FINDING THE LEGENDARY (IN MY OPINION) LUIS DOMINGUEZ

San Diego 2006

After I got out of college, I started picking up a lot of comics in back-issue bins.  This was right after the Image bubble burst, so there was always a lot of bad nineties comics.  But there were also some decent mainstream eighties comics.  Every now and then, since stores were starting to go out of business, you could find seventies comics in the cheap bins, if they were lesser, non-superhero books, that the store couldn’t sell.  If I saw old Western or War or horror comics, I would always grab them, because they were rare.  But also, I tended to really love the covers.  Especially the horror books.

Sure, Berni Wrightson was doing gorgeous covers back then.  And Michael Kaluta did plenty of gorgeous horror covers.  And Neal Adams had his share of gorgeous horror covers.  And even Joe Kubert was doing occasional spooky covers.  But there was this one artist whose images really spoke to me.  His covers were complete stories all themselves, so much so that I rarely bothered with issues they contained, and just bought the books for those covers.  You could read a whole story in one cover.  They had the ultimate portrayal of something really bad or shocking about to happen, and you had a pretty good idea what would happen next.  For example, you see a corpse stuffed in a grandfather clock in a gothic, dark mansion, and the people are saying, “I wonder why the clock has stopped ticking?”  Or you see kids climbing up into a cellar, and saying, “There’s nothing to be afraid of up here,” and unbeknownst to them, they’re climbing up into the arms of a headless ghost.  I cannot express how absolutely I love these covers.

The old Ditko and Kirby covers from Marvel had this quality, but those books had the additional advantage that their work was inside, and just as good (in my opinion) as the covers.  But then there was this one other artist, I began to realize.  And even though the insides of the books were anthologies by primarily unknown, beginning artists at that time, those covers, man…

First I began to recognize his thematic style, and then his line-work.  Scratchy, detailed, fairly realistic.  Kind of like Bruno Premiani.  And the way he drew faces, with those penetrating eyes.  My collection of these issues grew, and his cover work was immense.  He was on just about every horror comic that DC was putting out back in the seventies.  He also did Jonah Hex covers.  I didn’t recognize who this cover artist was, not by the style.  And he never signed his issues.  But then I started spotting that all these covers were signed with a subtle, inconspicuous “LD.”  If I saw a new cover that was great, and wondered if it could be my mystery artist, I would scan the image, and sure enough, somewhere, I’d eventually locate that recognizable “LD” somewhere on the page.  But who is this mysterious “LD?”

I asked my local comic shop owner, because he knows his comics, especially the older stuff.  I explained the types of covers, and the names of the books he did, and the “LD.”  He didn’t recognize the artist, or know who it was.  He looked in his catalogues and price guides, and still couldn’t find any info for me.  He even found a bunch of the very comics covers I was telling him about, with those “LD”s on them, but couldn’t say who it was.

If I had been vigilant, I probably could have found a comics fan or store owner, or someone in the industry, who knew their comics history, and could have told me who this artist is.  But then one day, by some freakish accident or twist of fate, I was flipping through the issues, and realized, “Hey!  This story looks like it was drawn by that artist!”  I feverishly flipped to the beginning of the story.  To the credits.  Luis Dominguez.  LD.  At last!  A name to go with all these amazing images!  This was maybe five years ago, or more.  And I didn’t know if he was still around, still doing comics, still appearing at conventions.

So I was absolutely stoked when I heard that Luis Dominguez would be at the San Diego con this year.  You have no idea how thrilled I was to see him listed at the Comic-Con website.

I found him almost immediately.  He was sitting in the same row as Brian Bolland and Shag.  I introduced myself and tried to get the pronunciation of his name.  I wasn’t familiar with the spelling, because it was different than “Louis”.  I asked him, “Is it loo-WEEZ?”  And said, “No.”  But he wouldn’t tell me what it was.  And he changed the subject to other matters.  He told stories about other countries.  They were entertaining, but he had an accent, and I had trouble understanding why he was sharing all these stories from all these locales.  I continued trying to learn the pronunciation of his name when he paused.  And I would say, is it, loo-WEE?  And he would say, “No,” and begin a new story.  Finally, I guessed, is it, LOO-wis? and he said “Yes.”  He really made me work for it.

He was just as friendly as can be, and enjoyed visiting.  He was absolutely up for doing a pin-up of a giant monster.  I came up later to solidify the deal, and if other people came up, he’d tell them I was his boss, and he’d let me know he wanted to get more work from me. 

He kept asking, “So you want a drawing of a giant monster?”  Yes, and I would explain my giant monster book.  He would look at the book, and say, “So you want a drawing of a giant monster?”  And I would say, Yes.  “But not a monster like this?” and pointing at a picture of Frankenstein.  And I’d say, “No, not like that.  It has to be a monster you create, so I don’t get sued when I publish it.”  And then we’d be visiting for a while, and then he’d ask, “So you want a drawing of a giant monster?”  Yes.  “But not a monster like this?” and he’d point at a picture of Dracula.  And I’d explain again.  I really enjoyed him.  Fun guy.

Luis was sitting with Arnold Drake, who wrote a ton of great silver age stuff.  I loved those Doom Patrols especially.  And he was saying he and Luis were from New York, and that Luis would be staying with him for a while.  He said that DC just gave them the okay to do a brand new Doom Patrol story.  He said it wouldn’t be the Grant Morrison-revamped team, but rather a “lost adventure” that hadn’t been documented before.  I thought that sounded like a lot of fun.

 

Kirby is my overall favorite artist, but I might just have to say that Luis Dominguez is my favorite cover artist.  Honestly, check them out.  They’re great, fun stuff!