Wikipedia

José Villarrubia

José Antonio Villarrubia Jiménez-Momediano (born 17 November 1961) is a Spanish-American artist, comics colorist, educator, and photographer whose work spans comic books, fine art photography, and comics restoration. Known for collaborations with creators such as Alan Moore, Paul Pope, and Jeff Lemire, he has received multiple Eisner Award nominations and won the Harvey Award for Best Colorist in 2011. His photography is held in institutional collections including the Baltimore Museum of Art, and he served as chair of the Illustration Department at Maryland Institute College of Art from 2010 to 2015.

José Villarrubia
BornJosé Antonio Villarrubia Jiménez-Momediano
(1961-11-17) 17 November 1961 (age 64)
Madrid, Spain
NationalitySpanish, American
Area(s)Colorist, Painter, Photographer
Notable works
The Mirror of Love
Voice of the Fire
Promethea
Sweet Tooth
Fantastic Four: 1234
Desolation Jones
Cuba: My Revolution
America

Biography

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Early Life and Education

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Villarrubia was born in Madrid, where he studied at the Facultad de Bellas Artes of the Complutense University of Madrid from 1979 to 1980. He then moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Magna Cum Laude, from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1983, and a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from Towson University in 1986.

Academic Career

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He taught at Towson University as an adjunct faculty member from 1986 to 1998, the Baltimore School for the Arts from 1997 to 2000, and the Walters Art Museum from 1995 to 1997. He joined the faculty of the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) as a part-time instructor in 1997 and became a full-time professor in 2000.[1] From 2010 to 2015, he served as chair of MICA's Illustration Department.[1] Since 2015, he has been coordinator of its Sequential Art minor. [2] [1] He has lectured extensively about art, including at Johns Hopkins University, the College Art Association, Dickinson College, the ICA in London, the Willem de Kooning Academy, the Naples Academy of Art, and the MacWorld UK Convention.[3]

Fine Art Photography

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Villarrubia had a career as a fine art photographer since the 1980s, with work exhibited in over 100 venues across the United States, Latin America, and Europe.[4] His photography is held in the permanent collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C., the Tom of Finland Foundation in Los Angeles, and the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in New York — the first AAM-accredited museum dedicated to LGBTQ art.[5]

His photography appeared in Allen Ellenzweig's scholarly survey The Homoerotic Photograph: Male Images from Durieu/Delacroix to Mapplethorpe (Columbia University Press, 1992), alongside photographers including Robert Mapplethorpe, Herb Ritts, Bruce Weber, and Duane Michals.[6] He is quoted in Camille Paglia's Vamps & Tramps (Vintage Books, 1994),[7] and his photographs are included in David Leddick's The Male Nude (Taschen, 1998), which has remained in print in multiple editions.[8] His photographs also appeared in Man to Man: Homoeroticism and Male Homosexuality in the History of Photography, 1840–2006 (Vendome Press, 2007), published simultaneously in French, German, and Italian editions.[9]

Solo exhibitions include a ten-year retrospective at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima, Peru (1999), and shows at the Gomez Gallery in Baltimore (1989, 1990, 1995, 1997), Wessel O'Connor Ltd. in New York (1990, 1991), The Trout Gallery at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania (1996), the Holtzman Gallery at Towson University (1986), and international venues including Carré VIP in Paris (2007).

Group exhibitions have included Erotic Desire at the Netherlands Photo Museum in Rotterdam (1991), Revealed: The Tradition of Male Homoerotic Art at the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation in New York (2010), and Nella mente dello scrittore at Castel Sant'Elmo in Naples, Italy (2006).

Curatorial Work

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Villarrubia has curated a number of exhibitions spanning fine art photography and comics. In 1992 he curated Sequential Art: Art of the Comic-Book and Out of the Imagination at Maryland Art Place in Baltimore, and served as co-juror with Connie Imboden for Proof Positive there in 1993. He also juried the 60th Cumberland Valley Photographic Salon at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Hagerstown, Maryland (1993). In 1997 and 2001 he curated the exhibitions Digital Daze and Digital Monsters respectively at the Alcazar Gallery of the Baltimore School for the Arts. In 2007 he curated POPE/JEAN, a joint exhibition of work by Paul Pope and James Jean at the Julian Allen Illustration Gallery — named after Julian Allen, the founding chair of the Illustration Department — at the Maryland Institute College of Art.[10]

Comics: Illustration and Coloring

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In comics, Villarrubia has created digitally manipulated illustrations for titles such as Veils, Promethea, and The Sentry. As a colorist, he has frequently collaborated with artists including Jae Lee (Hellshock, Fantastic Four 1234, Captain America), Bill Sienkiewicz (Sentry/Hulk, X-Men Unlimited), J.H. Williams III (Promethea, Desolation Jones), Paul Pope (Solo, Project Superior, Batman: Year 100, Wednesday Comics[11]), Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Trillium), Kaare Andrews (Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Year One, Wolverine, Spider-Man: Reign), Ryan Sook (Spider-Man Unlimited, X-Factor, The Return of Bruce Wayne) and Richard Corben (CAGE, Ghost Rider, Conan the Cimmerian, Starr).

