Guillermo Mordillo (4 August 1932 – 29 June 2019), known simply as Mordillo, was an Argentine creator of cartoons and animations and was one of the most widely published cartoonists of the 1970s. He is most famous for his humorous, colorful, surreal and wordless depictions of love, sports (in particular soccer and golf), and long-necked animals.
From 1976 to 1981, Mordillo's cartoons were used by Slovenian artist Miki Muster to create Mordillo, a series of 400 short animations (300 min) that were later presented at Cannes and bought by television studios from 30 countries. Mordillo – a name, which is now a trademark, a promise of good spirits and a guarantee of quality. But the brilliant career of Argentinean Guillermo Mordillo, who was born in 1932 in Buenos Aires from Spanish immigrants, is the result not just of creative flair and luck but also of will power and perseverance. It is the result of constant daily commitment and not merely of improvised bizarre ideas.
His cartoons frequently feature surreal situations, often involving sports such as cycling, golf and association football. Big-nosed white men and women and goofy-looking giraffes are recurring characters. His dialogue-free cartoons easily destroyed all language barriers. His work has a poetic quality, which helped him become a global success. Mordillo won numerous awards and his work was the subject of heavy merchandising, including animated cartoons.
At the height of his success, he was one of the most popular and instantly recognizable cartoonists in the world. In terms of global fame, he is arguably the most significant Argentinian comic artist of the late 20th century, along with 'Mafalda' creator Quino. Mordillo's career took off in 1950, when he joined the animation studio Burone Bruché.
On the side, he adapted famous fairy tales by Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm and Joseph Jacobs into little illustrated books in a landscape format, published by Codex. In 1952, Mordillo decided to establish his own animation studio, Estudios Galas, although he had more success publishing cartoons in several Argentinian newspapers and magazines. Soon Mordillo became the house cartoonist of La Naciòn.
In November 1955, Mordillo decided to travel and moved to Lima, Peru, where he found a job as a freelance designer at the local division of the McCann Erickson advertising company. He also illustrated 'Aesop's Fables' for the publishing company Editorial Iberia Lima. During his stay in Peru he developed a passion for golf which, just like association football, became a recurring theme in his cartoons.
By 1959, Mordillo became a greeting card illustrator for Hallmark in Kansas City. A year later he moved to the United States. The artist always wanted to work for Disney, but instead found employment at Paramount Pictures, where he animated on 'Popeye' and 'Little Lulu' cartoons (respectively based on the characters created by E.C. Segar and Marge). In the end, he liked his old job better. Mordillo moved to New York City, where he designed greeting cards for another company, Oz.
After his brief stay in the United States (1959-1963), Mordillo decided to move to Europe. He arrived in Paris on 19 September 1963. His skills in designing greeting cards got him a job at Éditions Mic-Max, but by 1966 he was fired and contemplated a humiliating return to his home country. At this low point of his life, one of his friends convinced him to stay in France and apply his cartoons to some magazines.
On 31 July 1966, Mordillo published his first cartoon in issue #4638 of Le Pèlerin. Since he spoke little French he decided to work in pantomime. Having finally found his trademark style, Mordillo's cartoons broke through on a global scale. Over the years, they appeared in French magazines such as Paris Match, Lui, Marie Claire and Pif Gadget. In 1968 his work found its way to the prolific German magazine Stern. By the time the 1970s rolled along, Mordillo was one of the most recognizable and popular cartoonists on the planet.
Mordillo always worked in pantomime, which made his cartoons understandable to people of all ages, across all languages. Many consist of one panel, usually providing a wide panoramic bird eye's perspective view of a surreal situation. One of the most iconic is 'The Individualist' (1973), which features a grey town where one man is taken away by the police for painting his roof in bright colors.
Another well known cartoon, 'And Now?' (1981), shows a football team on a huge rectangular island in the ocean whose ball has just fallen into the water, several miles below. Other cartoons are actual gag comics, typically three to six panels long. His most famous works revolve around sports. He made dozens of drawings of cyclists, golfers and footballers, typically encountering exotic animals or sporting in absurd locations.
Many were compiled in thematic books, such as his 1981 book 'Football', which had a foreword by football legend Pelé. Most people have first encountered Mordillo through his football-themed cartoons, which were often reprinted whenever a new edition of the World Championship Association Football was held. Particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, his art was used on an assortment of merchandising, including calendars, cups, greeting cards, stuffed animals, posters and especially puzzles.
His nameless characters all look similar: short, tiny, slightly chubby, chalk white little men and women with big, bulbous noses and no mouths. He enjoyed drawing jungle and savannah animals too, with a particular love for giraffes, whose long necks provided him with an endless source of comedy. Since his characters lack names, Mordillo's cartoons lacked a proper, permanent title too.
In every book or magazine, his own name was usually the only header. Since 'Mordillo' was the only way to address them, readers found it much easier to identify his name with his work. This put him at an advantage compared with rival cartoonists, who are typically overshadowed by the names of their fictional characters. Mordillo's graphic style is so uniform that his art is instantly recognizable.
In 1980, Mordillo moved to Mallorca, Spain, where he lived until 1997. After that date, he moved to Monaco, spending his final years there. Guillermo Mordillo, as his full name was, died at the age of 86 in Mallorca, El Pais reported, noting that he was active until his last day.
