The Essential George Pérez: 10 Comics for New Fans

Posted on June 10, 2024

by Eric S

When the late George Pérez passed away in 2022, superhero comics lost one of its most iconic artists. With a career that started in the early 1970s at Marvel, where he drew some notable issues of The Fantastic Four and The Avengers, Pérez would go to DC in the ‘80s to work on two of the most important superhero comics of all time with author Marv Wolfman: The New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths. The former pulled off the impossible by competing with Marvel’s unstoppable Uncanny X-Men for monthly sales, while the latter changed event books and multiversal storylines forever—and its influence is still felt in DC comic books today. And on top of those, he would spend five years working on one of the most beloved, important runs of Wonder Woman. As an artist, Pérez is significant for a few reasons. Firstly, he was a master of drawing team books, in which numerous superheroes could occupy the page without it feeling cluttered or illegible (and as an artist who worked on nearly every major character for both Marvel and DC, he somehow managed to draw each character exceedingly well). Additionally, one would think that someone so adept at illustrating so many heroes within the same page wouldn’t worry about the finer points of his compositions, but he nonetheless was able to work in a degree of detail that evokes the work of artists like Arthur Adams, Moebius, or even Bernie Wrightson. Even his quick convention sketches reflect his eye for detail. Sadly, George Pérez is not here to see his 70th birthday this week, but we’ve selected some of his best and most enduring works to celebrate the occasion. If you’re new to his comics, the following books are a great place to start.