George Perez was a real good guy and real good artist and if you administered Sodium Pentothal to everyone who ever worked with or even knew him, I don't think you could find a single negative thought about the guy. Maybe — just maybe — you could find a little jealousy at his popularity and his skills. But he really was an example of how talent plus hard work can be a winning recipe for success.
George began drawing comics around 1973 and if you arranged all his work in the sequence in which he did it, you could watch a beginner just get better and better with each job. Come to think of it, there might have been some grumbling about George from the inkers who had to ink the pages he drew because he tended to put in everything. There were easier ways to draw those pages but George never took them…and the work was done with such care and dedication that no one grumbled for long.
He stopped drawing comics in 2013 due to eye problems, resumed soon after, then stopped due to heart problems. Late last year, he saddened everyone when he announced he had pancreatic cancer and had decided to let nature take its course. Everyone I saw was impressed with the mature, upbeat manner in which he handled it. His friend Constance Eza wrote this morning that George "passed away yesterday, peacefully at home." He was 67 years old and had his wife Carol and their family at his side.
The photo above is of George at the 2006 Comic-Con International, pointing with pride that a comic book cover he'd drawn had been made into a U.S. postage stamp. It was but one of many, many things this fine man had to be proud of.