Comic artist George Pérez is dead: the man who reinvented Wonder Woman

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Comic Artist George Pérez (2019): Definitive DC animator of the 1980s

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GABRIEL OLSEN / AFP

Fans of the DC Comics superhero universe must be very strong these days.

It was not until the end of April that Neal Adams, a famous comic artist who had redefined the characters Batman and Green Arrow with his style in the 1970s, died.

The illustrator and author George Pérez has now died of a pancreatic cancer that has been known for some time.

He was 67 years old.

Pérez was considered one of the best and most influential artists in superhero history.

In the 1980s, together with author Marv Wolfman, he invented the "New Teen Titans," a group of youthful heroes who refreshed DC's aging staff and established characters that are still popular today, such as Starfire, Cyborg, and Deathstroke.

With his drawings for the mini-series »Crisis on Infinite Earths«, he helped the publisher in the mid-1980s to a bestseller and a radical reorientation of content that reverberates to the present day.

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Iconic Pérez cover: Issue #7 of the 1985 DC miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths

Photo: George Pérez/DC Comics

One of his greatest achievements, however, is the redefinition of one of the oldest DC heroines: from 1987 he took over the "Wonder Woman" series, first as a draftsman and later also as an author - and removed the comic Amazon from lustful looks and sexist depictions by giving her still sexy, but also beefier and more athletic.

Pérez' drawing style was baroque and opulent, but also extremely detailed.

His characters had individual facial expressions and character traits.

"They had an artist with them who was probably better known for drawing cheesecake, so it was foreseeable that you'd get a lot of cheap T&A

shots of a character who to be a feminist icon to some degree," Pérez once said in an interview about his decision to take on the 1941-created "Wonder Woman."

Asked for a job, hugged and kissed

So he contacted then-magazine editor Janice Race and asked about the job.

It was the first time he had been hugged and kissed by an editor, Pérez said.

His five-year work on the series is considered a milestone, which later authors and illustrators used as a guide.

With Mindy Newell, Pérez also brought a woman on board as co-author for the first time.

Pérez's direction of the character is also credited as a major influence on director Patty Jenkins' hit first Wonder Woman film.

Pérez began working as an animator for a competitor from Marvel Comics, where in the mid-1970s he worked with author Bill Mantlo to create the publisher's first Hispanic comic book character: Puerto Rican superhero White Tiger in the series Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu «.

Pérez, born in New York's South Bronx in 1954, was himself from Puerto Rico.

At Marvel, he also drew for the series "Fantastic Four" and "Inhumans".

Above all, his work on the "Avengers" left a lasting impression, Pérez drew a large part of the famous "Korvac Saga" by the then Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter.

After his temporary return to Marvel, he also created the "Infinity Gauntlet" mini-series for Jim Starlin, the story of which had direct influence on the "Infinity Saga" of the popular Marvel films of the 1990s.

Health ailing for a long time

Pérez also returned to DC after disagreements about the content of "Wonder Woman" in the noughties, among other things to work on the "Crisis" follow-up series "Infinite Crisis" and a new "Superman" series.

From 2013, however, the multi-award-winning comic artist increasingly had to struggle with health setbacks, including eye and heart problems due to diabetes.

At the end of 2021 he made his cancer public.

Longtime girlfriend Constance Eza tweeted on Saturday that George Pérez passed away "peacefully at home yesterday" surrounded by his wife Carol and their family.

For Pérez's 68th birthday next June, DC Comics has announced a double-page tribute to his work, which will be published in all of the publisher's current book series.