Danish 'Uncle Scrooge' story (D2008-243).
Daniel Pérez Cabezas is a Spanish artist, affiliated with Studio Comicup in Barcelona. He has drawn for properties by several European publishers since the 1980s, most notably Disney comics for Sanoma in the Netherlands and Egmont in Denmark.
Early life and career
Born in 1961 in Barcelona, Daniel Pérez began his career in 1979, working as an inker and then a penciler for Angel Beaumont's studio, which produced comic adaptations of popular animated cartoon series of the time. He worked on comics starring characters like 'D'Artacán y Los Tres Mosqueperros' ('Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds'), 'Naranjito' (the mascot of the 1982 Football World Cup held in Spain), 'Ruy el Pequeño Cid' (a Spanish-Japanese cartoon series) and 'Banner y Flapi' (from the anime series 'Bannertail: The Story of Gray Squirrel').
'Mortadelo y Filemon'.
Studio Comicup
Pérez began his association with Comicup in 1982, where he initially worked on productions for the German market. These included 'Fix und Foxi' and 'Lupo' by Kauka Verlag, and also Knax, the magazine for Germany's saving banks. In the mid-1980s he was commissioned to draw comic strips with Francisco Ibáñez's characters 'Mortadelo y Filemón', to which publisher Bruguera held the rights. Pérez produced most of the artwork for 'El profesor Probeta Contraataca', a story written by Julio Fernández and serialized in Mortadelo Extra in 1986. Through Comicup, he worked on a few 'Sjors en Sjimmie' gag comics for the Dutch magazine Sjors & Sjimmie Stripblad, under supervision of Robert van der Kroft in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
'Sjors en Sjimmie' by Daniel Pérez, with a caricature of artist Robert van der Kroft in the background (Sjors & Sjimmie Stripblad #19, 1993)
Disney comics
In the 1990s Pérez was producing artwork for the 'Care Bears' franchise, while also beginning his extensive production for European Disney magazines. In the early 1990s, he started drawing 'Winnie the Pooh' comic pages for the Dutch magazine Disneyland. He continued to work on text comics for this publication from scripts by either Frans Hasselaar or Frank Jonker up until 2006. In 1998 he drew Didier Le Bornec's new adaptation of the 1977 Disney film 'The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh' for Disney Europe.
'The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh'.
Ever since the 1990s, Pérez has drawn a great many stories starring secondary characters like 'Big Bad Wolf', 'Br'er Rabbit', 'Basil the Great Mouse Detective', 'Scamp', 'Bucky Bug', and 'Panchito' for Donald Duck weekly magazine in the Netherlands. He is also the artist of a few 'Scamp' stories Egmont has produced after 2000.
'Scamp' story from Dutch Donald Duck #2, 2006.
Since the mid-2000s Pérez is one of the more prominent Spanish artists for stories with 'Donald Duck' and his family, both for Sanoma and Egmont. Between 2008 and 2010 he illustrated many stories for Donald Duck Junior, a Dutch magazine for beginning readers, from scripts by editors like Bas Schuddeboom and Simone Ruitenbeek. He notably illustrated the Dutch back cover gag series starring 'Gladstone Gander' in 2014, and enhanced the scripts by Jan Kruse with background jokes starring a black cat and other animals. With Carmen Pérez (no relation), he is currently one of the most sought-after artists for longer adventure stories by the Dutch publisher. Pérez is additionally a productive artist for Egmont's pre-school productions, making story illustrations and activity pages related to 'Winnie the Pooh', '101 Dalmatians', 'The Aristocats', 'Jungle Book' and 'Finding Nemo'.
'Gladstone Gander' back cover gag from Dutch Donald Duck #48, 2014.
Other work
In addition to his Disney work, Egmont has also assigned Daniel Pérez to work for their Petzi production, starring Carla and Vilhelm Hansen's character 'Rasmus Klump'. In his home country, he has participated in the production of the bilingual book (Spanish/English or Spanish/French) 'La Piedra de la Verdad y Otras Historias' ('The Stone of Truth and other stories'), produced and written by Alfredo Sánchez Esteban to support the Spanish Association Against Cancer and the Spanish Alzheimer Foundation in 2016. Pérez produced the fairy tales 'Isla Tortuga' and 'La Profecía Gitana'. Among the other contributors were Jorge David Redó, Ruben Martín Ojeda, Iván García Aguado and Juan Manuel Muñoz.
Pencil art for 'Isla Tortuga'.