Pache.co Information Technologies

More tragedy in comics earlier in the month as we learned the news that artist Carlos Pacheco died on 9th November at the age of 60. Another great artist lost to us in what’s been a terrible year.

Carlos Pacheco announced his diagnosis for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in September 2022, a disease that causes the loss of motor neurons affecting the voluntary muscles and leads to weakness, paralysis, and causes a reduced lifespan.

Born Carlos Pacheco Perujo on 14th November 1961 in San Roque, Spain, Pacheco had a career in comics since the late ’80s, beginning with covers and pin-ups in the Marvel reprint line for Planeta De Agostini.

His first big success came with work for Marvel Comics UK in the early ’90s with covers for Exploits of Spider-Man before a short strip in Motormouth & Killpower #12, and the 4-issue Dark Guard series, the first comic he fully drew by himself. He also co-wrote and drew the Motormouth: RE-MIX comic, sadly never published (for more on that, check out this excellent piece at ).

The Marvel UK work announced his presence in comics and he was soon in high demand and gained a huge fanbase with more and more work for both Marvel and DC Comics, beginning in 1994 with the Marvel mini-series Bishop with John Ostrander and work on issues 93-94 of the Mark Waid written The Flash.

In a long and illustrious career that would see him as a fan-favourite artist at both Marvel and DC Comics, Pacheco would go on to work on many of the company’s most famous characters, including Superman, Justice League, Green Lantern, Captain America, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Avengers.

One project that’s particularly loved is Pacheco’s collaboration with Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern, and Pacheco’s regular inker Jesus Merino, on the 12-issue series Avengers Forever in 1998. In that great series, Pacheco’s smooth lines, dynamic style, and fluidity captured the Avengers across the ages as they went up against Kang the Conqueror. That book and Pacheco’s collaboration with Busiek later led to their creator-owned series at DC/Wildstorm, Arrowsmith, where they reimagined World War I in a world of magic and dragons. Sadly, the follow-up series, Arrowsmith: Behind Enemy Lines was one of Pacheco’s final works.

Carlos Pacheco – 14th November 1961 – 9th November 2022

Dark Guard #1–4 (Marvel UK, 1993–1994)

Motormouth: RE-MIX project for Marvel UK (1993)

Bishop #1–4 (1994–1995)

The Flash vol. 2 (1994–1995)

Excalibur (1995–1996)

X-Universe #1–2 (1995)

Starjammers #1–4 (1995–1996)

Fantastic Four #415–416 (1996)

X-Men vol. 2 (1997–1998)

Avengers Forever #1–12 (1998–2000)

Fantastic Four vol. 3 (2000–2002)

JLA/JSA: Virtue and Vice (2002)

Arrowsmith, #1–6 (2003–2004)

Superman/Batman (2005–06)

Green Lantern vol. 4 (2005–2006)

Superman(2006–2008)

Ultimate Comics: Avengers #1–6 (2009–2010)

Ultimate Comics: Thor #1–4 (2010–2011)

Captain America vol. 7 (2013–2014)

Squadron Sinister #1–4 (2015)

Arrowsmith: Behind Enemy Lines (2022)

And we’ll end with his final piece of published art… Rest in Peace Carlos…