Sunday, March 28, 2010

Passing Of A Comics Legend

Comic book inker and editor Dick Giordano died yesterday, at the age of 77. When I was reading DC Comics as a teenager, he was the Executive Editor for that publisher. His editorials always ended with "Thank you and good afternoon" (which showed up as a Silver Age trivia question that I correctly answered a few years back), a signature phrase which probably always appealed to this Canadian fan for its polite friendliness.

But it was Giordano's work as an inker, years earlier, that made him a legend to me. He was a favourite finisher for Neal Adams on Green Lantern/Green Arrow and various Batman stories in Detective Comics, Batman and Brave and the Bold. It was very likely the range of talent that Adams' pencils would be handed to that first impressed upon me the importance of selecting the right inker, and Giordano was one of the best ever. He always brought out the strengths of his partner rather than covering them up, as so many other embellishers did.

Dick Giordano will certainly be missed, and his loss mourned, within the comics industry and its fan base.

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