Eduardo Barreto (1954-2011)

Noted comics artist Eduardo Barreto passed away today at the age of 57, after a long battle with meningitis . This summer Barreto’s last published comics work was done in the DC Comics’ 1970’s Retroactive Superman, written by Martin Pasko. According to Pasko, (in his Summer Word Balloon interview) the job had to be shared with Barreto’s assistant, due to his failing health. Barreto also collaborated with his son Diego on inks and pencils for Boom Studio and Mark Waid’s Irredeemable #29 , including a variant cover.

His was a classic illustrative style with a flair for dynamic action. That served him well in a comics career that spanned well over 30 years.

As listed in the Comic Book Database, The Uruguayan born Barreto began his American comics career as an inker billed under his full name Luis Eduardo Barreto  in 1979 for Marvel with 3 issues of Battlestar Galactica, Iron Man, and Marvel Team Up working over Pat Broderick and Sal Buscema pencils.

He went to work  for DC in 1980 as a penciller, starting with a JLA Databank Dossier featuring Hawkman in Worlds Finest #261. He distinguished himself at DC with runs on The New Teen Titans and the Superman team up book, DC Comics Presents. In July 1989, Barreto drew the accliamed graphic novel The Unathorized Biography of Lex Luthor, a tell-all expose by James Hudnall inspired by the real biography of Donald Trump: The Art Of The Deal. In Sepetember of that same year  Barreto showed his great ability at period piece stories beginning with a 2 year run as the main artist on the 1930’s pulp revival of The Shadow Strikes with Gerard Jones.

The 90’s saw Barreto work on such titles as The Elseworlds OGN Superman: Speeding Bullets with JM DeMatties, which told the story of Baby Kal-El being found on earth by Thomas And Martha Wayne. The prestige mini series  Martian Manhunter- American Secrets with Gerard Jones,  virtually all of the Batman titles, and the film adaptations of Batman Forever (1995), and Star Wars A New Hope-  Special Edition (1997).

In the 2000s  Barreto was part of the Joe Quesada revival of Marvel with the Marvel Knights Team book written by Chuck Dixon. He worked on The Elvira series for Claypool Comics, and OGNs for Oni Press, like the Antony Johnson western The Long Haul , and Ande Parks 1930’s Kansas City gangster story Union Station. He also shined on the 2006-2007 Men’s Adventure series COBB: OFF THE LEASH  for IDW written by Beau Smith. He and Smith also recently collaborated on a 2010 Captain Action story for Moonstone Books.

In May of 2006 Baretto took over the art chores on the syndicated  daily soap opera comic strip Judge Parker . In 2010 after contracting meningitis, artist Mike Manley took over the Parker strip. Barreto is survived by a 2nd generation of comics creators his son Diego, and daughter colorist Andrea Barreto.

 

Comments

  1. So sad, he was very young. I enjoy his work on Speeding Bullets

  2. They come in threes. We’re done.

  3. Sad news. Unfortunately, my knowledge of his work doesn’t span far past MM: American Secrets and the Luthor biography. Still, he was a talented artist, and it’s always sad to see one go.

  4. Woah, he was good. I wasn’t familiar with him. That Shadow cover is stunning. Can this month please stop killing people now?

  5. I’d just read that retro issue of Superman he did with Marty Pasko. Eduardo was one the greats. RIP.

    • Agreed. This was one of the few Retro’s where the art seemed appropriate to the age it was supposed to represent. A lot of that had to do with the inapropriately modern coloring laid onto to the Retroactive line of books. But this one really was great.

  6. My first series I collected was Atari Force (back in 1983. Yeah, I’m hella old) and on issue #14 Eduardo Barreto took over the art, following the outstanding Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, and did an outstanding job filling those huge shoes left by Jose (who is by far one of the greatest comic book artists of all time).

    Ed’s art will always be the source of great memories of my youth and of a time when comics meant more to me then “five star ratings” and “pick of the weeks”. Back when I was 12 comic books held my dreams.

    Thanks Ed

  7. I remember him on all sorts of DC stuff I’ve gotten in the past. Sad.

  8. It’s been a rough week. I always loved Eduardo’s work.

  9. Eduardo Barreto was a great artist who never seemed to be doing books I was reading. I always liked his style, though. And I was happy when he worked on that Marvel Knights team book. I read that one and thought his artwork was excellent in it. The two examples alone of this page show what a great artist he was.

  10. Man two legends in one day, that’s hard to swallow.

    I need to read more on him now because I’ve only vaguely seen some of his work. I feel bad knowing I didn’t get into his work more closely before he went.

    RIP

  11. Aside from George Perez, Barreto WAS New Teen Titans to me.

  12. Dang Jerry Robinson, Eduardo Baretto & Joe Simon all in one week. Dang!

    Matthew

  13. Too young. But what a wonderful life’s work he’s left us.

  14. Gone too soon.

    Dang indeed.