Armando Durruthy
2D / 3D Illustrator and Artist

Upon graduating from high school I was fortunate enough to have met a local San Diego artist named Ben Herrera who helped me break into the comic book industry. I am not too sure what Ben Herrera saw in my art, but he unselfishly assumed the role of friend and mentor and took my portfolio to the San Diego Comic Book Convention in the summer of 1996. Ben tirelessly showed my portfolio to a variety of editors and artists and with Ben's help, I was able to land my first couple of jobs in the industry. My first paid commission work was a pin-up for Erik Larsen and his popular series "The Savage Dragon". I was also commissioned to draw as many cards as I could for a card set that was published by Fleer's comic art division. Ben also landed me a job as his inker on a three issue run of "Marvel Adventures".

After finishing my run on "Marvel Adventures", Ben took me to WildStorm Studios for a tour and introduced me to Jim Lee. A few weeks later I received a phone call from Jim Lee asking me to join his studio as an art intern. He gave me the choice of joining immediately as an inker, or in six months as a penciler due to the fact that he was over staffed on pencilers. It really wasn't much of a decision and I took the immediate opening as an inker. Over the next year, I was mentored by Scott Williams and assisted him on a variety of titles like the "Fantastic Four: Reborn", "Iron Man: Heroes Reborn", "X-Men Vs. Wild C.A.T.S.", "Gen-13", "Danger Girl" and "Divine Right: The Adventures of Max Faraday". During my stay at Wildstorm I was also able to contribute in one way or another to all of the titles they were publishing at the time.

After about a year at WildStorm, I received a phone call from Ben Herrera asking if I was interested in the being one of the inkers to help launch the new comic book line being published by Ion Storm. I relocated to Dallas, Texas in order to do this, but after a few months the funding was pulled and the new comic book line went under. Luckily, due to my working relationship with Erik Larsen, I was able to land the job of inker on the new "Nova: The Human Rocket" series Erik was writing for Marvel Comics. This then subsequently led to landing the inker gig on the re-launch of "The New Defenders: Starring Dr. Strange", along with a stint of fill-in roles and credits for various Marvel titles like "Wolverine", "X-Man", "X-Men" and "Deathlok". After awhile, DC Comics asked me to do a couple of fill in issues for "Justice League of America" and "The Adventures of Superman". A more complete list of credits I achieved in the comic book industry can be viewed at comicbookdb.com.