Juan Ortiz and Comics

 

Who is Juan Ortiz? Good question! There are many facets to the answer but all roads eventually lead to Rome.

There was a Juan Ortiz who drew about 36 stories for DC Comics between 1977 and 1979. Mostly they were back-up stories but they often featured medium-to-high-profile characters like Batgirl and The Legion of Super-Heroes and the Golden Age Green Lantern.

On the day that I met writer Alan Ekblaw in 1978 that gentleman mentioned to me that my artwork reminded him of the work of Juan Ortiz! (Mr. Ekblaw and I went on to collaborate on a few light-hearted romps that were published in The Buyer's Guide for Comic Fandom.)

Then 1980 arrived and Juan Ortiz was nowhere to be found in the comics world. Poof!

Fast-forward to 2004. Eight issue of an independent title named Silver Comics were published between 2004 and 2006. The publisher and main creative driving force behind that series was Juan Ortiz!

The first issue featured a cover by Frank Brunner:

and the third issue featured a cover by Nick Cardy:

But after the eighth issue, Silver Comics was not heard from again.

Fast forward to 2013. An artist drew a poster to convey the essence of each episode of the original Star Trek television series, a total of 80 posters that were collected into a book. That artist was Juan Ortiz! 

While it might be theoretically possible that I'm writing about two or three different artists named Juan Ortiz, a 2017 tweet from comics superfan Jay Zilber made it fairly clear that all of the above accomplishments are to be attributed to a single person. I thank Juan Ortiz for so many decades of great artwork!