Gail Simone auctions George Perez art for Black Lives MatterGail Simone @GailSimone writes:
WONDER WOMAN #600 (Jun 2010)
DC Comics
Okay. I have to add a few details here to this.
Remember this whole thread where I talked about how George Perez is the best guy? Well, it gets BETTER.
I wrote him to make 100% sure he was okay with me doing this.
He wrote back.
First, he said that he supported the idea without reservation.
Then he said, "That said, I would like to make a proposition of my own.
"What If the new buyer of the piece was me? I’m really not sure as to how much a piece of my art would go for these days...but I would gladly pay $X for that ...
Posted by Vu Sleeper
Every year the Pittsburgh Comicon helps
to raise thousands of dollars for charity. All of the items in the
charity auction are donated by the talented professionals that come to
the show each year. Take a look at some of the awesome artwork all ready
donated this year!
(excerpt)
Print of Cover Recreation of New Teen Titans #8. Signed by Artist Layne Toth & George Perez
Fans Turned Pro: Johns, Meltzer, and Winick- As kids we read comics and
dream of one day making them. These fans in particular are now living
that dream and have become some of the best talent working in the
industry today. Join Stephen Wacker, Geoff Johns (52, Action Comics,
Green Lantern, Teen Titans), Brad Meltzer (Identity Crisis, the upcoming
Justice League of America), and Judd Winick (Green Arrow, The
Outsiders) as they discuss how they got where they are and what they
plan on doing next. Listen in as these MVPs give us their take on DC's
amazing characters! Recorded live on July 22, 2006 at Comic-Con San
Diego, CA. Brought to you by www.dccomics.com
>>>
(excerpt)
NEW TEEN TITANS #8
(Jun 1981)
(5:06) Brad Meltzer: In terms of what I love when I grew up. The best book as far as I'm concern, bar nothing, was Marv Wolfman and George Pérez's Teen Titans.
And Marv Wolfman is here, and that is -- (claps).
I mean, that -- I thank you, sir. That
book was -- I can't even tell -- my novels are so affected by that
writing -- my comics are affected by that writing. And Identity Crisis is affected by that story.
Just from the Judas Contract alone and the idea of a surprise in a comic that I couldn't guess.
As I felt, as we all get older, we can
all guess the endings. Now I can tell you where I was sitting when
turned that page and I saw Tara talking to Deathstroke. And going, and
there was no internet, no Previews, no nothing. And I just remember thinking, 'No, it's impossible!'
And I really felt that affected me forever.
And that idea of surprise your reader, but not with shock values, but with character. Character! Character! Character!
That Day in the Life story, was one of the greatest story ever. We pay homage to it in Justice League. But those stories were my bread and butter...
NEW TEEN TITANS #8 TRIBUTE
(Aug 2006), art by Layne Toth
"Hi, Layne (and Peri and everyone else in Toth Land):
I just
returned from a convention in Atlanta and just opened the package with
your awesome gift. Boy, was I ever surprised and impressed. My wife
Carol was also impressed. I had to remind her that the cover was based
on the one from issue 8 of THE NEW TEEN TITANS-- the issue I was working
on when I had my first date with her. It really is a very special gift
and I will definitely treasure it. I will send you one signed copy as
you asked when I return from another convention in Baltimore this coming
weekend (busy, busy, busy). I also think that putting one up for the
Pittsburgh Comicon 2007 Make-A-Wish Art Auction is a splendid idea (with
BOTH our autographs!) and I'll set one aside for that as well.
Thank you so much for your kindness and friendship,
Love,
Uncle George"
About the artist: 9-year-old LAYNE TOTH is known by others as The
Hardest Workin' Kid in Comics(tm) and has had her art & stories
published in FAITH: WARRIOR PRINCESS(tm), MEOW-WOW!, PATRICK THE WOLF
BOY and SIMPSONS COMICS, among others. She has been featured in TIME
Magazine, The SUN supermarket tabloid, NPR and on the BBC. She also
contributes conventions reports to Comicon.com/PULSE. Check out her
Official Websites at:
www.sisterscomics.com
AND www.myspace.com/sisterscomics
GEORGE PEREZ & his wife CAROL FLYNN
own the original pencil & ink artwork, original color artwork, and
23 of the 25 signed & numbered prints. LAYNE TOTH owns 1 of the 25
signed & numbered prints and will not part with it. The PITTSBURGH
COMICON 2007 MAKE-A-WISH Charity Art Auction may be your only chance to
own one of these rare prints. And the money raised will go towards a
good cause! For details, watch:
www.pittsburghcomicon.com
Before leaving for my FIRST EVER CANADIAN APPEARANCE, I had to mail my
'NEW TEEN TITANS' #8 cover tribute art along with 25 signed prints to
GEORGE PEREZ & his wife CAROL FLYNN. They met while he was
originally drawing that cover and they just celebrated their 25th
wedding anniversary. Maybe they will put one of the prints in the
PITTSBURGH COMICON 2007 MAKE-A-WISH charity auction.
