As a long-time fan of the Commando war comics I was saddened today to read that his favourite Commando artist JM Jorge had passed away on the 4th October 2010. Jorge's detailed photo-realistic style was a huge inspiration to me, but it was many years before I learned his name as it was the policy of the publisher not to credit Commando's creative teams.
Jorge first worked for Commando in 1969 and continued to work for them right up until his passing - totalling 42 years, 163 issues and well over 10,000 pages of beautiful artwork including many stunning fully-painted covers. His final completed issue was #4329 Divided Aces published in September 2010 and his first #384 Flying Fury has been reprinted as part of Commando's 50th anniversary celebrations and is in newsagents as I type this.
For better written tributes to this amazing artist please check out these links
Jorge was my first serious art hero in the early 1970's, and a direct influence on my own pen & ink work. I still have my copies of his Commando, though I especially love the early ones before his pen line changed. I think the older ones were maybe drawn with Rotring or similar? they have a level of detail that's exquisite. In the later 70's he changed his pen I think, I thought they were by someone else using his style, so was surprised when I realised they were by the sae hand. Still very fine work, but the early ones have an edge for me.
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