Late Filipino comics artist hailed for drawing Newfoundland’s very own superhero

Danny Bulanadi, who died last Nov. 3 in San Francisco of heart failure at 76, drew well-known superheroes like Captain America, the Fantastic Four and the Transformers. FACEBOOK

Marvel Comics Filipino artist, Danny Bulanadi who died last Nov. 3 in San Francisco of heart failure at 76, drew well-known superheroes like Captain America, the Fantastic Four and the Transformers.

But in a Canadian province, he is best remembered for illustrating Captain Newfoundland, the province’s very own superhero, more than 40 years ago, according to a homage to Captain Newfoundland by Sarah Smellie of The Canadian Press.

Smellie describes Captain Newfoundland as an intergalactic shape-shifter who could teleport through time and space and take on several forms, among them Captain Atlantis. He first appeared on the cover of the Newfoundland Herald magazine on Jan. 5, 1980.)

Danny Bulanadi’s Captain Newfoundland.

Bulanadi, Smellie reported, was working on new Captain Newfoundland material for the first time in decades when he passed.

Jesse Stirling, whose father and grandfather conceptualized Captain Newfoundland, said, “So we have all these half-finished panels and artwork of Captain Newfoundland, which we might release one day. The Captain lives on, but it will never be the same without Danny Bulanadi.”

Sterling said his father chose Bulanadi, who had worked on DC Comics’ Conan and Batman, over dozens of other artists to bring the captain to life.

Bulanadi, who became a close Sterling family friend, was really proud of his Filipino culture and was “a spiritual, a really open guy” who “had a lot of great work left in him.”

Danny Bulanadi, was born in 1946 in Manila, and started as an assistant to Tony deZuñiga who was doing the best-selling “komiks” in the Philippines. Bulanadi moved to the U.S. in 1975 and worked at DC and Marvel, according to comics writer Mark Evanier’s blog.

After moving to Southern California in 1988, Bulanadi was storyboard and designer, primarily for Hanna-Barbera (and especially on Jonny Quest) and for Marvel Productions (especially on The Transformers) and a great many videogames, Evanier writes.