PAUL KUPPERBERG: It’s DICK GIORDANO DAY — PART 1!
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The late Dick Giordano — born 91 years ago on July 20, 1932 — is a 13th Dimension fave and with his birthday upon us, we’ve decided to publish not one, not two, but three retrospectives: two by Paul Kupperberg and one by Peter Bosch. The links to the other columns — all about his stint at Charlton Comics — can be found below. Thank you and good afternoon. — Dan
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By PAUL KUPPERBERG
Dick Giordano was simply the best. The best artist. The best boss. The best human being. While he made his creative reputation as an artist and editor at DC Comics from the late-1960s onward, on high profile projects such as Batman, Superman vs. Spider-Man, and The Dark Knight Returns (to name but a very few), Dick got his start at humble little Charlton Comics in Derby, Connecticut, in 1962.
Dick’s work really stood out at Charlton, known for the low quality of both its printing and its page rates. No disrespect to any of the artists who worked there—they were all journeymen creators who did the best they could, at least for what they were being paid—but aside from a handful of (mostly) quirky talents like Steve Ditko, Tom Sutton and Pat Boyette, second-rate shops like Charlton were about as high as they could hope to attain. Even as a young staffer in the production department, Dick’s talent was obvious, and he was soon assigned to drawing covers for everything from science fiction to romance books, until in 1965, he replaced Pat Masulli as executive editor.
His oversight of the creation of Charlton’s “Action Hero” line (Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, the Question, Nightshade, etc.) and his showcasing of exciting new talents including Jim Aparo, Denny O’Neil, and Steve Skeates, drew the attention of DC’s newly promoted editorial poohbah Carmine Infantino and the rest, as they say, is funny book history. You can read more about Dick here, and check out some earlier salutes to the Alley, Shazam, Goethe, Inkpot, and Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame Award winner here at 13th Dimension, as well as more of his Charlton covers from a post a couple of years ago.
(For collections of classic Charlton Comics genre covers, recolored by Mort Todd, click here.)
Starting with romance covers scanned from original Photostats from Dick’s estate, courtesy of his son Richard, here then, are 13 CLASSIC DICK GIORDANO CHARLTON ROMANCE COVERS — IN GLORIOUS BLACK AND WHITE:
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Nurse Betty Crane #17 (July 1962). Inked by Vince Colletta.
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Romantic Secrets #43 (March 1963)
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Teen-Age Love #31 (April 1963). Penciled by Norman Nodell, inked by Giordano.
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Teen-Age Confidential Confessions #19 (August 1963). Inked by Colletta.
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Romantic Secrets #46 (September 1963)
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Sweethearts #75 (January 1964)
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Teen-Age Confidential Confessions #22 (February 1964)
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Love Diary #32 (March 1964)
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Romantic Secrets #50 (June 1964)
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Romantic Story #72 (June 1964)
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Just Married #37 (July 1964)
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Secrets of Young Brides #43 (July 1964)
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Romantic Secrets #51 (September 1964)
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MORE
— PART 2: 13 Classic DICK GIORDANO Weird CHARLTON Covers — in Spooky Black and White. Click here.
— PART 3: SARGE STEEL — 13 Classic DICK GIORDANO Charlton Covers and Pages. Click here.
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PAUL KUPPERBERG was a Silver Age fan who grew up to become a Bronze Age comic book creator, writer of Superman, the Doom Patrol, and Green Lantern, creator of Arion Lord of Atlantis, Checkmate, and Takion, and slayer of Aquababy, Archie, and Vigilante. He is the Harvey and Eisner Award nominated writer of Archie Comics’ Life with Archie, and his YA novel Kevin was nominated for a GLAAD media award and won a Scribe Award from the IAMTW. Now, as a Post-Modern Age gray eminence, Paul spends a lot of time looking back in his columns for 13th Dimension and in books such as Direct Conversations: Talks with Fellow DC Comics Bronze Age Creators and Direct Comments: Comic Book Creators in Their own Words, available, along with a whole bunch of other books he’s written, by clicking the links below.
Website: https://www.paulkupperberg.net/
Shop: https://www.paulkupperberg.net/shop-1
