Friday, November 20, 2009

A visit to the Cartoon Museum in Mexico City

Any time I'm in Mexico City I love to drop by the Museo de la Caricatura which is conveniently situated very close to the historic Zocolo in the center of the City. It's a small but lovingly maintained collection with a great spread of Mexican cartooning.

Here's one of my favorite displays. A pair of cartoonist's glasses. It doesn't specify who they belonged to but you can see they are obviously specially designed to meet the very particular needs of a cartoonist's vision.My favorite all-time Latin America cartoonist is a Chilean cartoonist called José Palomo. The museum has a couple of great examples of his strip "El Cuarto Reich" which was kind of like seeing the Holy Grail for me. He's been drawing the strip since 1963, before I was even born. His scrappy edgy aesthetic style and political sensibility really resonate with me.
Mexican cartoonists use similar tools to cartoonists in other countries with the exception of that nubby pencil sharpened like a dart. I expect that's used for all those tildes and tiny accents.Inside the museum is a large courtyard filled with actual Mexican cartoonists, may of whom hang out, chat and do their work there. They'll even do a caricature of you for a few pesos. Here's me with my good buddy and amazingly talented cartoonist Román Rivas who always makes me feel at home among the Mexican cartooning elete. He has an excellent blog in addition to an impeccable taste in music.

4 comments:

Román Rivas said...

Amigo Lemon:

Te mando un fraternal saludo desde el Museo de la Caricatura en la Ciudad de México y espero vuelvas pronto a visitarnos.

hasta luego Amigo.

Román Rivas

J. Lemon said...

Roman! Siempre es un placer compartir con un hermano caricaturista. Tus calaveras rockabilly son de todo dar. Nos vemos pronto.

Unknown said...

I always enjoy a walk around the museum, all the historical value makes me feed my knowledge and i feel that i grow up like a person. I like to try what i want to prove. this is when i buy viagra for my husband. whenever i have a doubt, i mus to satisfy my curiosity.

Fraga Comics said...

Que buena onda que difundas el arte humorístico mexicano y latinoamericano, Master! También soy fan del gran Palomo! Abrazo desde Saltillo, Mexico.