Gringo is a comic
strip I created while living and working in Quito, Ecuador. After
graduation, I worked for a year to save money to travel to
Ecuador,
South America. I had briefly visited Ecuador in high school in an
exchange program (with the
Colegio Americano de Quito) and wanted to return to get a better look at the
country and to achieve fluency in Spanish.
Gringo was a relatively easy comic strip to create because
of the natural set up of a stranger in a strange land. The strip
was based upon my experiences as an American in Ecuador. I submitted
Gringo to an English language newspaper in Quito called "Q,"
for which I also did some English translation work.
"Q" turned out to be a mercurial operation
run by a single individual. While the newspaper owner and publisher
was a nice guy, I never did see an issue of "Q" appear
during the 6 months that I was in Ecuador. Whether or not he chose
to publish my strips after I left, I'll never know.
I even attempted some strips in Spanish, though
I found that humor is somewhat a cultural thing. I'm not sure that all of my South American friends found my Spanish comics very funny.
