Ever since George Pérez revealed his cancer diagnosis last winter, the entire comic book industry has raised their voices in celebration of the legendary artist. Tributes poured in from both fans and creatives. And Marvel and DC even joined forces to reprint Pérez’s epic JLA/Avengers crossover for charity. Now, the folks at DC Comics are celebrating George’s 68th birthday in June with an all-star tribute piece. It will appear as a two-page spread in all June issues of DC Comics. You can see a preview of this gorgeous artistic jam below.
Working from a layout designed by Dan Jurgens, some of the industry’s biggest names including Jim Lee, Walter Simonson, Alex Ross, Dave Gibbons, Todd McFarlane, Daniel Sampere, Jerry Ordway, Nicola Scott, and many more, collaborated on the colorful spread. A key highlighting the characters and artists that participated will accompany the spread on a separate page.
The tribute will also feature as a variant cover for Dark Crisis #7. Each issue of the event series will have a cover highlighting a previous crisis event from DC’s history, starting with the genre-defining Crisis on Infinite Earths by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez for issue #1. Many characters included in this piece are ones that George created—chiefly, the New Teen Titans characters. But also ones he had a hand in shaping in terms of their popularity, like Wonder Woman.
Legendary Death of Superman artist Dan Jurgens did the layout for this piece. And here’s what he had to say about his part in creating this tribute:
When I was asked to come up with a design and layout that would honor George Pérez and his many incredible contributions to DC Comics over the years, I was truly honored. I have admired George’s work since I first saw it and have had the good fortune to work with him in different capacities, on a number of projects. More importantly, I’ve been able to see the way George treats fans and readers, always smiling, gregarious and approachable. It was a joy to watch this cover come together and I’m sure everyone who contributed feels the same way.
Dark Crisis writer Joshua Williamson said:
George Pérez is one of my favorite comic storytellers of all time. To say he’s a ‘great artist’ is a massive understatement. His work on the original Crisis of Infinite Earths inspired so much of my love for DC Comics. When I saw DC editors pull together this incredible piece with so many amazing legendary artists celebrating George, I won’t lie, it was emotional. And now it’s an honor to have this tribute be a cover to Dark Crisis.
Hopefully, at some point, DC issues this amazing tribute as a poster. A special version of the Dark Crisis #7 variant cover will be available for sale by The Hero Initiative to raise funds for one of Pérez’s favorite charities. Pérez is a founding member of Hero Initiative’s board of directors and has served as chair of its Disbursement Committee.
