Original subtitles

So talk to me about, okay, so he did

Discover right before he retired.

How did that feel for you?

So he reached out to me and we became

friends on Facebook.

Okay.

And I was invited to a comic con in

Puerto Rico in 2016 and

that's when I decided I was

going to debut La Borinqueña,

And I was also asked if I

could bring George with me.

So I reached out to George and I said,

"I'm going to this event

and the organizers want

to invite you."

And he was like, "bueno, vamos entonces"

Oh, wow.

And it was the, and he shared, you know,

this is the first time

I've ever gone to Puerto Rico,

the professional comic book artist.

I've never been received in any event.

And what was really incredibly powerful

about that appearance

is that that would be his

only appearance ever in Puerto Rico.

Soon after he took very ill, his vision

was deteriorating, but

he didn't even know at

the time that he had cancer.

So he was so enamored by La Boringuena

and he shared with me

how important it was that

I owned La Borinqueña,

He says, "You know, I created close to 70

characters from Marvel

and DC, the Teen Titans,

White Tiger from Marvel."

He says, "But I don't own

any of those characters."

He says, "You own La Borinqueña,"

And then he takes a pause and he looks at

her costume and he

said, "You know, I love

how asymmetrical it is.

I love what you're doing this."

And he looks at her curly hair and he

says, "You know, when I

was drawing Wonder Woman,

I drew her a curly hair because in my

mind she was Puerto Rican."

And then he pauses and he says, "I want

to draw a cover for you."

And he says, "And I'm not

going to accept any money.

I want to accept the dime for you.

In fact, I'm going to give you the

original art after I draw

this cover and you can do

whatever you want.

You can print it, you can sell it,

whatever you want to do,

but I want to draw a cover

for you."

And so after Puerto Rico, we keep in

touch months later, he

shares that his vision was

deteriorating and apologizes for the

delay, but eventually

he finishes the cover and

he gives it to me as a gift.

And I get this in the mail and my mind is

blowing up because

this is the man who drew

the Avengers Infinity Saga for Marvel.

They became this multi-billion dollar

movies that we've seen today.

This is the man that retooled Wonder

Woman's origin to make

her an Amazon princess.

This is the man that created Teen Titans

that generations of

children have grown up

with and he was going to draw

the La Borinqueña cover for us for the next book.

And he does this book cover and soon

after he does that, he

tells the whole world, "I'm

retiring officially from comics."

And he reached out to me and says, "This

is the last cover that

I've actually drawn."

But he also shares, "I hope soon after

I'm gone that the

industry does respect that.

This is my last cover and they don't

publish anything else."

And unfortunately, they did exactly what

he hoped they didn't do.

And soon after his passing, they took old

images, pin-up sketches

and they would recolor

it and pass it off as new covers.

But officially, the last

cover that he drew was that one.

Wow.

And that is the second

issue of La Borinqueña,

And that original cover is part of an art

exhibition that's been touring across the

United States.

I went to Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

I went to Long Island in New York.

It just finished the

show in Chicago, Illinois.

And this coming year is going to be in

Puerto Rico, in a brand

new gallery of Humanidades

de Puerto Rico," which is the natural

endowment of the Human

Humanities Division in Puerto

Rico.

And they have a brand new gallery.

And the original cover of George Perez's

art, along with all of

the other artwork from our

comic book, is going to be

on display at that exhibition.