Remembering George Pérez, one of the greatest names in comic book history.
Yesterday(may 06 2022), the great George Pérez passed away at age 67. I want to take a moment and a few words to talk about his amazing career and how wonderful his soul always will be.
Pérez was born in 1954, he started drawing at age 5 and simply didn't stop. In his teens, he became Rich Buckler's assistent. One year after that, he made his debut in the comic book world, drawing a 2 page story in Astonishing Tales #25.
After that, Pérez started working on The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, where he co-created White Tiger, the first hispanic Marvel superhero. After that... Avengers. And I think one could say this was the point where his legend as one of the greatest comic book names began. After all, Pérez is more well known for drawing big splash pages with tons and tons of characters. I consider him the absolute master and it comes to multiple characters in one place. While working on Avengers, Pérez co-created the mercenary Taskmaster.
I won't be talking about every single work Pérez made since that is impossible, his career is so massive with so many comics that is more than deserving of his legendary status. But let's keep going. In 1980, Pérez began working on Justice League and of course, the classic, The New Teen Titans. During this time, Pérez co-created an insane amount of characters, including Deathstroke the Terminator (obviously). I love this run with a burning passion, this is where I got presented to George's amazing art and style.
After the event ended, DC started to give his heroes updated origins and Pérez, with help from Greg Potter and Len Wein, made what I consider the best Wonder Woman run till this day.
You probably are familiar with the MCU, and of course, even that owns some of its success to George. Pérez was the artist for Marvel's Infinity Gauntlet story, one of the major inspirations for the MCU. Pérez went back to The Avengers main title a while after.
Next, we go to 2004 to remember JLA/The Avengers
And what a insane story with even crazier artwork. Pérez always knew how to make everything look gigantic and epic.
Unfortunately, we have to talk about the New 52 now, where Pérez was tasked with writing for Superman and due to DC editorial that did not go so well. In 2019 Pérez announced that he would be retiring and spoke about how poorly DC editorial treated him during his Superman run. According to him, that was a George Pérez comic in name only.
Now, speaking personally, Pérez work really helped me while growing up. Having comics to read, worlds to enter, while things around me looked bad, it was really special. When you look at a artpiece made with heart, with passion, you created a connection of sorts with the art and the artist I think. Maybe that's why Pérez is and always will be loved. He did everything with passion, giving 100% of his talent and effort. You can feel it just by looking at any art of his. And there's nothing you can do besides falling in love after that.
According to people who have meet him in conventions and other places, he always tried his best to make fans happy. And nothing is more George Pérez then that.
I'm not good with words, but I would like to say that George is immortal. He lives in the hearts of his family, friends and fans. And of course, his art, his amazing work. We all will miss you, George. By in a way, you're still with us.
George Pérez, one of the most loved names in comics.
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