The Fabuleous Fifties

Another Man's Hell

Monday Cartoon Day.

As the editor of the Dutch Mad I am, as you can imagine, a huge fan of the new comic book series Sergio Aragonès is doing for Bongo. If you haven't yet picked it up, I can recommend it highly. Some comic you want to wait until they are combined into a paperback, but this is just one book you want to have in your mailbox eery month. The gags are fresh as ever, but what makes it extra special is the fact that Sergio is including anecdotes from his own life. My guess is, these are anacdotes he has been telling all his lifem so they are often very sharp and very wlel told. As well as adding a little bit of pathos, which doesn't hurt Mr. Aragonès style at all.

In one of the last issues (I think it was nr. 3, he recalls how he created a news newspaper series, about people getting their just deserts in hell. Just like in Dantes Inferno, everyone would get the punishment he derserves after his or her death. He would call it Aragonès Inferno and readers could send in their pet peeves, etc etc. He was all set to go, with lots of samples, when [SPOILER ALERT] Mark Evanier told him it had already been done by Jimmy Hatlo. Hatlo was fanous for his They'll Do It Everytime, which ran on the basis of reader's suggestions as well. During some time in the fifties he introduced Hatlo's Inferno, where he would devise punishments for annoying types the readers could pick. Well, basicly the same idea Sergio had.

So in honor of this great idea, here are two of Hatlo's samples I came across. And may I give my vote for a Sunday only new version by Aragonès. i am sure he could fit it into his schedule.