EXTRACTS: Warren magazines - The Spanish Artists (Illustrators Special Edition) © 2016 The Book Palace (144 PAGES in Full edition)

136 Writing a book, particularly a biography, can often be an organic affair as the subjects’ life and career evolve, taking you to unexpected places. Piecing together the career of an artist can be doubly challenging, often involving tracking down obscure publications, or hunting the globe for private commissions. When I took on the task of assembling an illustrated biography of Jose “Pepe” Gonzalez for the American publisher Dynamite , despite admiring his work for the best part of 40 years I didn’t realise quite how much I didn’t know. In the initial stages of mapping out his career I was struck by the enormous gaps in his output, how years, or even decades, were apparently completely unproductive. But gradually a much richer and surprising picture of the work and the man emerged than I had ever imagined. My involvement with Dynamite began in 2012 when I was asked to put together ‘The Art of Vampirella: The Warren Years’, for the company. I suggested that a chapter should be devoted to Pepe’s life and art and was pleasantly surprised when they suggested I should Artist, writer and art scholar, David Roach, on his search for the story behind the creator ofcomicdom'smost beautiful women. Searching For Pepe Vampirella © Dynamite Entertainment ABOVE: 'Vampi'—a colour study of Pepe's most celebrated icon. FACING PAGE: Yet another iconic woman—Marilyn Monroe gets the full Gonzalez treatment in this cover from a 1980s issue of CIMOC . Image courtesy of Joe Jusko © NORMA