Diego Jourdan Pereira is a Santiago-based comic book artist, digital illustrator, toy designer and art editor/restorer. He has worked for publishers and magazines from Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Bolivia, England, Ukraine, India and other countries since the 1990s. He has created art for such diverse companies as Simon & Schuster Publishing, Felix The Cat Productions Inc., Mirage Group, Blue Dream Studios, Mongoose Publishing, Alias Comics, DC Thomson and Image Comics, among many more. Jourdan's art graced many household characters such as 'Felix The Cat', 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles', 'G.I. Joe', 'Transformers Animated', 'Astro Boy The Movie: Official Movie Prequel', 'Digger & Friends', and 'Ghostbusters'.
Early life and education
Born in 1977 in Montevideo, Uruguay, he moved with his family to Chile at age 13, where he grew up with American, Argentinian, Chilean and French comic books. Back in Uruguay, Jourdan Pereira had already attended fine arts classes for children. But coming from a poor working class immigrant family meant that his parents were supportive of their son's artistic interests, as long as they remained a childhood pastime. Diego persisted, and while still at high school, he paid a six-month comics and illustration college course with his summer job earnings. He also corresponded with several comic artists from South America and the USA, including Eduardo Barreto, Jim Aparo, Jon Bogdanove, Sam Kieth, Will Eisner and Alex Toth. Besides US and French comics, Jourdan Pereira also draws inspiration from Dutch and Flemish artists, especially the Dutchmen Peter de Wit and Hanco Kolk.
Early career
Jourdan Pereira began his career as an assistant to illustrator Mariano Ramos and the Chilean Disney artist Vicar. His first publishing experience was with editorial and textbook illustrations for Chilean publishers, while also venturing into self-published indie comics with his friend Matt Starnes. In 2006 he spent several months in the USA, working as a game designer, and a freelance artist of 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' comics and related merchandise for Mirage Studios. Jourdan Pereira additionally had a brief stint as a cartoonist for Hustler magazine. In 2009 Jourdan Pereira was approached by the editor of Next Door magazine, a soft-core gay quarterly, who wanted to portray working class gay men in an unprejudiced way. This resulted in the full-color gag cartoon 'Glenn & Lorenzo' (2009), starring a married couple from Jacksonville, Florida. Since 2007 Jourdan Pereira works completely digital, because he claimed quality art supplies were no longer available nor affordable in Chile.
'Finding Nemo'.
Disney comics
Between 2010 and 2011 Jourdan Pereira has drawn comics and covers starring Disney/Pixar characters for Boom! Studios, most notably from the 'Toy Story', 'DuckTales' and 'Darkwing Duck' franchises. He returned to Disney art in 2015-2016 when he inked some stories pencilled by Sander Gulien for the Dutch Donald Duck weekly.
'Ivy the Terrible'.
British comics
Diego Jourdan has also worked on a regular basis for publications in Europe, where Ervin Rustemagic of Strip Art Features serves as his agent. Between October 2010 and February 2011, Jourdan was present in the British comic magazine The Beano of D.C. Thomson with new gags starring 'Ivy the Terrible', a classic character created by Robert Nixon in 1985. Through D.C. Thomson, he has also succeeded British artist Bill Ritchie in 2011 as the artist of the 'Lord und Lauser' comic in the German girls' magazine Wendy.
The company also assigned him to draw 'LEGO' comics, as well as covers and posters for WWE Kids, while he was also cover artist/ illustrator for Moshi Magazine by Skyjack Publishing. In 2016, Jourdan started illustrating the comics section in the Scottish Sunday Post newspaper. This includes the features 'Oor Wullie' and 'The Broons', created by Dudley Watkins way back in 1936.
'Lord und Lauser'.
Further international work
Jourdan has provided the Australian edition of MAD Magazine with gag cartoons in 2020-2011, and drew stories like 'Tojo's Time Machine' and 'The Wind-Up Club' for the Indian comic magazine Tinkle in 2013. He has done a page in Peru's Dedo Medio magazine with Javi Hildebrandt for three months in 2011, and was an assistant inker to Bob Weber Jr. on the newspaper feature 'Slylock Fox' from 2012 to 2014.
'Azules', from Dedo Medio magazine.
Digital restaurations
As a digital retoucher, Jourdan Pereira has worked on the US editions of Peyo's classic 'Smurfs' albums and on the Fantagraphics collections of Floyd Gottfredson's 'Mickey Mouse' newspaper strips. He has also re-inked and re-colored cover illustrations for the 'The Best of The Three Stooges' collections by NBM/Papercutz. Since 2012, Jourdan is restoring (reinking and recoloring) classic romance comic panels for John Lustig's online pastiche cartoon 'Last Kiss'. Between 2017 and 2018 he also did restoration and recoloring work for DC Comics, mainly on the 'Justice League International Omnibus', but also on 'Robin' and 'Lobo' paperback collections.
'The Broons' (11 September 2016).
Puzzle and trivia books
Since 2019 Jourdan has been mainly focusing on the production of puzzle books for Skyhorse Publishing, including 'The Big Book of Brain-Boosting Puzzles' (2020) and 'Giant Book of Games and Puzzles for Smart Kids' (2020). In 2020 he also made his debut as an author, with the publication of 'The Astonishing Bathroom Reader: Your No.2 Source to All the Flushing Facts, Jamming Trivia, & Gassy Mysteries of the Universe!' (Racehorse, 2020), a book with interesting facts about subjects varying from science over history to pop culture. In September 2020 he released 'Bible Power Puzzles: Learn the Word of God Through the Power of Puzzles!', an extensive book with puzzles related to the Old and New Testaments. It was awarded with the Bronze Award in the category Keepsake/Gift/Specialty Bible by the Illumination Book Awards for Exemplary Christian Books.
Recognition
Diego Jourdan is perfectly at ease being an artist for hire for mainly licensed properties. He enjoys reaching large audiences, and stated in an interview with The Newsletter of the National Cartoonists Society in January 2013 that "I am NOT my work, which some colleagues find hard to grasp. I pass no judgement on any client, nor any gig, and a cartoon is still a cartoon regardless the audience and content. I just try to do my work the best way I can." In December 2014, he won the Silver Morosoli Award, the highest Uruguayan culture, arts and sciences award, in a ceremony at the Lavalleja Theater in Minas, Uruguay.
'Tojo's Time Machine' for Tinkle.