Arturo del Castillo biography

Arturo Pérez Del Castillo (24 August 1925 - 5 Decemnber 1992; Concepción, Chile)

Arturo Del Castillo was a comic book artist.

Del Castillo was born in Concepcion, Chile, but moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1948. In the 1950s he worked for Aventuras, Intervalo, El Tony and Hora Cero, where he created Randall: the Killer series, scripted by Hector Oesterheld. Del Castillo adapted the novels of Alexandre Dumas and drew Western strips for Fleetway and Cowboy Picture Library. His works were reprinted in Argentina, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia etc.

The Chilean artist del Castillo's pen and ink work has been highly admired for many years. In the late 1950s he worked for Fleetway Publications, defining the art of fine penmanship on such strips as The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask

By the 1960s he was producing westerns for comics such as Top Spot, Ranger and Cowboy Picture Library; Garret (1962 - scripts by Ray Collins: pseudonym of Argentinian writer Eugenio Zappietro); Dan Dakota, Kendall (sheriff of Dodge City) , Larrigan (reprinted in both Fleetway's Lone Rider Picture Library and Cowboy Picture Library nos. 455, 463, 467), and Los tres mosqueteros en el Oeste. In 1974, again with Ray Collins he created Il Cobra, and with Oesterheld Loco Sexton. His most famous creation remains the western strip, Randall: The Killer, began in 1957.

del Castillo became famous for his skilful and detailed penwork, and in particular for his cross-hatching technique. In the late 1950s, del Castillo drew a number of comic strip adaptations of Alexandre Dumas' novels, such as The King's Musketeers, which first appeared in Film Fun and was then reprinted in Lion Comic, and The Man in the Iron Mask that also appeared in Fleetway's Lion Comic.

However, his main subject and greatest love, was always that of the western. One of his earliest western characters - Ringo - appeared in the last three editions of Top Spot (January 2nd, 9th and 16th 1960). Whilst Dan Dakota - Lone Gun appeared in Ranger comic. He also contributed at least one story to Cowboy Picture Library - CPL 467: Ghost Town.

In the mid-sixties, he participated in the "Bande Dessinée et figuration narrative" exhibition in Paris. The exhibition was held at the Musée d'Art at the Louvre.

Arturo del Castillo retired in 1989 and died in Buenos Aires in 1992.
Source: Illustration Art Gallery

See more on Arturo del Castillo in our illustrators issue 19 and enjoy his Western storytelling in our Fleetway Picture Library Classics collection LARRIGAN.

See ARTURO DEL CASTILLO ART.