With writer Alan Moore he has produced two illustrated books, both published by Top Shelf Productions: Voice of the Fire (2003) and The Mirror of Love (2004). The latter is a love poem and a detailed history of homosexuality that highlights historical figures in art and literature. It originally began as a part of the AARGH! Anthology in 1988. AARGH! (Artists Against Rampant Government Homophobia) was a comic book protest against Britain's proposed anti-gay Section 28.[12] In 1998, a stage adaptation of The Mirror of Love, directed by David Drake with original music by Chris Mandra, was performed at the Baltimore Theatre Project. The book was translated and published in French as Le Miroir de l'amour (November 2006) by Carabas Revolution, in Italian as Lo Specchio dell'Amore (September 2008) by Edizioni BD, and in Spanish as El Espejo del amor (November 2008) by Editorial Kraken. In 2020 Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editori published a new edition with a new Italian translation by Marco Rosary.[13]

Villarrubia worked on the comic series Sweet Tooth, coloring nearly all of its 40 issues (written and drawn by Jeff Lemire from 2009 to 2013). From 2012 to 2018, Villarrubia colored the three graphic novels by Anthony Bourdain: Get Jiro!,[14] Get Jiro: Blood and Sushi, and Hungry Ghosts.[15] Sony Pictures Animation later announced development of Hungry Ghosts as an animated series.[16]

DC Comics' prestige imprint Black Label published two series colored by Villarrubia in November 2020: Sweet Tooth: The Return, where he reunited with collaborator Jeff Lemire,[17] and The Other History of the DC Universe, written by John Ridley.[18]

Color Restoration and International Publications

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In 2019, Casterman published Snowpiercer: Extinctions, the first French-language graphic novel colored entirely by Villarrubia.[19] A new chapter of the Le Transperceneige series written and illustrated by co-creator Jean-Marc Rochette, it was timed to coincide with the Snowpiercer television adaptation produced by TNT, which premiered in May 2020. In 2024, Casterman published a newly colored version by Villarrubia of Exterminator 17 (French: Exterminateur 17), the classic science fiction series by Jean-Pierre Dionnet and Enki Bilal.[20]

In 2022 he restored the original colors of the classic Swamp Thing series — originally by Len Wein, Bernie Wrightson, and Nestor Redondo — for the deluxe oversize edition Absolute Swamp Thing, collecting House of Secrets #92 and Swamp Thing #1–13.[21]

Starting in 2023, he became Project Art Director and art restorer for The Richard Corben Library at Dark Horse Comics, a long-term project reprinting and restoring Corben's body of work, beginning with the Den series.[22]

Writings

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His critical writing on comics includes the essay "Coloring Corben" for CAGE (Marvel Comics, 2002), essays in The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2003)[23] and Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman (Abiogenesis Press, 2004),[24] and a catalog essay for the exhibition Storie di uomini in armi nei disegni di Dino Battaglia (Comune di Cagliari, 2004), and an essay on Bernie Wrightson for City of Others (Dark Horse Comics, 2007).[25]. He wrote the foreword to Creepy Presents Richard Corben (Dark Horse Comics, 2012), a collection of Richard Corben's stories for the Warren Publishing horror magazines,[26] the introduction to the Spanish edition Creepy Presenta: Bernie Wrightson (Planeta DeAgostini, 2013),[27] and the introduction to Conan, nieto de Connacht (Planeta DeAgostini, 2021), collecting Richard Corben's flashback sequences from Conan the Cimmerian, written by Timothy Truman.[28] As Project Art Director of The Richard Corben Library (Dark Horse Comics, 2023–present), he has contributed an extensive critical essay to each volume in the series.[29][30] He also wrote the introduction for Koan: Paintings by Kent Williams and Jon J Muth (Allen Spiegel Fine Arts, 2001). From 1992 to 2000 he was a regular art reviewer for the Lambda Book Report,[31] the leading periodical of LGBTQ literature, and also contributed articles to The Washington Blade, The Baltimore City Paper, and The Baltimore Gay Paper.

