iFanboy Upstarts: Carlos Rafael

Although when super-hero comics first started they were primarily produced by U.S. — and mainly New York-centric– writers and artists, mainstream American comics have become an international industry. From early entrances by Canadian artists to the powerhouse introduction of Filipino talent in the early 70s such as Tony DeZuniga and Alex Niño. Today, artists are being recruited from all over and one of the hotbeds of new talent is coming from Brazil with the likes of super-hero superstars Mike Deodato and Ivan Reis to creator-owned darlings like Gabriel Bá, Fábio Moon and Rafael Grampá. With all those names already breaking through to American comics’ A-List, there’s a host of others on their way up.

Brazilian artist Carlos Rafael has become the go-to guy when it comes to licensed comics at Dynamite Entertainment. After an early career doing Brazilian webcomics under the tutelage of Klebs Junior, Rafael got his first big break by illustrating Rick Remender’s Classic Battlestar Galactica series in 2006. Rafael bounced around doing fill-ins for books like Highlander and shorts in the Savage Tales anthology before being the artist chosen to draw Dynamite’s Buck Rogers relaunch in 2009. After doing that 12-issue series, Dynamite kept Rafael on space adventures as artist of this year’s Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris series. In his free time Rafael has done a number of test pages from the likes of DC, Marvel and Dark Horse that are included here, but he has yet to land an assignment there.

There’s no shame in licensed comics, but with Rafael’s ample talents it’s only a matter of time before he transitions to bigger projects like the work-for-hire gigs at Marvel or DC. Look over his work and tell us, where do you think Carlos Rafael should go next?