Pistolero - Issue 3 (cover art)

In anticipation of Comikaze's upcoming book celebrating the multi-decade career of Mexican artist Rafael Gallur, I wanted to post a few of my favorite pieces of his on CAF. Of the many artists who worked in the grueling business of Mexican comics, Gallur was a unique talent, providing both interior pencils and painted cover art for many titles. His later covers for the Pistolero series includes some of my favorite examples of his work.

I am not sure how long the series was planned out before publication began, but this particular piece was painted in 1997 and was used for issue 3 of the comic, which was published in 2001. "Pistolero" roughly translates to "gunman" in English, and this particular piece perfectly sums up that aspect of the title character Joe, with plenty of guns, a skull, a raven, and of course, a half-naked woman for good measure.

Like many illustration artists, Gallur did his painted work in gouache. I'm not sure if it was an intentional design choice with the series, but a great running detail across the numerous covers he did for Pistolero are the earrings worn by the women (often with little else) - this one is no exception.