Comics illustrator and legend George Pérez has passed away at the age of 67. The news was confirmed on Twitter by Constance Eza, who penned a moving tribute to the artist. Pérez retired three years ago, though he worked his entire adult life up until that time, rising to prominence in the 1970s. He was responsible for creating major DC characters in Cyborg, Raven, and Starfire, all alongside writer Marv Wolfman.

Pérez was born in New York City in 1954 to parents of Puerto Rican descent. He and his brother always aspired to be artists, with the interest going all the way back to when he was just five years old. At age 19, he became the assistant for comics artist Rich Buckler, who worked on The Fantastic Four with Marvel. Pérez officially debuted in August 1974, penciling a two-page portion of Marvel Comics' Astonishing Tales #25. The art that Pérez did displayed a satire of Buckler's character, Deathlok.

The Inhumans, Man-Wolf, The Fantastic Four, and The Avengers all received the benefit of being penciled by Pérez. He also helped to create the character of Taskmaster, who was a major character in recent Marvel Studios film Black Widow. Pérez stayed with Marvel until around 1980, where he then went to work with rival company DC. Most of his fans will recognize his work with The New Teen Titans, where he helped to develop characters like Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven, who are all still immensely popular today.

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Image via DC Comics

Related: DC to Celebrate Comics Icon George Pérez With Colorful Multi-Issue Tribute

His real aspiration was to pencil The Justice League, a team that Pérez defined as "a natural progression from The Avengers." He did earn the opportunity to pencil Justice League of America when artist Dick Dillin passed away. Fans were very pleased by his work with Justice League, though his work with Teen Titans garnered more acclaim. He then went on to work on several other projects with DC, from Crisis on Infinite Earths, to the 1987 reboot of Wonder Woman, to various assorted Superman comics. Marvel was soon able to bring Pérez back in, where he did penciling for Silver Surfer and The Avengers.

An open memorial is scheduled to be held at Megacon Orlando on May 22. You can read Eza's full statement below: