DICK GIORDANO (1932 - 2010)

I just learned that Dick Giordano has died of leukemia.  He was 77 and had been a long-time executive/editor/artist/inker at DC Comics. Although I hadn’t followed his ’60s-era work at Charlton (those books weren’t distributed around here), I fondly remember his stuff from his days inking Neal Adams, and his bouncing around between DC and Marvel (I recall a lovely Red Sonja story he drew), on to his terrific little tutorial book on drawing comics (long before his more recent book on the same subject), and his wonderful adaptation of Dracula with Roy Thomas that they finally finished in recent years.  I was, am, and will be a fan of that man’s talents.

You probably don’t know that, a couple of decades back before I ever got into agenting, I’d gone through a bad break of a publisher not paying for a huge amount of work, and Dick, already firmly entrenched at DC, very gently began suggesting and nudging me on things, with the idea that I might move to New York and come to work for DC Comics on staff.  Ultimately I ended up in a different direction; I decided to raise a family in Wheeling, WV instead of move to the big city, and once I founded Glass House Graphics a lot of years and friendships and wonderful creative experiences happened.

But I’ll never forget Dick’s suggestions and kindness.