A large stretch of this catalogue carries George Pérez's art. One note before anything else: the book most people go looking for when they search his name is Crisis on Infinite Earths, and it is not what this shelf is built around. Check the artist page for what is actually on it before planning a Pérez collection.
What it does give you is arguably the better half of his career anyway, and it is unusually complete.
How to recognise a Pérez page
Crowds that actually work. He is the artist other artists point to for large casts. Twenty figures in a panel, each one identifiable by silhouette, posture and costume, none of them just filling space. Nobody else made group shots readable at that density.
Ornament as structure. Costumes, armour, architecture and machinery get filigree detail that would look fussy from anyone else. It works because the underlying drawing is solid: the decoration sits on top of correct anatomy and perspective, not instead of it.
Panel counts nobody else attempts. He routinely fits nine, twelve, sixteen panels on a page and keeps them legible. Where a modern artist gives you spectacle by enlarging, Pérez gives you density.
Faces with real acting. His characters emote in small increments rather than big expressions, which is why his quiet scenes land as well as the battles.
The DC shelf
His Wonder Woman is the centre of it. Wonder Woman by George Pérez Omnibus Vol. 1-3 runs to 1,904 pages, which is exactly the sum of the three individual volumes — the set is the whole run, not a selection. This is the post-Crisis reconstruction of Diana as a mythological and diplomatic figure, and it is the work of his that has aged best.
Alongside it sits New Teen Titans, five omnibus of the run that made Titans a flagship rather than a sidekick book, plus The New Titans Omnibus Vol. 1 and two volumes of the Bronze Age Justice League of America.
The Marvel shelf
The Avengers Omnibus Vol. 6 covers his earlier Marvel period, and Avengers by Busiek & Pérez Omnibus Vol. 2 the celebrated late-nineties return — a run built specifically to give him what he does best, which is enormous casts in constant motion.
One outlier sits apart from both shelves: Hulk: Maestro by Peter David Omnibus, 960 pages, which collects the Future Imperfect material he drew. Availability on a single-copy catalogue changes constantly — the George Pérez page shows what can actually be bought first.
Where to start
One recommendation: Wonder Woman by George Pérez Omnibus Vol. 1, or the three-volume set if you already know you want the run. It is self-contained, it needs no DC continuity, and it is the clearest case of his drawing serving a story rather than decorating one.
If you want the version of him that shows off, go to New Teen Titans instead: same skill, more spectacle, and the run that defined an entire era of DC.
Who should skip this shelf
Two honest warnings. First, the gap above: no Crisis on Infinite Earths, so this is not the complete Pérez. Second, his density is not to everyone's taste — sixteen-panel pages with heavy ornament ask for slow reading, and if you like open, cinematic layouts you will find these pages busy rather than rich. His work rewards attention and punishes skimming.
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