Andalucia Life Artist Charlie Aabo

Charlie Aabø

Readers of this magazine from it’s early days will remember an Artist of the month called Charlie Aabø. At that time Charlie was an almost unknown cartoonist with one character to his credit, Jon Pay. He was about to launch himself on the world at the premier cartoon exhibition in Norway with Jon Pay’s first book. Nobody, apart from Charlie, could have predicted what would happen then. The book was a complete sell out and earned plaudits from world famous cartoonists and publishers alike. Charlie also drew attention from other people who wanted their own characters.

Comic book aficionados will have heard of Jon Pay. Experts in the field of comic book heroes give this diminutive private investigator rave reviews. The first two books have become something of a collector’s item. One young fan will, apparently, according to his parents, read nothing else. Now working on his third Jon Pay book in four years, Charlie Aabø has developed his own style and is a gifted cartoonist. He admits he drives his friend, who contrives the script from a storyboard supplied by Charlie, demented, mind you Charlie has that effect on most people he speaks to, it is sometimes difficult to separate him from his character.

Charlie is of course already well known in an entirely different field, he is the co-owner of Charlie’s Pizza in Sabinillas along with his sister, Cathy, from which they serve American style pizzas, an establishment whose walls are adorned with Jon Pay cartoons.

Jon Pay is not now Charlie’s only character. Over the past couple of years he has been contracted to create caricatures for mascots for football teams, ice hockey teams, a manufacturer of fleece clothing (not surprisingly, a sheep), and even Duquesa’s own Straw Donkey Roadhouse. You will have seen some of them on TV: fishes, bears and dragons running around games pitches, without realising which deranged mind was responsible for them.

I use the word deranged advisedly and not in an insulting manner. Charlie is not a danger to other people, it is quite safe to approach him, well normally, but his mind does work in a different way to most people. It must. He spent something like three years drawing a series of characters and backgrounds for a board game called ‘Oil Boom’. Yes folks if you see it on the shelves, that is Charlie’s work. The inspiration for the box cover illustration is actually Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’. See what I mean?

And now for something completely different. Sometime over the next few years Jon Pay will be coming to Manilva to visit his war time comrade Juan, or is it Jose? Charlie’s mind is already grappling with the cunning plan. Not only can you watch out for that edition you can also try and spot local people in caricature, for Charlie sometimes uses people he knows as inspiration for a character. I have identified one already (hint - it’s the dragon on the left).