Luis Bermejo Rojo (1931 - December 2015; Madrid, Spain)
Luis Bermejo was born in Madrid in 1931, although the family soon moved to Albacete. It was in Albacete that Bermejo began his professional career, still in his teens, as an assistant to Manuel Gago, himself only in his early twenties but already recognised as a great talent in Spanish comics.

In 1944, Gago created El Guerrero del Antifaz (Warrior of the Mask), which would run for 668 issues, finally ending in 1966. Bermejo began as a letterer on the series in 1947 but, before long, was allowed to ink pages. With Gago's aid, Bermejo launched his own series in 1948, creating El Rey del Mar (The King of the Sea) for Editorial Valenciana. Written by one of the top scriptwriters of the era, Pedro Quesada, it ran for 46 issues, over which time Bermejo began to assimilate influences other than Gago, notably Alex Raymond.

Bermejo's comic work diversified. In 1949 he drew Diablillos (Mischief) for Chicos and, a couple of years later, Polín, Poli y Pol-Pol for the same paper; he drew similarly humorous strips for girls for the woman's magazine Mariló.

Bermejo returned to Madrid to attend the Academy of Fine Arts at San Fernando, studying under illustrator Carlos Sáenz de Tejada. Bermejo's schooling meant that a more realistic style and better figurework were on display in over 100 episodes of Aventuras del FBI (Adventures of the FBI), created for Madrid-based Editorial Rollán in 1951 and considered a classic in Spain.

Bermejo moved to Valencia and collaborated with a number of top Spanish writers, including Miguel González Casquel with whom he created Sigur (1954) and Federico Trotamundos for Chicos (1955) and Pedro Quesada on the juvenile adventure series Roque Brío (1956). The latter was an unexpected failure, lasting on 8 editions, but the two teamed up again for episodes of Pantera Negra (Black Panther), launched in 1956 with artwork by José Ortiz and, later, Miguel Quesada.

Bermejo had by now established himself at Editorial Maga, working closely with Gago, Miguel and Pedro Quesada and José and Leopoldo Ortiz. Here he produced his second famous work, Apache, scripted by Pedro Quesada, which he drew for over 50 issues from 1958.

Bermejo was already in demand elsewhere, having produced his first strip for the British market via the agency A.L.I. in 1957 - an issue of Super Detective Library featuring private eye Tod Claymore. Bermejo also contributed romance stories to Mirabelle, Romeo and Cherie in 1957-60. At the same time, he was still a busy artist in Spain, working for Bruguera on a series of literary adaptations: La conquista de los poles, Un yanqui en la corte del Rey Arturo (both published in 1957), Una vida aventurerea (1958), Las aventuras del Club Pickwick and Las aventuras de Pinocho (both 1959).

In 1960, Bermejo began drawing the character John Steel for Super Detective Library. The early stories were fairly commonplace war stories but when the stories switched to Thriller Picture Library, Steel was given a make-over and began featuring in a series of jazz-age, crime noir private eye yarns with Bermejo the main artist.

Contributions to War Picture Library, Battle Picture Library, Air Ace and Commando in 1960-62 firmly established Bermejo in the UK and he went on to draw Mann of Battle for Eagle (1962) and a series of stories featuring maritime adventurer Pike Mason in Boys' World (1963-64).

To cope with the workload, Bermejo often worked with Matías Alonso and the two worked on a number of projects for Editorial Maga, including Marco Polo (1963), Vida y costumbres de los Vikingos (1965) and África y sus habitantes (1966). At the same time, Bermejo was having his biggest success in the UK when he worked on Heros the Spartan for Eagle, alternating adventures with Frank Bellamy in 1963-66.

Bermejo now had an informal studio set up which was responsible for many strips in the UK, notably UFO Agent in Eagle (1966) and The Avengers in Diana (1966-67).

Bermejo, solo, drew The Missing Link for Fantastic in 1967-68 and contributed illustrations to Tell Me Why, Look and Learn and Once Upon a Time, also painting the long-running fairy tale Princess Marigold for Treasure (1969-71).

Bermejo was a popular contributor to James Warren's horror magazines Vampirella, Creepy and Eerie in 1975-79, notably drawing The Rook. In 1979-81, he drew an adaptation of Lord of the Rings which was published throughout Europe. The recovering Spanish market also meant regular work in Cimoc, Metropol, Baladin, Hunter, Zona 84 and other magazines, as well as adapting books by Isaac Asimov and A. E. Van Vogt.

He worked on the revival of the famous adventure strip El Capitán Trueno (Captain Thunder) in 1986, but turned to painting and was able to retire from comics in the early 1990s.