GEORGE PÉREZ

Real Name: George Pérez

Identity/Class: Human

Occupation: Retired comic book artist;
    former bank teller

Group Membership: None;
    formerly DC Comics, Marvel Comics (Kurt Busiek, Gerry Conway, Peter David, Steve Englehart, Archie Goodwin, Mark Gruenwald, Bob Harras, Tony Isabella, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Ralph Macchio, Bill Mantlo, Doug Moench, John Romita Sr., Joe Rosen, Marie Severin, Jim Shooter, Joe Sinnott, Kevin Smith, Roger Stern, Roy Thomas, John Verpoorten, Mark Waid, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Michele Wolfman, others), other comic companies

Affiliations: Captain America (Steve Rogers), Chester, Fantastic Four (Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Invisible Girl/Sue Richards, Mister Fantastic/Reed Richards, Thing/Ben Grimm), Mr. Fogarty, Marvel Comics, Alicia Masters, Ozzie, Yvette O. "Yvie" Pérez, Lotus Shinchuko, Sons of the Tiger (Abe Brown, Bob Diamond, Lin Sun)

Enemies: Impossible Man, Terrible Trio ("Bull" Brogin, "Handsome" Harry Phillips, Yogi Dakor/Agniprava Dakor)

Known Relatives: Carol Flynn (wife), Jorge Guzman Pérez (father), Luz Maria Izquierdo (mother), David Pérez (brother), Yvette O. "Yvie" Pérez (ex-wife)

Aliases: "Bro"

Base of Operations: The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA

First Appearance: (in a Marvel comic): Deadly Hands of Kung Fu I#19 (December, 1975)

Powers/Abilities: George Pérez is an extremely talented artist, especially in the field of comic books.

Height: Unrevealed (see comments)
Weight: Unrevealed (see comments)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Gray (formerly black)

History: (real life) - George Pérez was born on June 9, 1954 to Jorge Guzman Pérez and Luz Maria Izquierdo in the South Bronx, New York, where he began drawing at age five. Developing an interest in comic books alongside his younger brother David, George later married Yvette O. "Yvie" Pérez on September 1, 1973 while working as a bank teller. Not long after, George took a job as an artist assistant with Marvel Comics, soon taking full artist duties on Marvel's "Sons of the Tiger" stories in the Deadly Hands of Kung Fu magazine.

(Deadly Hands of Kung Fu I#19 (fb) - BTS) - George Pérez's wife Yvie told George that he worked too hard.

(Deadly Hands of Kung Fu I#19) - George Pérez and writer Bill Mantlo were walking through New York's lower East Side at the request of Mantlo, who wished to have Pérez see the "true stuff" of kung fu for inspiration, when they came across two kids doing kung fu in the street. Inspired by the children, Mantlo flung his arms into the air in imitation of a kung fu and Pérez ducked just in time to avoid getting hit, asking Mantlo to watch where he was swinging. Mantlo quickly admitted that he just got carried away sometimes and Pérez remarked that he wished Mantlo would get carried away so that he could work on an issue of Avengers that night. The two then passed a group of children looking at the newest issue of the Marvel magazine Deadly Hands of Kung Fu and one of the kids commented on how Pérez's art was great despite Mantlo's writing. Thinking about several different comic writers, including not only Mantlo but Steve Englehart, Doug Moench, Roy Thomas and Tony Isabella, and how crazy they each seemed to be, Pérez soon asked Mantlo to get on with telling him the plot for their newest Sons of the Tiger storyline so he could go home to finish an issue of Inhumans he was also working on. Their conversation was interrupted, however, when an angry Bob Diamond stormed past them on his way to the Sons of the Tiger Kung Fu School. Pérez recognized Bob from the comics he drew and Mantlo claimed Pérez was seeing things due to too much Fantastic Four plotting but the two were soon interrupted again when Lotus Shinchuko passed by. Surprised to see another person that he recognized from the comics he drew, Pérez remarked that perhaps Mantlo was right about too much work and that his wife Yvie had been telling him that he worked too hard. Mantlo replied by admitting his comic book letterer wife Karen had been telling him the same thing and George commented that Bill must drive Karen mad by having her letter all of the stuff Bill threw into his stories. Their conversation was again interrupted, however, when Sons of the Tiger Lin Sun and Abe Brown walked past them. When Mantlo exclaimed that he needed a glass of organic fruit juice to calm his nerves, Pérez thought that he needed a vacation and hoped that the impending storm did not rain on his artwork before he could get back to the Bronx.

