FEATURING ANDY'S FIRST PUBLISHED WORK!
FOCUS ON GEORGE PEREZ
Published by Fantagraphics Books
(with contributions by Andy Mangels)
Released August 1985
117 pgs., Trade Paperback (ISBN: 0-930193-09-1) $5.95
Click here to search for this book on eBay
This book contains a 31-page interview with artist George Perez, as well as eleven articles about his work!
Andy's first published work was an exhaustive checklist of George Perez's work, as well as the final page in the book, a Trivia section about George's work.
As stated above, my very first published work was in Focus on George Perez from Fantagraphics in 1985.
In 1987, I was sitting in a movie theatre, watching the vampire film The Lost Boys, which features two kids known as "The Frog Brothers" who work in their parents' comic book shop on the pier haunted by the vamps. Lots of comics were featured (including some New Teen Titans issues in a few shots) but one very familiar cover showed up in not one, not two, but THREE different spots in the film! Since Focus on George Perez had a recognizable cover, and the first time was the best view, I shouted out "There's my book!" in the theatre, then glowed about it the rest of the film.
Now, admittedly, it's not like any of the characters picked it up, nor that it was "focused on" (so to speak), but it was THERE.
When, I got a DVD screen capture tool, I quickly snapped several decent shots of scenes from the film.You can clearly see the black cover with the big yellow lettering which says "George Perez."
How's THAT for Perez obscura?
Shortly after finishing work on this project, Mangels was hired to write for Amazing Heroes magazine (by Focus editor Kim Thompson and Amazing Heroes editor-to-be Mark Waid), and his career was underway.
Mangels was clued in to the possibility of working on Focus on George Perez by two friends in the Titan Talk APA, Hank Kanalz and Rob Liefeld. He would later write a story for Hank with Ultraverse Premiere, and for Rob, Mangels would script Bloodwulf, Troll Halloween Special, and Badrock & Company.
Mangels would continue to work with artist George Perez on many projects, up until present day. Some of those projects are listed below:
Back Issue #1
Modern Masters: George Perez
George Perez: Storyteller
THE PEREZ ARCHIVES
Sketch Magazine #10
Gay Comics #20
Comics Interview #50
Amazing Heroes #156
Amazing Heroes #135
Since 2001, Mangels even uses a George Perez likeness on his business card! See image at right!
