A Memoriam In Four Colours: George Perez
“George’s vision and attention to detail were unparalleled and made devout readers into fans and fans into super fanatics.” – Jim Lee
Just because we knew this day was eventually coming doesn’t make it any less sad. I can’t even begin to imagine what George Perez, his wife, family and friends have gone through these last couple of years. They have handled the who situation with such dignity since the news in December. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Constance Eza for keeping the fan base in touch with the situation, again handled with such dignity and positivity in such difficult circumstances. I would like to think George would have been looking down with a smile as he pulled his chair up to heavens great drawing board on Free Comic Book Day. A day when all the good in the industry shines through.
When you lose a legend of the industry it does make me realise how small my comic consumption is. I can name his hits, his biggest contributions, but I can’t narrow it down to a single issue, a single panel. There are many bigger fans of his work than me that they can do a better job. In 2002 I did have my first exposure to his work though it was unknown to me at the time. I was still relatively new to comics and for Christmas that year in the UK I got a Marvel annual. The end pages were what I later learned to be George Perez art. What I learned later still was the art was originally in Avengers #10 (1998) as a splash page. Now The Avengers lineup of that era is very much a product of that time and I don’t know the context of the story. The page is devoid of any real heavy hitters. But the beauty of the art is in how you have a sense of each character’s personality just from Perez’s simple, yet brilliant renditions. If you don’t know who they are, you want to know who they are. My next exposure to his work was in my first ever issue of Wizard Magazine. They had a preview of the then-upcoming JLA/Avengers mini-series. Again I was still new to the game I didn’t know all the players but to see he was being entrusted with such a huge project put him on a higher platform than anyone else featured in that issue. It has been really inspiring seeing all the different ways comic shops, eBay sellers and the like have been raising funds for the Hero Initiative with the new collected edition of that mini-series. This was a mark of not only how great a creative talent George was but how great a man he was. Humble, gracious and generous are words that have come up time and time again since Saturday.
As someone who has no artistic talent like me, George Perez was just born knowing how to create amazing comics. From the age of 5 he said he always wanted to draw and from that moment it’s like he instantly knew how to compose a page, how to light a scene, when to go big on action, or come close in for storytelling. His career started small at Marvel Comics with a backup in Astonishing Tales #25 parodying the main Deathlok story. In 1974 he moved on to Deadly Hands of Kung Fu and I don’t know about you but I need to see some black and white Perez art! In this series he co-created the character White Tiger with Bill Mantlo. White Tiger would go on to remain a street-level mainstay for years to come. He began to find his artistic voice on The Avengers with a 26 issue run beginning in #141 which saw him contribute to the ‘Korvac Saga’ and co-create Taskmaster. During this spell at Marvel he would first team with Marv Wolfman on Fantastic Four Annual #14. By the 1980s the pair were at DC Comics ready to shake things up. Wolfman was already writing New Teen Titans when Perez was assigned the art duties. He wanted a shot on Justice League and duly got one which proved popular. But in the pages of New Teen Titans some special was happening. In October of 1980 the new lineup first appeared in DC Comics Presents #26 featuring new Perez and Wolfman creations Cyborg, Starfire and Raven. Cyborg would go on to be central to Zack Snyder’s Justice League and the Titans found a dedicated fan base on the small screen. New Teen Titans pushed X-Men in the sales every month, it was a high moment in DC history. It is no small achievement not only being a publisher’s highest selling book when you have the likes of Batman and Superman for company but to continuously push a juggernaut like Chris Claremont’s X-Men speaks volumes. The series also featured the creations of Deathstroke, H.I.V.E, Ravager and Terra. The duo took the concept of Robin and made him cool by turning him into Nightwing. Under their watch the former boy wonder excelled as a leader and never looked cooler than in his Perez created blue and yellow disco-esque attire!
Wolfman said about working with Perez:
George isn’t just the artist on anything we’ve done, he’s the co-creator on every level because we talk out the plots, I may come in with a basic idea, but by the end I have no idea who’s pitched what. It’s integral, it’s all connected.
The benchmark of New Teen Titans has to be in my opinion ‘The Judas Contract.’ It is a story that has it all, including the superhero soap opera of family, romance and betrayal. It is a story that further cemented Deathstroke as a DC badass and if there was still any doubt about these former sidekicks standing on their own it was forgotten after this epic. Before ‘event’ comics became the norm DC had Crisis on Infinite Earths. It was the brainchild of Marv Wolfman and was a high stakes series for DC, with it acting as a sort of house cleaning, continuity reset. Perez wasn’t originally intended to draw the series but became excited about what he had heard bout the premise and put his name forward. The rest you could say is comic book history. Every one of the twelve covers is a masterpiece and every one of the twelve covers delivers on its promise of what is inside. #7 and #8 are the most memorable and have left the longest legacy. Following on from Crisis Perez began a five year run on the rebooted Wonder Woman. In these five years he split his time between pencilling, con-plotting and full writing. He pencilled on the series from #1 to #24 and stayed as writer to #62. This run was the birthplace of a lot of what went into the Wonder Woman movies. The ties to the Greek gods and the introduction of Cheetah being the two standouts. In his time at DC it is easy to say he influenced every character he touched but the evidence is there for itself.
Let us end with a rundown of all the other hits. In 1979 he won Eagle Awards for his work in The Avengers. An Inkpot award followed in 1983. Crisis on Infinite Earths won back to back Jack Kirby Awards for best finite series in 1985 and 1986. The character Vigilante was co-created by Perez and is finding a new audience today after his appearance in the Peacemaker series. Future Imperfect, the tale of a future alternate Hulk is still revisited time and again by today’s creators. In 2004 he did an amazing Avengers lithograph which is a testament to his attention to detail. It featured every hero who appeared in his run, as well as a space dedicated to the original lineup and another circle just for Jarvis. What sets the piece off is the border of Wasps in every outfit she has ever worn in comics. In his illustrious career as one of comics’ top talents George has been everything; a Titan, an Avenger and a Leaguer. Above all that he has been a friend, a mentor and a source of inspiration. He leaves behind a legacy of amazing work that will continue to be enjoyed and influence.
