Filipino Comics Art Fridays | Fred Carrillo
Every Friday, I take a look at the work of one of the almost 200 Filipino artists who illustrated horror, sword-and-sorcery/fantasy, western, sci-fi, and war comics for American publishers during the 1970s and early 1980s. The “Filipino Wave,” as it came to be called, saw the likes of Nestor Redondo, Alfredo Alcala, Alex Niño, Tony DeZuniga, Rudy Nebres, Ernie Chan, E. R. Cruz, and many others pencil and/or ink scores of issues for DC, Marvel, Warren, and other outfits, helping define the look of an era.
This week’s featured artist is Fred Carrillo.
One of the most prolific artists of the Filipino Wave, the late Fred Carrillo's career spanned Filipino komiks, American comics, and international animation. Born in 1926 in the Philippine province of Aklan, the young Carrillo's talent for illustration was recognized by his teachers at an early age, who encouraged him to develop his craft. During World War II, Carrillo drew propaganda materials for the native insurgency movement against the Japanese occupation of the Philippines.
It wasn't too long after the war that Carrillo found himself at ACE Publications, then the premier publisher of Filipino komiks. A fan favorite, Carrillo eventually rose from staff illustrator to the position of art director. After the near-collapse of the komiks industry in the mid-1960s, Carrillo took to freelancing. Along with the likes of Tony DeZuniga, Nestor Redondo, Alex Niño, and Alfredo Alcala, Carrillo was among the very first Filipino illustrators to be hired by DC editor Joe Orlando to work on DC's horror and war anthology comics. Carrillo's very first DC Comics work was a two-pager (“An Old Chinese Custom,” written by Bill Dennehy) that appeared in The Unexpected #138 (August 1972):
Carrillo contributed to DC's Ghosts, Weird Mystery Tales, G.I. Combat, The Witching Hour, House of Secrets, Unknown Soldier, House of Mystery, Saga of the Swamp Thing, The Phantom Stranger, and Weird War Tales. All in all, he would draw over 130 horror, war, and superhero strips for DC Comics between 1972 and 1988.
Considered among his signature DC Comics works is a four-part back-up Black Orchid strip that ran in The Phantom Stranger #38–#41 (August/September 1975—December 1975/January 1976; Carrillo also illustrated the lead stories in these issues). These back-ups came on the heels of Black Orchid back-up strips drawn by Black Orchid co-creator Tony DeZuniga and Nestor Redondo, and showed that Carrillo's work could stand side-by-side with the Filipino Wave's most popular and acclaimed representatives.
Carrillo also had a particularly memorable run illustrating the adventures of DC's offbeat war-horror team the Creature Commandos in Weird War Tales. Reproduced below is “The Children's Crusade” (from Weird War Tales #108, August 1981), a ridiculously over-the-top and hilariously impolitic story that had the Commandos in a fight to the death against Hitler’s personal hit squad composed of brainwashed, super-powered Nazi pre-schoolers (I have no idea how this story got past the Comics Code Authority!):
Carrillo also managed to get assignments from Warren Publishing in the final years before its 1983 closure. Carrillo penciled and/or inked 16 stories for the publisher, most of which appeared in the Creepy anthology magazine, including the story below, “Soul Sucker” (from Creepy #134, January 1982):
Like many of the more prominent members of the Filipino Wave, Carrillo also did a stint on Marvel's The Savage Sword of Conan. Below are samples from his Conan portfolio, which appeared in The Savage Sword of Conan #173 (May 1990):
Carrillo was just as accomplished in the animation field as he was in comics. In the late 1970s, he worked with Japanese animation studio Topcraft in developing the Barbapapa animated series for the French market. Later, he worked as a character designer, model designer, background artist, and storyboard artist for some of the 1980s most popular animated action series, including He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra: Princess of Power, The Transformers, and Bionic Six. During the 1990s, Carrillo worked as an artist/designer on the G.I. Joe, Bucky O'Hare, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and Extreme Ghostbusters animated series.
Carrillo, who passed way in 2005, carved out a career that embodied the largely unheralded role the Filipino Wave had in crafting the look of late-20th century American pop art and entertainment. From the best-selling war and horror comics of the 1970s to the most widely-watched cartoons of the 1980s and 1990s, Carrillo did it all.
Fred Carrillo’s partial American comics bibliography can be found here.
To read all of the Filipino Comics Art Fridays entries posted so far, click here.
