George Perez
Florida’s Bear & Bird Gallery to host ‘Proof of Heroes’ exhibit
If you work in the industry for as number of years, you’re bound to gather a number of unique artifacts from your time spent. People have been delighted in recent weeks with Tom Brevoort’s “The Marvel Age of Comics” Tumblr showcasing the editor’s collection of original art and assorted oddities, and now The Hero Initiative is partnering with a Florida gallery to show off one-of-a-kind printer’s proofs for covers collected by renowned editor Julius Schwartz during his 42-year tenure at DC Comics.
Titled “Proof of Heroes,” the exhibit at Bear & Bird Boutique + Gallery will feature nearly 300 comic book cover printer’s proofs from 1964 to 1974. These printer’s proofs were sent to Schwartz for final approval before going to press, and features artwork from such comics legends as Nick Cardy, Neal Adams, Mike Kaluta and Carmine Infantino. The exhibit is set to run from Jan. 20 to March 3 at Bear & Bird’s Lauderhill, Florida, location, just above the comic store Tate’s. On Jan. 21, DC icons Paul Levitz, George Perez and Alex Saviuk will be on hand from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. for a signing, followed by a reception from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The printer’s proofs will be available for just $100 each (certificate of authenticity included). All proceeds benefit The Hero Initiative.
- January 11, 2012 @ 03:00 PM by Chris Arrant
Nicola Scott joins Superman for three issues
Art from Superman #3
Former Birds of Prey artist Nicola Scott will step in for Jesus Merino on three issues of Superman, beginning with this month’s Issue 3.
DC Comics announced this morning that Scott will illustrate issues 3, 5 and 6, with regular artist Merino penciling Issue 4 before returning for Issue 7, which features the debut of new writers Dan Jurgens and Keith Giffen. The duo replaces George Perez, who leaves as writer and breakdown artist following the sixth issue.
Scott, a DC-exclusive artist who also worked on Secret Six and Wonder Woman, will next collaborate with James Robinson on the relaunched Justice Society of America.
Superman #3, which pits the Man of Steel against a new foe targeting those dearest to Clark Kent, goes on sale Nov. 23. Check out a preview of the issue below.
- November 2, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Tom Ziuko health update; women and comics
Tom Ziuko
Creators | The Hero Initiative offers an update from colorist Tom Ziuko, who was hospitalized earlier this year for acute kidney failure and other health conditions, and then returned to the hospital for emergency surgery about a month ago. “I can’t impress upon you enough how frightening it is to actually come up against a life-threatening medical situation (not to mention two times in less than a year), and not have the financial means to survive if you’re suddenly not able to earn a living. Like so many other freelancers out there, I live paycheck to paycheck, unable to afford health insurance. Without an organization like the Hero Initiative to lend me support in this time of dire need, I truly don’t know where I would be today,” Ziuko said. [The Hero Initiative]
Publishing | CNN asks the question “Are women and comics risky business?” as Christian Sager talks to former DC editor Janelle Asselin, blogger Jill Pantozzi, Womanthology organizer Renae De Liz and others about the number of women who work in comics, the portrayal of female characters and why comic companies don’t actively market books to women. “Think about it from the publisher’s point of view,” Asselin said. “Say you sell 90 percent of your comics to men between 18 and 35, and 10 percent of your comics to women in the same age group. Are you going to a) try to grow that 90 percent of your audience because you feel you already have the hook they want and you just need to get word out about it, or b) are you going to try to figure out what women want in their comics and do that to grow your line?” [CNN]
- October 25, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
Grumpy Old Fan | With Games, the play’s the thing
The New Titans in the "Perez 2" era
The New Teen Titans: Games is the latest in an ever-expanding series of projects I never thought I’d see — a list which includes 2001′s The Dark Knight Strikes Again, 2005′s Englehart/Rogers/Austin Dark Detective, the various Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire Justice League International reunions, and of course George Pérez finally getting his bravura turn on JLA/Avengers.
In the waning years of the 1980s (so the stories go), New Teen Titans co-creator Marv Wolfman had an idea for a Titans graphic novel. Wolfman, Pérez, and editor Barbara Kesel conceived Games — basically a supervillain-caper story with an espionage/terrorism angle — as a one-shot spinoff of the wildly successful ongoing series. Pérez then drew some 70 pages before complications sent the project into the limbo of unfinished possibilities. However, as the years went by and the stars realigned, and that possibility of finishing Games turned into probability, Wolfman and Pérez were forced to rethink their approach to the material, both in terms of changed styles and changes in content.
