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Astonishing Tales #25 (George Perez's first professional work)

posted Sep 12, 2014, 11:48 AM by Vu Nguyen   [ updated Sep 12, 2014, 11:54 AM ]

ASTONISHING TALES #25 (Aug 1974)
Marvel Comics
Ramiro asks:

What exactly did George contribute too on Astonishing Tales #25? Was he the cover artist or did he pencil inside?

George Perez writes:

It was a two-page gag story that followed the main story and was a spoof of the creation of Deathlok by Rich Buckler and Doug Moench. I drew everything but the final Deathlok figure, which was pencilled by Rich. The two-pager was inked by the late Mike Esposito.


Addition detail from WIZARD #35

WIZARD: THE COMICS MAGAZINE #35 (Jul 1994)

My first published pro work was on Rich's first issue of Deathlok, Astonishing Tales #25. He gave me a two-page cartoon sequence at the end showing how he and Doug Moench came up with Deathlok from discarded ideas in a trash pail. My art being what it was at the time, I penciled everything except the Deathlok figure.

By being Rich's assistant, people at Marvel got to know me. And people like [editor] Jim Salicrup and [writers] David Kraft and Bill Mantlo saw my work, liked it, and got me my first work under my own name. George Tuscko needed a break on the Man-Wolf feature in Creatures on the Loose and Dave Kraft liked working with me, so he asked me to stay. Around the same time, I was given a fill-in on the Sons of the Tiger feature in Deadly Hans of Kung Fu #6, but Bill Mantlo asked for me to stay on as well.

Thanks to them, I was given regular work fairly quickly. That was around 1974, only two years out of high school. Within six months after that, Rich Buckler fell behind. Since I was Rich's assistant, they asked me to pencil what was supposed to be a Fantastic Four annual and turn into two issues of the regular book [#164-#165].


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