GEORGE PEREZ

I can earn more in a single weekend of convetioneering than I would in an entire month drawing comics. And I get a pretty high rate drawing comics.

When I did 'Wonder Woman,' I was especially proud that I had both a very large straight female and gay male following.

The difference between Superman and Wonder Woman is not strength or power level or origin but the fact that she is a woman.

I try to pay it forward. I do a lot of philanthropic and charity work. Some of my greatest awards, greatest rewards, have not been for comic work but for charity work.

Moonlight is my theater group. They are my home. I feel greatly appreciated there. That type of satisfaction, money can't buy.

I think one of the problems that comics has in dealing with superheroines is that they try to hard to make them superheroes. All they're doing is the same thing that men do. Just the idea that they're no different than men, except in how they look, always seemed a bit off to me.

Fans are hungry for original artwork.

It wasn't until I went to my first comic convention while I was in high school that I got to see actual comic book artists and original artwork in real life, up close. That was when I first realized that this is what I wanted to do for a living.

I've been drawing since I was five years old.

I grew up on comics in the 1960s era, when 'Wonder Woman' was rather silly. She was an interchangeable female character plagued by bad stereotypes. She cried at the drop of a hat, she was worried about how she looked, all of that.

Pretty much all I ever expected out of comics was page rate. You could make money doing sketches at conventions, and that could supplement your income. But page rate and some supplement, maybe, was all I ever expected.

To tell you the truth, while I do enjoy the grand-scale elements, it's the personal scenes, the character moments that I really find satisfying. That's where I get to delve into the characters' minds and hearts. That's where they become living, breathing beings to me.

Writing and drawing comics for the sheer joy of it - that's true bliss.

To clarify the facts to everyone, yes, I did have a heart attack. I was on a plane leaving from Los Angeles, CA, heading to Secaucus, NJ, for a comic convention when I started to feel some discomfort in my chest.

I find that using real people as models keeps me from getting too formulaic in the designs of characters.

I'm often forced to draw a lot of tiny panels due to the limited number of pages and the complexity of the story.

One thing I'm particularly proud of is that a convention will usually ask me back for the next year, after I've only been at the show for a day or two, because of my rapport with the fans.

Looking back, my style was pretty much Marvel house style - very large, thick characters, very musclebound, not very flexible.

One of the greatest joys of doing 'Comic Book Men' - I was so thankful - was that my wife Carol was able to appear with me. Being able to share that experience with Carol was such a monumental joy for me.

There was a time when I was 23 years old that I thought my career was over because I couldn't move my hand. It turned out it was just a pinched nerve.

Most of my best friends ended up being women, most notably my wife, and I learn a lot by simply listening.

I've had a great run and have been blessed not only with a great career, but also, thanks to all of you nice people buying video games, t-shirts, action figures, collected editions - and watching all those movies and TV shows - my royalty income allows me financial security for life.

While I've been well-known for trying to keep my fictional characters individual in their looks, it's an even greater challenge not only to make them individual but also identifiable.

There are artists who make their living now going to conventions... because now you can.

Quite honestly, one of the unavoidable considerations in going exclusive with any company is being put on a company's medical insurance program.