RIP Jose "Pepe" Gonzalez

While I have many things to blog about (we have a bathroom again!) I thought I should take a moment to express my sympathy for the passing of Jose Gonzalez and admiration of his work.

While my love of comics started with X-men 155 and 157 (the image of Kitty/Phoenix on the cover cemented forever, for me, what a genius Dave Cockrum was) the artist who influenced my style (and love of art in general) the most has always been Jose Gonzales.

As with so many things in my life it started with bin diving. Someone had thrown out a stack of Playboys, Conan and Vampirella comics, I suspect because there was liniment spillt on them. (To this day, the smell of Rub A5-35 reminds me of that summer day in 1982). My brothers took the Playboys and Conans and left me with the Vampirella #91.

It changed everything.

The issue was a reprint of previous stories but all drawn by Jose Gonzalez. His artwork was jaw-dropping, not your typical funny papers stuff. Elegant, well drawn and designed in black and white, either pen & ink or pencil. Even his "cartoony" style was elegant. He was equally adept at depicting sexy women and men. (Much later I realized that his storytelling ability was his weakest link but whatever! his art more than made up for it).

Everything I drew from then on had the Gonzalez touch. I had doodled before (Dave Cockrum style) but now I was on a mission. I studied anatomy and design and drew Vampirella everywhere (my school books were covered in comic book drawings--it is a wonder that I was an honour student with the amount of time I spent doodling!).


Of course other influences came and went--Perez, Byrne, Windsor-Smith, Sienkiewicz, Kaluta--but Pepe's was the one that always drew me back in. And anytime anyone said something derogatory about comics I would pull out my well thumbed Vampi #91 to show them that this was art.

I have spent a good portion of the day going over old drawings and becoming re-aquainted with
some old comics. If nothing else I got to explore some areas of my past that I had forgotton. I think that is the best thing art can give us.

Thanks Pepe. You will be missed.