13 COVERS: A DICK GIORDANO Birthday Celebration

A salute to the DC stalwart.

Dick Giordano was a favorite artist of mine growing up. His pencilling style was neither dramatic nor ground-breaking but it was clean and strong. The heroic men were uniformly handsome and the women were gracious and lovely. It was all very pleasing to the eye.

Classic Giordano. Just great.

Classic Giordano. Just great.

UPDATED 7/20/16: It’s a year later and we’d like to share these again. But we also have a whole other set of 13 COVERS — featuring Dick Giordano’s inks over Neal Adams’ pencils. Click here and enjoy!

Of course, Giordano was perhaps even better known as one of comics’ great inkers. Neal Adams is my favorite artist but his collaborations with Giordano signify his best work.

Giordano was also an important editor at both DC and Charlton and was instrumental in bringing people like Jim Aparo over to the larger company. He helped oversee DC when Crisis on Infinite Earths re-shaped the publisher — and inked George Perez‘s intricate pencils on the project at the same time. In the ’80s, his columns in the back of DC‘s comics were inviting and informative, giving readers a glimpse behind the veil.

I know I’m barely scratching the surface.

Dick Giordano was born July 20, 1932, and died in 2010. Below is our 13 COVERS Salute.

(Same caveat, as always: This is by no means a definitive list and it’s quite subjective. So feel free to add your own in the comments section or in whatever thread you find this.)

Thank you and good afternoon.

5562

6365

2725

15608

2778

1621

9267

6029

2779

17799

2762

6310

Not all Giordano but his Batman and Robin are so prominent I've always considered this a Giordano cover ...

Not all Giordano but his Batman and Robin are so prominent I’ve always considered this a Giordano cover …

Author: Dan Greenfield

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5 Comments

  1. I’d almost guess that Batman 316 and Flash 275 were penciled or at least laid out by Ross Andru. They just have that look. I met Giordano at a con 12 or 15 years ago and he was every bit as charming as you would hope. We talked about his hearing impairment, something he shared with my father, and Dick said if I were HIS son, he’d make me shave my beard so he could read my lips better. My only regret is I didn’t think to take my leave with,”Thank you and good afternoon.”

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  2. All great choices – Giordano’s strong forms and elegant lines made me love his work as one of the industry’s best inkers, Silver and Bronze Age.

    I do have to correct one of the covers above, however. There is no way that Lady Cop #1’s pencils were done by Giordano – those radical poses and that worm’s eye mano y mano combat shot belong to only one artist: Carmine Infantino.

    You may smack me if I am wrong, but I’d recognize Infantino’s work anywhere.

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  3. All of these covers were colored by either Jack Adler or Tatjana Wood. The final cover (DETECTIVE COMICS #500) was a collaboration between Jack Adler and yours truly.

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  1. 13 COVERS: A DICK GIORDANO Birthday Celebration | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] (Oh, and to see 13 COVERS showing off Giordano’s talents as a penciller, click here.) […]
  2. 13 COVERS: A DICK GIORDANO Birthday Celebration | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] Who won’t you see? Neal Adams — Giordano’s greatest collaborator — because I featured their pairing last year. You…

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