Sergio Aragonés

Sergio Aragonés Domenech [born September 6, 1937, Sant Mateu, Castellón, Spain] is a cartoonist and writer best known for his contributions to Mad Magazine and creator of the comic book Groo the Wanderer.

Among his peers and fans, Aragonés is widely regarded as "the world's fastest cartoonist."The Comics Journal has described Aragonés as "one of the most prolific and brilliant cartoonists of his generation."Mad editor Al Feldstein said, "He could have drawn the whole magazine if we'd let him."

Born in Spain, Aragonés emigrated with his family to France, due to the Spanish Civil War, before settling in Mexico at age 6. Aragonés had a passion for art since early childhood. As one anecdote goes, Aragonés was once left alone in a room by his parents with a box of crayons. His parents returned sometime later to find that he had covered the wall in hundreds upon hundreds of drawings. Aragonés recalled his early difficulties in Mexico, saying, "I didn't have too many friends because I had just arrived. You're the new kid, and you have an accent. I've always had an accent... When the other kids make fun of you, you don't want to get out of the house. So you stay at home, and what do you do? You take pencils and start drawing."

Aragonés used his drawing skill to assimilate. "The earliest money I ever made was with drawings," he remembered. "The teacher would give us homework, which would consist of copying Chapter Eleven, including the illustrations... a beetle or a plant, the pistil of a flower, or soldiers-- that type of thing. All the kids who couldn't draw would leave a square where the drawing was, and I would charge them to draw that. The equivalent of a few pennies... That's probably why I draw so fast, because I drew so many of them."

He made his first professional sale in 1954 when a high school classmate submitted his work to a magazine without telling Aragonés. He continued to sell gag cartoons to magazines while studying architecture at the University of Mexico, where he also learned pantomime under the direction of Alejandro Jodorowsky. “I joined the class,” Aragonés recalled, “not to become a mime but to apply its physical aspects of movement to my comics.” In 1962, Aragonés moved to the United States. He currently resides and works in Ojai, California.

source: wikipedia

Larry Alcala

Lauro Zarate Alcala [August 18, 1926 – 2002], also known as Larry Alcala, was a well-known editorial cartoonist and illustrator in the Philippines.

He was born on August 18, 1926 to Ernesto Alcala and Elpidia Zarate in Daraga, Albay. Through a scholarship from Manila Times granted by the publisher Ramón Roces, he obtained a degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting at the University of the Philippines [UP] in 1950. He became a professor at the same university from 1951 to 1981. He also received the Australian Cultural Award accompanied by a travel study grant in 1975.

He started his cartooning career in 1946 while still attending school. After World War II, he created his very first comic strip, Siopawman, which was printed on the pages of the Filipino comic book, Halakhak [Laughter]. In 1947, he created the comic strip Kalabog en Bosyo, using Taglish as the medium of communication of his characters. He pioneered animated cartoons for television commercials of products such as Darigold Milk in 1957 and Caltex in 1965. His campaign for the advancement of illustration and commercial art in the Philippines resulted to the establishment of the Visual Communication Department at the UP College of Fine Arts.

In 1997, the Philippine Board on Books for Young People [PBBY] granted him the title Dean of Filipino Cartoonists, an achievement award for his lifetime dedication to the art of capturing humor in the character and everyday life in the Philippines. In 1991, he promoted the formation of a group of young children's book illustrators called Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan [Ang INK].

All in all, he made over 500 cartoon characters, twenty comic strips, six movies, two murals, and 15,000 published pages in his 56 years of professional cartooning career. He believed in the far-reaching role of cartoons in education and value formation.

He died on June 24, 2002 when he was 75.

source: wikipedia

Nonoy Marcelo

Severino "Nonoy" Marcelo [January 22, 1939 – October 22, 2002] was a Filipino cartoonist born in Malabon, Metro Manila, Philippines, an alumnus of the Institute of Arts and Sciences from Far Eastern University, and a former cartoonist in the The Advocate [the official student publication of Far Eastern University], best known for creating the character Ikabod Bubwit ["small rodent" in Tagalog] in the comic strip Ikabod. He also created the comic strips Plain Folks, which appeared in the Daily Mirror during the early 1960s, and Tisoy in 1963 for the Manila Times, which tells about the lifestyle of young Filipinos. His main character, Tisoy [slang for "mestizo"], and cast members such as Aling Otik, Maribubut, Caligula, Tatang, Tikyo and Kinse, soon became established in Philippine pop culture.

Tisoy became a 1977 film directed by Ishmael Bernal, starring Christopher de Leon and Charo Santos.

Ikabod ran from the late 1970s to 2002. It was a satirical strip that re-cast the Philippines as a nation called Dagalandia. The strip humorously depicted the socio-political woes of ordinary Filipinos, as represented by the tailless Everymouse hero, Ikabod - who became as iconic in his own way as that other popular cartoon rodent, Mickey Mouse. Marcelo often used the strip to caricature political figures from Ferdinand Marcos and Cory Aquino to Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, re-imagining them as mice.

In 1985, Marcelo was given the Catholic Mass Media Award for print journalism, a category usually given to reporters or columnists. In 1998, Marcelo received the Cultural Center of the Philippines' Centennial Artist Award, the only cartoonist so honored.

He died in Manila on October 22, 2002 at the age of 63 of sepsis due to complications from his diabetes.

source: wikipedia

carlos celdran

Charles P. "Carlos" Celdran [born November 10, 1972] is a Manila tour guide, cultural activist, and performing artist. He started his career in art at the age of 14, as the youngest-ever cartoonist and illustrator for Business Day newspaper, drawing a comic strip called "Bar Sins" that discussed both local and esoteric issues. A year later, in 1987 he became the youngest member of the Samahang Kartunista ng Pilipinas on the recommendation of Nonoy Marcelo. After comics, he worked as a t-shirt illustrator at a clothing store he co-founded with his sister and others.

source: wikipedia

Raghava KK: Five lives of an artist

Raghava KK: Five lives of an artist | Video on TED.com

With endearing honesty and vulnerability, Raghava KK tells the colorful tale of how art has taken his life to new places, and how life experiences in turn have driven his multiple reincarnations as an artist -- from cartoonist to painter, media darling to social outcast, and son to father.

Raghava KK's paintings and drawings use cartoonish shapes and colors to examine the body, society, our world. Full bio and more links

joe mateo

Pinoy animator bags Creative Arts Emmy

Filipino animator Joseph "Joe" Mateo bagged an Emmy award for Creative Arts on Saturday for a work he did for animation giant Disney.

Mateo won an award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation for Disney's Prep & Landing, for which Mateo was the storyboard artist.

The award was given during the 62nd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards at the Nokia Theatre L.A. on August 21 in Los Angeles, California.

The Creative Arts Emmys are under the Emmy Awards for technical and other such achievements in American television.

Recipients of the awards include behind-the-scene staff such as art directors, costume designers, cinematographers, casting directors and sound editors.

[source: Jerrie M. Abella/JV, GMANews.TV  ]



Who’s not aware of Walt Disney films? We lived and some of us still living in fairy tales brought by famous cartoon films, enhanced by good music accompaniment, dubbed by Hollywood actors and drawn by expert cartoonist. Who would believe that behind those artistic manifestations is a Filipino.

Joe Mateo is a Fine Arts graduate from University of Santo Tomas. Some of his famous works are Pocahontas, Hunchback of Notre Dame and the Meet the Robinsons. He even launched his own comic book.

Take a look and be proud for being a Filipino.

[source: http://pangong-ilong.blogspot.com/2007/09/joe-mateo-disney-cartoonist-certified.html]