EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 18 © 2017 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

38 ABOVE: Drawings of the suppressed insurgence of Aquiles Serdán (a Madero supporter) against the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz in 1909. The incident was described through telegraphic messages to Cabral by journalist Fortunato Herrerías, and would become the first images of the Mexican revolution. BELOW RIGHT: Cabral’s class in Huatasco, 1902. The school where Cabral studied and would later become the art teacher at the tender age of 12. An arrow points to a very dapper young Cabral in the school photo. Drawings, using only the outlines on a figure and no spotting (shading), led Mexican artist Ernesto García Cabral to be known as the 'master of line'. Though Cabral was influenced by Art Deco and Art Nouveau, and artists like Gustav Klimt and Alphonse Mucha, his caricatures and drawings of the Mexican people also brought him close to newspaper cartoonists. The magazine covers he did in an Art Nouveau style were at once stunning, vibrant, colourful and full of movement, to the point that the Mexican muralists Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco said that the best draughtsman in Mexico was Cabral. In fact, Cabral was that and much more. An expert tango dancer, wrestler, lover of famous sopranos, Bohemian and silent-movie actor, Cabral was also an extremely sociable person, befriending many of the most famous personalities of the era. His wiry long hair and rough-hewn looks instead of putting him at a disadvantage were, au contraire, a source of attraction, to the point that Cabral called himself 'Chango' (Mexican slang term for 'Ape'). Was it for his looks, or the fact that he was so nimble as a child climbing up trees like an ape? Even Cabral’s friends referred to him as 'Chango', which in other circumstances, would have been construed as an insult. But Cabral had a boundless sense of humour, and drew in women like a magnet, making him one of the countries’ most famous ladies’ men. Born in Huatusco, Veracruz (Mexico) on December 8, 1890, Ernesto García Cabral grew up in a small town that he described as idyllic and a paradise. At an early age he began drawing with his finger on the ground, and by the age of 12 he was already teaching art lessons in his own school. In 1907 he received a scholarship from the governor of Veracruz to go study at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City. By 1909, Cabral was already working as a professional illustrator and caricaturist for the magazines La Tarántula and Frivolidades , where his drawings were discovered by reporter Fortunato Herrerías. This same Herrerías had been a witness to the failed insurgence of Aquiles Serdán, a ferventMadero supporter (at the timeMexico had been living under a dictatorship led by Porfirio Díaz who through his re-election system had remained in power on seven occasions [from 1876 to 1911], which political opposers such as Francisco Madero were against—