| Rags Morales | |
|---|---|
 Morales in 2023 | |
| Born | Ralph Morales |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Penciller, Inker |
Notable works | Identity Crisis Countdown to Infinite Crisis Action Comics |
Ralph "Rags"Morales (/məˈræləs/) is an Americancomic book artist known for his work on various books forDC Comics, includingIdentity Crisis,Countdown to Infinite Crisis,Batman Confidential, andThe New 52 reboot of thenSuperman-centricAction Comics.
Morales is the co-creator, along withBrian Augustyn, of the 1990s version ofBlack Condor.
Rags Morales was born in New York. He is of Puerto Rican descent, and grew up in a predominantly white suburb of Landing NJ.[1] Morales attended a number of vocational art classes, includingThe Kubert School inDover, New Jersey.[2]
Morales' first professional work was penciling 19 issues ofForgotten Realms with writerJeff Grubb as part of the TSR line of books. FollowingForgotten Realms, Morales co-created and pencilledBlack Condor.[3]
Morales left DC Comics to do work forValiant Comics, includingTurok,Archer & Armstrong andGeomancer. He also did some licensed work on aSliders comic book, and work forWizards of the Coast. After Valiant closed, Morales returned to his TSR roots, doing work forDungeons & Dragons magazines and novella work forHarperCollins, such asIsaac Asimov'sRobotics and pen and ink work forMargaret Weis'Testament of the Dragon. He also taught anatomical illustration at avo-tech school.[4]
In 1999, Morales was made the penciler on DC's onHourman, penciling 20 of that series 25 issues before it was canceled in 2001. Over the course of the following year, he drew nine intermittent issues ofJSA between issue #9 and issue #34, before moving ontoHawkman with writerGeoff Johns. It was also onHawkman that he first worked with inkerMichael Bair, with whom he has worked on most of his projects since. At the time Morales said "when I saw the magic that Michael Bair added to my work, I knew I had to stick with this dude".[5]
AfterHawkman, Morales illustratedBrad Meltzer's limited seriesIdentity Crisis. Because of the importance ofIdentity Crisis to DC's ongoing company-wide storyline, and because of the number of characters in it, including minor ones that had barely been seen in years, Morales used copious amounts of reference materials for character studies, including the use of famous actors' faces to give the characters unique facial features, and sometimes updating their costumes in the process.[4] The series was eventually selected by The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)'s 2007 recommended list of Great Graphic Novels For Teens.[6]
Morales and Bair worked onNightwing duringPeter Tomasi's run as writer on that title.[7] He later worked onSuperman/Batman #53 - 56,[8] which were among the seven issues collected in to theFinest Worlds hardcover in 2009, and in trade paperback form in 2010.
In 2009 he contributed to the "Blackest Night" storyline with the three issues miniseries,Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps.[9]
In June 2011, as part of DC Comics' massive relaunch of their entire superhero line, Morales was announced as the artist on the newAction Comics #1, teaming with writerGrant Morrison.[10]
In September 2018, Morales was namedInkwell AwardsSpecial Ambassador.[11][12]
Regarding his figure work, Morales finds stock, poster-like standing poses difficult, preferring the more communicative movement seen among characters in narrative sequences, a forte he feels helped him attain theIdentity Crisis assignment.[3]
