Lauro Zarate “Mang Larry” Alcala (1926-2002) has made a ritual of obscuring himself. A generation of Filipinos grew up in the 1980s and 90s searching for Mang Larry in his Slice of Life cartoons. One has to trawl through the inked lines and cross hatches of his cartoonified modern-day landscapes of Filipino society and spot his profile.
Mang Larry did several cartoons, comic strips that tickled Filipinos but more importantly lent to the articulation of Filipino culture. His comic strips helped define the second half of the 20th-century art form in the Philippines.
Asiong Aksaya drew on the dizzying consumption of the common man amidst economic shifts in a changing Filipino modern nation state. His Mang Ambo is his version of the Juan dela Cruz figure caught in between the idyllic simple rural life and the encroaching changes of society. Kalabog and Bosyo are the duo which became one of the longest running comic strips in the Philippines. Siopawman, a hilarious parody of the superhero genre featuring a clunky portly fellow (in the shape of a siopao or pork bun) trying to be heroic.
Mang Larry drew numerous more cartoons and did commercial illustration and animation as well.
But it was his Slice of Life cartoons that prove to be his most enduring and his most critical of the Philippine society. One metapanel hosts minute narratives of a particular theme: it could be a beauty pageant, an election, a town fiesta, or whatever event a Filipino is wont to participate in, Mang Larry drew them.
His works differ from the traditional political cartoons with castigating bent, delivering accessible punchlines instead of recalcitrant slogans. Viewers and readers of his cartoons giggle and guffaw at his works with the punchlines, the facial expressions, the contortions of the bodies. But if one reads deeper and in between the lines, Mang Larry has a thing or two, or more, to say about society’s foibles and failures.
Arguably, his Slice of Life is an act of cultural geography in which he drew overlapping territories of punchlines exposing power structures, and power struggles packaged in accessible cartoons.
In his varied arrays of landscapes of Filipino culture, Mang Larry exposed, through his humorous style, the many issue we dealt with, and in some cases, are still dealing with, which goes to show the longevity and endurance of his works.
Speaking of endurance, it takes a lot of focus and determination to produce and to thrive in an art form maligned and diminished by many people in the academe and in the realm of the traditional parameters of the “fine arts.” Yet, that did not stop him from producing reams and reams of cartoons that made generations laugh.
In his Slice of Life cartoons, your eye has to course through different directions to look for the punchlines as well as the subtle jabs. And of course, as an ultimate reward, the ritual of looking for his profile he would hide in the details of his cartoons.
That profile of his—with his chin sticking out and a bewildered look—was inspired by the film director Alfred Hitchcock who would “insert himself” in his cameos in his films. The insertion may be, literally, an inside joke, but both Hitchcock and Alcala force you to pay close attention to the details and on how they tell a story.
One of the greatest crimes of Hollywood is that Hitchcock never received an Oscar award. Some say it was because he was “merely” a suspense and horror filmmaker that would be less than worthy compared to those directors that dealt with the vast epics of humanity and inhumanity. This being ignored, cast aside, has some resonance with Larry Alcala in his life and works.
His former students and colleagues mention the Herculean tasks of Mang Larry to “elevate” cartooning and illustration as not just valid but vital art forms in modern society. At one point, he was given recognition as an artist in residence by the University of the Philippines and, at that time, many grumbled that he was not an artist, but a cartoonist; ergo, not belonging to the traditional notions of what art should be.
But, Mang Larry, in his own quiet way challenged these restrictions and myopic notions by reshaping the notion of what else fine arts can offer. He has spearheaded for the traditional, purist academy to integrate both commercial art and media studies in what later formed to be the Visual Communication major.
Mang Larry also saw to it that cartoonists and illustrators elevated their own art forms in the organization of groups that would cater to the advancement, exposure of these allied arts.
It was under his supervision and leadership that the Samahan ng Kartunista was formed, which this year celebrates its 40th anniversary. He saw generations of cartoonists bloom, bluster, and cause raucous in our nation’s newspapers and beyond. Mang Larry was also integral in the formation of Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan (Ang INK), with his support and direction which saw decades of children’s book illustrators grow with the burgeoning local publication of titles that have provided our stories, our visions to the Filipinos.
he hides his profile in the details, offers a glimpse into the Filipino culture.
If you are looking for Mang Larry, one just has to cast his or her eyes to the leaps and bounds from the late 1970s to the current developments of the UP College of Fine Arts Department of Visual Communication. You can see Mang Larry’s legacy have crossed the lines of visual communication to its allied arts and industries.
His legacy is present in the generations of students he taught, some of them turned out to be formidable professors themselves and helped usher in students and graduates that strive to not just be stalwarts of the industry but credible communicators serving Filipinos in whatever capacity they choose.
You can see Mang Larry in the various artworks in this exhibit that celebrates his works and vision—and note that he is not relegated to a time frame in the past, but is still applicable and vital, and can be recast to the present. He was one of the proponents of a major that saw the rise of many industry leaders in advertising, publishing, filmmaking, media, and communication.
Mang Larry is not to be obscured anymore. We have Mang Larry inside all of us.
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The Samahang Kartunista ng Pilipinas, in collaboration with the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts and Ilustrador ng Kabataan, will open “Tribute to Larry Alcala” exhibit on Sept. 29 at the new Arts & Design West Wing of the UPCFA. The show will feature new works by more than 70 artists in recognition of Alcala, who has been nominated as National Artist for Visual Arts.
