Carlos Pacheco Perujo (14 November 1961 – 9 November 2022) was a Spanish comics penciller. After breaking into the European market doing cover work for Planeta De Agostini, he gained recognition doing work for Marvel UK, the England-based branch of Marvel Comics, for his work on the Spider-Man magazine Dark Guard. He then began doing work for the American-based Marvel and DC Comics, where he was one of the first Spanish-born artists to make a major impact in that country, attaining popularity for his work on Avengers Forever, JLA/JSA: Virtue and Vice, X-Men: Legacy, Fantastic Four, Green Lantern, and Captain America. He contributed to some high-profile storylines published by the Big Two, including 2009’s “Final Crisis” at DC and 2013’s “Age of Ultron” at Marvel.
Outside of corporate-owned comics, he reunited with his Avengers Forever collaborator, writer Kurt Busiek, to produce through WildStorm the 2003 creator-owned fantasy series Arrowsmith, which reimagines World War I in a world in which magic and dragons exist, That series garnered positive reviews, and in 2022, Pacheco and Busiek produced a sequel, Arrowsmith: Behind Enemy Lines, which was also positively received, and was one of Pacheco’s last published works.
Pacheco died at La Línea Hospital in La Línea de la Concepción, on 9 November 2022, at around 7.30pm CET, at the age of 60.
Juan Carlos Ruiz Boi, the mayor of Pacheco’s birthplace San Roque, declared two days of official mourning. Flags at government institutions were lowered to half-mast. After consulting with Pacheco’s family, Ruiz Boi also decided to create a funeral chapel in the plenary hall of the Palacio de los Gobernadores (Palace Of The Governors), at which the public would be able to pay their respects. Ruiz Boi praised Pacheco for registering as an organ donor, stating, “All of us who have known him will miss him, and he would like to offer condolences to his family and friends. I am sure that the rest of the Corporation and the people of San Roque will share my words, as well as the fact that two days of official mourning have been decreed. Likewise, a burning chapel is going to be set up in the Palace of the Governors so that all the people who wish to can pay homage to him… Our sadness is only lessened by the knowledge that in life, he achieved the recognition of all around him, that he knew and appreciated it. He was grateful that the City Council put up an avenue in his name, that he was named the town’s Favourite Son and that, in his honour, there is a contest named after him.”
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