"The Best of All Worlds: George Pérez" A four-part
interview
"The Best of All Worlds: George Pérez" A four-part interview published
in COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE #86, #89, #90 and #94 [2002] by Bill Baker. You can
read part one and two the interview on Bill Baker's website, www.hypethis.com.
COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE #86 [10 pages] focuses on his start and his
stints on The Avengers and the upcoming Avengers/JLA crossover.COMIC
BOOK MARKETPLACE #89 [5 pages] details TEEN TITANS and CRISIS ON INFINITE
EARTHS. COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE #90 focuses on WONDER WOMAN. COMIC BOOK
MARKETPLACE #94 features the wrap-up to the multi-part interview; three
of George Pérez's collaborators talk about working with the team artist
supreme.
The following excerpt is from COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE #86 [2002].
George Talks About his return to TEEN TITANS
and mainstream comics
At that point, I realized that my career was in a bit of a doldrums.
I had made a comeback to respectability or reliability - to the industry
with the inking on The Titans book over Dan Jurgens, because with the
failures of the schedule of The War of the Gods, my not finishing Infinity
Gauntlet, the Titans graphic novel that never saw print, or completion,
all these things had made me unreliable to publishers, so I wasn't
going to be getting offers of the big time projects anymore. From my
own doing. I don't blame them at all.
And, when Ralph and I spoke, I was getting good buzz on The Titans.
I had helped salvage some of my reputation because, thanks to Dan Jurgens
and Eddie Berganza championing my doing the book - which DC was reluctant
to have me do - I had at least showed I could stay on a book for a year
and produce good work on schedule. But there were a lot of people who
saw my inking on Dan Jurgens, and I think part of it was marred by the
fact that the book was not successful, who had no idea that I had ever
penciled. I realized that there was a whole generation out there who
don't know who the hell I am. So when Ralph thought that maybe
I should consider the idea of - and he thought I would not say yes to
it - of maybe writing and drawing the new Avengers after the Heroes
Reborn [run], and I realized, "You know, the time is right."
I was Gregory Peck in The Gunfighter. "There's going to be
all these young bucks out there thinking they're faster than me,
and I have to prove I can still outdraw them," in both terms of
the word, I guess. And, much to Ralph's glee, I said yes to the
drawing.
I had not read the book in well over a decade and a half. There was
no way I could write The Avengers. I had no 1knowledge that would make
me a good writer without tons end tons of research, and, truth to tell,
one of the things I rind now in my later years in the industry - I'm
only 47 - that the writers, they take the hell of editorial decisions,
of politics, much more than the artists do. You know, art is art. If
they hire you, they know that you can draw, you usually like what you
do. That's it. [But] ideas are such a fragile thing, and people
have to fight to keep them intact. So, he idea of writing The Avengers
is something I never even remotely considered.
I suggested that he talk to either Mark Waid or Kurt Busiek, both of
whom I've been interested in working with because I trusted their
knowledge of history, and to be able to make history seem new, because
of the new spins they would put on it. And I would gladly work with
them without even co-plotting. I didn't even want to do that. I
said, "I have now been away too long." So, when I came in,
it was strictly to provide the best visuals I could knowing, and suspecting
- and some dealers expressed this - that there was going to be a feeling
of concern and ambivalence about my doing the book because I was not
of the Image school, or the style that was currently hot at the time.
The reason Heroes Reborn was very successful was because [they were
done in] the style of the era, even though it probably cost Marvel [so
much] more money to produce those books, that it wasn't as profitable
for them as they would have liked. Although it was profitable for the
dealers, but of course, the book's gonna cost the same, no matter
what, for them. So there were some who actually were not all that enthused,
or optimistic, about my return to The Avengers.
But that's exactly what I needed. I needed something that would
make me be the best artist I can be, and I would try my hardest. I left
The Titans years back because of schedules. I couldn't maintain
a monthly book without doing looser penciling, and I had to compromise,
make things a little easier for myself, in order to get the book finished.
And still the book was selling, which was very gratifying, but then
I realized I would never become a better artist if I don't have
to.
With The Avengers, I had to. Just like with Wonder Woman, I had to.
And, originally, Titans; the book was not going to succeed unless everyone
there gave it their best effort.
When I went in I had to prove both that I could sell the book - not
only to the nostagists, but to the new fans - and that I could stay
on the book. The odds were against me remaining on the book six issues
straight. The fact that I stayed on 15 issues, and two double-sized
issues in the course of those 15 [proved I could do it]. Mark Waid -
who said he also lost money on that wager - but Mark Waid called mine
one of comic's few John Travolta careers. Wherein I am now, thankfully,
a hot commodity again after going through a very, very high profile
period of heat during the times that I was doing The Titans, and Crisis
on Infinite Earths, and even at the dawn of Wonder Woman. That, though
at one time my name had incredible marquee value, I allowed that to
slip by. And I don't blame [it only on] tastes changing and everything
else; I also blame that on the fact that I was not making wise decisions,
and I was not acting professionally, and not putting out books in a
timely fashion, not making myself valuable to the industry as a whole.
So now, I appreciate in my forties something that I did not appreciate
as much in my twenties and early thirties; how much I love to draw comics,
and how much the success of the industry is going to be dependent on
the creators' own excitement about the industry.
