Brazilian comics artist Al Rio has died aged 49. CJ looks back at his career...
In fairly sudden news this week, good-girl comics artist Al Rio has died. The artist is survived by his wife Zilda and their three children.
Alvaro Araújo Lourenço do Rio was born in Fortaleza, northeastern Brazil in May 1962. Disney helped start Rio's career. The House of Mouse's animation studio in Rio's homeland also fostered another Al, the title character of the 1994-1995 Aladdin animated series.
Rio worked for Jim Lee's Wildstorm imprint in the 1990s, striking a balance between retro and modern styles in his work on DV8 and Lee and Brandon Choi's Gen 13. Although he had worked on numerous high-profile projects for Marvel and DC, the South American artist had become synonymous with Zenescope's Grimm Fairy Tales series in recent years.
Rio's death was made public by his agent and collaborator, David Campiti of Glass House Graphics. Tragically, Bleeding Cool and Newsarama have reported that Rio committed suicide. It's very sad to hear that such a talented person ended their life prematurely. "Few could draw as well, adapting to so many styles so effortlessly, as Al Rio," Campiti commented in tribute.
Much of Rio's work was what's termed as good-girl art. The good-girl style had recently come under fire from the Women in Comics movement, with some of Rio's work held up as examples of sexist portrayals prevalent in the industry.
In 2010, Rio told Newsarama that he approached comics with a storyteller's eye, "I believe that the difficulty and pain they [heroes] have to go through to destroy evil — not their clothes, but the intelligence — is the most appealing factor."
In December last year Golden Age comics legends Jerry Robinson and Joe Simon passed away. Along with writer Dwayne McDuffie - who passed almost a year ago and who was also born in 1962 - Rio's contribution to Modern Age comics will be remembered fondly.
Bleeding Cool, Newsarama and Big Cartoon News
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