As an editor, he conceived and produced several notable publications. He first edited Infidel (Image Comics, 2018), a five-issue horror series written by Pornsak Pichetshote and illustrated by Aaron Campbell.[32] He subsequently conceived and edited Hércules 1417 (Nuevo Nueve, 2021), an illustrated book retelling the labors of Hercules drawn by Das Pastoras, based on a 15th-century Spanish text by Enrique de Villena and adapted by poet Pedro Víllora.[33] He also conceived a new Illuminated Edition of A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published by Beehive Books and illustrated by Das Pastoras, for which he wrote a substantial historical essay. The volume also features an introduction by filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and an essay by Kate Bernheimer.[34][35]

Honorary Positions

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Villarrubia served on the Board of Directors of Maryland Art Place in Baltimore from 1992 to 1994, and on the Advisory Board of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund from 2014 to 2020.

Awards and honors

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  • 1997: Nominated for Best Colorist and Best Painter, Squiddy Awards.[36]
  • 1998: Won the Alex Sidorowicz Award for contributions to the Performing Arts from the Baltimore Theatre Project.
  • 2000: Veils (Illustrated by Villarrubia with Stephen John Phillips) was nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Designed Publication.
  • 2001: Nominated for Best Colorist for Marvel.com Awards.
  • 2001: Nominated for Best Colorist and Best Painter, Squiddy Awards.
  • 2002: Nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Colorist (for Fantastic Four: 1234).
  • 2006: Won the Comicdom Award for Best Colorist for X-Factor.
  • 2006: Nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Colorist (for Desolation Jones).
  • 2007: Batman: Year 100 (colored by Villarrubia) won the Eisner Award for Best Limited Series.
  • 2008: Nominated for the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Great Graphic Novels for Teens: Spiderman: Reign, Crossing Midnight and Batman: Year 100.[37]
  • 2010: Unknown Soldier issues #13-14 (colored by Villarrubia) won the Glyph Comics Award for Story of the Year.
  • 2011: Won the Harvey Award for Best Colorist for Cuba: My Revolution.[38]
  • 2013: Django Unchained (partially colored by Villarrubia) was nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Adaptation From Another Medium.[39]
  • 2016: Won the Rankin Award from the Robert E. Howard Foundation for King Conan: Wolves Beyond the Border (with Tomás Giorello).[40]
  • 2017: Won the Carlos Giménez Award for Best Colorist.[41]
  • 2017: America (colored by Villarrubia) was nominated for a GLAAD Award.[42]
  • 2017: Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love (colored by Villarrubia) was nominated for a GLAAD Award.[42]
  • 2018: Infidel (edited and colored by Villarrubia) was chosen as one of NPR's "100 Favorite Horror Stories."[43]
  • 2022: Won second Prize for Best Designed Book from the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sports, in the category of General Works for Hércules 1417, edited by Villarrubia.[44]
  • 2022: Nominated to the Tripwire Award for Best Colorist.[45]
  • 2024: Won a second Rankin Award from the Robert E. Howard Foundation for the Conan the Barbarian series (Titan Comics, with Roberto de la Torre).[46]
  • 2024: Den Volume 4: Dreams and Alarums by Richard Corben, art directed and restored by Villarrubia, was chosen by the New York Times as one of eight Best Graphic Novels and Comics of 2024.[47]
  • 2026: Nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Colorist for This Ink Runs Cold (Alan Spiegel Fine Arts); Ghostbox (Comixology Originals); Dracula Book 2: The Brides, The Witcher: The Bear and the Butterfly (Dark Horse); Hunger (The Lab Press); It Rhymes with Takei (Top Shelf).[48]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 "José Villarrubia". Maryland Institute College of Art.
  2. ↑ "Comic Sense and Sensibility". Baltimore Style. September 14, 2017. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  3. ↑ "Macworld Conference highlights". Macworld. November 25, 2004. Archived from the original on June 10, 2011. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
  4. ↑ "José Villarrubia". Maryland Institute College of Art. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  5. ↑ "Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art". Archived from the original on 2014-10-29. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  6. ↑ Ellenzweig, Allen (1992). The Homoerotic Photograph: Male Images from Durieu/Delacroix to Mapplethorpe. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231075367.
  7. ↑ Paglia, Camille (1994). Vamps & Tramps. Vintage Books. p. 94. ISBN 0679751203.
  8. ↑ Leddick, David (1998). The Male Nude. Taschen. ISBN 3822879665.
  9. ↑ Borham, Pierre (2007). Man to Man: Homoeroticism and Male Homosexuality in the History of Photography, 1840–2006. Vendome Press.
  10. ↑ Anderson, John (September 10, 2007). "James Jean and Paul Pope take Baltimore (and the worlds of comics and fashion) by storm". Comics Alliance. Archived from the original on October 16, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  11. ↑ Anderson, John (September 10, 2007). "James Jean and Paul Pope take Baltimore (and the worlds of comics and fashion) by storm". Comics Alliance. Archived from the original on October 16, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  12. ↑ Mathews, Ed; Jonathan Ellis (2005). "The Mirror of Love: Reflections with José Villarrubia". PopImage. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-07-18.
