José Delbo

José Delbo (born José María Del Bó; December 9, 1933 – February 5, 2024) was an Argentine comics artist. He was best known for his work on Wonder Woman for DC Comics and The Transformers for Marvel Comics.

José Delbo
Delbo at the Florida Supercon in 2013
Born	José María Del Bó (1933-12-09)December 9, 1933 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Died	February 5, 2024(2024-02-05) (aged 90) Boca Raton, Florida, U.S.
Nationality	Argentine
Area(s)	Penciller, Inker
Notable works	Wonder Woman The Transformers
Awards	Inkpot Award 2013
josedelbo.com

Life and career

José María Del Bó was born on December 9, 1933.^[1][2] He became a professional comics artist at the age of 16 working for the Argentine Poncho Negro series.^[1] Due to political instability in Argentina, he moved to Brazil in 1963 and then to the United States two years later.^[3] His early work for the U.S. market included Billy the Kid for Charlton Comics.^[1] He drew many TV tie-in comic books for Dell Comics and Western Publishing's Gold Key Comics including The Brady Bunch, Hogan's Heroes, The Mod Squad, The Monkees, and The Twilight Zone.^[4] A comics biography of Dwight D. Eisenhower drawn by Delbo was published by Dell in 1969 soon after the former President's death.^[5] Delbo named The Monkees, The Lone Ranger, and an adaptation of the Yellow Submarine film as being among his favorite projects.^[6]

His first work for DC Comics appeared in The Spectre #10 (May–June 1969).^[4] Delbo became the artist on the Wonder Woman title with issue #222 (Feb.–March 1976) and drew the series until #286 (Dec. 1981). Following the popularity of the Wonder Woman television series (initially set during World War II), Delbo and writer Martin Pasko transposed the comic book series to this era.^[7] A few months after the TV series changed its setting to the 1970s, Delbo and Jack C. Harris returned the comic book to the contemporary timeline.^[8] Soon after, Wonder Woman's longtime love interest Steve Trevor was killed but writer Gerry Conway and Delbo brought the character back to life again in issue #271 (Sept. 1980).^[9] The Lumberjack, a character created by Delbo and Conway in Wonder Woman #268 (June 1980) appeared on the Supergirl television series in 2015.^[10] Conway and Delbo introduced a new version of the Cheetah in issue #274 (Dec. 1980).^[11]

Delbo's other work for DC includes the Batman Family,^[12] three stories for the "Whatever Happened to...?" backup feature in DC Comics Presents,^[13] the Jimmy Olsen feature in The Superman Family, and the Batgirl feature in Detective Comics. His final major work for DC was a brief run on the Superman/Batman feature in World's Finest Comics in 1985.^[4][14]

In 1986, Delbo began working for Marvel Comics where he drew ThunderCats, The Transformers,^[15] and NFL SuperPro. He co-created Brute Force with Simon Furman in 1990.^[4]

Delbo taught at The Kubert School from the 1990s until 2005. After moving to Florida, he taught at the "Delbo Cartoon Camp" program for school-aged children in Boca Raton.^[6][16]

Delbo died in February 2024, at the age of 90.^[17]

Awards

Delbo received an Inkpot Award at the San Diego Comic-Con International in 2013.^[18]

References

1. "José Delbo". Lambiek Comiclopedia. March 11, 2014. from the original on August 15, 2014.
2. Miller, John Jackson (June 10, 2005). . Comics Buyer's Guide. Iola, Wisconsin. Archived from the original on February 18, 2011.
3. Cooke, Jon B. (December 2002). "Delbo's Authentic Artistry". Comic Book Artist (23). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing: 79. The political situation made things very difficult. Army revolts, incredible inflation, etc. There was a tremendously bad situation in Argentina with no tranquilty.
4. José Delbo at the Grand Comics Database
5. Evanier, Mark (January 2, 2006). "Bio Comix". News From ME. from the original on July 14, 2014.
6. Stroud, Bryan D. (June 1, 2011). "José Delbo Interview". The Silver Age Sage. from the original on August 29, 2012.
7. McAvennie, Michael (2010). "1970s". In Dolan, Hannah (ed.). DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9. "Writer Martin Pasko and artist José Delbo detailed the first chronological meeting between Earth-1's modern-day Wonder Woman and her Earth-2 equivalent during World War II. The comic's time and Earth shifts were actually dictated by ABC-TV's popular Wonder Woman TV series, set during World War II, and they continued in this era for the next fifteen issues.
8. McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 179: "To reflect the modern setting of CBS-TV's The New Adventures of Wonder Woman, scripter Jack C. Harris and artist José Delbo produced a story where Earth-1's Amazon helped her Golden Age counterpart apprehend the Angle Man in May's Wonder Woman #243."
9. Manning, Matthew K. "1980s" in Dolan, p.187 "This landmark issue also saw the return of Steve Trevor to Wonder Woman's life in the main feature by writer Gerry Conway and penciler José Delbo."
10. Arrant, Chris (January 30, 2015). "Report: Supergirl's First Foe in CBS TV Series Revealed". Newsarama. from the original on May 3, 2015.
11. Manning "1980s" in Dolan, p. 189: "The Amazing Amazon gained a new deadly adversary when Cheetah was reborn, thanks to writer Gerry Conway and artist José Delbo."
12. Manning, Matthew K. (2014). "1970s". In Dougall, Alastair (ed.). Batman: A Visual History. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 123. ISBN 978-1465424563. The first [story] starred Batgirl by writer Elliot S! Maggin and artist José Delbo.
13. Wells, John (May 2013). "Flashback: Whatever Happened to...?". Back Issue! (64). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing: 51–61.
14. Manning "1980s" in Dougall, p. 160: "Writer Joey Cavalieri and penciller José Delbo saw the heroes off in style as they faced the new menace of the mystical villain Nightwolf."
15. "Interviews: Transformers artist José Delbo". Ben's World of Transformers. May 2013. from the original on March 17, 2015.
16. Schwartz, David A. (May 25, 2010). "Cartoon campers learn from comic book artist". Sun-Sentinel. Fort Lauderdale, Florida. from the original on May 10, 2015. Delbo's camp, which began at the International Museum of Cartoon Art 12 years ago, teaches drawing skills, comic book design, film animation, the use of computers, cameras and digital images and video game creation.
17. Degg, D. D. (February 5, 2024). "Jose Delbo – RIP". The Daily Cartoonist. from the original on February 6, 2024. Retrieved February 6, 2024.
18. "Comic-Con International's Newest Inkpot Award Winners!" (Press release). San Diego Comic-Con International. 2013. from the original on May 8, 2015.

External links

• Official website
• at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
• DC Profile #76: José Delbo at the Grand Comics Database
• José Delbo at Mike's Amazing World of Comics
• José Delbo at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
• SDCC 2013 Coverage: José Delbo panel at YouTube
• José Delbo at Inducks
• José Delbo at IMDb

Preceded by Curt Swan	Wonder Woman artist 1976–1981	Succeeded by Don Heck
Preceded by Dick Giordano	"Batgirl" feature in Detective Comics artist 1980–1982	Succeeded by Trevor Von Eeden
Preceded by Don Perlin	The Transformers artist 1988–1990	Succeeded by Geoff Senior
Preceded by Geoff Senior	The Transformers artist 1990	Succeeded by Geoff Senior
Preceded by Geoff Senior	The Transformers artist 1990	Succeeded by Dwayne Turner