Accordingly, the Games we have today isn’t quite an artifact or a re-creation. Although it is rooted significantly in Titans lore, it doesn’t seem inaccessible to new readers. It’s a continuation which, for various reasons, can’t be “official,” and it’s also a standalone story which offers another look at the pair’s signature work. It may well be their last word on these characters, but it’s hardly an ending. It’s what they would have done twenty-odd years ago, except that it works best when taken slightly out of that context. Take it from someone who grew up in the land of strong bourbon — Games may be one of the most potent distillations of the Wolfman/Pérez experience.
Naturally, all that requires some explanation, so here we go….
- October 13, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Giffen and Jurgens to replace Pérez on Superman
George Pérez will step down as writer and breakdown artist of Superman, Newsarama reports, to be replaced by Keith Giffen and Dan Jurgens with Issue 7.
Pérez was teamed with artist Jesus Merino on the relaunched title, which debuted this week. There’s a possibility that Pérez will remain as finisher/inker.
Superman will be the second title from DC Comics’ New 52 that Giffen has stepped into as writer. News surfaced just last week that he will replace J.T. Krul on Green Arrow, teaming with Jurgens as penciler and Pérez as inker on the series.
Giffen is also drawing and co-writing O.M.A.C., while Jurgens is writing the relaunched Justice League International.
- September 30, 2011 @ 12:10 PM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC ’11 | Lois Lane’s new boyfriend revealed [Updated]
When DC Comics confirmed on Monday that, as of its September relaunch, the 15-year marriage of Clark Kent and Lois Lane never happened, the publisher tossed in another juicy relationship detail: “Lois Lane is dating a colleague at the Daily Planet (and his name isn’t Clark Kent).” Could it be Steve Lombard or Ron Troupe? Perry White or Jimmy Olsen?
It turns out it’s none of those. Instead, the New York Daily News tells us this morning, Lois’ boyfriend is … Jonathan Carroll. No, not the award-winning fantasy author. The blond beau is a new character debuting in September’s Superman #1, where, judging by the preview, he receives a shirtless introduction to Clark and the readers.
Superman #1, by George Perez and Jesus Merino, goes on sale Sept. 28. Expect more details to emerge at Comic-Con International during this afternoon’s “DC Comics: The New 52″ presentation and Friday’s Superman panel.
Updated: DC has released a better-quality preview of Superman #1. You can see Jonathan’s two-page introduction after the break.
- July 21, 2011 @ 05:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
DC relaunch scorecard: DCnU or DC No?
Green Lantern #1, by Dave Johnson
Although it seems like DC’s big relaunch announcement came out an eternity ago, it actually took the publisher less than two weeks to roll out the 52 titles and their creative teams for the big relaunch/reboot/overhaul coming in September. Now that the cats are out of their respective bags, I thought I’d see where various creators and characters will land after the reboot.
So I went back through DC’s August solicitations to see who was writing or drawing what, and tried to map everyone to their post-relaunch project — if they had one. However, looking at DC’s August solicitations, there seem to be several fill-in issues, so where appropriate I tried to map the most recent ongoing creative teams to their new projects (for instance, I consider Gail Simone and Jesus Saiz the regular creative team for Birds of Prey, even if they aren’t doing the last two issues before September hits). Keep in mind that I just went through the ongoing series and skipped over all the miniseries … of which there are a lot, what with Flashpoint winding up in August.
It’s also worth noting that although several creators didn’t appear in the “big 52″ announcements, that doesn’t mean their tenure with DC is necessarily over — some, like Frazer Irving, have said they have future projects that haven’t been announced. So I tried to note where creators have talked publicly about their post-relaunch plans with DC (or lack thereof, as the case may be). The same could probably be said for some of DC’s characters as well. Or, as Gail Simone said on Twitter: “Again, September is NOT THE END. There’s still plans for characters that we haven’t seen yet.”
So let’s get to it ….
- June 12, 2011 @ 04:14 AM by JK Parkin
As fans await official announcement, final details of DC relaunch leak [Updated]
Superman #1
While most DC Comics fans wait impatiently for the publisher to announce the final details of its sweeping 52-title relaunch, one industrious reader went to work to unearth the covers to Superman #1, Superboy #1 and Supergirl #1.
