Miami Comic Super-con 2012 – George Perez

Original Comics Art

Ever since I got my first Spider-man toy in the early 1970’s I was hooked! It is funny how Spider-man was the deal breaker in my mind between DC comics and Marvel. Up until then it was really a toss up for me. Batman, Iron Man, The Hulk, Superman but Spidey he was different. A kid with super powers stemming from a spider bite, I was hooked. As my commitment to Marvel comics grew, I began spending my allowance on comic books, my mom was happy because I was drawing them and reading them, she knew if nothing else it was something productive. Then came George Perez, I first noticed his artwork in the Fantastic Four series that ran in the 1970’s. He happened to pencil that incredible epic battle comic between the Hulk and the Thing on top of the amusement park in Coney Island.

Being of Cuban decent, and growing up in as a kid in Brooklyn I followed George Perez, now being a student in Catholic school (St. Johns Evangelist, Park Slope Brooklyn) George also got me in plenty of trouble. Those nuns did take to kindly to me trying to draw like George with my comics out, all the while they were trying to teach me. Ah, the good old days of rulers across the knuckles. How many law suits would be filed today if this still was a practice used today. Now the teacher looks at a kid in the wrong way, after the student misbehaved and the parents are looking for money. But hey that was yesterday…

George Perez Art

Well I have been covering the Comic convention Super-con for the last three or four years now in Miami, and I must say that this year was the absolute best. If you did not get a chance to make it out there this year you truly missed something. I must say that meeting George Perez after all of these years of trying to emulate his artwork, and as a boy in Brooklyn growing up on reading these Marvel titles, it was a true pleasure to meet him and share a few minutes with him. He was everything I knew he would be. Kind, funny, and from the Bronx? But after watching him pencil up a Wonder Woman in about 15 minutes for a guest of the show, truly I was amazed with his art work again.

George Perez worked on many different comics, jumping from Marvel to DC and back to Marvel. He is currently inking a few pages for Marvel as well. This year’s convention had so many opportunities to really connect with some of these artist from the 1970’s, 1980’s and on, artist like Neal Adams, George Perez, and Bill Sienkiewicz just to name a few. The sad part is that most of the teens walking around the place did not even know who these monsters of the comic book arts even were? That was OK for me and all the others that did because we had more time to talk and share with these great artist. If you have the time to make it next year I completely recommend it for you, it will be a great day filled with fond memories of your childhood, and you will get to chat with some of the guys that made it possible for Marvel to produce movies like this new Spider-Man movie opening up July 3, 2012. Check it out, you will not regret it.