Larry Alcala
Lauro "Larry" Zarate Alcala (August 18, 1926 – June 24, 2002) was a well-known editorial cartoonist and illustrator in the Philippines. In 2018, he was posthumously conferred the National Artist for Visual Arts title and the Grand Collar of the Order of National Artists (Order ng Pambansang Alagad ng Sining). Biography He was born on August 18, 1926, to Ernesto Alcala and Elpidia Zarate in Daraga, Albay. Through a scholarship from Manila Times granted by the publisher Ramón Roces, he obtained a degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting at the University of the Philippines (UP) in 1950. He became a professor at the same university from 1951 to 1981. He also received the Australian Cultural Award accompanied by a travel study grant in 1975. He started his cartooning career in 1946 while still attending school. After World War II, he created his very first comic strip, Islaw Palitaw, which was printed on the pages of the Filipino weekly magazine Liwayway. In 1947, he created the comic strip Kalabog en Bosyo, using Taglish as the medium of communication of his characters. He pioneered animated cartoons for television commercials of products such as Darigold Milk in 1957 and Caltex in