Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.46: George Perez

No.46: George Perez

George Perez is a US based superhero artist who began his career as assistant to Rich Buckler but who quickly created his own niche as one of the most dynamic superhero illustrators of the past forty years. Words: Joel Meadows…

photo courtesy of Jose Luis Moral from The Art Of George Perez Facebook group

Perez made his professional debut in Marvel’s Astonishing Tales #25 in 1974 which led to him drawing Sons Of The Tiger, a regular back-up strip in Marvel’s Deadly Hands of Kung Fu with writer Bill Mantlo. 

It was his run on Marvel’s Avengers which started with #141 in 1975 where he teamed up with writer Steve Englehart which really brought him to fan prominence. It was with #151 where writer Jim Shooter came on board which really cemented his reputation as one of the finest superhero artists in the business.

Shooter and Perez’s Avengers work lifted the bar on superhero comics, offering a visual dynamism and level of excitement that hadn’t been seen before. The artist became a mainstay at Marvel, going on to draw The Inhumans and The Fantastic Four there.

In 1980 Perez jumped ship to DC working on their flagship team book Justice League Of America with writer Gerry Conway but it was his collaboration with writer Marv Wolfman on New Teen Titans which propelled him into the comics stratosphere. DC was floundering as a company and this book, which took a number of DC’s sidekick characters and revamped the company’s sixties team book, giving it a modern spin, really engaged with audiences. New Teen Titans was DC’s attempt to create a Marvel style team book at the company and it regularly sold six figures as a monthly title. 

Wolfman and Perez stayed on New Teen Titans until the mid 1980s with a second book launching too and the characters teamed up with Marvel’s X-Men, drawn by Walter Simonson as well.

In 1984, Perez took a leave of absence to draw a very high profile series, also with writer Marv Wolfman. Crisis On Infinite Earths was DC’s companywide crossover for 1985, which celebrated DC’s 50th anniversary. Designed to clean up the company’s continuity, Crisis was another massive hit. Wolfman and Perez also worked on two part prestige format series The History Of The DC Universe which spelt out the new continuity that Crisis on Infinite Earths created.

Perez’s next high profile series was revamping DC’s iconic Wonder Woman series, with the character in a different place after Crisis On Infinite Earths. Perez would leave as artist after its 24th issue but continue as its writer until #62.

After Wonder Woman, Perez joined fellow former Marvel creator John Byrne to work on the company’s other iconic superhero, Superman. Perez drew Action Comics for a number of years and during the late eighties he even returned briefly to the New Teen Titans characters as its writer. The book was renamed The New Titans by this point.

After Superman, Perez drew some of the company’s latest crossover War Of The Gods but by 1991 his relationship with DC was problematic and so he left to return to Marvel.

At Marvel he drew most of the company’s Infinity Gauntlet series but by the early nineties he also drew Break-Thru and Ultraforce for Malibu and I-Bots for Tekno Comics. 

Perez worked with writer Peter David on creator-owned series Sachs and Violens and Hulk: Future Imperfect.

Perez returned to the Avengers, this time with writer Kurt Busiek, a run which lasted three years.

Perez worked with Busiek again, drawing the Marvel/ DC intercompany crossover JLA Avengers which was published in 2003.

Around this time, the artist also worked for new independent company CrossGen on title Solus but it only ran for eight issues as the company went into bankruptcy.

The artist worked as a fill-in artist on DC’s Infinite Crisis series in the early 2000s as well and returned to write and provide breakdowns for a new Superman series in 2011 which he only stayed on for six issues. DC also published the New Teen Titans graphic novel Games around this time which was a story that was meant to come out many years earlier which saw him reunited with original Teen Titans writer Marv Wolfman.

In 2014 Perez wrote and drew creator-owned series Sirens for Boom Studios. Perez retired from comics in 2019 due to some health concerns and in 2021 he announced that he had inoperable pancreatic cancer.

George Perez is the master of detail and also arguably the greatest modern superhero team artist too. His work is imbued with the dynamism of the best aspects of American comics and you can see the likes of John Buscema, John Byrne and Marshall Rogers in his work as well. Perez drew the first US comic series I read, New Teen Titans, and I shall always be grateful to him for introducing me to this world.

Sadly his poor health means that we are not likely to see any new work from him again but he leaves such a huge legacy as an artist and a writer that Perez has made a massive impact on modern superhero comics. His sense of storytelling is among the best in the industry and he leaves a sizeable footprint with his work on pretty much every major iconic superhero creation at Marvel and DC. Also artists like Alex Ross, Ivan Reis, Bryan Hitch and Phil Jiminez owe a huge debt to him as well. 

Here’s links through to the other entries in our 101 Greatest so far as well

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.47: Michael William Kaluta

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.48: Cary Nord

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.49: Frank Quitely

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.50: Mike Ploog

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.51: Johnny Craig

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.52: Darwyn Cooke

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.53: Steve Dillon

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.54: Gil Kane

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.55: Michael Zulli

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.56: John Romita

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.57: Joe Maneely

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.58: Marshall Rogers

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.59: John Severin

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.60: Alex Toth

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.61: Brian Bolland

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.62: David Mazzuchelli

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.63 Reed Crandall

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.64 Harry Anderson

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.65 Nick Cardy

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.66 Matt Wagner

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.67 Bryan Hitch

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.68 Shawn Martinbrough

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.69 Al Feldstein

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.70 Nestor Redondo

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.71 Tarpe Mills

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.72 Eduardo Risso

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.73 JH Williams III

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.74 Irv Novick

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.75 Dan Zolnerowich

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.76 Gilbert Shelton

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.77 Tommy Lee Edwards

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.78: Sean Phillips

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.79: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.80: Dan DeCarlo

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.81: Marie Severin

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.82: John Paul Leon

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.83: Jim Lee

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.84: Denys Cowan

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.85: Ross Andru

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.86: Paul Gustavson

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.87: George Evans

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.88: Michael Golden

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.89: Matt Baker

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.90: Todd McFarlane

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.91: Fiona Staples

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.92: Carl Barks

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.93: Carmine Infantino

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.94: Alan Davis

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.95: CC Beck

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.96: Syd Shores

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.97: Bob Fujitani

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.98: Tim Sale

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.99: Jim Aparo

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