David Álvarez (born c. 1979) is the creator of the comic strip '' Yenny'' and illustrator and storyboard artist for

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

, Looney Tunes series,

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

and other companies.Interview with David Alvarez

Early years

Álvarez was born in

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the juri ...

. As a child, he enjoyed drawing and by the time he was five years old, he would spend hours on end watching Disney Movies. He tried to draw the characters that he saw with unusual expressions on their faces. Álvarez received his primary and secondary education in his hometown.

''Yenny''

Álvarez enrolled in the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico ( es, Universidad de Puerto Rico, UPR) is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 58,000 students and 5,3 ...

after graduating from high school and continued to study art. In 1988, while still a student, he began to draw his first comic strip, ''Zacha and Anyelin'', which was published in the local newspaper. He paid for his college expenses with the money earned. The comic strip eventually became known as "''Yenny''". Yenny is a beautiful girl with a pet

iguana ''Iguana'' (, ) is a genus of herbivorous lizards that are native to tropical areas of Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. The genus was first described in 1768 by Austrian naturalist Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in his ...

who wants to become a model; the only problem is that she has enormous feet. With the success of ''Yenny'', Álvarez decided to self-publish a

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

called ''Changuy'' with David Martínez, about a Batman-like crow.

Warner Bros.

Álvarez read in an animation magazine that

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

was making new projects, among them ''

Space Jam ''Space Jam'' is a 1996 American live-action/animated sports comedy film directed by Joe Pytka, with animation sequences directed by Bruce W. Smith and Tony Cervone, and written by Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick, Timothy Harris, and Herschel ...

''. He sent samples of his work and after a year of waiting was finally contacted and began working for them as a freelance artist. The first story that he drew was an ''Animaniacs'' story and the second story was a Sylvester story called " Frankentweety". Álvarez developed the idea of including cameos of obscure Looney Tunes characters within the storyboard panels. Among the people he has worked with and whom he considers his inspiration are Chuck Jones,

Tex Avery Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery (February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American animator, cartoonist, director, and voice actor. He was known for directing and producing animated cartoons during the golden age of American animation. His mo ...

and Bob Clampett. He also illustrated a short Chuck Jones tribute story written by Dan Slott. On August 29, 2018, comics with DC villains with the Looney Tunes, which were illustrated by Alvarez, were released. In 2019, Alvarez disclosed that he was working as a character designer in '' Space Jam: A New Legacy'', however, when the film was released in July 2021, Alvarez found that he was not credited.

Later years / The ChickenDuck Show / Changuy

David Álvarez plans on introducing and publishing his characters in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

market. He also does freelance work for Disney and other companies. He currently lives in San Juan, Puerto Rico with his wife and child. David also freelanced storyboards for Cartoon Network's ''

Mighty Magiswords Mighty may refer to: * ''Mighty'' (The Planet Smashers album) * ''Mighty'' (Kristene DiMarco album) * ''The Mighty'' (1929 film), a 1929 American action film *'' The Mighty'', a 1998 comedy-drama film * ''The Mighty'' (comics), a DC Comics title * ...

'' created by Kyle Carrozza, whom he frequently collaborates. He also created the character ''ChickenDuck'' (based on a character from his strip ''Kee Kee Koki''), made two shorts based on him (with Kyle Carrozza voicing ChickenDuck and other characters in the second short) and made an Indiegogo for a potential online series called "The ChickenDuck Show". A Kickstarter campaign was originally launched but was cancelled in favor for Indiegogo. The Indiegogo campaign did not meet its goal but David stated that storyboards for the series is still in the works, hinting that production is still being continued. On June 20, 2019, David Álvarez launched a Kickstarter campaign for a Changuy origin issue entitled ''Rise of the Chango'', which did not reach its initial goal of $3,000.

References

External links