Trinidad began his professional career as an assistant for the "Dean of
Philippine comics,"
Francisco Coching, and Trinidad's style bore a similarity to Choching's. Trinidad co-created the Filipino superheroes El Gato (with writer
Mike Tan) and Inday sa Balitaw (with writer
Pablo S. Gomez). Along with a number of other Filipino comics creators in the 1970s, Trinidad found work in the American comics industry, initially for
DC Comics on such titles as
The Witching Hour,
House of Mystery,
The Unexpected, and
Weird Western Tales. It was in the U.S. that he began using the
pen name "Sonny" Trinidad. When he moved to Marvel Comics in 1974, he was given the moniker "Slammin' Sonny Trinidad" in the "
Bullpen Bulletins". Trinidad supplied full art or inks over other artists (frequently
John Romita Sr. and
John Buscema) on horror titles such as
Vampire Tales (
Morbius the Living Vampire stories written by
Doug Moench),
Dracula Lives!,
Marvel Chillers, and
The Son of Satan, as well as fantasy and adventure titles like
Skull the Slayer,
The Savage Sword of Conan, and
Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. Other highlights of Trinidad's tenure at Marvel included "Hellfire Helix Hex!," written by
John Warner, for
Marvel Presents #2 (Dec. 1975); in addition, Trinidad inked the feature story (written by
Bill Mantlo and penciled by
Tom Sutton) in
Man From Atlantis #1 (Feb. 1978). Trinidad was often hired to do adaptations. One of his biggest commissions was the
black-and-white magazine one-shot
Marvel Movie Premiere, which featured his and writer
Marv Wolfman's adaptation of the 1975 movie
The Land That Time Forgot. With writer
Roy Thomas and penciler
John Buscema, Trinidad adapted
Robert E. Howard's "
The Pool of the Black One" in
Savage Sword of Conan #22–23 (Sept.–Oct. 1977). Trinidad and writer
Doug Moench adapted
H. G. Wells'
The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth for
Marvel Classics Comics #22 (1977). By around 1990, Trinidad had returned to the world of Filipino komiks, with contributions to the horror comic book
Holiday (a.k.a.
Zuriga). In 1995, Trinidad supplied painted covers for the short-lived series
Lastikman Komiks. Trinidad was diagnosed with cancer in December 2008 and died about a year later. He was survived by his wife, Natalia; daughters, Nacel and Cherry; and son, Norman. ==Awards==