Ever since comics legend George Pérez announced his retirement from comics — and eventually, a stage 3 cancer diagnosis — creatives across the industry have rallied to show support in ways big and small for one of the greatest comics artists in living history. After an unprecedented push from DC and Marvel alike to bring back one of Pérez’s most famous stories recently, now DC is taking another push to honour the beloved artist.
DC Comics has announced plans to celebrate Pérez’s 68th birthday this June with a two-page artwork spread that will be published in every issue releasing that month. Depciting Perez at his drawing board surrounded by a veritable who’s who of DC characters the artist illustrated over his incredible career, the new piece brings together over 26 DC artist teams — and all coloured by Hi-Fi — all illustrating a different character (or set of characters). As well as the art spread itself, every issue DC runs with the piece will include a key highlighting which artist worked on which character in the piece, which you can see below.
Here’s the full list of contributing artists as well, and their characters:
- The Monitor & Anti-Monitor – Jim Lee & Scott Williams
- Trigon – Todd McFarlane
- The Spectre – Alex Ross
- Darkseid – Walter Simonson
- Firestorm & The Justice League Satellite – Scott Kolins
- Ares & Hippolyta – Phil Jimenez
- Cheetah & The Amazons – Colleen Doran
- Lady H.I.V.E. & H.I.V.E. Agents – Scott Koblish
- Vigilante – Dave Gibbons
- Cheshire – Joëlle Jones
- Brother Blood – Darryl Banks
- Blackfire – Mike McKone
- Gizmo & Mammoth – Klaus Janson
- Shimmer – Bruno Redondo
- Psimon – Mikel Janín
- Neutron & Jinx – Dan Mora
- The Legion of Super-Heroes – Francis Manapul
- The Justice Society of America – Jerry Ordway
- Power Girl & Huntress – Kevin Maguire
- The Justice League of America (and the background) – Dan Jurgens & Norm Rapmund
- Superboy-Prime & Alexander Luthor – Ivan Reis
- Supergirl – Gary Frank
- Harbinger – Adam Hughes
- Pariah – Daniel Sampere
- Jericho & Kole – Nicola Scott
- The New Teen Titans, Deathstroke & George Pérez – José Luis García-López
Beyond the artwork, DC’s latest Crisis event, Dark Crisis, will feature variant covers for each issue based on the various Crises of the publisher’s past, starting with of course the legendary Crisis on Infinite Earths, which was illustrated by Pérez — and Dark Crisis #7 itself will feature the new celebratory tribute art as a variant as well. A special version of that Dark Crisis #7 issue will also be auctioned through the Hero Initiative to provide funds for comics creators in need. Pérez has been a staunch supporter of the charity, a founding member as well as a chair on its board of directors — and previously helped raise funds for it through the rare re-release of JLA/Avengers earlier this year.
“When I was asked to come up with a design and layout that would honour George Pérez and his many incredible contributions to DC Comics over the years, I was truly honoured,” Dan Jurgens said in a statement provided over email. “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.”
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Editor’s Note: Release dates within this article are based in the U.S., but will be updated with local Australian dates as soon as we know more.