butt. Sergio made the pain go away." Aragonés is a very prolific artist; Al Jaffee once said, "Sergio has, quite literally, drawn more cartoons on napkins in restaurants than most cartoonists draw in their entire careers." In 2002, writer Mark Evanier estimated that Aragonés had written and drawn more than 12,000 gag cartoons for Mad alone. Comic books In 1967, he began writing and illustrating full stories for various DC Comics titles, including The Adventures of Jerry Lewis, Angel and the Ape, Inferior Five, Young Romance, and for various horror anthologies. He wrote or plotted stories that were illustrated by other artists. Aragonés helped create DC's Western series Bat Lash and the humor title Plop!. Aragonés broke with DC when the company began insisting on work-for-hire contracts; when Aragonés balked, an editor tore up Aragonés' paycheck in front of his face. He'd been trying obliquely to sell a comic book premise to DC or Marvel, but neither company would allow Aragonés to retain the copyright. "I didn't want anyone stealing the idea", said Aragonés, "and they weren't able to talk on a theoretical basis." Aragonés had created the humorous barbarian comic book Groo the Wanderer in the late 1970s, but the character did not appear in print until 1982. Groo was so named because Aragonés sought a name which meant nothing in any language. Writer Mark Evanier subsequently joined Aragonés on Groo. Evanier's role originally was as something of a translator, as Aragonés was still somewhat shaky at expressing his ideas in English. Eventually, the two began collaborating on story ideas, and there have been several Groo stories in which Evanier is credited as the sole writer. Aragonés has since become fluent in English. The other regular contributors to the comic book are letterer Stan Sakai (himself the creator/artist of Usagi Yojimbo), and colorist Tom Luth. As a creator-owned series, Groo has survived the bankruptcy of a number of publishers, a fact which led to the industry joke that publishing the series was a precursor to a publisher's demise. The title was initially published by Pacific Comics, briefly by Eclipse Comics, then Marvel Comics under their since-discontinued Epic Comics imprint which allowed creators to retain copyrights, then Image Comics, and currently Dark Horse Comics. On December 2, 1982, Marty Feldman died from a heart attack in a hotel room in Mexico City. This occurred during the making of the film