Gus Arriola established himself as a pioneer in "ethnic" comics when he created Gordo in 1941. For over four decades he amused Mexicans and gringos alike with the gracefully drawn and affectionately scripted series.

Arriola's Mexican-born family moved from his birthplace, Florence, Arizona, to Los Angeles when he was a boy, and the young artist went straight from high school to a job as an animator with MGM. After six or seven years of working on such features as "Tom and Jerry", Arriola felt ready to develop something from his own experience, and he hit on the natural idea of drawing on the warmth, color, and easy-going humor of his Mexican heritage. In November 1941, United Features Syndicate bought Gordo, a gag strip about a corpu...