His work follows a number of the characteristics of comix including explicit sexuality and psychedelic imagery, but is distinguished by influence from Mexican “photo-novels” and strong social and political messages.
[2] He originally wanted to be a physicist and mathematician but at age fourteen he enrolled in a painting course with the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas as a hobby.
At the Academy of San Carlos he and other artists hung a huge portrait of Fidel Castro on the building but authorities made them take it down.
[4] In 1965 he received a scholarship from the French government to participate in William Hayter’s experimental engraving workshop, Atelier 17 in Paris, working there for two years while attending the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts.
[8] During his career, Vargas has done oil paintings, drawing, sculpture, illustration, photography and comic, even experimenting with new techniques with airbrush and computers.
[5] This work has been in association with the international alternative or “underground comix” movement which emerged in the 1970s in France, Italy and the United States, characterized by psychedelic and sexual themes as well as non-sequential organization.
[7] However, it departs from the common narratives and conventions of Mexican graphic novels through ethereal, sexual, psychedelic and even subversive environment, using vivid colors.
[5] He used the non-sequential aspect of alternative comics to give readers a form of control over the story, producing his works on large cutout panels joined at a central axis and set in a frame.
[5][7] This began with his experiences during the 1968 student uprising/Tlatelolco massacre which occurred when he was an assistant at the Academy of San Carlos, and made his work rebellious.
[3][7] While he manages to do this using humor and irony,[5] his work has been criticized for continuing objectifying depictions of women like traditional Mexican fotonovelas and using female characters only in supporting roles.