THOSE GOLDEN DAYS OF YESTERYEAR!

What with Children's Day coming up this next Sunday 30th, I thought it would be somewhat relevant to review some of my old, old photos from way back when I was a little tyke, full of energy and mischief! 

THE COWBOY OUTFIT!

Yeah! Back in those days I loved anything pertaining to cowboys...like most any other

kid my age.

These are the same pair of boots I wore in the first picture above. Clearly, boots look much better when worn with long pants!   Here, I was walking around my old neighborhood when it was easy to find many vacant lots everywhere. Today, there are exactly zero.

My MOTHER AND ME.

 I seem to be just a few months old so I don't remember anything about this.

Me and my baby stroller. It may look rather archaic but it fulfilled its purpose which was to move me around and keep me from wandering about. (The wheel had already been invented, so it was a good thing!)

My mom, one of my sisters and I, posing in a park. Please bear in mind I didn't choose my outfit!

Every kid, from generation to generation, has had a big ball to play with and I was no exception.

THE BUNNY COSTUME

The less said about this image, the better.  Guess it must have been Easter.

I seem to be in some kind of prairie setting here, so this must be a Sunday picnic photo.

 

Playing Peter Pan with my sister Silvia. I didn't have a Captain Hook costume so I played in plain clothes.

(Sadly, Silvia passed on in 1998 due to a brain aneurysm two months before her 40th birthday.)

And that's all there is for now, so I'm closing this early chapter of my life.

Happy Children's Day!

CUCURUCHO - The Llera Covers

Forty seven years ago, I was hired to do some comic stories for a kiddie magazine in Mexico. The magazine was titled CUCURUCHO and it ran for 20 issues. My job was to provide some comic pages between the fun activities like coloring, origami folding, puzzles, read aloud stories, word games, and other kiddie related material.

 

 

I came up with three different titles for the mag: "Cucurucho, The Magical",  about a boy who had magical powers and lived in a little box; "Gavin, The Cowboy Mouse", about four rodent rustlers in the Old West;  and "Hector and the Detective", about a gangster's ghost who lives in an old revolver owned by a private eye.  Pretty exciting stuff, eh? 

I managed to do the cover art on 14 of the 20 issues released. The rest were done by the editor of the magazine, Checo Valdez and the late Eduardo del Rio (RIUS), the celebrated Mexican political cartoonist.

By the end of 1975, after very faulty promotion and some bad economic choices by the

 publishing staff which resulted in rather poor sales, CUCURUCHO was finally discontinued.

Beginning 1976 after my 12 month hiatus, I was back at Editorial Novaro, doing

 THE PINK PANTHER and  BEEP BEEP THE ROAD RUNNER for the Hispanic markets.

However, even today, I still get comments from children who read the magazine back in 1975, and remember it fondly for its original content and who thought highly of the effort poured into the project by all the people who collaborated jointly in helping the magazine to flourish briefly during their childhood. 

I have revisited the pages of CUCURUCHO lately and, although it is obviously a product of its time, it still holds up well in terms of originality and humor. Kids nowadays would find it naive and out of step with the era of social media and internet gamers but on its day, it was a worthwhile and entertaining publication for children of the 70s.

These were the last two issues of CUCURUCHO.  I don't think my grandchildren would appreciate them as much as the kids from four decades ago so I guess I'll put them back into my personal archives and let the memories hover around for a little while before going on to something else.

HAPPY CHILDREN'S DAY, 2022!

 

This is me in 1956. Wish I could go back in time and warn myself about the future!

HAPPY CHILDREN'S DAY - COVID STYLE!

 

TO ALL THE KIDS...

Even I used to be a kid, many, many, many, many years ago!

HAPPY CHILDREN'S DAY!

CHILDREN'S DAY, 2018

Children's Day is traditionally celebrated today in many countries, so many happy wishes to all the children all over the world...and also those who remain young at heart!