  13. ↑ "Lo specchio dell'Amore - Alan Moore - Feltrinelli Editore". Archived from the original on 2020-08-11. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  14. ↑ "Sushi Chef Against the World — Anthony Bourdain's Get Jiro!". 3 July 2012.
  15. ↑ "'Anthony Bourdain's Hungry Ghosts' is a Collection of Eerie Food Tales Steeped in Samurai Lore". 3 October 2018. Archived from the original on 12 August 2019. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
  16. ↑ "Sony Pictures Animation Unveils Expanded Slate: New 'Boondocks', Hungry Ghosts Anthology, More – Annecy". 12 June 2019. Archived from the original on 11 December 2025. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
  17. ↑ "Jeff Lemire Reveals First Details of Sweet Tooth: The Return Comic Series". Comics.
  18. ↑ Quaintance, Zack (August 12, 2020). "The other history of the DC Universe is finally coming". The Beat. Archived from the original on September 23, 2020. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
  19. ↑ J. Milette (July 11, 2019). "Transperceneige (Le) 5. Extinctions acte 1". BD Gest. Archived from the original on August 12, 2019. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
  20. ↑ "Exterminateur 17 Nouvelle Édition Colorisée on Casterman". Archived from the original on 2024-12-07. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
  21. ↑ "Creating Comics: José Villarrubia's Incredible Colour Restoration on New Absolute Swamp Thing Collection". 26 December 2022.
  22. ↑ "Den Volume 1: Neverwhere HC on Dark Horse".
  23. ↑ Khoury, George (2003). The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore. TwoMorrows Publishing. ISBN 9781893905245.
  24. ↑ Millidge, Gary Spencer; Smoky Man, eds. (2004). Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman. Abiogenesis Press. ISBN 0946790067. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  25. ↑ Niles, Steve (2007). City of Others. Dark Horse Comics. ISBN 9781593078935.
  26. ↑ "Creepy Presents Richard Corben HC". Dark Horse Comics. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  27. ↑ "Creepy Presenta: Bernie Wrightson". Planeta DeAgostini. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  28. ↑ "Conan, nieto de Connacht, de Planeta Cómic". Windumanoth. May 28, 2021. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  29. ↑ "Den Volume 1: Neverwhere HC". Dark Horse Comics. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  30. ↑ "Giant Sized Man-Child Thing: Thinking through Richard Corben's Den saga". The Comics Journal. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  31. ↑ "Mission & History". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  32. ↑ "Infidel TP". Image Comics. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  33. ↑ "Hércules 1417". Nuevo Nueve. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  34. ↑ "Beehive Books Launches A New Version Of The Illuminated Wonder Book". Tripwire Magazine. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  35. ↑ "Beehive set to illuminate Hawthorne's 'A Wonder Book'". September 12, 2025. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  36. ↑ "1997 Squiddy Awards". Hahn Library. Retrieved 2024-12-06.
  37. ↑ "Great Graphic Novels for Teens 2008". Young Adult Library Services Association. Archived from the original on 2024-12-08. Retrieved 2024-12-06.
  38. ↑ Cavna, Michael (2011-08-21). "BALTIMORE COMIC-CON: Your 2011 Harvey Award winners are". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2013-07-09. Retrieved 2017-09-02.
  39. ↑ "The Django Unchained graphic novel is nominated for an Eisner Award! « Hudlin Entertainment". Archived from the original on 2020-06-17. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
  40. ↑ Oneill, John (July 1, 2016). "Announcing the 2016 Robert E. Howard Foundation Award Winners". Black Gate. Archived from the original on August 5, 2021. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
  41. ↑ Lopez, Raul (November 11, 2017). "Ganadores premios Carlos Gimenez 2017 - Heroes Cómic Con Madrid". Zona Negativa (in Spanish). Archived from the original on November 14, 2017. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
  42. 1 2 "Glaad media award nominees have been announced". Graphic Policy. January 22, 2018. Archived from the original on September 24, 2020. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
  43. ↑ "Click If You Dare: 100 Favorite Horror Stories". NPR. August 16, 2018.
  44. ↑ "Libros mejor editados - Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte". Cultura.gob.es. June 2022.
  45. ↑ "Tripwire Awards 2022 Results In Full". Tripwire Magazine. 30 September 2022. Archived from the original on 2023-02-28. Retrieved 2024-12-06.
  46. ↑ "2024 REH Award Winners". Robert E. Howard Foundation. June 9, 2024. Archived from the original on December 7, 2024. Retrieved December 2, 2024.
  47. ↑ Thielman, Sam (December 6, 2024). "The Best Graphic Novels and Comics of 2024". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 23, 2025. Retrieved December 11, 2024.
  48. ↑ "Eisner Awards". Comic-Con International. Retrieved 2026-05-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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Interviews

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