(Fantastic Four I#176) - After the missing Fantastic Four had not contacted Marvel Comics with stories of their adventures to adapt into comic books, George was present when Stan Lee was summoned back to New York's Marvel Comics offices from a guest lecture to help handle the situation. George quickly informed Stan that they had been trying to reach the Fantastic Four all week to no avail and that the FF's answering service said they were out of town. A furious Stan told George that he too was out of town until he got summoned back to New York to handle this crisis. When Jack Kirby suggested making up stories about the Fantastic Four, George Pérez and Roy Thomas appeared surprised and Stan at first declined the idea, stating that sort of thing just wasn't done. Roy Thomas, however, became inspired by the idea and George followed suit, remarking that he could design some supervillains for Roy's imaginary story. When the Impossible Man showed up and demanded to be made into a comic book, Stan remarked that they already used him in an earlier story that readers found to be too silly, enraging the Impossible Man to attack George and the other Marvel staffers. George then tackled the furious Stan Lee for his own safety and he escaped into another room with the other staffers. The Fantastic Four soon got involved and when Mr. Fantastic deduced that the rampage could be stopped if he could convince Marvel to give the Impossible Man a single comic book issue, he stretched down the hall and grabbed Stan Lee as George Pérez watched in shock. After Stan was forced to agree to give the Impossible Man his own story and both the Fantastic Four and Impossible Man departed, Roy Thomas commented to Stan that he and George Pérez would get started on the story. Stan Lee replied back to both men that his agreement was made under duress and that Marvel Comics hadn't the time to waste on silly-looking characters as stormed past an autographed poster of Howard the Duck.

(real life) - Eventually, George and his wife Yvie divorced.

(Marvel Two-in-One I#60) - George Pérez and comic book writer Mark Gruenwald attended a sculpture exhibition by Alicia Masters and while there, George drew a sketch of another guest, the Thing, talking to his "hat" (actually a disguised Impossible Man). Mark soon noticed that his co-writer Ralph Macchio had arrived and suggested he and George meet up with Ralph to go over the plot for Marvel Two-in-One #60. Unwilling to give up the chance to draw the real Thing arguing with his hat, George promised to meet with them in a minute. Mark then left to meet Ralph, remarking that they had to get George away from his sketchpad and back to the drawing board to keep the comic from being late again. After the Terrible Trio animated several of Alicia's statues and the Thing destroyed them, knocking the Terrible Trio out, George ran up to the unconscious "Bull" Brogin to sketch him as Mark Gruenwald suggested George continue to sketch the entire situation in hopes of using the situation as a comic book story.

(real life) - Over time, George branched out into working for other comics company and eventually met the woman who became his second wife, dancer Carol Flynn.

(Avengers III#6 - BTS) - Stranded on Earth-616 with no hope of returning home to his family, Squadron Supreme member Whizzer (Stanley Stewart) contacted George Pérez to commission a portrait. Based on Stewart's descriptions, Pérez drew the likeness of his wife Madeline and daughter Tina. The Whizzer was so pleased with the result, he hung the signed sketch in his suite at Project Pegasus.

(Avengers III#14) - George and writer Kurt Busiek worked on the newest issue of Avengers, with Busiek stopping Pérez mid-page in favor of having George get to the part where the Beast guest starred in the comic. As George was later drawing a portion of the comic related to the Vision/Scarlet Witch/Wonder Man love triangle, George asked when he would be able to get back to the villain he had been drawing on page one and Busiek promised they would get back to it but had to set up a subplot first. After drawing images of a subplot involving Hank Pym, George asked if he could draw action now and Busiek replied "almost, almost." Later, after George was finally able to draw the action-packed finish to the issue, George admitted he enjoyed drawing Beast and asked Busiek if Beast could return to the series. Busiek simply replied "You never know."

