Nonoy Marcelo

Severino “Nonoy” Santos Marcelo (January 22, 1939 – October 22, 2002) was a Filipino cartoonist, animator and filmmaker. A significant figure of Philippine animation and comics, he is best known for creating comic strips Plain Folks and Ikabod Bubwit, and directing an animated television filmTadhana (1978), the first true Philippine animated feature.

His early trademark was known for creating cartoons with lampooned lifestyles for Filipino youths. Upon joining the National Media Production Center to evade censorship from politics in the midst of martial law administered by the Philippines' tenth president Ferdinand Marcos Sr., Marcelo was publicly viewed as a political cartoonist and propagandist for his irreverent witty, biting cartoons with political satires and social commentaries provided on Philippine conflicts to criticize the repressive regime infusing with signature subversive humor. This led to his creation of the allegorical character Ikabod Bubwit, an allegory of Ferdinand Marcos, retrospectively became a satirical chronicle of Philippine politics and society.

Aside from cartoons, he was frequently tasked by the government in invitation to join the New Society Movement as a filmmaker to direct propaganda films for the Marcos administration, including Da Real Makoy (1977) and Tadhana (1978), at the time which was collaborated with close friend and producing partnerImee Marcos. He was also an animation and sound director in the Philippine media, and a screenwriter of films and television adaptations of Tisoy.

Following Tadhana, Marcelo was admired by filmmakers and students for his affect on animation, which led to the establishment of Philippine animation industry for creating their original works and for outsourced services from international studios starting in the early 1980s.