George Pérez - The Shoeless Detail Freak Published in JLA #33 (Dino Comics, January 2000) Translated by Torsten B. Abel Scan courtesy of Comicfreak

As you know, every experienced comic book pro also is a fanatic comic book fan himself. We at Dino aren't any different, that's why didn't miss the opportunity to meet one of the really big guys in the comic book business: George Pérez. When George showed up in Karlsruhe during his signing tour last August, Dino editors (and fanboys) Jürgen "Flash" Zahn and Christian "Lantern" Heiß went to meet the Master at Terminal Entertainment.

CHRISTIAN HEIß, GEORGE PEREZ, CAROL FLYNN, and JÜRGEN ZAHN George signing and in comfy company of wife Carol and Dino editors.

We met a relaxed, good humored and extremely patient George who disposed of his shoes on this hot August afternoon. Obviously, this wasn't the reason for the decreasing popularity among fans [the article probably means something like "mass of fans", it's hard to transfer the phrase into English - but the German word for "popularity" seems slightly out of place, might some sort of typo]. In fact, the extremely fast signer and artist George had already finished the bulk. We were surprised in what short amount of time George could come up with a terribly detailed sketch.

After he had finished his schedule, we had the opportunity to chat with the "Crisis" artist during a joint dinner. George - who abandoned his (in)famous Hawaii shirts this time - appeared really interested in German cuisine. Afterwards, the saturated artist willingly told us about his work and explained us precisely how he views his working relationship to Marvel Comics (for whom he currently draws the highly successful "Avengers"). Especially interesting to learn is that comic book artists are paid per page, unless they have - like George - an exclusive contract which guarantees them a multiple of the usual payment.

He also avidly told us about his "own" project "Crimson Plague" for whose reboot he's currently looking for a suitable publisher. The special thing about this book: All characters in it are based on friends and acquaintances of Pérez's. "That could very well lead to unease when a good friend ends up as a body in my book", George said smilingly. Also, we were especially interested in what the artist had to say about a possible JLA/Avengers crossover: "I'm virtually dying to draw it, and if I can't draw it, it won't be carried out. I think I deserve this (Pérez was the artist of the famous, unfinished and unpublished JLA/Avengers crossover from the 70ies [sic!] - editor's note), that's what everyone agrees on.

But the overall coordination of the project is very complicated and it's taken into consideration to pause both monthly titles in favor of a four-part crossover series - two parts JLA, two parts Avengers". So, this project unfortunately appears to be still far away from finally being carried out. After some philosophizing about American history, colorful shirts, the justification of Darth Maul's death and similarly important things George and his wife wanted to return to their hotel. After an exhausting day, they just desired some ice cream and then bid farewell to us. Actually, we still wanted to tell him he should do something for DC again in the near future, but just in case, one could still buy a competitor's book. Well, George, that's how much we love you!

Read original scan of the article in German from Comicfreak A note on the two Dino Comics editors: The guy to the left of George is Christian Heiß - who is now working for Panini and currently translating JLA/Avengers ! :-)

MODERN GRAPHICS (Signing) (12 Aug 1999) Berlin, Germany JLA - DIE NEUE GERECHTIGKEITSLIGA SONDERBAND #12 (Germany) (21 July 1999) Dino Comics JLA - DIE NEUE GERECHTIGKEITSLIGA SONDERBAND #13: CRISIS (Germany) (18 August 1999) Dino Comics

George was in Germany in 1999 for about two weeks and signed on eight dates. The occasion for this was the German release of Crisis on Infinite Earths collected in two paperbacks (it was the first time all twelve issues of "Crisis" were actually released in Germany - previous attempts never got beyond the first few issues) and also in a limited edition hardcover. The downside of this was that the German edition of "Avengers" was still amidst the "Heroes Reborn" disaster.

The dates were

Tue August 3 - Frankfurt (Terminal Entertainment)
Wed August 4 - Mannheim (Comicothek)
Thu August 5 - Karlsruhe (Terminal Entertainment)
Fri August 6 - Saarbrücken (X-Comix)
Sat August 7 - Koblenz (Sammlerecke)
Tue August 11 - Nürnberg (Ultra Comics)
Thu August 12 - Berlin (Modern Graphics)
Fri Augst 13 - Berlin (Romanboutique Skodzik)

Note that "Tue August 11" should actually be a Wednesday. The City of Nürnberg is known as "Nuremberg" among the English-speaking folks.

The information is taken from issues 27 and 28 of Dino Comics' (the previous publisher of DC comics in Germany, gave up the licenses due to poor sales in late 2000) JLA series (reprinting the Morrison series), but the same announcements were printed in most of Dino's other books at that time as well.

JLA #33 (cover date Jan 2000) even included an article about George's signing show (including photos) and had some information about his projects at that time (Avengers, Crimson Plague, "maybe JLA/Avengers, one day").