Rest in peace, Dick Giordano

This is a post I don't want to have to make, but one of the mainstays of the comics world, and someone whose work was part of my childhood, died yesterday at age 77, about the age of my dad. Dick Giordano was a legendary artist and editor at Charlton Comics and DC Comics in the 1960s and 1970s, and his work at DC was large part of my comic book experiences when I was first getting into comic books. I'm sorry to hear he has passed on.

Giordano was an influential figure, helping to launch the comic book careers of artists and writers like John Byrne, Jim Aparo, Denny O'Neil, and Steve Skeates. He steadily rose up the editorial ladder at DC, until in 1983 he became Vice President/Executive Editor, a position he held for ten years. He also helped initiate the practice of paying comic artists and writers royalties based on comic book sales.
Read an interview where Giordano discusses changes in the industry during his career here at the blog 20th Century Canny Boy, where I got the image above.

Here's a Giordano self portrait I borrowed from this page of the official Dick Giordano website:


Read why Giordano wrote columns for DC for free, and why he always resisted being titled "editor-in-chief" while there at this link to an interview with the artist.

This Giordano-inked panel comes from DCcomics.com:


And this one that he pencilled is from Comic Book Resources:

The 1973 Batman cover below was inked and possibly pencilled by Giordano. It has his initials only, but comicbookdb credits the art solely to Nick Cardy; image source mycomicshop.com:


By accounts a very nice guy and well-liked in the industry, he will be missed.

Additional sources: Wikipedia, Newsarama, and the Classic Horror Film Board.