Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Tribute to Stephane Peru in Teen Titans: Year One

Teen Titans: Year One #4 was the first comic I read today, and I noticed this panel:


If you'll notice the stock ticker near the bottom of the panel, you'll see that above the Wayne Enterprises and Lexcorp stock quotes, the words "PERU 81-08" are scrolling across the screen. This is a nod to artist Stephane Peru, who died from a heart attack in February. I had no idea the guy was so young. Peru had been doing colors for the beautifully illustrated Teen Titans: Year One, which I had gotten so excited about when the first cover images showed up in previews. Back then I had given all the credit to penciler Karl Kerschl, but I wish I had taken the time to look up the name of the incredibly talented, young guy who had brought the excellent art to life with subtle yet vibrant, sculptural colors.

This is the cover for Teen Titans #6, the final issue in the series, due in May. I hope it's not morbid or crass to assume this too is a nod to Peru, given the obvious theme of the cover and the uncolored Titans in the sky. It reminds me of the famous "Speechless" tribute to Mel Blanc.

Issue #5 (thanks to inker Serge la Pointe for the correction) will be the last issue of Teen Titans:Year One with a cover colored by Peru, make sure to check it out.

2 comments:

SergeLaPointe said...

Hey, glad to see someone noticed my little nod to Steph. There should be a tribute for him in issue 6 and\or the TPB too.

Just a quick correction though, issue 5's cover is the last one colored by Steph, not 4. Since issue 6 was the only cover not colored by him, Karl and I decided to do it ourselves, without any color except for Robin, who's kinda mourning in a now B&W world.

-serge,
inker of TTY1

Unknown said...

A tribute to the late Stephane Peru, a young colorist who recently died.

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