# José Villarrubia

José Antonio Villarrubia Jiménez-Momediano (born 17 November 1961) is a Spanish-American artist and educator who has done considerable work in the American comic book industry, particularly as a colorist. His fine art photography has been exhibited in the U.S., Latin America and Europe, in institutions such as the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Inter-American Development Bank.

## Biography

Villarrubia was born in Madrid, and moved to Baltimore, Maryland in 1980. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from Towson University. He taught at Towson, the Baltimore School for the Arts, and the Walters Art Museum. From 2011 to 2016 he was chair of the Illustration Department of the Maryland Institute College of Art, and is coordinator of its Sequential Art minor. He has lectured extensively about art, including Johns Hopkins University, the College Art Association, Dickinson College, the ICA in London, the Williem de Kooning Academy, the Naples Academy of Art, and the MacWorld UK Convention.
In comics, Villarrubia has done digitally manipulated illustrations for Veils, Promethea, and The Sentry. As a colorist he is frequent collaborator of Jae Lee (Hellshock, Fantastic Four 1234, Captain America), Bill Sienkiewicz (Sentry/Hulk, X-Men Unlimited), J.H. Williams III (Promethea, Desolation Jones), Paul Pope (Solo, Project Superior, Batman: Year 100, Wednesday Comics), Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Trillium), Kaare Andrews (Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Year One, Wolverine, Spider-Man: Reign), Ryan Sook (Spider-Man Unlimited, X-Factor The Return of Bruce Wayne) and Richard Corben (CAGE, Ghost Rider, Conan the Cimmerian, Starr). He has won the 2006 Comicdom Award for best colorist for his work on X-Factor, has been nominated twice for the Eisner Award for best colorist and has been included in The Society of Illustrators Annual Exhibition.
With writer Alan Moore he has produced two illustrated books, both published by Top Shelf Productions: Voice of the Fire and The Mirror of Love. The latter is a love poem and a detailed history of homosexuality, prominently featuring famous figures in art and literature. It originally began as a part of the AARGH! Anthology in 1988. AARGH! [Artists Against Rampant Government Homophobia] was a comic book protest against Britain's proposed anti-gay Section 28. It was translated and published in French as Le Miroir de l'amour (November 2006), by Carabas Revolution, in Italian as Lo Specchio dell'Amore (September 2008) by Edizioni BD and in Spanish as El Espejo del amor (November 2008) by Editorial Kraken. In 2020 Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editori published a new edition with a new Italian translation by Marco Rosary.
The longest running project in which Villarrubia has been involved has been the comics series Sweet Tooth, where he colored almost all 40 issues (written and drawn by Jeff Lemire from 2009 to 2013). In 2020 Lemire and Villarrubia returned to the character in a new series published under DC Comics' Black Label Imprint. The series was titled Sweet Tooth: The Return.
From 2012 to 2018, Villarrubia colored the three graphic novels by Anthony Bourdain: Get Jiro!, Get Jiro: Blood and Sushi and Hungry Ghosts Sony Pictures is then began developing Hungry Ghosts as an animated series.
In 2019 Casterman published the first French language graphic novel completely colored by Villarrubia. A new chapter of the series Le Transperceneige (Snowpiercer: Extinctions), the comic was written and illustrated by series co-creator Jean-Marc Rochette. The publishing of this new volume was timed originally to coincide with the release of the new Snowpiercer TV series that adapts this comic. The series was produced by TNT and premiered in May 2020.
DC Comics' prestige imprint Black Label published two series colored by Villarrubia launched in November 2020, Sweet Tooth: The Return, where he reunited with collaborator Jeff Lemire and the long delayed The Other History of the DC Universe, written by John Ridley.
In 2022 he restored the original colors of the classic series Swamp Thing by Len Wein, Bernie Wrightson, and Nestor Redondo for the deluxe oversize edition Absolute Swamp Thing. It collected House of Secrets #92 and Swamp Thing #1–13.
Starting in 2023, he became the Project Art Director and art restorer for The Richard Corben Library from Dark Horse Comics. The collection would reprint all of Corben's classic comics, starting with the complete stories of Den.
In 2024, Casterman published a newly colored version by Villarrubia of Exterminator 17 (French: Exterminateur 17) by Jean-Pierre Dionnet and Enki Bilal.

## Awards and Honors

* 1997: Nominated for Best Colorist and Best Painter, Squiddy Awards.
* 1998: Won the Alex Sidorowicz Award for contributions to the Performing Arts from the Baltimore Theatre Project.
* 2000: Veils (Illustrated by Villarrubia with Stephen John Phillips) was nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Designed Publication.
* 2001: Nominated for Best Colorist for Marvel.com Awards.
* 2001: Nominated for Best Colorist and Best Painter, Squiddy Awards.
* 2002: Nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Colorist (for Fantastic Four: 1234).
* 2006: Won the Comicdom Award for Best Colorist for X-Factor.
* 2006: Nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Colorist (for Desolation Jones).
* 2007: Batman: Year 100 (colored by Villarrubia) won the Eisner Award for Best Limited Series.
* 2008: Nominated for the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Great Graphic Novels for Teens: Spiderman: Reign, Crossing Midnight and Batman: Year 100.
* 2010: Unknown Soldier issues #13-14 (colored by Villarrubia) won the Glyph Comics Award for Story of the Year.
* 2011: Won the Harvey Award for Best Colorist for Cuba: My Revolution.
* 2013: Django Unchained (partially colored by Villarrubia) was nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Adaptation From Another Medium.
* 2016: Won the Rankin Award from the Robert E. Howard Foundation for King Conan: Wolves Beyond the Border (with Tomás Giorello).
* 2017: Won the Carlos Giménez Award for Best Colorist.
* 2017: America (colored by Villarrubia) was nominated for a GLAAD Award.
* 2017: Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love (colored by Villarrubia) was nominated for a GLAAD Award.
* 2018: Infidel (edited and colored by Villarrubia) was chosen as one of NPR's "100 Favorite Horror Stories."
* 2022: Won second Prize for Best Edited Book in the category of General Works for Hércules 1417, edited by Villarrubia.
* 2022: Nominated to the Tripwire Award for Best Colorist
* 2024: Won a second Rankin Award from the Robert E. Howard Foundation for the Conan the Barbarian series (Titan Comics, with Roberto de la Torre).
* 2024: Den Volume 4: Dreams and Alarums by Richard Corben, art directed and restored by Villarrubia, was chosen by the New York Times as one of eight Best Graphic Novels and Comics of 2024.

## Interviews

The DVD of the documentary feature film The Mindscape of Alan Moore contains an interview with Villarubia about his collaboration with Alan Moore.