Carlo Vergara

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Visconde Carlo San Juan Vergara or simply known as Carlo Vergara (born January 25, 1971) is a Filipino graphic designer and illustrator best known for creating the comic book character Zsazsa Zaturnnah.

[edit] Biography

The son of a tax lawyer and an English teacher, Vergara began to draw even before he started school. He considered drawing a hobby, and did not want it to be part of his profession. Though he had been accepted in the College of Architecture at the University of the Philippines, he opted to take Marketing Management at the De La Salle University, and graduated in 1990.

Carlo spent a number of years working in public relations and corporate communications as a staff writer, photographer, graphic designer, and on occasion, special events host.

In 1994, he auditioned and bagged the role of Louis Ironson in the New Voice Company production of the Asian premiere of Tony Kushner's Angels in America. Though reviews to his professional debut were mostly lukewarm to negative, Vergara continued his acting training with the New Voice Company. He subsequently performed in the independently-produced productions of David Gobeil Taylor's Waiting for Homo and Anton Chekov's The Boor.

In 1999, he went back to the De La Salle University to teach a website design course for a term.

His first foray into self-publishing was in 2001, when he produced, wrote and illustrated One Night in Purgatory, a short comics tale about homosexual love. The comicbook was nominated by the Manila Critics Circle for a National Book Award the following year, and was cited by the Sanghaya Yearbook of the state-run National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

In 2002, Carlo produced his second graphic novel, Ang Kagila-gilalas na Pakikipagsapalaran ni Zsazsa Zaturnnah (The Spectacular Adventures of Zsazsa Zaturnnah), which is adapted into a musical and feature film in 2006.