News Mon, 22 Jan 2007 16:37:25 CST Vu

Pipeline, Issue #501
Tuesday January 16, 2007
written by Augie De Blieck Jr.

(excerpt)

GEORGE PÉREZ - STORYTELLER: THE FIRST 30 YEARS (Nov 2006)

I know I'm reviewing this a couple of weeks too late, but Dynamic Entertainment's GEORGE PEREZ: STORYTELLER would be an excellent Christmas gift for the George Perez fan in your life. The book is a heavy oversized hardcover tome discussing Perez's life and career from his childhood right up to his current DC work. There are chapters devoted to his original work on Marvel's AVENGERS and FANTASTIC FOUR, the CrossGen years, JLA/AVENGERS, his return to the AVENGERS in the late 90s, and more. The high points you remember are all there. The more interesting thing, for me, was in seeing how they string together and came about.

I didn't realize Perez had the reputation he did for flaking out on work. I know he had some relatively tough time in the early 90s with spotty work and scheduling, but I didn't realize the issues went back even further. Thankfully, the book doesn't shy away from Perez's issues with meeting deadlines, dropping projects, and having difficult times working on books he doesn't truly believe in. It doesn't paint him as a comics savant, but more as an adult fan who likes to work on what he likes to work on -- largely superhero books with large casts. If they have pretty females, all the better.