iFanboy Upstarts: Juan Ferreyra

Do you have a favorite artist of yours that seems to float around and never get the attention you think he or she deserves? Maybe they’re an acquired taste, or maybe they just aren’t on the right books to people to fully comprehend their greatness. Regardless of how it comes to be, I’m sure we each have a couple favorites like that. This week’s iFanboy Upstart is someone that’s done over a half-dozen creator owned series for Image and Dark Horse, but never seems to land that right mix of story, buzz and collaborator that gives them the platform for people to realize how good they are. Or maybe I’m just crazy.

Argentinean artist Juan E. Ferrayra (sometimes going by the acronym JEF) got his start in comics doing the creator-owned series Small Gods with writer Jason Rand back in 2004. The twelve issue series explored the idea of what if psychic powers were real when 1% of the Earth’s population is outed as having it. The story of one of those, a cop with precognitive powers, will showed off Ferrayra’s young talent both in interiors and his demonstrative covers. While balancing that series, the artist started a second series — Rex Mundi with writer Arvid Nelson — about a murder mystery set in the 1930s with the Holy Grail at the center of it. That series ran for 19 issues at Image before jumping to Dark Horse (akin to Fear Agent) where another 19 were published while the publisher shopped it around as a  possible movie. It quickly became his most recognizable work, giving him the avenue to draw highly detailed pieces in a period style while also illustrating high action car chases, fight scenes and other drama. Intersperced between the Dark Horse issues of Rex Mundi, Ferreyra found time to do two more creator-owned series — Emissary and Lazarus — back at Image. Suprising (to me at least), Ferrayra was never tapped by Marvel or DC to draw one of their big franchises; with his realistic but stylized artwork, he’d seem like an ideal choice to be pulled in… but maybe he was asked, and he said no. In recent years he’s kept busy doing alot of coloring work for Dark Horse, while continuing to draw things like the recent licensed series Falling Skies and the small press book Chopper. Currently, Ferreyra is working on a creator-owned graphic novel called La 6eme Heure with writer Nicolas Pona for the French publisher Soleil.

Take a look at a sample of Ferrayra’s work, and tell us what you think: is he the kind of artist you’d like to see draw your favorite book, or would you like to track down some of his creator-owned projects. Take note: the Justice League pages here are sample pages he did for DC and never published.