Marvel UK Posters By Rafael López Espí

Marvel UK Posters by Rafael López Espí
Marvel Comics
1974

If you had 90 pence back in 1974, and read Marvel UK magazines, then you could have been among the lucky comic book fans to get your hands on a fantastic set of posters created by Spanish artist, Rafael López Espí.

López Espi is not among the most well known artist from the Marvel era, and this is perhaps because the majority of his work was confined to reprints of issues while working for Ediciones Vértice, the group responsible for Spanish versions of popular Marvel Comics.

Born and native to Barcelona, López Espí began his career in 1953, which has included covers for titles such as DC Thomson’s Commando and the Fleetway titles Air Ace, Battle, Roxy, Marilyn and Valentine.

He also produced strip work for western stories such as Rex Raven, Billy McGregor and Riffle, as well as several war and romance stories, and Mytek the Mighty. His talents could easily rival some of the greatest of the era. I daresay if given the chance, he could have taken on books of his own, ushering in a new age of Marvel prior to the 90's boom where it was more about the art(ist), and less about the story.

It's indicated that he eventually tired of comics work because of issues over creator rights. However, he did return to them in 2009 to create Extra-Humans and Rayser, published by Panini, the latter which inspired a musical soundtrack by Zíclope and Scud Hero. For Marvel alone, he's credited for working on close to 600 covers during his career, and that's just the work he did for Marvel.

Pertaining to this work specifically, though there wee only six posters made available during this 74' promotion. However, you can see more work done in this style directly at his website, "HERE". While his site is in Spanish, I think the artwork speaks for itself.

I'm particularly a fan of this Spider-Man image, if that's a surprise to any of you readers of The Toy Box. I like how Espi has incorporated into the mask his facial features. These are details which would clearly be visible through his mask, but was something no artists I've seen prior, or since, have bothered to hone in on.

I would have loved to have these posters on my wall as a child, and young comic collector. Granted, by the time I was into comics, 1974 was long past. Heck, I wasn't even around when they first came out.

For a deeper dive into his work, you can also track down a copy of his book, El poder de López Espí: El arte de los superhéroes (translated The power of López Espí: The art of superheroes), published by Dolmen Editorial. It's still available on their main website, "HERE". However, much like his blog, the book is also in Spanish.

This post is not sponsored by Rafael López Espí, or Dolmen Editorial.

These days, books with Rafael López Espí covers are found few and far between, and when they are, they average $100.00 to $200.00 each. However, if you were interested in putting together a comic collection based on the art alone, this would certainly be one I recommend.

Credit is also given to, downthetubes, an additional source for this post.

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