The comic book industry has a reputation for being made up of overwhelmingly, or even exclusively, straight white men until very recently. There’s truth to that, of course—comics are very straight, white, and male even today, especially superhero comics—but this received wisdom also sometimes erases the very real historical presence of other demographics.
For example, despite two decades of reading comics, I only recently learned about the so-called “Filipino Invasion” of the 1970s: an influx of talent from the Philippines into the American comic book market, particularly at DC. This was kicked off by the immensely talented Tony DeZuñiga, co-creator of cult favorites Jonah Hex and Black Orchid, who started as an inker at DC in 1970 before working his way up to penciling.
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DeZuñiga told his editor, Joe Orlando, that there was a thriving comics market back in the Philippines, full of talented artists who would work for a lower page rate than DC was paying American artists, which was still more than the Filipino market paid. This appealed to DC publisher Carmine Infantino, who was hearing rumors that his American artists were planning to unionize. And so DeZuñiga, Orlando, and Infantino flew to Manila in 1971 to recruit artists. Over the next few years, DC (and then other American publishers) started featuring work by Filipino artists like Alfredo Alcala, Alex Niño, Nestor Redondo, Gerry Talaoc, Romeo Tanghal, and Ernie Chan.
Though these artists did work on marquee characters like Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man, their work could mainly be seen in other genres that are less well-represented today: horror, sword and sorcery, science fiction, war, and martial arts. This lack of major presence in superhero comics may go some way towards explaining why the Filipino Invasion isn’t as well known as the later ’80s British Invasion of comics, but I think the fact that we expect a comic book artist to look a certain way is also very much to blame.
The Filipino Invasion has a complicated history: there’s the implied union busting and opportunistic underpayment, plus allegations that DeZuñiga, who served as a go-between for DC and the Philippines-based artists, skimmed a percentage off the top without DC’s knowledge. But none of that negates the beauty of the work that Filipino artists did in comics during this period (and continue to do!), or the importance of recognizing and celebrating their contributions. This excellent video by ComicTropes covers both sides of this, unpacking the shadier implications while also showcasing the talent and variety of a number of the relevant artists.
Unfortunately, outside of that video and a handful of blogposts scattered about the internet, information on this movement remains few and far between. There was a documentary made in 2012 by Levi “Pepper” Marcelo called Illustrated By: Filipino Invasion of U.S. Comics, which sadly doesn’t seem to be streaming anywhere, although you can watch the trailer here. I’d love to see even more of a spotlight shone on this history in the future, as a reminder that comics have never only been one thing, and should always be for everyone.
