Joma Santiago

Hello, I’m Joma Santiago and I have been in the Philippine Animation industry since 1991.  Straight out of College after graduating  with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art, Major in Advertising from the University of Santo Tomas, I immediately worked as an Inbetweener for the premiere animation studio in the Philippines during that time, Fil-Cartoons (A subsidiary of Hanna-Barbera). During my years in FilCartoons, I worked on shows such as The Flintstones, Captain Planet, Johnny Quest, The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Lab, Johnny Bravo and many more.

I eventually became an Animator back in 1995 and eventually became one of the company’s Lead Animators (also known as Key Animator) until FilCartoons closed it’s doors in 2003. I then worked in various animation studios, most significantly, TOONCITY ( back in 2003 ) where I  was given the “Best Feature Animator” Award back in 2004, for my Animation work on Disney’s Direct-to-video animated film, Kronk’s New Groove, the sequel to The Emperor’s New Groove. I also worked on other shows for Disney such as Tarzan 2, The Fox and The Hound 2 and The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning.

In 2008, I left Tooncity to focus on other aspects of Animation, especially Character Design and Storyboards.  During all these years, at the back of my mind, I always wanted to try my hand in doing comic illustrations. After all, my first love was drawing superhero characters and the first superhero I ever tried to draw was Batman, and the artist that influenced me the most is Neal Adams.  I usually give in to my creative indulgences in my free time by drawing several superheo fan art, whether it be quick doodles and scribbles on a Post-it, or full on digital illustrations.

With my animation background and sensibilities, I feel that the transition from animation to comics is an organic process which I want to fully embrace.