That leaves only one series, by all accounts Action Comics, which as Comic Book Resources reported last week will likely be written by Grant Morrison. Bleeding Cool contends that Rags Morales is the artist.
The three covers, found Thursday on the DC server by a Comic Book Resources forum member with the time and patience to try numerous file-name combinations, aren’t particularly surprising; Superman and Supergirl, at least, were sure bets for the relaunch, and Scott Lobdell had let slip earlier this week that he’s writing Superboy. However, they seem to confirm Bleeding Cool’s report that George Perez will be drawing, and presumably writing, Superman. Screenwriters Michael Green and Mike Johnson, who worked together on Superman/Batman, are thought to be penning Supergirl, with Mahmud A. Asrar on art (at least judging from the cover).
A question mark remains over Superboy, in part because the character looks radically different on this cover than he appears on the one(s) for Teen Titans #1. (Update: A commenter identifies the Superboy cover artist as Eric Canete.)
DC was expected to officially announce the Superman books today, but as the hours pass it’s beginning to look as if the publisher may hold back until Saturday afternoon, when Co-Publisher Jim Lee and Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns appear at the Hero Complex Film Festival in Los Angeles.
Update 2: DC officially unveiled the remaining titles this afternoon after all, confirming Morrison and Morales on Action Comics, Perez writing but Jesus Merino penciling Superman, Green, Johnson and Asrar on Supergirl, and Lobdell, R.B. Silva and Rob Lean on Superboy. Comic Book Resources has the details.
Check out the covers for Superboy #1 and Supergirl #1 after the break.
- June 10, 2011 @ 11:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Because nothing says ‘mainstream comics’ like a good decapitation
Flashpoint #2 variant cover
Ouch. Above is the variant cover to Flashpoint #2 by Ivan Reis and George Perez. I wonder where the rest of Mera could be … maybe in a refrigerator?
- June 1, 2011 @ 09:28 AM by JK Parkin
Grumpy Old Fan | Lincoln’s log: lessons from Legacies
DC Universe: Legacies #3 -- the JLA by Garcia-Lopez and Gibbons
There’s a weird little sequence in the middle of DC Universe: Legacies #3 when the narration’s timeline goes all hazy and oblique, in order to move the story from sometime in the Eisenhower/Kennedy years right into the “X years ago” of modern continuity. Because Legacies tracks some sixty-five years of costumed crimefighting, this sequence bridges the gap between the Justice Society’s retirement and Superman’s debut.
“Hazy and oblique” are also good words for describing DC’s approach to long-term continuity. The history of the DC Universe is well-settled up to the early 1950s, but past then it becomes elastic. This is something we’ve come to expect: fudging the calendar keeps our heroes both as experienced and as youthful as they need to be. However, each passing year also widens the gap between the end of the Golden Age (early ‘50s) and the beginning of the Silver (thought to be 12-15 years ago). Through reader-identification character Paul Lincoln,* DCUL’s writer (and longtime DC favorite) Len Wein aims to put a human face on all those four-color adventures.
That sounds like the premise of 1994′s Marvels and its spiritual descendant Astro City. Really, though, any halfway-entertaining super-survey needs a narrator with a recognizable point of view. Even 1986′s History of the DC Universe, which was basically a series of George Pérez pinups arranged in chronological order, took its florid prose ostensibly from Harbinger’s meditations on the nature of heroism.
- April 7, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Talking Comics with Tim | Nicola Scott
Teen Titans 93
For longtime comic readers like myself, there’s nothing quite like when a team book introduces a new character to the mix. This Wednesday, artist Nicola Scott gets to bring Solstice, a character she designed, into the Teen Titans mix with the release of Teen Titans 93. In addition to discussing Solstice, Scott notes the shift in tone/sense of fun that series writer J.T. Krul has brought to the series; how she considers herself a character-driven artist; as well as the lessons learned from collaborating with the likes of writer Gail Simone/dealing in subtext (among other topics). At the end of the interview, she invites fans to suggest characters we’d like to see her draw in the future–be sure to chime in with your ideas in the comments section.
Tim O’Shea: Over at the Source, you expressed part of what appealed to working with J.T. Krul on Teen Titans. ” Character, tone, direction. He has blown me away.” What is it about Krul’s approach to character and tone that appealed to you?
