The mad world of Sergio Aragones

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So you’ve just dipped into one of Sergio Aragonés’ cartoons. Relax. Make yourself at home. The artist would like you to feel perfectly at ease in the miniature cosmos he has created, which, you may have observed, is as spatially balanced and packed with information as a Medieval prayer book.

Notice the careful detailing — of the rustic Mexican village street, the rock concert, the battlefield, whatever. Aragonés, the 71-year-old master of Mad magazine cartoon marginalia, is obsessed with such accuracy and verisimilitude. No matter how outlandish the premise or bizarre the subject, he inspires his loyalists, some of whom have been following his work for 50 years, to believe in the well-ordered truthfulness of what they’re seeing, and sense the elegant, disciplined mind behind it.

Meet Mr. Aragonés on the eve of an exhibition of his ‘crazy art’ at the Ojai Valley Museum; Reed Johnson makes the introductions in his Sunday Arts & Books story.

Art: Sergio Aragonés / For The TImes