I doubt that we'd see such a gentle Sunday concoction with this much veneration and humility among the funny pages in newspapers today, particularly in a Christmas context. This truly and sadly feels like an anachronism in 2017's oppressively "correct" world, contrasted with modern, caustic expression.

I was five years old when this would've appeared in papers. I never really understood Gordo as a child, probably because it had too many words and often required careful reading, like Pogo, when it wasn't sheer pantomime. But I always thought it was nicely drawn, and frequently stunningly colored.

As original black and white art, Gordo examples are characterized by their distinctive graphic excellence, and judicious balance and symmetry between black and white areas. R. C. Harvey wrote a brief but astute critique for The Comics Journal #101 that extolled these and other virtues of Gus Arriola's mastery of form in the syndicated format.

From the Wikipedia entry on Gus Arriola and his strip:

"...[Arriola] used the human and animal characters of his strip to introduce Mexican culture to readers throughout the world...Gordo was initially designed to be a Mexican version of Li'l Abner, with a highly caricatured style and a lazy overweight title character who spoke in heavily accented English and took naps under a tree wearing a sombrero...

After his early strips were criticized for Hollywood-style cultural stereotypes, Arriola realized that his was the only periodical work in American mass media that depicted life in Mexico and modified the strip to be more sympathetic....A much thinner and contemplative Gordo eventually became a flirtatious tour guide, whom Arriola often described as an "accidental ambassador" for Mexican culture...

The strip introduced America to such now-popular words and phrases as "hasta la vista," "amigo," "piñata," "compadre," "muchacho" and "hasta mañana," as well as Mayan, Aztec and Mexican customs, history and folklore..."

And, from Harvey:

"The enhanced ethnic sensibilities of recent years were not kind to Gordo. Although Arriola had eased considerably the stereotypical aspects of his strip over the years, Gordo was still a conspicuous target. By 1980, the strip had lost all but about 50 of the 200 papers that had carried it at its peak."

Collect what you'll cherish. You might not see its like again.

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