Early Philippine Cartoons

Jorge Pineda and Fernando Amorsolo belonged to the first generation of Filipino cartoonists to have emerged during the early years of the American occupation. Most of their cartoons were published in popular news magazines like the Free Press, The Independent, Lipang Kalabaw, and Telembang. Amorsolo and Pineda, of course, eventually developed into great painters that somehow overshadowed their massive body of cartoon works.

When art patronage became a fashion among the elite during the 1920s, Amorsolo and Pineda eventually gave up doing caricatures and concentrated on painting portraits of rich people and commissioned landscapes, which was of course, more profitable. This shift in art, though, can hardly deny the fact that in the 1920s, the Philippines may have the two most talented batch of cartoonists ever to have graced the pages of news and comic magazines.

The cartoon strips shown below are a typical example of elegant Philippine cartoons from these two great cartoonists. The first is by Fernando Amorsolo, and the second by Jorge Pineda.


Simbang Tanan by F. Amorsolo





Balasubas sa Diario by J. Pineda