March 26, 2018 marks the 70th birthday of one of DC Comics’ great artists. Best known for his work with DC titles such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Teen Titans, Flash, Jonah Hex, and Batgirl, this prolific writer continues to be a force within comics today. But just how well do you know this illustrative powerhouse?
José Luis García-López was born on March 26, 1948 in Pontevedra, Spain but grew up primarily in Argentina. Growing up, García-López was always interested in drawing and shared that his inspiration came from such comic greats as Alex Raymond (Flash Gordon), Harold Foster (Prince Valiant), Milton Caniff (Steve Canyon), José Luis Salinas (Cisco Kid), and Alberto Breccia (Mort Cinder). Initially García-López worked for Charlton Comics, but after a move to New York City in 1974, he met DC Comics editor Joe Orlando.
The rest, as they say, is history. His first art credit for DC was in the Action Comics #448 back-up, “Nightmare In Gold,” inking the pencils for Dick Dillin. García-López went on to ink pencils for Curt Swan in back-up stories for Superman, before co-creating the Hercules Unbound series with Gerry Conway. In 1977, he launched the ongoing Jonah Hex series with Michael Fleisher, while also collaborating with Conway on a Superman vs. Wonder Woman story in All-New Collector’s Edition #C-54.
The following year, García-López and Marin Pasko launched a team-up title starring Superman called DC Comics Presents. He later drew the first appearance of the Snowman in Batman #337, along with illustrating a crossover between Batman and the Hulk in DC Special Series #27. In 1985, García-López penciled five issues of Marv Wolfman’s The New Teen Titans series. Wolfman once commented on García-López’s work saying, “I knew that I had this incredible artist who could draw almost anything that I wanted...So I decided to make the story just the biggest spectacle I could come up with.”
Along with working on various other DC superheroes, García-López also worked on such titles as Atari Force, Road to Perdition, Deadman, and Twilight. It was his work on this latter series that earned him an Eisner Award nomination. As part of his exclusive contract with DC Comics, García-López was responsible for penciling the style guides used to provide official artwork for merchandise licenses. His 1982 guide is still used today as part of the DC Comics retro line. Additional guides include a 1992 guide focused on the Batman Returns movie, Superman related guides from 1991, 1994, and 2006, and other DC Universe guides in 1998, 2004, and 2012.
More recent works for García-López include such titles as JLA: Classified, Batman Confidential, Wednesday Comics, The Spirit, Adventure of Superman: José Luis García-López, Batman ’66 the Lost Episode, The Kamandi Challenge, and Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman. Over his more than 40-year career in the comics industry, García-López helped define the look of DC Comics in pop culture. Today, his lasting impact on the industry can be seen in countless pop culture merchandise, along with serving as an inspiration to the new generation of comic artists.
