A legendary Batman and X-Men artist hints at calling it quits

You may not recognize the name, but you’ll certainly recognize the distinct art style. Greg Capullo has been a mainstay in superhero and independent comics since the 1990s, drawing interiors for Spawn, X-Force, and Reborn. His most notable works are his collaborations with writer Scott Snyder on the New 52 Batman run, which introduced the Court of Owls to DC canon, and the comic publisher’s Dark Nights: Metal event. After a long run in the industry, Capullo has recently hinted that he may be putting the pencils down in the near future, at least when it comes to drawing interior art.

“I’m kind of feeling like I’m going to be done doing interiors,” Capullo said during a panel with Snyder and writer Frank Tieri at Orlando’s MegaCon (via Popverse). He shared a couple of reasons why he’s mulling retirement, one of which being his age; Capullo turned 64 last month. “I’ve seen a lot of people die earlier. I really love my wife, and I’ve spent so much time just sitting at that table working. I want to spend a lot more time with my wife. She’s great.”

Capullo didn’t say to whom he was referring, but several comics artists have passed away relatively young in recent years. John Cassaday (Astonishing X-Men, Star Wars) died in 2024 from cardiac arrest at age 52, while Jacopo Camagni (Generation X-23, The Vision and The Scarlet Witch) died last month at age 48 “after complications during heart surgery,” according to Bleeding Cool.

Capullo also cited his art team disbanding as a major reason why he’s pondering calling it quits. “I recently lost my art team, my longtime art team. One guy I won’t even discuss, but Jonathan Glapion, my friend, has gone on to become his own artist. I’m very proud of him. He’s working under McFarlane. He’s got his own thing going.” In recent years, Glapion has drawn interiors for the Spawn spinoff The Curse of Sherlee Johnson and a comic inspired by Ozzy Osbourne’s final album.

Popverse notes the person Capullo “won’t even discuss” is FCO Plascencia, Capullo’s long-time colorist. In a 2024 deleted tweet, Capullo said Plascencia quit the Wolverine: Revenge miniseries and insinuated it was due to “deadline pressures” (via Bleeding Cool), but this hasn’t been confirmed. They haven’t worked together since; Alex Sinclair finished coloring the Wolverine book, and also colored Capullo’s art for the Deadpool/Batman crossover between Marvel and DC. He did the main cover for the first crossover issue as well as the interior pages for the central story, which found Deadpool tracking down Batman at the behest of the Joker.

Capullo’s comments come after it was revealed earlier this year that he had been offered by Snyder to draw an arc in Absolute Batman. Asked on X by a fan if he’d want to guest artist on the book, which regularly stars Nick Dragotta on interior art, Capullo said, “I’ve done more than my fair share of Batman” (via CBR). He said Snyder had offered him the opportunity to draw a two-issue arc for the book, to which Snyder replied, “Offer is always standing brother.”

While Capullo insists he’s still planning on drawing covers, and may not completely be finished with comics just yet, it also doesn’t sound like he’ll be taking up Snyder’s offer anytime soon. Which is tough to stomach — a time without Capullo interiors is the end of an era.