George Perez
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
Grumpy Old Fan | Hot comics for cooler days: DC Comics Solicitations for September 2010
The Return Of Bruce Wayne #6
Here in Memphis, the heat index has been over 100 degrees for the better part of a week, and it’s not likely to let up anytime soon. If it’s this hot during the last week of spring, I can’t imagine what summer will feel like.
September seems very far away indeed.
And yet, it’s that time again, when we look ahead two-and-a-half months and try to figure out what will still hold our interest when summer ends, football starts, and the days grow ever shorter. Maybe by then it’ll only be in the 80s.
BRIGHTEST DAY
I’m probably not the first person to suggest this, but why not have a group of white supremacists, skinheads, etc., gather expectantly (if misguidedly) around the unfortunately-named White Power Battery, so that they might subsequently receive an appropriate beatdown? That would let Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi distinguish between the mission of the white-light Lantern — white light being a mix of all the spectrum’s colors — and our society’s odious “white power” ideology.
- June 17, 2010 @ 02:30 PM by Tom Bondurant
George Pérez to undergo eye surgery today
George Perez
George Pérez, who’s long struggled with diabetes and high blood pressure, revealed he’ll undergo laser retina surgery today after doctors discovered blood vessels forming in the back of his eyes.
“Thankfully, it’s been caught at the treatable stage and the prognosis is good,” he wrote this morning on his Facebook fan page. “I’d been noticing difficulty in focusing for some time and thought it was merely eyestrain and let it go unchecked too long. My own fault, I’m afraid. However, it’s likely I’ll come out of it with better vision than I had before, so I’m definitely optimistic about this. Up to now, only my immediate family knew of this, but there a lot of really good friends out there who I felt should know as well and this seemed the best way to contact all of you at once.”
Pérez, who turned 56 on Wednesday, is penciling issues five and six of DC Universe: Legacies. Teen Titans: Games, his decades-in-the-making graphic novel with Marv Wolfman, is set for release later this year.
- June 11, 2010 @ 06:57 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
The Beano Annual 2009
Publishing | D.C. Thomson & Co., publisher of long-running comics like The Beano and The Dandy, is closing a printing plant in Dundee, Scotland, eliminating up to 350 jobs. The facility is used to print magazines and books. The company, which also owns The Evening Telegraph and Sunday Post newspapers, employs more than 2,000 people. [BBC News]
Publishing | Lori Henderson returns to the question of what led to the failure of the CMX manga imprint: “Its parent company, DC didn’t do anything to market that line. Putting a solicitation in Previews is not marketing. DC claimed they would bridge the manga and comic store gap, yet did nothing to help retailers or promote the books to bloggers, bookstores or librarians, their three strongest advocates. You can’t buy or recommend books you don’t know about. While there were other factors that contributed to its ultimate end, the mishandling of the imprint in its first year, and then being completely ignored for the rest was the main factor in its lack of sales.” [Manga Xanadu]
- June 10, 2010 @ 08:02 AM by Kevin Melrose
Grumpy Old Fan | Titans, go … away?
The New Teen Titans #39
Thinking about the idea of “definitive” runs (touched on last week) brings me back to one of DC’s seminal creative teams. Of course, for fortyish DC fans like me, that team could only be Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, whose New Teen Titans helped DC straddle the line between Silver Age homage and Marvel-style soap opera.
When NTT premiered in the summer of 1980, the DC superhero line looked pretty static: Cary Bates and Curt Swan on Action Comics, Gerry Conway writing Justice League, Irv Novick drawing Batman, Don Heck drawing Flash. Not that these were talentless hacks churning out pulp dreck — far from it — but Marvel had Frank Miller, Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Wolfman and Pérez themselves. Teen Titans was a twice-cancelled title, yadda yadda yadda, naturally it changed the course of DC’s history.*
It sounds redundant to call Wolfman and Pérez’s four-year collaboration “definitive” — how could it have been otherwise? — so I won’t dwell on that too much. Instead, for now let’s say it was a singular collaboration, with a beginning, middle, and end. Many of the book’s long-term story arcs began as character-based subplots, and many of those were on display in issue #1. Besides the issue’s main plot (Starfire escaping the Gordanians), Robin is snippy to Batman, Wonder Girl reminisces at the site of the abandoned building where she was rescued as an infant, Kid Flash has to be coaxed back into superheroics, and Cyborg hates his half-human existence.
- June 3, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Perez, Simonson supply DC 75th anniversary variant covers
DC rolled out two more variant covers this week, as artists continue to provide their renditions of classic DC covers. Ironically, the two artists featured here are responsible for a good number of classic covers themselves.
First up, here’s Walt Simonson’s version of Jerry Robinson’s Detective Comics #69 cover, which will be a variant cover for Detective #866:
Detective Comics #866
- May 21, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
With Superman and Wonder Woman, is JMS set to join DC’s creative trinity?
Wonder Woman #600 by George Pèrez
Well, here’s who Gail Simone was talking about when the departing Wonder Woman writer promised us a successor that would knock our collective socks off: J. Michael Straczynski will be helming the adventures of two of DC Comics’ biggest characters as of July’s Superman #701 and Wonder Woman #601. Comic Book Resources and The Source have the scoop on the move.
Straczynski’s had a rough road in comics of late: He departed Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man and Thor amid disputes over the former’s controversial “One More Day” storyline and the latter’s incorporation into the main Marvel Universe storyline during “Dark Reign” and Siege, while his Marvel title The Twelve remains unfinished.
Since his move to DC, his relaunch of the Red Circle characters and his takeover of The Brave & the Bold haven’t exactly lit the world on fire sales-wise. But add today’s announcement to his planned launch of the new-continuity original graphic novel series Superman: Earth One, and it’s clear that DC has the confidence to enshrine JMS alongside Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison as part of the creative trinity responsible for the company’s core franchises. (Indeed, Morrison was long rumored to be the next Wonder Woman writer, rumors he helped fuel by mentioning plans for the character in multiple interviews.)
Generally speaking, “big name creator” plus “big name character” equals sales success, so it seems like a smart move to me. I wouldn’t mind Superman reuniting JMS with his longtime collaborator Gary Frank, either …
- March 8, 2010 @ 08:30 AM by Sean T. Collins
Straight for the art | George Perez draws the Wildstorm Universe
WildCats #19 and The Authority #18 covers
Here’s another item George Perez can check off his list of “comic book universes I need to draw” — the artist of New Teen Titans, Crisis on Infinite Earths and JLA/Avengers provides two interlocking covers for WildCats #19 and The Authority #18.
- October 22, 2009 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
George Perez pays homage to classic New Teen Titans cover
Blackest Night: Titans #3
Although I can’t say I’ve really been digging this particular tie-in to Blackest Night, I really like the variant cover to issue #3 of Blackest Night: Titans. It features George Perez’s homage to one of the greats, himself, as he re-imagines the cover to New Teen Titans #30. That book featured the introduction of Terra and started what could arguably be called the greatest Teen Titans story ever. At least, I’d probably argue that.
- October 9, 2009 @ 10:18 AM by JK Parkin