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One of the greats of the industry passed away at the age of 77 on Saturday.
Newsarama has a nice article about Giordano, and CBR has one as well.
Personally, I never had the pleasure to meet Mr. Giordano, but he sure made an impression on the comics I grew up enjoying, whether it was as a writer, inker, or editor.
Rest in peace Dick Giordano, and thanks for all the great comics!
Spinner Memorial Part 7: "¿Gracias, Por Nada?"
6 years ago
Many artists who gained fame in the 1970's challenged the Henry Ford/Motown model of creators being specialized contributors, only writing or only pencilling, etc. In the pursuit of greater control over their creations people like Starlin, Byrne, Simonson and Miller returned production to a model similar to the Golden Age even if the business end became very different.
ReplyDeleteDick Giordano was similarly well rounded, moreso in many aspects, but rarely considered in the same group not only because he started earlier but because we never saw him employ all of his varied talents in a single projects. I've seen him credited with every possible role a comics creator can have (with the possible exception of letterer, and he may have done that, too). And he's bounced around every spot in the credit box for DECADES. There's never been a "writing phase" or an "inking phase". He and Marie Severin belong to an extremely exclusive club, even amongst their Silver/Bronze age peers: never the first on anyone's lips, but ALWAYS on their shelves. And now the club is shrinking.
Sorry, but I just got back from the Newsarama article you graciously linked us to and couldn't help noticing that they misspelled his name (two different ways) in the URL for both the main article and for the page of reminiscences by professionals. Anyone thinking of sharing the links should just use 'cut-and-paste' whenever possible.
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ReplyDelete(Sorry for all the deletes! Blogger is acting like *ss for me today!)
ReplyDelete08/2009: Doom Patrol #1 -- 28,267
09/2009: Doom Patrol #2 -- 22,001 (- 22.2%)
10/2009: Doom Patrol #3 -- 20,036 (- 8.9%)
11/2009: Doom Patrol #4 -- 53,748 (+168.3%)
12/2009: Doom Patrol #5 -- 35,348 (- 34.2%)
01/2010: Doom Patrol #6 -- 17,117 (- 51.6%)
02/2010: Doom Patrol #7 -- 15,689 (- 8.3%)
Ouch. We just lost another 1,400 readers. I hope DC gives Keith more rope than they have previous creators; but I'm not willing to place a bet on that hope, either.
You know, what's REALLY sad is, if this were still a Vertigo title it would be their highest selling title (even beating out Hellblazer!) But since it's a DC title now, it's one of their worst. Geesh! (Sorry to post all this in this particular thread.)
Ironically enough, I have a Dick Giordano story! When I was in art school, Dick came by to critic our comic pages. And I'd done some (tada!) crazy Doom Patrol pages (no joke!) I believe I had around five pages, total. So he looks them over and says to me "I really like your style! You know what, if you had 23 pages of this style of work right here, right now, I'd give you a job!"
And... I didn't, so he didn't give me a job. Ok, so that sounds sorta like a bad story, but really I took it as a great compliment! He was really helpful to us during that day! He'll be missed from the comics community, for sure!