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| Salvador Larroca | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Area | Penciller,Inker |
Notable works | Iron Man Ultimate Elektra X-Treme X-Men Ghost Rider |
| Awards | Inkwell Awards 2024 All-in-One Award |
Salvador Larroca (/ləˈroʊkə/) is a Spanish comic book artist, primarily known for his American work on variousX-Men titles forMarvel Comics.
After starting his career as acartographer, Larroca transitioned to working as a comics artist in the 1980s atMarvel UK, contributing toDark Angel andDeath's Head II. He then did work in North American comics, includingDC Comics'Flash and Marvel Comics'Ghost Rider,Heroes Return,Fantastic Four,The Invincible Iron Man, and various titles related to theX-Men franchise andUltimate Marvel imprint.
Larocca has also provided artwork for Marvel's spinoffs and licensed books, such asStar Wars in the 2010s andAlien in 2021. His work on the former attracted criticism for his heavy reliance on tracing stills fromStar Wars films, resulting in an "awkward hyperrealism" that was likened to theuncanny valley effect.[1][2]
After several years of working as acartographer, he began working as a comic artist atMarvel UK, theBritain-based imprint ofMarvel Comics.[3] Larroca was working at Marvel UK when he contributed toDark Angel andDeath's Head II. At some point, Larroca began to work on mainstreamNorth American comics, such asDC Comics'Flash. Afterwards, Larroca did a three-year run on Marvel Comics'Ghost Rider, during the mid-1990s. It was not until after his run onGhost Rider, that Larroca would gain the exposure needed to become known as one of the most prominent comic book artists in theUnited States.
Following Marvel's experiment with the various "Heroes Reborn" titles, editorBobbie Chase gave Larroca the task of penciling the return ofCaptain America,Iron Man,Fantastic Four, theAvengers, and several other superheroes, in theHeroes Return miniseries.[4] After the departure ofAlan Davis onFantastic Four, Larroca was given the reins along with writerChris Claremont. Larroca and Claremont had a three-year-long run on the title.[5]
Larroca left the title penciling chores in the hands of new writer/penciler,Carlos Pacheco, while Larroca went on to do several issues ofUncanny X-Men, after the departure ofAdam Kubert, who left to work onUltimate X-Men. Larroca then proceeded to rejoin with writer Chris Claremont, onX-Treme X-Men. Larroca stayed on the title for twenty-four issues, at which point he was asked to work on the initial run of Marvel's newTsunami imprint title, calledNamor. Meanwhile, Larroca worked on various miniseries projects, includingUltimate Daredevil & Elektra andUltimate Elektra.[6]
Larroca was asked to draw fill-in issues ofThe Uncanny X-Men andX-Men. These issues led up to the "X-Men Reload" event, as the titles gained new writers, artists, and story direction. Larroca joined with writerChuck Austen onX-Men. During his run ofX-Men, Larroca took a side job drawingSpider-Man: House of M miniseries. Larroca was drawingX-Men, but with a new writer on the title,Peter Milligan. He left X-Men in June and was announced to be joining Warren Ellis onnewuniversal, a remake of Marvel'sNew Universe.
From 2008 to 2012, Larroca illustrated writerMatt Fraction's run onThe Invincible Iron Man.
In December 2020, Marvel announced that Larroca would be teaming up with writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson on anAlien comic book series, with the first issue released in March 2021.[7][8]
In 2024, Larroca was awarded theInkwell Awards All-in-One Award.[9]
James Whitbrook, reviewing the "Ashes of Jedha" storyline inMarvel Comics'Star Wars series forKotaku, took issue with what he felt was Larroca's heavy reliance on tracing stills fromStar Wars films when rendering the characters, which imbued the characters' faces with an "awkward hyperrealism" that he felt evoked the effect of theuncanny valley. While Whitbrook did not observe this problem in his work on otherStar Wars arcs, and praised Larroca's work in rendering large-scale elements such as starships or planets, he felt that in many closeups of the three main characters in "Jedha," the illustrations too closely mirrored the images from the films, often from scenes in which the actors' facial expressions did not match the tone or dialogue of the characters in the comic.[1] Charlie Hall, reviewing the same storyline forPolygon, expressed the same viewpoint, and like Whitbrook, compared these renditions to the work of Angel Unzueta and Arif Prianto on thePoe Dameron series, which they felt rendered the characters to sufficiently resemble or recognizably evoke the actors who played them, without exhibiting the sense that they were"pasted" from reference materials.[2]
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