IN THE 1990s, a yellow animated family called The Simpsons took America and the world by storm. With its subversive humor and delightful wit, The Simpsons has made an indelible imprint on American pop culture and has become one of television’s most iconic families, led by Homer and Bart Simpson.
It would interest Filipinos to know that one of animators working behind the scenes of this longest running comedy in television history is a kababayan, Alexis Que. In an interview with Asian Journal, Alex described the outstanding work he does.
"At present, I am working as a character layout artist and animator at Film Roman, Inc for The Simpsons. I also worked for The Simpsons first movie which was shown in 2007. As an animator, I systematically draw each drawing of the action or acting of a character or any object that moves in a scene. As a character layout artist, I am responsible for the right composition and staging of the scene, based on the board like the first and last pose of the character’s position to where he comes from and to where he is going and roughing out the background’s horizons and perspectives for background artists. As a storyboard artist, I also draw and visualize panel to panel- like what you see in comics – the written story of the script," said Alex.
Born in Manila, Philippines on June 1, 1969, Alex shared that he learned how to draw at the age of 3. "In school, in a couple of on-the-spot painting contests I joined, I bagged almost all of the 1st prizes. These competitions helped me earn money at an early age- around 11 or 12 years old. I also sold paintings and worked on silk-screened shirts, school banners etc. In our school graduation, I was tasked to do all the letterings of the diplomas of the whole graduating class. Each time there were projects in school, from elementary to college, my classmates and teachers chipped in money just for the materials I needed to provide artworks for bulletin boards, class newsletters, stage presentations and programs. I also painted murals, artworks for special occasions like Valentine’s and Christmas. These are just a few of the highlights of my learning experiences that help me in the challenges that I still encounter at work everyday," the Fine Arts graduate said.
After college, Que worked as an animator for the first all-Filipino animation, Ang Panday. He also worked on Captain Barbell, Darna and Lastikman, and worked as a freelance comic illustrator for GASI and Atlas Publications. His great work enabled Que to be hired by Fil-Cartoons, a Hanna-Barbera subsidiary in the Philippines. He illustrated characters for such popular movies like, Tom and Jerry, Droopy, The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, The Jetsons, Scooby Doo. Alex later became an animator for the Philippine Animation Studios for shows that include X-Men and Fantastic Four.
nice to see a good old friend land in the pages of your news paper.
