News Sat, 20 Jan 2007 16:12:16 CST Ilke

PANNING FOR SILVER: ON THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA... AND THE BIGGEST FOUR- COLOR "GUNS" OF THEM ALL
Monday, September 30, 2002 11:11:26 PM

(excerpt)

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #184 (Nov 1980)

CHEEKS: You were the first penciler to work on THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA after a landmark 120+ issue tenure by the late, lamented Dick Dillin; an artist whose name had become virtually synonymous with that title.

Was there any feeling of intimidation on your part, taking on such a high-prestige assignment... or was it more a question of telling yourself: "... okay, George... think AVENGERS, man... think AVENGERS"...?
GEORGE PEREZ: I must admit that I wasn't all that intimidated by the notion of filling in for Mr. Dillin when he was still living. After all, the JLA, like AVENGERS, was a dream project for me. It was after Dick Dillin died that I felt most intimidated. Dick was a man of incredible dedication. His tenure on JLA was incredibly long and I knew in my heart that I could never come close to staying on that long. As merely a fill-in artist, the pressure would be less and I'd have enough time to get the characters as right as I could (most of the JLA characters had never been professionally drawn by me up to this point). Dick's untimely death meant that I not only inherited the title, but also the deadlines and inker (who, despite my respect for Frank McLaughlin, was just not right for my pencils). In hindsight, I wish I'd prepared myself better.