Hex of the Widow part 1: Introducing The Widow Gonzales

In this story arc from 1955, Gordo is once again pursued by his only unwanted admirer, the relentlessly resourceful Widow Gonzales, who intends to finally have her man – even if she has to get the Devil involved! While a ne’er-do-well New England-born enchantress bewitches Del Monte’s most notorious bachelor, The Widow risks her wealth, her soul and even her life -- for love!

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WHO IS THE WIDOW GONZALES?

Whatever else he may be over the course of his life – farmer, chef, tour guide, torero, musician, and more  – Gordo Lopez is first and foremost a lover. In fact, the joy of romance is so intricately woven into the fabric of the character that even his greatest and most persistent enemy is doing it for love.

Beginning in February of 1942, The Widow Artemisia Chavez Gonzales launches her pursuit of Gordo. She was still pursuing him in the final fortnight of the feature’s run, all the way in February of 1985. While Gordo had other rivals – the Bluto-esque Goblin, the time-beating Coronado, and an array of territorial boyfriends and girlfriends’ fathers – none exhibited the persistence of The Widow Gonzales. 

The Widow's first appearance in Feb 1942

Over the years, in order to lure Gordo to the altar, the Widow has chased him into tiger pits and bear traps, employed potions, tried teleportation and subliminal seduction, traveled through time, made alien alliances, and thrown a malicious man-eating maguey plant at him. But then again, all’s fair in love and war!

The Widow is first introduced within the strip’s first six months, already a source of terror for the pudgy protagonist. She goes on to appear in more than a thousand daily strips over a dozen dedicated story arcs, and will only ever find Gordo even more reluctant to surrender to her insistent charms.

And charms she has! Rather than a cartoon caricature of a man-hungry spinster, The Widow is depicted as brilliant, wealthy, elegant, beautiful, much admired in all the right circles and loaded. And is she desirable! “Kings – maharajers – movie stars – even Texas oil men hav’ ask her to marry – bot no! She gotta want me!” Gordo moans, freshly aware of a new scheme to end his bachelorhood percolating somewhere in the background...

The Widow contemplates her failings with Gordo.

So why does Gordo run from her? Gordo's never been portrayed as pathologically opposed to marriage. In fact, he seems all in favor, even for himself. He loves leisure, so a beautiful billionairess with matrimony on her mind seems like just the thing to ensure some long and unworried siestas. 

Then again, she's nearly killed him half a dozen times. Maybe Gordo doesn’t need a reason to refuse her – the Widow’s given him plenty!

Gordo’s devoted friend, Paris Juarez Keats Garcia (aka The Poet), outlines his hypothesis about Gordo’s reluctance to be caught by The Widow. “Gordo’s resistance is purely psychological,” he suggests, “She’s the only chick who ever chased him! He has developed a prey complex!” 

“You’re so right,” agrees Gordo, “I pray whenever she come to town!”

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“Hex of the Widow” happens at an exciting time in Gordo, artistically speaking. Already a fundamentally sound and capable cartoonist, Arriola begins a period of bold experimentation this year. The eloquent lines, urbane wit and incomparable palette which emerge from this era ultimately transform Gordo into a comic strip unlike any other.

Architecture shows much of the evidence, – specifically in the stylish home of Gordo’s devoted friends, the Garcias (aka The Poet and Rusty Garcia-nee-Gates), and later inside the Widow’s own ominous “Widow’s Peak.” Mid-century design sense was foremost on Arriola's mind in articulating the bold geometric shapes and organic volumes of these locales.  

The 1950s were also the last gasp for ongoing serials in Gordo. Like many other established strips. Gordo would transition in the 1960s from episodic comic-adventure to standalone gag, or short gag-oriented themes running no more than a week or two. At five months long, Hex of the Widow is a satisfying chunk of storytelling rarely seen later on.

In the series' introduction, The Widow is provided with an origin story for the first time, contextualizing her obsessive Gordophilia. Her unfortunate and brief marriage, Gordo’s desperate decampment to the Yucatan, and even the first kiss shared by the two opponents in childhood, are assembled together in a way which only serves -- perhaps ironically -- to weave their stories more inextricably together.

Hex of the Widow also provides a brief summary of the previous Widow arc, The Widow’s Weed*, and establishes one of the more enjoyable rules of these adventures: When the Widow shows up, everything is on the table – science fiction, fantasy, romance, and action!

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Notes: These first four weeks' worth of strips re-introduce Gordo's readers to the Widow, not seen since 1950, and depicted here both in flashbacks and contemporaneously. These strips come from my personal collection of newspaper clippings, and have been digitally cleaned to the best of my ability for maximum readability, given the limitations of age, wear and newspaper printing.

Content here is reprinted for purposes of review, and to encourage interest in the work of Gus Arriola.

* The strip titles ("Hex of the Widow" and "The Widow's Weed") are my inventions and surely not how Arriola referred to the storylines. 

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(Part 1 of 5) January 4 - 30, 1955

Continued tomorrow!