Carajo!

I find The Family Upstairs by George Herriman a vastly superior strip to Krazy Kat. He drew it for only two years, between 1910 and 1912, and managed to "draw" a rich novel that anticipated Franz Kafka's "The Castle" by twelve years. In The Castle a protagonist, known only as K., struggles to gain access to the mysterious authorities of a castle who govern the village where he wants to work as a land surveyor. K. never get access to the castle that probably is occupied by God. In the same fashion, the unfortunate Dingbat couple never have access to the flat upstairs to meet the mysterious neighbours that intrigue them so much. Is it God in heaven? They'll never know. In the last strip the apartment gets demolished and the family has vacated it.

I have the complete collection and often read it in awe, amazed by the continuous creativity and the beauty and daring of the drawings.

George Herriman wrote in all his comics excellent Mexican-Spanish whenever he needed to so. He knew very well modisms and jargons from the language of his neighbours South of the Border.

In this strip from 1912 he introduces José Albondigas (meatballs), champion bull buster from old Potosi. Albondigas has to kill a cow they have upstairs. The surprised bullfighter finds that instead of a cow, the animal who made such a racket with it's "mooes", is a parrot and shouts: KAH-R-R-RAH-HO (carajo).

Carajo is the Spanish equivalent of "FUCKING HELL"

Surely Herriman knew very well what he wrote. Is it the case that Herriman was the first artist that made his characters swear in comics?

I hope so!