Posted By Dan Greenfield on Mar 26, 2025 | 9 comments

PAUL KUPPERBERG pays a BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE…

By PAUL KUPPERBERG

The most hotly anticipated comics project of 2024 wasn’t a comic book at all, but the commercial release of a 42-year-old collection of style guide art that was created for use in advertising and merchandising. And what made the 1982 DC Comics Style Guide so eagerly sought after can be summed up in four words: José Luis García-López.

Or, as just about everyone in comics calls him, Maestro.

The Spanish-born, Argentinian-raised artist’s early American comic book work was for Connecticut-based Charlton Comics in the late 1960s, which he worked for through an agent in South America. Jose’s work stood out from the usual mediocre Charlton fare, and he moved to New York in 1974 where he met famed artist and DC Comics editor Joe Orlando who immediately saw the potential in the young man’s amazing talent.

It didn’t take readers and fans long to see what Joe had seen, and José’s work was soon gracing the gambit of DC titles, from Superman and Detective Comics to Hercules Unbound and Jonah Hex in Weird Western Tales. There didn’t seem to be a genre he couldn’t master, and as the regular artist on the Superman team-up title DC Comics Presents (1978), and thanks to projects like 1977’s Superman vs. Wonder Woman (All-New Collector’s Edition #C-54), Atari Force (1983), Cinder and Ashe (1988), and Twilight (1991), he quickly emerged as the quintessential DC Comics artist.

José’s art epitomizes the essence of classic comic-book storytelling, combining precise line work with dynamic compositions and an uncanny ability to capture action and emotion to produce breathtaking pages that don’t need words to tell the story. His representations of DC’s characters were so perfectly delineated that he became almost too valuable to waste on the comics themselves — and why he would draw fewer story pages and more licensing and special projects art as time went on. Special-projects editor Orlando called José DC’s “secret weapon” and beginning in 1982, put him to work creating the hundreds of stunning images of the DCU heroes and villains that would become the classic 1982 DC Comics Style Guide.

It should also be noted that José — born 77 years ago on March 26, 1948 — is one of the nicest people in comics. Modest and soft spoken, I’m sure he must have an ego in there somewhere—no artist this good could be without one—but you would never know it in dealings with him, personally or professionally. I worked with him as cover artist during my editorial run on Wonder Woman, and he also drew a pair of Phantom Stranger shorts I wrote for Action Comics Weekly. In 2014 he agreed without hesitation to contribute a cover to the independent comic I was publishing.

Action Comics Weekly #623

I’ve been fortunate to meet and work with a great many legends of the comic book field, but few collaborations ever thrilled me more than the opportunity to share a credit box with José Luis García-López, the Maestro.

Here then, MY 13 FAVORITE JOSE LUIS GARCIA LOPEZ COVERS:

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Action Comics #484 (June 1978). It’s a bride! It’s a bouquet! It was the “we never thought it would ever happen story” of the decade: Superman and Lois Lane get married. On Earth-Two, of course, but still, who better to capture the memory in four colors than JLGL, this time around with inks by Dick Giordano.

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All-New Collectors’ Edition: Superman vs Wonder Woman #C-54 (1978). It wasn’t long before Jose was making a habit of turning out iconic cover images!

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DC Comics Presents #8 (April 1979). A meeting of the monsters, rendered by the Maestro!

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The Untold Legend of the Batman #3 (September 1980). Jose is joined by inker Giordano for a splendid display of capesmanship.

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DC Special Series #27: Batman vs. the Incredible Hulk (Fall 1981). Another one of those iconic images I mentioned above.

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Atari Force #1 (January 1984). For readers who dismissed this title as some little video game tie-in, they missed some of the best art of the decade.

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Atari Force #6 (June 1984). Keep it simple…but you may have to take a second look before you grok what’s actually going on.

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Wonder Woman #118 (February 1997). “Hey, Kupperberg, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez is available to do some Wonder Woman covers. Interested?” I’d just come off a stretch of a couple of years of covers by Brian Bolland and another year’s worth by John Byrne, who was writing and drawing the book at the time. When I relayed the information to John that Jose was available if he was OK with giving up doing the covers himself, I could almost hear his unspoken, “Well, d’uh, schmuck!”

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Wonder Woman #125 (September 1997). I mean… just come on!

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Wonder Woman #127 (November 1997). Spoiler! She died but got better!

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Wonder Woman #128 (December 1997). It was Big Face Cover Month or something, and Diana’s Mona Lisa smile is just perfect!

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Wonder Woman #129 (February 1998). Too many Wonder Woman covers for you? Tough! I was editing the book at the time and just like showing off.

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Paul Kupperberg’s Secret Romances #1 (2015). The cover so kindly provided by Jose for my independent comic. What’s not to love?

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A version of this tribute originally appeared in the program book for TerrifiCon 2024, where Jose was the guest of honor. The 1982 DC Comics Style Guide is a 268-page hardcover. You can order it directly from publisher Standards Manual  or get it at your local comics shop.

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MORE

— JOSE LUIS GARCIA-LOPEZ Reflects on the DC COMICS STYLE GUIDE: ‘Thrilled My Work Is Still Alive’. Click here.

— Seeing Everyone Post Online Their Photos of the 1982 DC COMICS STYLE GUIDE Is Wonderful. Click here.

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PAUL KUPPERBERG was a Silver Age fan who grew up to become a Bronze Age comic book creator, writer of Superman, the Doom Patrol, and Green Lantern, creator of Arion Lord of Atlantis, Checkmate, and Takion, and slayer of Aquababy, Archie, and Vigilante. He is the Harvey and Eisner Award nominated writer of Archie Comics’ Life with Archie, and his YA novel Kevin was nominated for a GLAAD media award and won a Scribe Award from the IAMTW. He also wrote an essay for DC’s Aquaman: 80 Years of the King of the Seven Seas. Check out his new memoir, Panel by Panel: My Comic Book Life. 

Website: https://www.paulkupperberg.net/

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