Zavier Leslie Cabarga, popularly known as Leslie Cabarga, is an American author, illustrator, cartoonist, animator, font designer, and publication designer. A participant in the underground comix movement in the early 1970s, he has since gone on to write and/or edit over 40 books. His art style evokes images from the 1920s and 1930s, and over the years Cabarga has created many products associated with Betty Boop. His book The Fleischer Story in the Golden Age of Animation, originally published in 1976, has become the authoritative history of the Fleischer Studios.
Biography
At age 14, Cabarga began selling cartoons to underground newspapers such as the East Village Other, Rat Subterranean News, Screw, and Gothic Blimp Works. He left high school at 15 to pursue a cartooning career, at first self-publishingminicomics, and then, after relocating to San Francisco, publishing comics in San Francisco Comic Book, Yellow Dog, Comix Book, and many other comix of that era. His most prolific period in the milieu of underground comix was from 1971–1976. His cartoons were also published in the National Lampoon issues #60, 62, 66, all released in 1975. By the mid-1970s, Carbaga was working in publication design, serving as an assistant art director at such publications as Rolling Stone, Outside, and Rock Magazine. He published his first book, a history of the Fleischer Studios called The Fleischer Story in the Golden Age of Animation, in 1976. By the early 1980s Cabarga had become one of the most popular illustrators in New York, creating covers for Time, Newsweek, and Fortune, to name just a few. His work has appeared in several Art Directors Club of New York annuals, as well as their print annual, and he is profiled in Walt Reed's book The Illustratorin America, 1860-2000. Cabarga provided illustrations for The J. Geils Band 1982 album Showtime! A few of the typefaces Cabarga has designed include Magneto, Bad Typ, Casey, Streamline, and Raceway. From 2007–2009, Cabarga edited the Dark Horse Comics series Harvey Comics Classics, which included five volumes and two special issues. In 2014 Cabarga transitioned from graphic, book, logo, and font design as his primary occupation to that of fine carpentry and cabinet-making. After completing construction of his own Tiny House on wheels, a design based on the Vienna 1900 style, he went on to create a custom interior for a 1953 Spartan Royal Mansion RV in the Art Deco style. Cabarga is based in Southern California, where he plays ukulele and piano with the CA State Old Time Fiddlers Association.
Comics
Solo titles
Fungus
Modern Medical Romances — 8-p. minicomic
Plain Talk — minicomic
The Abduction of Dot Darling — later published in Comix Book #2
