Spain Rodriguez
| Spain Rodriguez | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | Manuel Rodriguez March 2, 1940 Buffalo, New York |
| Died | November 28, 2012 (aged 72) San Francisco |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist, Artist |
| Pseudonym(s) | Algernon Backwash |
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Notable works
|
Trashman |
| Awards | 2013 Will Eisner Hall of Fame Award |
| Spouse(s) | Susan Stern |
Manuel Rodriguez (March 2, 1940 – November 28, 2012), better known as Spain or Spain Rodriguez, was an American underground cartoonist who created the character Trashman. His experiences on the road with the motorcycle club, the Road Vultures M.C., provided inspiration for his work, as did his left-wing politics. Strongly influenced by 1950s EC Comics illustrator Wally Wood, Spain pushed Wood's sharp, crisp black shadows and hard-edged black outlines into a more simplified, stylized direction. His work also extended the eroticism of Wood's female characters.
Manuel Rodriguez was born March 2, 1940, in Buffalo, New York. He picked up the nickname Spain as a child, when he heard some kids in the neighborhood bragging about their Irish ancestry, and he defiantly claimed Spain was just as good as Ireland. Rodriguez studied at the Silvermine Guild Art School in New Canaan, Connecticut.
In New York City, during the late 1960s, he became a contributor to the East Village Other, which published his own comics tabloid, Zodiac Mindwarp (1968). He covered the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago as a reporter for the East Village Other, adventures which were chronicled in My True Story (Fantagraphics Books, 1994).
In such classics as Mean Bitch Thrills (Print Mint, 1971), Spain’s women are raunchy, explicitly sexual, and sometimes incorporated macho sadomasochistic themes.
A co-founder (with Robert Crumb) of the United Cartoon Workers of America, he contributed to numerous underground comics in the 1960s–2000s, including Zap Comix, San Francisco Comic Book, Young Lust, Arcade, Bijou Funnies, Weirdo, and Harvey Pekar's American Splendor. He also drew Salon's continuing graphic story, The Dark Hotel, which ran on the website in 1998–1999.
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