COMIC STRIP CHARACTERS HAVE COME TO LIFE IN S.D.

San Diego’s Comic-con @ Home, a free, online version of the annual Comic-con International conference wraps up today. With the COVID-19 restrictions in place, this is the first year since 1970 that the convention hasn’t drawn fans of pop culture and comic art to downtown San Diego.

But Comic-con isn’t San Diego’s only connection to cartoons and comic strips. In addition to Steve Breen, the Union-tribune’s Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist, several other prominent cartoonists have called San Diego County home. Greg Evans of San Marcos, who created the comic strip “Luann.” Evan’s daughter, Karen, is now cowriting the strip. The late Brad Anderson, creator of “Marmaduke,” lived in Escondido for several years. And Lalo Alcaraz, author of “La Cucaracha,” is a San Diego native who got his start as a cartoonist at The Daily Aztec, San Diego State University’s student newspaper.

In addition, Gustavo “Gus” Arriola lived and worked in La Jolla in the late 1940s and early 1950s before moving to Carmel, where he spent the last 52 years of his life. Arriola created the popular comic strip, “Gordo.”

Arriola’s comic strip ran in The San Diego Union from 1946 to 1985. Over the years, Gordo, the title character, evolved from a simple bean farmer to a suave tour guide and good will ambassador for Mexican culture. Arriola received the San Diego Comic-con Inkpot Award in 1981.

In 1948 Ariolla sat down with a Union reporter at his La Jolla home to discuss the work of creating a daily comic strip.