Legendary comic book artist George Pérez has passed away at age 67 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Pérez made his professional debut in Marvel Comics’ “Astonishing Tales” #25 (Aug. 1974) as penciler of an untitled two-page satire of the character Deathlok.
Soon Pérez became a Marvel regular, penciling several series of comics, and co-creating the White Tiger character (comics’ first Puerto Rican superhero) which appeared in several Marvel comic series, including Spider-Man titles.
Pérez soon was illustrating Marvel’s superhero-team comic “The Avengers,” starting with issue #141. He also illustrated several other Marvel titles, including “X-Men,” and “Creatures on the Loose,” featuring the Man-Wolf, The Inhumans, and Fantastic Four.
He continued to work on Marvel comics until 1980, when DC Comics lured him away.
At DC Comics, he penciled their landmark limited series “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” followed by relaunching Wonder Woman as both writer and penciller.
Pérez tried to return to Marvel in 1991 when he signed on to pencil the six-issue limited series “Infinity Gauntlet” for Marvel Comics, but conflicts with his work on DC’s “War of the Gods” caused him to only illustrate the first four issues of the Marvel series.
In January 2019, Pérez announced that he was formally retiring due to various health issues, but he continued to attend comic conventions to meet his fans.
Today, May 7, word came Pérez had passed away, with a message posted to his Facebook page:
Coicidentally today is also “Free Comic Book Day,” a favorite holiday of Pérez, so if you have the chance to visit a local comic shop, pick up some in his honor.
I had the pleasure of meeting him several times at MegaCon here in Orlando, and he was always the nicest person and so full of stories to share.
Marvel also posted this touching honor to Pérez via social media:
If you were a fan of Pérez and his work, let us know in comments. Share your stories of George Pérez with us!