José Delbo

Born José María Del Bó on December 9, 1933, in Argentina, José Delbo built a career spanning more than five decades that took him from South American genre comics to the heart of American superhero publishing. He died on February 5, 2024.

Delbo broke into the industry in the early 1960s, and his versatility quickly earned him credits as artist, inker, and letterer across an impressive range of titles. Western comics gave him an early foothold — he logged extensive work on Billy the Kid — before his career pivoted toward the superhero genre that would define his reputation. His longest and most celebrated association was with DC Comics' Wonder Woman, a run that also appeared in localized editions under titles including Wundergirl and Marvila, la Mujer Maravilla, reflecting the character's broad international reach. He brought a clean, expressive line to the Amazon warrior that resonated with readers across multiple markets.

Later, Delbo crossed to Marvel Comics, where he became a key artistic voice on The Transformers during the franchise's peak popularity in the 1980s, cementing his place in the memories of an entirely different generation of readers. Active in the medium from 1962 through at least 2018, his body of work — 444 credited issues — stands as a testament to his reliability, craftsmanship, and quiet adaptability across wildly different genres and publishing landscapes.