When I found out that the legendary Dick Giordano passed away, it was a little too late and I was buried under a ton of work, so it was not possible to write something about him for my Wednesday Blog.And I must admit... I was not too sure about what to write at first.
Unlike most people... what I remember fondly of him was not his work as an artist, but his contribution as V.P.- Executive Editor.
Although I had seen his work over John Byrne in Man of Steel, it was his "Meanwhile.." column in various comics labeled as "new format" or "deluxe format" that really got my attention.
To me... that period was the golden age of DC comics.
I had just read Man of Steel, Batman; Year One, Crisis on Infinte Earths, Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen....
.... and now we had them "deluxe comics" like Mike Grell's Green Arrow, which led me to hunt down the Longbow Hunter mini-series which I had missed.
I LOVED how the ads were mostly printed at the very end in them "deluxe comics". That way, the ads were not interupting the flow of the story when reading it.
We had the NEW Justice League by Giffen, Demateis and Maguire. Loved that comic.
We got a GREAT reprint of some AWESOME Spectre tales drawn by Jim Aparo done as a 4 issue mini-series. And the Batman comic, also by Aparo.
And of course, we had the king of the mountain in the 80s, John Byrne... on both Action Comics and Superman.
And also we had the Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told with not only the introduction by Dick Giordano himself, but also various tales inked... and even pencilled AND inked by him. Must be when I realized that... damn.... he sure could do it all.
He did such a great job in "There is no hope in Crime Alley".And there are many more comics at the time that I somehow failed to mention... Suicide Squad, Manhunter, Checkmate, Teen Titans, Legion of Super-Heroes.
Damn that was a great time to read them DC comics.
So unlike many, it is not not his work over Neal Adams for the Green Lantern/Green Arrow comic that got my attention, but more the period when he was at the head of what I consider to be DC's golden age.
That is the time when I became a DC fan. Up to that point... I had been pretty much a Marvel Zombie.
But not anymore.
And that is in part because of Dick Giordanno.
Thanks Dick.
You will be missed.
R.I.P.
Pretty much summed up why I haven't really done anything regarding him in my own blog. He contributed to some great comics over the years whether as penciler, inker, or the enigmatic behind the scenes powers-that-be. But, it was hard for me to really pin-point exactly where he fit in with the scheme of things to the comics of my youth.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I have the same feelings - he was always there on the periphery in my comics youth, but I didn't really have a good idea how how he fit in.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think it's telling that when it came time to form Future Comics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Layton#Future_Comics That Bob Layton who had a TON of experience of his own running a company from Valiant, felt like Dick Giordanno would be a good man to bring on as a partner in such an endeavor.