Word is making the rounds today that José Delbo has passed away at the age of 90, due to causes unknown.
For those unfamiliar, Delbo was a prolific Argentine artist whose work spanned a wide range, most notably in comics. These include such titles as Superman, Batman, Aquaman, and Green Arrow, as well as adaptations of television shows into the format, such as The Thundercats, The Twilight Zone, The Brady Bunch, Hogan’s Heroes, Buck Rogers, The Monkees, and The Mod Squad.
Of course, we wouldn’t be talking about him in this space were it not for his contributions to Transformers. Specifically, he did covers and interior art for a number of issues throughout the original Marvel comics run in the ’80s. To that end, his pen has touched stories ranging from “Club Con!”, “Monstercon from Mars!”, and “The Interplanetary Wrestling Championship!” to “Yesterday’s Heroes!”, “Deadly Obsession”, and “Rhythms of Darkness!”, among many others.
After issue #67, he would go on to work on other titles, including Brute Force and Captain Planet and the Planeteers.
In the 1990s, he became a teacher at The Kubert School until 2005. Per artist Steve Lieber, “I met him in my first year at the Kubert school. A great teacher- funny, smart, and unwilling to accept any less than our best effort. ‘Mr. Lieber, your horse looks like a dog. Go home and work.’ I will, José. Thank you.”
According to another industry professional, Mark Evanier (whose blog informed us of Delbo’s passing), “José was a charming gentleman and a dedicated craftsman. We could use more like him.”
In 2013, he was the recipient of an Inkpot Award at San Diego Comic-Con International.
At the dawn of the 2020s, his career would take him in another direction: the blockchain. According to the man himself via his website, “My career took an important turn in July of 2020 when I released my first piece of digital art on the blockchain in the form of a 43 page original digital comic book called Death. Since then, I have had the pleasure of continuing to create pieces of digital art.”
He did pretty well for himself in his final years, as according to an article from The LA Times, Delbo became a millionaire through the emerging technology.
If you’re interested in finding out more about Delbo’s work, you can check out his Wikipedia page, his official website, and of course, his entry on TFWiki (which also notes some interesting quirks of his from his run in the book).
All Transformers-related imagery in this article via TFWiki.
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