(Originally posted on
Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez first came to my attention back in the early eighties in the DC Comic Atari Force. The only reason I was aware of this comic was because they included mini-comics in the Atari 2600 games for some titles like Defender and Berzerk. The mini-comics later became an actual DC Comics series which lasted 20 issues. Jose’s style appealed to me immediately.
Jose was born in 1948 in Spain, later moving to Argentina. He worked for the (now defunct) Charlton Comics in the 60s. In 1974 he moved to New York City where he started work with DC Comics. He says he gets inspiration from Golden Age artists such as Alex Raymond and Hal Foster and his style shows it. Honestly, I think his style is more dynamic than his inspirations.
(On a side note, there seems to be a penchant in the late sixties and seventies of comic book companies poaching talent from Spain. Just look at Warren Publishing of the same era.)
I think Jose’s main claim to fame with DC Comics isn’t necessarily the books he illustrated. It’s probably that he put together the DC Style Guide in 1982 that defined the looks of all of DC’s character for years. The merchandising arm of DC Comics used this guide for all licensed merchandise. Odds are that any merchandise you find from the 80s is either Jose’s artwork, or inspired by it.
The art that got my attention was Jose’s run on New Teen Titans. He followed up George Perez, who left some mighty boots to fill. It was mentioned by the writer Marv Wolfman that “[H]ad this artist who could draw almost anything”. Jose only did five issues, but the story was literally Olympian in scope. Impressed the hell out of me.
(Another side note: George Perez apparently had fans get mad at him when he said Jose was a better artist than him.)
Later in the 80s, Jose did a mini-series called Cinder and Ashe. A rather grim, adult title with nothing even vaguely superheroic. It was DC’s attempt to create more adult oriented titles as comics readers demanded something more than four-color superheroes. The writing was decent, but the artwork made it. (The comic has the dubious distinction of being the first depiction of rape I recall in comics.)
Jose received an Eisner Award nomination for his work with Howard Chaykin on Twilight in the early 90s. Since then, I lost track of him. I only discovered with this research that he illustrated one of the On the Road to Perdition books in 2003.
So far as I know, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez is still working today at age 68. Check out his work. An unsung titan of comics illustration.
