Drawing helped him to have food, finish school

Jesus “Jess” Española

Drawing helped Jesus “Jess” Española fight hunger, get a college degree, land a job and get an Emmy award.

Española’s animation work in the long-running Fox Broadcasting Co. TV series “The Simpsons” won for the Filipino the Emmy, the coveted recognition for excellence in the television industry.

“My interest in drawing was discovered by my teacher at San Miguel Elementary School (Lubao). Then the other teachers started making me to draw, which they used as visual aids in their classes, displaying them on their bulletin boards,” he said. “They knew I was a hungry student and drawing for them helped me to have food to eat.”

Now 56, Española said life was hard when he was growing up in the rural village of San Francisco in Lubao town. “I [endured] some kind of initiation in life. As a child [I] honed my skill in drawing by necessity—for food, to survive,” he said.

Though he graduated valedictorian from grade school, he did not think he could go on to high school in Lubao. So he went to Manila, staying with poor relatives in Sampaloc and Tondo districts. In the city, he washed dishes in canteens and took on odd jobs, all the while continuing to sketch.

“It was [because of my] skill in drawing [that] I was able to make it through high school and go on to college. I used it (drawing) and [attracted the attention of] people—my teachers and fellow students,” Española said.

No money for tuition

Although he passed the talent test at the University of the Philippines’ College of Fine Arts, he did not have money for tuition. The would-be painting major searched for his biological father and got to meet his wife, Lourdes, who worked for historian Renato Constantino.

Lourdes was very kind to Española. She contacted Constantino’s daughter, Karina David, who was then with the UP Institute of Social Work and Community Development. David lent Española the money he needed for enrollment. He repaid the loan by doing illustrations for her.

Aided by scholarships from the UP Fine Arts Alumni Foundation and the Melquiades M. Castro Foundation, the future Emmy winner graduated in 1984.

After college, Española began his career in animation in 1985 with the Makati City branch of Burbank Animation Inc. He moved to Hanna Barbera’s subsidiary Fil-Cartoons Inc. in Pasig City in 1988.

Española migrated to the United States in 1994. Based in California, he made CD-ROM educational games for 7th Level Inc. He joined Film Roman as assistant director for the television animation series “King of the Hill” in 1997.

The following year, he transferred to Rough Draft where he was involved in the making of the TV series “Futurama” for the 20th Century Fox TV network. “Futurama” won an Emmy in 2002.

Española returned to Film Roman in 2003 as assistant director for “The Simpsons.”

It was the episode “Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind,” the ninth in the series’ 19th season in late 2007, that won Española the Emmy in 2008 and made him the first Filipino animator to win the prestigious award.

“It called attention to the talents of Filipino animators,” Española said. “I think I enhanced the comedy [of the Simpsons]. May dinadagdag ako, pinipitik (I inject some jokes, take swipes at certain things). I make Matt Groening (one of the program creators) laugh.”

He spoke recently at the First ComicCon Philippines at the Fontana Leisure Park in Clark Freeport in Pampanga, where he shared the stage with fellow Philippine-born animator Van Partible, creator of the TV animation series “Johnny Bravo.”

“I told them (local animators, cartoonists and visual artists) it was important to master the how-tos and to be basically good in drawing [manually or with the aid of the computer],” he said.

“A number of Filipinos are shadow artists,” he said, referring to “ghost illustrators” of top names in the animation and graphic novel business.

For Española, interacting with fans and creators at the ComicCon was his way of “promoting Filipino talents.”

The award-winning animator likes to laugh and share jokes, do happy animation assignments and watch 20th-century silent films of comedian Charlie Chaplin.