Nicola Scott: Over the last couple of years the tone of the book seemed to have become quite dark, and seemed to be missing youthful energy and a sense of fun. The characters weren’t quite connecting in the way DC hoped for them to. Straight off the bat JT had them feel exactly like their regular selves. The comradery had returned too and that’s such an important ingredient with the Teen Titans. The script for the first issue was fun, a great recap of the characters and who they are to each other. There were some gags and some drama and it felt like young people with huge responsibility. Another ingredient that I think was important, was bringing it back to the core members. A couple of new additions is fine but when most of the cast is unrecognizable to outside readers, it’s hard to grow the audience.
- March 28, 2011 @ 03:06 PM by Tim O'Shea
George Perez debuts new art technique
After recovering from eye surgery last year, artist George Perez seems to be getting back up to speed. He was last seen doing a sequence in T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #4, and he was recently connected with several new projects including a series in DC’s Flashpoint event. In addition to getting active on the drawing board, Perez is active on Facebook, where he recently posted a new approach to art that’s been published for the first time.
Perez explains on Facebook that “after experimenting on some private commissions, I decided to try my pencil tone-to color technique on a cover that would actually be published.”
What you see on the left is Perez’s original toned illustration done with marker and pencil, while on the right is the artwork digitally colored — also by Perez. The illustration is intended for the 300th issue of Comics Revue. Can you name all the characters?
Exciting stuff — and this fan hopes for more (much more!) to come from Perez in the coming months.
- February 23, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Arrant
Grumpy Old Fan | Like the feel of your favorite leisure suit
Neal Adams covers the 1976 DC calendar
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned The Comics Reporter’s excellent list of “emblematic” ‘70s comics, and how I’d like to put together something similar. Thus, with help from the timeline at comics.org, I started putting together a short list of significant creators, books and characters that I thought defined ‘70s DC.
However, the more I thought about my list, the more it struck me as indicative of a company at odds with itself. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, DC boasted several successful long-term marriages of professional and property, including Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing, Marv Wolfman and George Pérez’s New Teen Titans and Pérez’s Wonder Woman, Steve Englehart and Joe Staton’s Green Lantern, John Byrne’s Superman, Grant Morrison’s Animal Man, Doom Patrol and JLA, and Mark Waid’s Flash. In the ‘70s, though, this wasn’t necessarily the case. Writers like Gerry Conway and Cary Bates became synonymous with Justice League and Flash, so much so that by the mid-‘80s (and the Detroit League and “Trial of the Flash”) they had arguably stayed too long.
- September 9, 2010 @ 04:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
George Pérez confirms another delay for Teen Titans: Games
Teen Titans: Games
George Pérez confirmed the decades-in-the-making Teen Titans: Games graphic novel has been delayed again, because of his recent medical procedures and scheduling conflicts.
The highly anticipated book, conceived in the mid-1980s with New Teen Titans writer Marv Wolfman, has been announced and postponed numerous times over the past 25 years. The 120-page graphic novel had been scheduled this time for a Nov. 3 release; Amazon.com lists Jan. 11, 2011, as the new date.
“The fault is entirely mine,” Pérez explained on his Facebook fan page. “I’m afraid that a confluence of events, including my worsening eyesight which prompted the ongoing surgical procedures that I’ve already covered here and the bad timing of committing to Legacies before I knew that Games‘ deadlines had been compromised. … With Legacies being an ongoing series, as opposed to Games being a one-shot, it was determined that the monthly series had to be prioritized since my involvement with that series had already been publicized.”
Set in the ’80s, Games features a classic Titans lineup — Nightwing, Troia, Cyborg, Changeling, Starfire, Raven, Jericho and Danny Chase — pitted against a mysterious villain playing a deadly game.
Pérez, who apologized to fans and to Wolfman for the additional delay, wrote: “I have about 25 pages left to draw and I’m hoping that, when the book is finally re-solicited (and it will be!) that it will be at least a tiny bit worth the long wait.”
Read Pérez’s full statement after the break:
- August 29, 2010 @ 04:35 PM by Kevin Melrose
Grumpy Old Fan | You can change the name of a rose, but you can’t do nothin’ about the smell
Introducing the "Mod" Wonder Woman
Occasionally I find myself on a Monday or a Tuesday wondering what Thursday’s topic will be. Such was the case this week –
– and then the hand of Providence offered up J. Michael Straczynski’s radical take on Wonder Woman.
SPOILERS FOLLOW for what was actually a very enjoyable Wonder Woman #600….
- July 1, 2010 @ 04:30 PM by Tom Bondurant