Comic Strip Review: Mad as a Hatter by Sergio Aragonés
Sergio Aragonés was born in Spain in 1937, but his family fled the Spanish Civil War, settling in Mexico when he was six. He had a talent for humor and cartooning, and was convinced to move to the big city of New York in 1962. Despite speaking very little English, his cartooning skill won him a steady job contributing to MAD magazine.
He continued to work for the humor magazine until 2020 when they switched to a reprint format, though he had some new art in a 2024 issue that was a tribute to him. He also worked for DC Comics for several years, as well as creating the Groo series with Mark Evanier. (Mr. Evanier primarily worked as Mr. Aragonés’ translator at first, as Sergio’s English was still shaky, but since has also written some of the stories.)
Like fellow MAD artist Al Jaffee, Aragonés has had numerous paperback collections of his cartoons published over the years. This particular volume was published in 1981 and reprints work from the preceding few years. (One of the marginalia printed on the back is of special interest as it has caricatures of the MAD artists of the time.)
After an “autograph” page of the artist in Mad Hatter gear, the first cartoon is of a snake arching itself to make way for a porcupine. The final cartoon before another appearance by the artist shilling his other books is the stereotypical Mexican (drawn as Sergio himself) having a siesta in serape and sombrero, waking up to empty his hat of “Z”s so he can continue his nap.
The cartoons do not rely on dialogue, though there are signs with words. This makes them very portable around the world. Most of the multiple-panels ones rely either on the situation not being what it first appears (short scruffy fellow walks down the street with attractive women on each arm to the admiration/jealousy of other men, only to have the women turn out to be undercover police officers arresting him–the angle hid his handcuffs) or expectations not matching reality (young woman sees ad for “magician’s assistant”, imagines herself wearing glamorous skimpy outfit and participating in magic tricks, but the job is actually caring for the magician’s animals).
One of my favorite sequences is one many parents will recognize. The child needs an angel costume for a school play. The family works together to choose a pattern and fabric, cut and sew the cloth and make the accessories (the child fully participating) and at last a lovely costume is ready. Then at the actual play, the child is just one of many angels in a choir, and placed way in the back where the costume is barely visible.
There are some outdated attitudes, and a couple of gags fall flat, but overall Sergio is a very funny cartoonist, and I recommend any of his volumes if you can find them at a used book store or garage sale.
