Product Description: The latest volume of the Modern Masters series looks at the life and work of one of today's top comic-book artists, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. Ask any comic book artist who the best draftsman in the business is, and you'll come up with one answer: Garcia-Lopez. A master of anatomy, composition, and storytelling, he not only astounds his readers, but his peers as well. He is also one of the most visible artists in the industry, as his illustrations can be seen on toy packaging, in DC's "Got Milk?" advertisements, and even on jars of peanut butter. But it's his work on DC's Big Three (Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman) that earned Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez the title of Modern Master.
Interesting Stuff Historically this artist is a very relevant player in the graphic novel and comic book world. An excellent artist.
One of my Top 3 favorites in the series... What a great surprise this artist is for me! I bought this interview on the strength of the brilliant cover art- I'm happy to say the interior work is every bit as good.
Highlights here for me... *The 1st 45 pages- I love everything about these pages. From his pirate-themed work in his early days, to his fantastic influences, to his definitive work for DC and their licensed merchandise, everything about this nearly 1st half of the book is beautiful & inspiring. *Pencils & inks displayed- it's not just inked work reproduced. I really love JLGL's art in pencil *without* inks, so it's nice to see some of his purely penciled work included. Of course his inked stuff is great as well.
This interview actually goes well with John Buscema's How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way; compared side-by-side, it almost serves as a DC version of that book. It's an interview & not a how-to-draw type work, but JLGL's art is a standard of excellence in regards to definitive depictions of DC characters. The current covers of these books seem similar too, with their variety of major characters & white, yellow, red, and blue color schemes. Both volumes are also similar in physical size, although Marvel Way has more pages.
Unlike my other 2 favorites in the series, this interview includes some color work along with the many pieces of black & white artwork displayed throughout. Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez is highly praised with reason: just check out the picture of Superman & Lois flying high over a cityscape complete with rainbow (p.117) to see what I mean. Truly fantastic pencils!
My other current favorites in the series include Modern Masters, Vol. 7: John Byrne (Modern Masters), and Modern Masters Volume 2: George Perez. Yet they keep on releasing great interviews!
Finally! Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez is one of comics most under-rated artists. His art is beautiful, graceful and powerful without losing the clear storytelling that makes a good artist great. Just ask almost anyone in the business, Garcia-Lopez is a class act and the only thing wrong with this book is it could be longer, packed with even more art.
Eric Nolen-Weathington has made a great career of insightful interviews with his Modern Masters series, and I'd recommend, even if your not a big fan of the artist, Eric always brings out a side you'd never suspect. He does his homework and lets the artists speak, Nice job.
BRILLIANT & UNDERRATED ARTIST I guess the two words that come to mind when I think about comic book artist Jose Luis Garcia Lopez are consistent and underrated. Those two words seem to best describe the career of a man who rarely has gotten the accolades he deserves as one of the great artists of the last 25 years. After reading the lengthy interview with him in this volume five of the Modern Masters series from TwoMorrows Publishing, certainly Jose's humble and quiet nature seems to be one of the reasons he is so underrated. He's clearly a guy who isn't looking for the spotlight. He hasn't tried to match the younger artists of the day by doing books filled with nothing but splash pages and poor anatomy. He's just been content to be a dependent workhorse for DC comics. While Jose may not have achieved the level of stardom that other artists have, you get the feeling that it really doesn't matter to him. There's a lot of laughter throughout the interview and Jose seems very happy with his career.
Jose was born in Spain but moved to Argentina with his family when he was very young. He would get his America comic book start with Charlton on mainly romance titles. Jose's many eclectic influences are certainly a factor behind his level of professionalism. From old masters Alex Raymond and Hal Foster, to modern artists like Moebius and Ross Andru, and to great illustrators like Norman Rockwell, Jose relates just how each of these men as influenced his work through the years.
Jose would start at DC in the late 1970's and worked on a variety of projects. Jose did much of the art for DC's merchandising and marketing campaigns including their "Got Milk?" ad featuring Superman. Jose was also the artist who worked on DC's first graphic novel Star Raiders. Interviewer Eric Nolen-Weathington does a wonderful job covering Jose's very diverse career in comics, even getting into the mediums in which Jose likes to work in and his preferred types of tools which is invaluable advice for aspiring comic artists. My personal favorite was the work he did on the Deadman limited series and kudos to TwoMorrows for reprinting some of the work inside this book.
The interview runs through the first three-quarters of the book. The last part is dedicated to a Jose Luis Garcia Lopez art gallery displaying numerous sketches, finished works, covers, and pages from throughout his distinguished career. There's a fantastic drawing of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark sitting on Santa's lap, sketches and color guides from the Cinder & Ashe limited series and two brilliant illustrations, one featuring Wonder Woman and another with Superman and Lois Lane.
Hats off to TwoMorrows Publishing for aiming the spotlight on this humble, under-appreciated talent!
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