Alex the great

I don’t doubt that in another world, Alex N. Niño would’ve made an excellent doctor. However, we should all be thankful that in this one he dropped out of school to pursue his childhood dream of comics.

Born in 1940 in Luzon, Niño in his teens was sent to Manila by his family for medical school. Though his family was not supportive of his dream career, their act of sending him to the capital actually helped. Niño met members of the local comics industry and at the age of 19 quit his studies; later in the year, short stories featuring his illustrations were already being published. For over a decade Niño worked on local titles such as Pilipino, Redondo, and Pioneer Komiks, but after a while he began to feel a little restrained in the types of stories he got to work on. Besides which, shifty publishers at the time continued to undervalue (and thus underpay) his talents. He was sometimes not considered "in step" with the prevalent style of the times: the clean lines and realistic, detailed rendering of Coching, Alcala, Redondo, et al. Though they were actually influences of Niño’s, his style continued to evolve and grow, becoming more fantastic and imaginative. It was in 1968 that he was allowed free reign at PSG Publications and fans saw his style explode. In 1971, he started getting work from US companies like DC upon the recommendation of Tony DeZuñiga, and moved there in 1976. He contributed now-classic work to titles like House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Black Orchid, Tarzan, and Captain Fear. Such work made an impression on Neil Gaiman, who became a fan of Niño’s and would later write some of the characters he used like Black Orchid and Cain & Abel. His artwork was a big hit in the US and he proceeded to get work from all the major publishers throughout the years. He has also done concept art for video games and Disney films (notably Mulan).

Even today, Niño is an in-demand artist. Though "semi-retired," his output, in both quantity and quality, would shame illustrators less than half his age. Just last year he was working on three different projects: an independent mini-series called God the Dyslexic doG, the original graphic novel The Orc’s Treasure with novelist Kevin J. Anderson, and an adaptation of the The Call of the Wild with Neil Kleid.

It’s a shame that in his own country, Alex Niño is a relative unknown. Very few people are aware of him or familiar with his work, even among comics fans. The sad fact is that much of the work he put out in the ‘70s and ‘80s is no longer in print and readily available, though there are exceptions. It is hoped that the Philippine Graphic/Fiction Award for Comics being named after him (as recommended by Gaiman) will help remedy that, and bring renewed interest in the continuing legacy of both the man and his stunning body of work.

For queries on the contest, log on to www.fullybookedonline.com

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Since the announcement of the 1st Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards, I’ve been deluged by e-mails asking me to write more about the two people we named the awards after, namely Gregorio C. Brillantes (prose) and Alex Niño (comics). For this week, we asked Ramon de Veyra – my co-chairman in the contest and an authority on comics – to write about Niño. Next week, I will feature Brillantes.

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Support your friendly, neighborhood artist Igan D’ Bayan!

His first one-man exhibit "Apocalypse Jukebox" is on display at The Crucible Gallery at the SM Megamall. The show runs until Feb. 19.