Legendary comic book artist and writer George Pérez has passed away on May 6, 2022 at age 67 due to complications from pancreatic cancer. Some of his notable works include The Avengers, Crisis on Infinite Earths, New Teen Titans, and the 1986 relaunch of Wonder Woman. He was known for his detailed and realistic rendering, and his knack with massive crowd scenes.
Thank you George, for your artwork, for your kindness. Your legacy both as an artist and as a man will not be forgotten.
You and Marv Wolfman forever redefined the Titans with your run on ‘New Teen Titans’:
You co created beloved characters like Starfire, Raven and Cyborg reinvented Dick Grayson as Nightwing for a whole new generation. You took comics to new heights with story arcs like Terror of Trigon and Judas Contract that are still remembered and adapted this day.
You and Mav also redefined established characters like Donna Troy, Roy Harper, Beast Boy, Aqualad, my personal favorite being Donna Troy:
Then on your own you modernized Wonder Woman for a new generation and as far as I’m concerned that run is still the gold standard:
You drew the Avengers:
And the Justice League:
You were the first illustrator on Infinity Gauntlet (which inspired Infinity War and Endgame) and illustrated the now infamous snap:
You also illustrated ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’, the biggest event of the era and DC is still trying to catch it’s coattails:
And to top it all off you did JLA/Avengers:
And still kept going by doing the Legion of 3 Worlds:
You were the only one who could draw a hundred superheroes on one page and give each hero their own personality and character:
May you rest peacefully. For you were a titan in real life.
This tribute has been running in DC’s comics to celebrate the 68th birthday of George Perez on June 9, which unfortunately he did not make it to. It is also a variant cover forDark Crisis#7, which comes out in December.
I’ll never forget the way Marv said “Oh my gohod” when I told him I made him into a character in a fanzine comic story, which I gave him a copy of. Sorry Marv. lol.
Titan Talk 66 cover by George Perez. George was a contributing member of Titan Talk, (a sort of zine with very small print run, say 40 copies only, and every subscriber was also a contributor), beneath it is a full box of other old Titans APAs, I have several, just trying to give a sense of how much fanfic and art existed before the internet was even a thing. for more about this please read https://wonkeaux.tumblr.com/post/164575698322/a-little-bit-about-the-pre-internet-history-of
Within Five Days, I’ve lost two of my top five favorite artists- Tuesday 5/3/2022, it was Neal Adams and today 5/7/2022, George Perez. Once in high school, my art teacher was giving me my quarterly portfolio review and noticed my comics influenced art. He critiqued that my pencils were tight, but loved the compositions and imagination of borders and backgrounds. He asked me why comics, and I told him it was imagination illustrated. He laughed and said he loved that response. He then told me to never grow old. I chuckled and asked him why. He said that I would have to say goodbye one day.
I didn’t know what he meant, and didn’t want to know why. It was weird, but in his eyes, I remembered that they kind of watered up; he gave me a great review and encouraged to loosen up a bit on my work. Years later, I now understand what he meant. I get it, and remembered this conversation years later the day he passed. Rest In Peace George and thank you for inspiring me and so many others to be artists.
