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Dick Giordano

 
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Dick Giordano
Born Richard Joseph Giordano
July 20, 1932 (1932-07-20) (age 77)
New York City, New York
Nationality American
Area(s) Penciller, Inker, Editor
Awards Alley Award
  • Best Editor (1969)

Shazam Award

  • Best Inker (Dramatic Division) (1970,1971,1973, and 1974)
This article may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (July 2009)

Dick Giordano (born Richard Joseph Giordano on July 20, 1932)[1] is an American comic book artist and editor best known for introducing Charlton Comics' "Action Heroes" stable of superheroes, and serving as executive editor of then industry-leader DC Comics. As an inker, Giordano is well known for his pairings with penciler Neal Adams in a series of critically acclaimed comics featuring Batman, Green Lantern, and Green Arrow.

Contents

Biography

Early life and career

Dick Giordano was born in New York City, in the borough of Manhattan. Beginning as a freelance artist at Charlton Comics in 1952, Giordano rose to editor-in-chief by 1965.[2] He made his first mark in the industry with Charlton, overseeing the revamping of its few existing superheroes and having his artists and writers create new such characters for what he called the company's "Action Hero" line. (Many of these artists included new talent Giordano brought on board, featuring such names as Jim Aparo, Denny O'Neil, and Steve Skeates.)[2]

DC Comics

DC Comics' then-publisher Carmine Infantino hired Giordano as an editor in 1967, with Giordano also bringing over to DC many of the creators he had nurtured at Charlton.[2] While none of his titles (such as Bat Lash and Deadman) were a commercial hit, they were critical successes. By the early 1970s, Giordano had left DC to partner with artist Neal Adams for their Continuity Associates studios, which continues to produce commercial art and some comic book work.

In 1980 new DC publisher Jenette Kahn brought Giordano back to DC.[3] Initially the editor of the Batman titles, Giordano was named the company's new managing editor in 1981,[4] and promoted to Vice President/Executive Editor in 1983 (a position he held until 1993).[2] With Kahn and Paul Levitz, Giordano helped relaunch such major characters as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, the Justice League of America, and the Teen Titans. By the end of the 1980s, they had also created the critically acclaimed, mature-audience Vertigo imprint, under initial editor Karen Berger, and began an influx of British talent such as Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman.

During this period, Giordano wrote a regular column published in DC titles called "Meanwhile..." which (much like Marvel's "Bullpen Bulletins") featured news and information about the company and its creators. Giordano also continued to ink, such as over George Pérez's pencils on the 1986 crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths, and John Byrne's pencils on The Man of Steel and Action Comics.

Creators rights

Beginning in 1985, Giordano was in the middle of an industry-wide debate about the comics industry and creators' rights. Veteran writers Mike Friedrich, Steven Grant, and Roger Slifer all cited Giordano in particular for his hard-line stand on behalf of DC.[5][6][7][8][9] This debate led in part to the 1988 drafting of the Creator's Bill of Rights.

Later career

Giordano went into semi-retirement in the early 1990s, still doing the occasional inking job.[10] In 1994 Giordano illustrated a graphic novel adaptation of the novel Modesty Blaise released by DC Comics (ISBN 1-56389-178-6), with creator/writer Peter O'Donnell. In 2002, Giordano helped launch Future Comics with writer David Michelinie and artist Bob Layton. Future Comics closed down after only two and a half years in business in 2004.

Since 2002 he has also drawn issues of The Phantom comic book published in Europe and Australia. In the mid-2000s, he began sitting on the board of directors of the comic industry charity A Commitment To Our Roots (ACTOR), renamed in 2006 The Hero Initiative. In 2005, F+W Publications Inc. published Drawing Comics with Dick Giordano (which he wrote and illustrated), a book in which he shares his drawing methods and techniques that he used in comics. Giordano continues to nurture new talent, such as artist Rob Jones.

Giordano splits time between homes in Florida and Connecticut.[2]

Legacy

As an artist, Giordano is best-known as an inker, particularly over the pencils of Neal Adams, for an influential run in the late 1960s and early 1970s on the titles Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow for DC Comics, and for the large-format, landmark DC/Marvel Comics intercompany crossover Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man (1976), over the pencils of Spider-man specialist Ross Andru. Giordano also inked the similarly one-shot Superman vs. Muhammad Ali in 1978. Through out the late Seventies and Eighties Andru and Giordano were DC's cover artists of choice, providing cover artwork for every title in the DC line at that time.

He served as mentor or inspiration to an entire generation of inkers, including Terry Austin, Klaus Janson, Bob Layton, Steve Mitchell. Joe Rubinstein and Mike DeCarlo. As a penciller, he drew numerous Batman and Wonder Woman stories as well as the martial arts feature "Sons of the Tiger" in Marvel's black-and-white comics magazine The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu.

Bibliography

Interior pencil art includes:

DC Comics

Marvel Comics

Awards

Giordano has received recognition in the industry for his work, including the Alley Award for Best Editor in 1969 and the Shazam Award for Best Inker (Dramatic Division) for Green Lantern and other DC titles in 1970, again in 1973 for Justice League of America, and the Shazam Award for Best Inker (Dramatic Division) in 1971 and 1974.

Notes

  1. ^ Thompson, Maggie and Miller, John Jackson. "Comics Industry Birthdays," CBGXtra Forum, Comic Buyer's Guide (June 10, 2005). Accessed Nov. 10, 2009.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Contributors: Dick Giordano," The New Teen Titans Archives, Volume 1 (DC Comics, 1999).
  3. ^ "Changes at DC Comics: Giordano Named Editor, Levitz and Orlando Promoted," The Comics Journal #59 (October 1980), pp. 8-9.
  4. ^ "Jack Adler Retires, Dick Giordano Promoted," The Comics Journal #67 (October 1981), p. 15.
  5. ^ Friedrich, Mike. "Ownerous Differences," The Comics Journal #121 (April 1985), p. 21.
  6. ^ Grant, Steven. "What Dick Said," The Comics Journal #121 (April 1985), p. 24.
  7. ^ Slifer, Roger. "Screwed by DC," The Comics Journal #121 (April 1985), p. 25.
  8. ^ McEnroe, Richard S. "Lies, Damned Lies, & Dick Giordano," The Comics Journal #121 (April 1985), pp. 25-27.
  9. ^ McEnroe, Richard S. "Packaging: Work-For-Hire in the Real Publishing Industry," The Comics Journal #121 (April 1985), p. 44.
  10. ^ "Newswatch: Dick Giordano Retires Role as DC VP: Editorial Director Closes Out Position, Returns to Freelancing Full-Time," The Comics Journal #161 (August 1993), p. 21.

References

External links


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