The Art of Luis Garcia

The Art of Luis Garcia
by David Roach
Dynamite, 2021

'The Art of Luis Garcia' (240 pp.) was published by Dynamite in 2021. It's a well-made hardbound book, printed on slick paper, measuring 12 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches.

'Luis Garcia' is another in a lineup of books, all dealing with comic / graphic art, authored by the UK's David Roach: The Art of Jose Gonzalez, The Art of Vampirella: The Warren Years, Masters of British Comic Art, and Masters of Spanish Comic Book Art. Some of these are out of print and becoming rare (and pricey).

Luis Garcia was born in Puertollano, Spain in 1946 and from an early age displayed considerable talent in art. When only 13 he began to work as an apprentice for the Spanish comics publishing outfit Creacciones Editoriales Bruguera, after which he joined the staff of the Selleciones Illustradas (S.I.) agency and contributed artwork to romance comics in the UK.

In the early 70s Garcia, growing tired of illustrating romance comics, began supplying work for the French comic magazine Pilote. Some of those pieces later were reprinted in English in the Warren magazines in the U.S. 

Garcia's comics quickly became some of the most memorable imagery to appear in Vampirella and Creepy in the early 1970s, and 'The Art of Luis Garcia' provides a hefty selection of Garcia's work for Warren. Seeing this work on high-resolution, slick paper displays his skill as a draftsman.

Along with recounting Garcia's adventures in comics, author Roach provides some interesting anecdotes and insights, from Garcia himself, about the artistic milieu in Spain and Europe in the era of the 1960s and 1970s. Fort example, it was Garcia's girlfriend, Carol (Juana) De Haro, who served as the model for Vampirella:

In 1982 Garcia's comic series 'Nova 2' was printed in Heavy Metal magazine, and became another standout in his comics career. Unlike his previous works for the UK comics, Pilote, and Warren, 'Nova 2 reflected Garcia's increasing interest in exploring 'deep' themes of existential and psychological crises.

Also during the 1970s and 1980s, Garcia provided illustrations for historical and political graphic novels appearing in European, and Spanish magazines (revistas). In the 1980s, he changed roles to become the editor / publisher of Rambla, a comic magazine that sought to exploit the new, more liberal attitudes governing content in the Spanish media following the death of Franco. While his editorial duties took up most of his time, Garcia was able to contribute art to Rambla, which emphasized 'erotica' (or what those inclined to pudibundity might call 'softcore porn'). 

The book has some interesting observations from Garcia about the rewards and travails of editing a suite of magazines in the era before the advent of digital / computer layout and composition software.

Following the unfortunate dissolution of Rambla in 1985, Garcia took stock of his career as an artist, and decided to dedicate himself to studio art. He met with considerable success as a portrait painter, and those works (along with nudes and still lifes) are showcased in the closing chapters of 'The Art of Luis Garcia'.

One area where 'The Art of Luis Garcia' suffers is in the presence of a few too many typographical errors, a problem I've seen in other books authored by Roach and published by Dynamite. It's hard to see how these escaped the page proofing process.........?!

Summing up, if you're a fan of the Spanish artists who contributed to American and European comics during the 1970s and 1980s, as well as a fan of graphic art, then 'The Art of Luis Garcia' is worth acquiring.