of the comic, the autobiographical story.
Aragonés has led such an interesting life and in each issue tells a story from his life. In this issue we get “My Second Peso”, a follow-up to the story in #2 where he recounted how he made money in the 3rd grade doing drawing for classmates for a few centavos each. In this story he looks to be about middle school age and starts doing lots of cartooning and is paid via barter with various items. At one point, though, his friends realize that girls have a very positive reaction when guys draw for them. Some older boys notice too and subsequently befriend Sergio. I won’t say any more, but this story was a true gem, worth the price of admission by itself even though the rest of the comic was full of wonderful stuff.
I’d love to see Aragonés put out a Hardcover collection of just the Autobiographical stories, arranged in chronological order once there is enough material available to collect.
Reviewed by: Bob Bretall – bob@comicspectrum.com
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