The following came from someone whose name I stupidly lost. Tell me who sent this and I'll publicly apologize.
What is your opinion of the different segments of your lengthy run on
Titans? What was your best story arc? What was your worst? At what point
did you realize you didn't want to write it anymore? Discuss generally
your long run on the book and how it affected you as a writer and the
concept of the team book in the comic medium. Also compare your run on
Titans to the Claremont period on X-Men and the results on both books.
The New Teen Titans was the best of times
and the worst of times. I loved writing the book, especially the first
eight to ten years where I was in charge of it, either unofficially or
officially. Those were the issues where I did what I truly believed in.
Once someone else comes in - even if they are a great editor - things
change. Sometimes for the best. Sometimes not so for the best. There are
a number comics where I truly believe the editor makes the series much,
much better, but a very few series where I feel the creators should be
left alone. For me those series would be Titans, Crisis and Tomb Of
Dracula. Everything else I've worked on has been helped by working with
good editors.
I don't think it's at all surprising that things weren't quite the same
on Titans once that control changed.
Best runs: The first 50 issues. Or
anytime I worked with the incredible George Perez. He wasn't just the
artist. He was the co-creator. Favorite stories: "Who is Donna Troy?",
the Terra storyline. And a story nobody ever brings up which is my all
time favorite, "Shades of Gray," the culmination of the
Changeling/Terminator story. There are dozens of smaller stories that I
also love, especially "A Day In The Life," and "A Pretty Girl Is Like a
Maladi." I loved the Kole stories and many others.
Where did it go wrong? The last year or
two. The reason? See my note in paragraph one above. Also, along the way
I lost interest in the series and thought of quitting, but then Jon
Peterson became editor and reminded me what I loved about the book. We
did "Titans Hunt" together which was as close to the 'classic' Titans as
I had done in a long time. It would have been a lot better if it hadn't
had to be broken up by two maxi-series, turning what should have been a
four-five part story where Vic Stone would have been rebuilt to a year
and a half storyline where he got lost in the mix.
I finally had it during that final year
and decided to quit the book. I hated every story. Every issue. I wasn't
even the plotter. So, at a DC Christmas out here in LA, I went up to
DCU Editor-in-Chief Mike Carlin and said I wanted to quit and asked if
DC would bring back Night Force and let me write that instead, but with a
different editor. I thought there might have been a problem, but Mike
said yes but asked me to stay on the Titans a few issues longer. He said
he thought it would be best to cancel the Titans with my run rather
than just hand it over to someone else. They would then restart it with
new characters, concepts and a new number one, which I thought was a
great idea. After sixteen years, a new voice and approach was needed.
Mike assigned a new editor to my last four issues, and, with the
exception of not being able to use Nightwing - who had been returned to
Batman continuity - let me end the series pretty much the way I wanted. I
still thank Mike for rescuing me from what had turned into a hellish
nightmare.
I still love the Titans and would love to
do individual stories about them, but DC hasn't seemed that interested.
I recently proposed a character-driven Titans-3 series featuring an
approximately 24 year old Cyborg, Raven and Starfire trying to figure
out what they are about when they aren't being super, but nobody seems
to be banging down my door for it. I also have tried to jumpstart the
Games graphic novel George and I started a dozen years ago - of which he
drew 80 incredible pages that have never been seen - but again, no
interest.
THE BEST OF ALL WORLDS (Part Two of Three)
by Bill Baker
Editor's note: In issue 86 we kicked off Bill Baker's extensive CBM interview with George Pérez by focusing on his stints on The Avengers and the upcoming Avengers/JLA crossover. This issue, we'll turn our attention to his role in creating The New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths at DC with writer Marv Wolfman.
NEW TEEN TITANS #8
(Jun 1981)
(excerpt)
CBM: you mentioned earlier that
you got to design some of the new characters, like Cyborg, Raven, etc.
how much input did you have into the basic creation, outside the
visuals, of those characters?
Pérez: Initially, not very much. Cyborg, I was a little more
[involved]. Since I grew up in the south Bronx and [come] from a Puerto
Rican background I had a little more I could actually put into Cyborg's
personality, and from the way he stood and everything else. For me,
Kory, was just this Red Sonja from out space, and raven was the Phantom
Stranger in drag. So I just treated that as archetypes, and just
designed it from there. It wasn't until Marv and I talked a bit more
than I started understanding where Marv was going - when issue eight
came in - that is when I really, really started putting more into their
characterizations. From the inside, as opposed to letting Marv tell me
how they're behaving. [ From then on] I understood how they behaved,
and each character had a little extra soul in them as well.
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