George Pérez

George Pérez (; June 9, 1954 – May 6, 2022) was an American comic book artist and writer, who worked primarily as a penciller. He came to prominence in the 1970s penciling ''Fantastic Four'' and '' The Avengers'' for Marvel Comics. In the 1980s he penciled ''The New Teen Titans'', which became one of DC Comics' top-selling series. He penciled DC's landmark limited series ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'', followed by relaunching ''Wonder Woman'' as both writer and penciller for the rebooted series. In the meantime, he worked on other comics published by Marvel, DC, and other companies into the 2010s. He was known for his detailed and realistic rendering, and his facility with complex crowd scenes.

Early life

George Pérez was born on June 9, 1954,"Contributors: George Pérez," ''The New Teen Titans Archives, Volume 1'' (DC Comics, 1999). in the South Bronx, New York City, to Jorge Guzman Pérez and Luz Maria Izquierdo, who were both from Caguas, Puerto Rico, but met after settling in New Jersey while searching for job opportunities. They married in October 1954 and subsequently moved to New York, where Jorge worked in the meat packing industry while Luz was a homemaker. George's younger brother David was born in May 1955. Both brothers aspired at a young age to be artists with George beginning to draw at the age of five.

Career

Early career

Pérez's first involvement with the professional comics industry was as artist Rich Buckler's assistant in 1973, and he made his professional debut in Marvel Comics' ''Astonishing Tales'' #25 (Aug. 1974) as penciler of an untitled two-page satire of Buckler's character Deathlok, star of that comic's main feature. Soon Pérez became a Marvel regular, penciling a run of "Sons of the Tiger", a serialized action-adventure strip published in Marvel's long-running ''Deadly Hands of Kung Fu'' magazine and authored by Bill Mantlo. He and Mantlo co-created the White Tiger (comics' first Puerto Rican superhero), a character that soon appeared in Marvel's color comics, most notably the Spider-Man titles.

Pérez came to prominence with Marvel's superhero-team comic '' The Avengers'', starting with issue #141. In the 1970s, Pérez illustrated several other Marvel titles, including ''Creatures on the Loose'', featuring the Man-Wolf; ''The Inhumans''; and ''Fantastic Four''. Writer Roy Thomas and Pérez crafted a metafictional story for ''Fantastic Four'' #176 (Nov. 1976) in which the Impossible Man visited the offices of Marvel Comics and met numerous comics creators. While most of Pérez' ''Fantastic Four'' issues were written by Roy Thomas or Len Wein, it would be a ''Fantastic Four Annual'' where he would have his first major collaboration with writer Marv Wolfman. Pérez drew the first part of writer Jim Shooter's "The Korvac Saga", which featured nearly every Avenger who had joined the team up to that point. Shooter and Pérez introduced the character of Henry Peter Gyrich, the Avengers' liaison to the United States National Security Council in the second chapter of that same storyline. Writer David Michelinie and Pérez created the Taskmaster in ''The Avengers'' #195 (May 1980).

''The New Teen Titans''

In 1980, while still drawing ''The Avengers'' for Marvel, Pérez began working for their rival DC Comics. Offered the art chores for the launch of ''The New Teen Titans'', written by Wolfman, Pérez's real incentive was the opportunity to draw ''Justice League of America'' (an ambition of Pérez's which "seemed like a natural progress from the ''Avengers''").O'Neill, Patrick Daniel. "Career Moves" (Pérez interview), '' Wizard'' #35 (July 1994). Long-time ''Justice League'' artist Dick Dillin