Pérez has more than crossover on tap in 2003
written by George Nelson
transcribed by Vu
published in COMICS BUYERS GUIDE #1515 (29 Nov 02)
website: www.comicsbuyersguide.com
If JLA/Avengers doesn't provide comics fans with enough of George Pérez in 2003, don't worry - there's more.
Next year will also see the debut of the new series Pérez is drawing for CrossGen: Solus.
"The details are still being kept close to the vest. It deals with a globetrotting - globes-trotting, to be more specific - character named Andra," Pérez told CBG at the recent Baltimore Comic-Con.
"I guess the best way for me to describe it is to be able to do the CrossGen Chronicles that I was doing but with a recurring cast, with a regular cast of characters and a female lead, which I really wanted to do - and work with Barbara Kesel, whom I've known for many years. I'm finally getting a chance to work with her on a regular basis. Basically, I just wanted something that would keep stretching my wings."
Pérez observed that, when writers and editors discuss putting together "the ideal George Pérez book," it means "they're going to make me work like a dog." However, he acknowledged that he typically does more than the plot requires.
"If I complain about it, I guess it's the way that inkers complain about working on me: that they do enjoy the craft; it's just that it's a lot of work," he said. "I like rising the challenge. It's very easy to be complacent and just do the things that you're comfortable doing."
Pérez said he already has completed designs and promotional pieces for Solus and recently received the plot for the first issue. "I even drew a page this morning, so by the end of next week I should be a quarter of the way done with the first issue. The cover is already done," he added. He said he thought it would be scheduled for late February or early March release. "I may be off on that by a month or so. It will come out before JLA/Avengers."
Pérez also said that, to die it with JLA/Avengers, DC is planning to release a trade paperback covering his run as penciller on Wonder Woman, which he also wrote. He said the trade would cover the series' first 24 issues, possibly the first annual, and the main story from Action #600, on which he collaborated with John Byrne, teaming up Superman and Wonder Woman.
Through he is not actively involved with the project, Pérez said he was pleased to hear about the Teen Titans cartoon in production for Cartoon Network. The new series features five of the seven characters that appeared in the launch of the New Teen Titans in 1980: Robin and Changeling (called his original name, Beast Boy, in the new animated series) along with the three characters Pérez and writer Marv Wolfman created for the series - Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven.
"I had absolutely nothing to do with the project itself but I am flattered, to say the least," he said.
Pérez said he first heard about the series when DC Publisher Paul Levitz called to let him know about it. "I thought that was a real classy thing for him to do. I am - from a financial point of view - very, very tickled about the Titans cartoon and I've been away from it long enough hat I don't get bothered by the changes, since the book itself has gone through so many changes since I've been off it, for a decade now.
"Other than that, it's a really, really empty looking 2003 for me," he joked.
SUPERMAN IN THE EIGHTIES
(Apr 2006)
