We’re sorry to report the death of Argentinian artist Hector Garrido, perhaps best known for his GI Joe illustrations and memorable book cover art.
Born in 1928, Hector passed away peacefully in his sleep on 19th April 2020, aged 92.
Argentinian by birth, Hector studied art in Buenos Aires but emigrated to the United States when and was professionally active there, beginning in the 1950s. He’s best known to fans of GI Joe for his original artwork that featured on the 1980s-era merchandise packaging.
For book publishers, he painted the covers of numerous SF, Gothic romance, and Thriller and Horror books, including for book series such as The Three Investigators (he painted all the Crimebusters covers), Danny Dunn, the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, The Destroyer (Remo Williams), and The Baroness.
Perhaps most notably in the horror genre, he painted the iconic covers for TM Wright‘s Strange Seed/ Children series.
Hector, who went into semi-retirement in 2000, painting devotional subjects, was also a TIME Magazine cover artist, and a number of these, including his work, “Astronauts” featuring the Apollo 8 crew published in 1968, is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.
For much of his career, he also created collector plates for the Bradford Exchange. His plate “Our Lady of Lourdes” sold over one million copies.
Our sympathies to Hector’s family and friends at this time.
This site featuring Hector’s art will continue, and any proceeds from sale of Hector’s original artwork available for sale – which does not include his GI Joe commissions or book art, all now sold – will go to his family, as they had previously. Check back from time to time for new artwork. As the site is maintained for free by a friend of his, there is still original artwork waiting to be photographed and posted
• Art by Hector Garrido in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery
John Freeman
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Star Trek Explorer (previously known as Star Trek Magazine) and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War and “Dan Dare”. He’s the writer of "Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies" for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
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