(Captain America III#21) - George Pérez participated in a comic industry baseball game, where he acted as catcher for the DC Comics team. When umpire Peter David asked about George being on the other team, George reminded Peter that it was a crossover. The game was quickly interrupted, however, when Captain America appeared and ordered everyone to get to safety.

(real life) - Pérez retired from comic book work. Sadly, George Perez died on May 6, 2022 at the age of 67, due to complications from pancreatic cancer.

Comments: Adapted into Marvel Comics by Bill Mantlo, Yvette O. Pérez, George Pérez and Jack Abel.

In case you don't recognize, George Pérez is a real life, legendary comic book creator, known for his amazing stints on Avengers for Marvel and New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths by DC Comics, among many, many others.

I know that the real life George Pérez is a legend in the comic book field and obviously did much more than what is mentioned here in this profile and for an awesome, more in-depth biography and interview, I recommend reading his interview in Modern Masters magazine, issue 2. This profile is focused mostly on his fictional appearances in Marvel Comics books with some real life moments thrown in to tie the fictional appearances together with George's real life. I hope I'm doing right by George himself, as he's a super-nice guy and a huge inspiration. Plus, I'm a huge fan and consider his run on Avengers with Kurt Busiek to be the best run on that book to date (no offense intended towards anyone who has worked on Avengers..) and JLA/Avengers and Crisis on Infinite Earths are easily two of my go-to books whenever someone asks me for comic book recommendations.

Big thanks to Norvo for pointing me towards the Modern Masters interview for some of George's real life background!

George's appearance in Avengers III#14 was somewhat Fourth Wall-breaking  in the way it was presented, as George and Kurt Busiek often interrupted the comic story itself to discuss their work on it. I chose to treat these appearances as if they were occurring after the story itself occurred. For example, I look at it like the story event occurred then George & Kurt's appearances occurred afterwards while they were working on the comic adaptation of those in-story events.

While George's height and weight could be approximated due to his appearances in the comics, I decided to leave it as "Unrevealed" in this profile since I could find no information on the real George's height and weight.

Oh, and by the way, it's "PER-ez" not "Per-EZ." :)

Avengers III#6 entry by Norvo.

Profile by Proto-Man.

CLARIFICATIONS:
George Pérez should be distinguished from:

• Perez - Warheads: Kether Troop, medic, killed by Mephisto's demons - Warheads I#1
• Perez - attorney, Daredevil character - Daredevil V#22
  
• Perez, Det. Cecilia - cop, caught between Sleepwalker & Office of Insufficient Evidence, later called in by NYPD to advise National Guard during Mindspawn invasion - Sleepwalker I#9
• Perez, Paco - mutant whose body produced healing fluids & disease cures, sought for use by dictatorial Bastronan government, freed by X-Force & sent to live with St. Anna's father - X-Force I#118
• Perez, Rafael - Miami crimelord, targeted by Black Widow - Black Widow IV#2
• or any other "George" or "Perez" characters
  

Appearances:
Deadly Hands of Kung Fu I#19 (December, 1975) - "An Ending!" story - Bill Mantlo (story), Yvette O. Pérez (additional dialogue), George Pérez, Jack Abel (art), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Fantastic Four I#176 (November, 1976) - Roy Thomas (writer, editor), George Pérez, Joe Sinnott (art, storytellers)
Marvel Two-in-One I#60 (February, 1980) - Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio (writers), George Pérez, Gene Day (art), Roger Stern (editor)
Avengers III#6 (May, 1998) - Kurt Busiek (writer), George Pérez (pencils), Al Vey, Bob Wiacek, Bruce Patterson (inkers), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers III#14 (March, 1999) - Kurt Busiek (writer), George Pérez (pencils), Al Vey (finishes), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Captain America III#21 (September, 1999) - Mark Waid (writer), Andy Kubert (pencils), Jesse Delperdang (inks), Bobbie Chase (editor)

First posted: 12/13/2021
Last updated: 03/17/2022

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™  and � 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

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