Heart-breaking news…
George Perez, one of the greatest comics artists ever to put pencil to page, has died at the age of 67, according to his family.
Perez, who drew virtually every major (and minor) DC and Marvel hero that ever existed, retired from the field in 2019 and was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2021.
Perez at East Coast Comicon in 2019
We’ve run a ton of stories on Perez over the years, including a 13-part series of interviews with the artist about his greatest projects — from Fantastic Four to New Teen Titans, to Crisis on Infinite Earths, to JLA/Avengers, and much more. Those links, as well as links to other, more recent coverage of Perez’s stellar career, can be found below.
Our deepest condolences to the Perez family.
LINKS
— The GEORGE PEREZ INTERVIEWS: The Master in His Own Words. Click here.
— GEORGE PEREZ’s TOP 13 Comics Series – RANKED. Click here.
— PAUL KUPPERBERG: My 13 Favorite GEORGE PEREZ Crowd Scenes. Click here.
— The TOP 13 Characters Drawn by GEORGE PEREZ. Click here.
— The TOP 13 GEORGE PEREZ Costume Designs. Click here.
May 7, 2022
I feel devastated. I met him at the Superman Convention in Cleveland in 1988 and I think I must have gushed a lot about how much I loved his work. A portfolio of his original art that he had for sale lay open in front of him. I remember I couldn’t afford any of the pages I loved but he also had some others that he had put into a cheap pile. One of them was a page from “Crisis on Infinite Earths” that featured the death of the Losers. It even had an overlay of drawings for special coloring in the story. There was no price on it. I remember there was another Perez fan standing next to me and looking at it eagerly. I asked George how much he wanted for it. He said $5 and I said (I may have shouted) “SOLD!” before the other guy could jump on it.
I miss you, George! You were one of the great ones.
May 7, 2022
George was the best! I was at that same show. There’s this timeless photo of all us guests. I may post it on FB. George was hairy, bearded dude! He’s standing behind Stan Lee and Joanie intermingled with a lot of the icons in the comics biz and fandom. Like I said, timeless.
May 7, 2022
This is Heartbreaking. I met him once at a little comic convention at the Disneyland hotel right after New Teen Titans 26 had come out.
He was so nice.
He truly is a legend. God bless him.
May 7, 2022
Wow! First Neal, now George. A rough couple of days for the conics world.
May 8, 2022
George has been, and always shall be, one of my absolute FAVORITE artists. I’ve loved his work since Avengers 141 and Fantastic Four 167, two great comics featuring some of his earliest work. George was just a phenomenal artist, but from every single thing I’ve read he was an even better person. That makes this loss so much harder – and yet, because of the way it went down, with him announcing it months in advance, he had the chance to have an amazing final run. The fans got to shower him with love and support, and he got to spend a lot of time with family and friends. The end came about 20 years too soon, but it was still a wonderful way for him to go out. His grace, dignity, kindness, and courage facing death was amazing. The way he faced an unavoidable end was both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Heartwarming because he got to receive so much love and give it back, heartbreaking because all of this just showed how much he will be missed.
May 8, 2022
I can remember the day New Teen Titans came out. He drew an absolutely fantastic *EVERYONE*. If it had his pencils then I bought it. GOD bless you, George. Thank you for the adventures.
May 8, 2022
This Past week have been rough. Last Weekend Neal Adams and now George Perez. I knew he was sick and this day would come but it stil hurt so much. My deepest condolences to his family and love ones.
May 11, 2022
George came to the comic book store that I worked at for 6 years. This was just before JLA/Avengers came out and everyone was abuzz with excitement. George came with a few Xeroxed pages of the first issue. He wasn’t supposed to show anyone, but he was so excited that he couldn’t help himself and showed us the pages. I remember the pages were of the JLA and Avengers fighting each others villians [Terrax and Starro, I think]. There weren’t actually that many people during the 3 hours, so I got to hang out with him, along with some of the customers.
I actually had left that job a few weeks before, but because it was George Perez, I put on my Lee’s Comics shirt that I had kept, and pretended to still work there, just to spend the day with George Perez! It was a highlight of my time there and my comic collecting career!