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Rip Off Press March 1972
Manuel Rodriguez, born in Buffalo in 1940, grew up in the working class; his Spanish immigrant father toiled as an auto body repairman while his Italian mother was a struggling artist. Rodriguez was proud of his Spanish heritage, which led to shouting matches with neighborhood Irish boys who taunted him by calling him “Spain.” The derisive nickname stuck to Rodriguez through high school, but as he began to develop a reputation in comics some years later he realized he was getting confused with Charles Rodrigues (of National Lampoon fame), so he adopted Spain as his official moniker.