A Rare Peek Inside GEORGE PEREZ’s FIRESTORM

THE GEORGE PEREZ INTERVIEWS: The master artist discusses following Al Milgrom…

UPDATED 5/9/22: The great George Perez has died at the age of 67. This first ran in June 2019 as part of THE GEORGE PEREZ INTERVIEWS. We re-present it here. Click here for our complete index of Perez features. — Dan

Welcome to THE GEORGE PEREZ INTERVIEWS, a weekly series where the comics master discusses his greatest series.

Over 13 weeks, Perez, who’s retiring from the world of comics, gives you his take on each installment of our recent TOP 13 GEORGE PEREZ COUNTDOWN, which was written by 13th Dimension contributor Anthony Durso. (Click here for much more on that.) The segments are culled from a panel Perez and I did at East Coast Comicon.

Last week was #12The Fantastic Four. (Click here.)

This week, it’s #11Firestorm, which Perez joined in 1980.

This is a brief entry, folks, which is fitting when you consider that Perez’s time on Firestorm was a mere five back-up stories from The Flash #289 to #293

 

Dan Greenfield: OK, so No. 11 on the list — and this was one I have to admit I didn’t even know was part of your resume, for lack of a better term — but you did a backup series on Firestorm.

George Perez: Yes, that actually predated my (New) Teen Titans as my first series I ever did for DC Comics.

And what was interesting in working on that book with Gerry Conway — the creator, with Al Milgrom, of Firestorm — is that he was giving me the same exact scripts he gave Al. … So basically I have to draw this without looking like I’m drawing Al’s book now.

So, I deliberately couldn’t look at Al Milgrom’s artwork so I could pace it my way, lay it out my way, have the angles being my interpretation of it, but I thought, “Gerry got paid twice now.” (Laughter.) This is the same script! But it was fun.

What was interesting is that if you saw the credits on the first issue that I did, it says Romeo Tanghal is the inker, and it wasn’t Romeo. It was the inker who did the rest of the series, Bob Smith. So, it was just a mistake on their part.

The first time Romeo ever inked me was on that first issue of the (New) Teen Titans because obviously Dick Giordano inked me on the promo in Issue #26 for DC Comics Presents.

Perez

NEXT — THE INCREDIBLE HULK: FUTURE IMPERFECT. Click here.

MORE

— The GEORGE PEREZ INTERVIEWS Index. Click here.

— GEORGE PEREZ’s TOP 13 Comics Series — RANKED. Click here.

NOTE: The text has been edited and condensed slightly for clarity.

Author: Dan Greenfield

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