George Perez is one of the wonders of the comic book world. The mighty master of detail, Perez wold draw crowd scenes which even Waldo would be nervous about entering into. I read somewhere that Perez's talent for the tiny came because he didn't realize that comic pages were drawn in larger scale and then shrunk for publication and so he drew things in comic size. Don't know if it's true, but there's no denying that Perez was the king of team books in his generation. Perez came onto my radar when he took over The Avengers for a time with Steve Englehart delivering gob-smacking scripts. Later he returned to the team with his skills sharpened. He made his name though when he slipped over to DC and alongside Marv Wolfman revived the The New Teen Titans. Then with the tragic passing of Dick Dillin, he got the job he'd always wanted, the artist on The Justice League of America. At some point there was talk of Gerry Conway and Perez doing a crossover with the The Avengers and The Justice League of America, but it didn't come to term. Then came Crisis on Infinite Earths and George Perez was elevated into the pantheon of the most important artists in the medium's history. Later he took on Wonder Woman with mixed results. But then in the late 90's after the Image uprising had devastated the comic book landscape, he teamed with Kurt Busiek to revive The Avengers yet again and for the final time in my comic reading career I was absolutely breathless between issues of a comic book series. It was astounding and Perez drew stuff you'd only dream about but never really expect to see. And then it happened! Busiek and George Perez brought out the ultimate fanboy crossover -- The Avengers meeting and battling The Justice League of America. It was fabulous, it was creative and it really marked for me the end of my comic book collecting career. I get few books now and gain and I really enjoy the reprints, but getting new comics from the "Big Two" on a regular basis largely closed up when this epic hit the stands. I knew then that I would never read a story I'd wanted to read more or waited longer to see. And I had George Perez to thank for it. Perez has recently announced his retirement form comics, due to health, but for this fanboy he will always be a real life superhero.
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I first recall see Perez's art on Sons of the Tiger in Marvels black and white Kung Fu book. He must have been pretty young at the time but his art whilst different to his better known still was still very good. Like yourself I was buying less comics (apart from things like Cerebus and Love and Rockets) in the 80s so missed a lot of his best art but those i did pick up were spectacular. Sorry to hear he has health issue hope he gets better soon . Another comic book great.
ReplyDeleteEarly Perez is a bit rough around the edges. His first Avengers run is good but his second is great. His third is among the finest art the form has seen.
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One of the greatest. Perez was one reason "Avengers" was my favorite comic in the later 70's. I can't think of a single page or cover he drew that wasn't visually appealing. And it's hard to think of anyone else illustrating "Crisis on Infinite Earths ". Nobody else could fit as much in as little space...
ReplyDeleteI can think of a few of his early pages that don't work for me, but the worst Perez is still exciting stuff.
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Before Titans, there was an X-Men Annual he drew that was the most intense work he'd done up to that point, a really wonderful superhero/sword and sorcery mashup. Collaborator Terry Austin wrote on a newspaper in one of the cluttered backgrounds a headline that said something like "inker goes blind working on comic".
ReplyDeleteI remember that annual. Sigh, for the days when annuals were anticipated.
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Like everyone said he is the master of crowd shots, I wonder if he used a magnifying glass when he drew them :)
ReplyDeleteYou got me. I need one when I'm trying to find my favorite heroes, that's for certain.
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