Das Pastoras

Julio Martínez Pérez is a Spanish comic artist who works under the pen name Das Pastoras. Born in Santa Eugenia de Riveira, Galicia, he published his first work in the Catalan fanzine Zero, of which he was also co-founder. Later on, he joined the agency of Josep Toutain, and published his first professional work in a special 1983 issue of El Víbora, in which a new generation of artists was presented. This led to publications in leading Spanish comic magazines like Comix Internacional and Zona 84.

For the latter magazine, he created the sci-fi series 'El Futuro Nuestro de Cada Día' with scriptwriter Fradera, and the heroic fantasy story 'Guerreros', which he wrote himself. He was also present in the humorous children's weekly Más Madera! with 'Puzzle', a collaboration with Xavier Roca. He published in Cimoc and Europa Viva, before returning to El Víbora with his solo series 'Canal 44'. In 1990, he created the comic series 'Agurio', about a serial killer, with Felipe Borallo for Splatter.

His first book was released by Éditions El Jueves in 1991, collecting short stories he made for several publications. He started his collaboration with Enrique Abuli in the following year, resulting in 'Kafre', a comical series about a missionary in Africa. It ran for six years in magazine El Jueves, and was also collected in book format.

Afterwards, he turned to creating humorous and sometimes surrealistic short stories and cartoons under the label 'El Humor de Das Pastoras' for El Jueves and the weekend supplement of the daily newspaper El Mundo. Das Pastoras delved into the work of mythology and heroic fantasy with 'Les Hérésiarques', a series he created with Carlos Portela for Les Humanoïdes Associés in France in 2002. In 2007 he was hired to draw 'Catsake', a new cycle of Alejandro Jodorowsky's 'Metabarons' saga.

Besides the French market, Das Pastoras has been working for US comic books since the late 2000s. He has provided artwork to the one shots 'Wolverine: Switchback', 'Wolverine: Revolver', 'Thor: God of Thunder' for Marvel, and has worked on the Valiant titles 'X-O Manowar: Dead Hand', 'Book of Death: Fall of Ninjak' and 'Bloodshot Reborn'.