In Memoriam: Jose Luis Ferrer

We're sorry to report the passing of Catalan comics artist and illustrator Jose Luis Ferrer (José Luis Ferrér Rozalen), whose credits included 2000AD, Starlord and many other British comics.

His agent, Esteve Dalmau, told downthetubes he finally succumbed to an aggressive brain tumor earlier today.

A panel from the Future Shock
'Space Bug' for 2000AD
Prog 55

Signing his work as, simply, Ferrer, Jose studied Fine Art but was basically self taught and had been drawing professionally for more than 30 years, half of which have been spent doing comics for various publishers, mostly in Spain.

More recently, he also drew "Horrifying Hijinks at the Haunted Hotel” for Pulp Toons, who pay tribute to him here.

Lambiek notes he began his career drawing for the action comics published by Galaor and Toray in the 1960s. He drew for collections like Batallas Decisivas de la Humanidad, Hazañas del Oeste and Hazañas Bélicas, before turning to agency work.

He was affiliated with studios like Bulls Press, Union Studio (1975-79) and Recreo (1979-82) and worked for publishing houses in France, Britain, Germany, Sweden and the USA.

He worked for several British publishers in the 1970s and 80s: firstly, IPC and Fleetway, drawing strips such as Ants and Robo Hunter for early issues of 2000AD, and Ro Busters for Star Lord.

His first credit for 2000AD was a Tharg Future Shock, 'Times Past', written by Martin Lock for Prog 42.

"I also worked with DC Thomson through Norma Comics on war and science fiction stories, and also in Germany (mainly with Bastei)," he once told me. "Here, I basically did children’s comics, horror comics, and adaptations for TV series such as The Real Ghostbusters and Captain Future." He worked on this last series for five years.

Jose subsequently had worked with TV3 and have published with Norma Comics and have also worked with the principal publishing houses in Spain on projects such as encyclopedias,
text books and more.

• Ferrer's Future Shocks - A List
• Ferrer: A Flickr Gallery
• Lambiek Entry