By Sheldon Mayer & Nestor Redondo, designed/edited by Joe Kubert (DC Comics/National Periodical Publications)
No ISBN:
This isn’t exactly a book or graphic novel but as the artist I want to highlight isn’t a fan-favourite in America or England (a fact I find utterly inexplicable) collections featuring his incredible artwork are few and far between.
Nestor Redondo was born in 1928 at Candon, Ilocas Sur in the American Territory of the Philippines. Like so many others he was influenced by the US comic-strips such as Tarzan, Superman, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon which were immensely popular in the entertainment-starved Pacific Achipelago. Drawing from an early age Nestor emulated his brother Virgilio who already worked as a comics artist for the cheap magazines of the young country. The Philippines became a commonwealth in 1935, and achieved full-independence from the USA in 1946, but maintained close cultural links to America.
His parents pushed him into architecture but within a year he had returned to comics. A superb artist, he far outshone Virgilio – and everybody else – in the cottage industry. His brother switched to writing and the brothers teamed up to produce some of the best strips the Islands had ever seen, the most notable and best regarded being Mars Ravelo’s ‘Darna’.
Capable of astounding quality at an incredible rate, by the early 1950s Nestor was drawing for many comics simultaneously. Titles such as Pilipino Komiks, Tagalog Klasiks, Hiwaga Komiks and Espesial Komiks were fortnightly and he usually worked on two or three series at a time, pencils and inks. He also produced many of the covers.
In 1953 he produced an adaptation of the MGM film Quo Vadis for Ace Publications’ Tagalong Klasiks #91-92. Written by Clodualdo Del Mundo, it was serialized to promote the movie in the country, but MGM were so impressed by the art-job that they offered 24 year old Nestor a US job and residency, but he declined, thinking himself too young to leave home yet. If you’re interested, you can see the surviving artwork by Googling “Nestor Redondo’s Quo Vadis”, and you should because it’s frankly incredible.
Ace was the country’s biggest comics publisher, but by the early 1960s they were in dire financial straits. In 1963 Nestor, Tony Caravana, Alfredo Alcala, Jim Fernandez, Amado Castrillo and brother Virgilio set up their own company CRAF Publications, Inc., but the times were against them (and publishers everywhere).
About this time America came calling again, but in the form of DC and Marvel Comics. By 1972 US based Tony DeZuniga had introduced a wave of Philippino artists to US editors, and Nestor produced short horror tales for House of Mystery, House of Secrets, The Phantom Stranger, Secrets of Sinister House, Witching Hour, The Unexpected, Weird War Tales, fill-ins for Marvel’s Man-Thing, an astonishingly beautiful run on Rima the Jungle Girl #1-7 (an loose adaptation of W H Hudson’s seminal 1904 novel Green Mansions) and replaced Berni Wrightson as the artist on Swamp Thing. He also worked on Lois Lane and Tarzan.
In 1973 he produced adaptations including Dracula and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for Vincent Fago’s Pendulum Press Illustrated Classics. These were later reprinted as Marvel Classics Comics. In later years he would move to Marvel where he inked and eventually fully illustrated Savage Sword of Conan.
During that DC period he was tapped to draw an adaptation of King Arthur which DC killed before it was completed (once again some pages survive and the internet is your friend if you want to see them). He also illustrated issue C-36 of the tabloid sized Limited Collectors Edition.
Another ambitious project that was never completed, The Bible was written by Sheldon Mayer and designed/edited by Joe Kubert. A deeply religious man, Redondo had already produced the serial Mga Kasaysayang Buhat sa Bibliya (Tales from the Bible) for the Philippine’s Superyor Komiks between 1969-1970 as well as creating an on-the-job training scheme for young creators there. Over the years he contributed to various Christian comics, including Marx, Lenin, Mao and Christ, published in 1977 by Open Doors, Aida-Zee and Behold 3-D, produced in the 1990s by Nate Butler Studio. He was also a panelist for the first Christian comics panel discussion of Comic-Con International, in 1992.
Stories from the Bible have been a part of US comics since the earliest days of the industry, but they have never been so beautifully illustrated as in this book. Included here are The Creation, The Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, The Generations of Adam, Noah and the Flood, The Tower of Babel, The Story of Abraham and Sodom and Gomorrah.
Also included are single page information features Digging into the Past, School Days in Bible Times, The Ziggurat and Soldiers in the Time of Abraham all illustrated by Kubert, but the true star is the passionate beauty of Redondo’s, lush, glorious art.
Redondo worked as an animation designer for Marvel Studios in the 1990s. He wrote On Realistic Illustration – a teaching session for the 1st International Christian Comics Training Conference in Tagaytay, the Philippines, in January 1996, but sadly, died before he was able to deliver it.
Whatever your beliefs – and to be honest I don’t really care – you wouldn’t be reading this unless comics meant something to you. On that basis alone, this is work that you simply cannot be unmoved by and truly should be aware of. Even if there isn’t a comprehensive collection of his work – yet – this single work will stand as a lasting tribute to the unparalleled talent of Nestor Redondo.
© 1975 National Periodical Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.