Rafael Aura León (22 December 1939 - 24 June 1993) was a Spanish comics artist, known primarily as Auraleón, which is how he signed his work.

Biography

Born in Barcelona, Auraleón's career began in 1959 when he joined the Spanish agency Selecciones Ilustradas, through which he worked in British comics in the 1960s, drawing westerns for ''Lone Star (comics), Lone Star'', war stories for ''Commando (comics), Commando'', ''Air Ace (comics), Air Ace'', ''Combat (comics), Combat'' and ''Conflict (comics), Conflict'', romance stories for ''Romance in Pictures'', and science fiction stories for ''Space Ace (comics), Space Ace''. Auraleón joined American company Warren Publishing in 1971, becoming one of their most prolific artists, with 69 stories in total. This would rank him fourth among all artists at Warren after José Ortiz (comics), José Ortiz, Esteban Maroto and Luis Bermejo. Auraleón worked primarily in ''Vampirella'', with approximately 20 stories appearing in ''Creepy (magazine), Creepy'' and approximately 8 in ''Eerie''. Auraleon was the recurring artist for the series ''Pantha'', in 1974 and 1975. He also drew the series ''Cassandra St. Knight'' in 1981, and ''Sweetwater Nessie'' in 1982. All three series appeared in ''Vampirella''. Auraleón remained with Warren until its bankruptcy in 1983,David A. Roach and Jon B. Cooke, ''The Warren Companion'', TwoMorrows Publishing, 2001 also producing short strips to his own scripts for the Spanish edition of Toutain's ''1984/1994''. Many of these also appeared in French in ''Ere Comprimee'' magazine, and his late solo work for the Spanish ''1984'' has been collected in book form as ''Caos y otras historias fantasticas'' (2018). Auraleón continued to work with Selecciones Ilustradas after Warren's collapse, drawing the series ''Viaje al Infierno'' which was published in the Spanish version of ''Creepy''. After its publication in 1984, he left both S.I. and the comics field entirely. Suffering from depression, he took his own life in 1993.

Selected bibliography

*''Creepy (magazine), Creepy'' issues 42, 49–51, 53, 56, 90, 100, 105, 110–112, 114, 125, 135, 136, 140, 141, 145 *''Eerie'' issues 37, 39, 40, 45, 46, 74, 88, 92, 110 *''Vampirella'' issues 16, 18, 20, 22–26, 28–33, 35, 36, 38, 39, 41, 42, 44, 47, 50, 51, 53, 58, 65, 70, 72, 77–79, 84–86, 88–90, 92–98, 101–103, 106, 108, 110, 112

References

1939 births 1993 deaths People from Barcelona Spanish comics artists 20th-century Spanish male artists {{Spain-artist-stub