Posted By Dan Greenfield on Nov 28, 2024 | 7 comments

JERRY ORDWAY’s BAT-TASTIC BIRTHDAY WEEK — THE FINALE!

By WALT GROGAN

Hey, it’s Jerry Ordway’s birthday! Jerry and I have known each other for about 40 years, having met at a Chicago Comicon at the old Ramada O’Hare in Rosemont, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago. Boy, those old Chicago Comicons were a hoot before they got so big that they had to eventually move the annual festivities down the street to the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center.

One of the things that I love about Jerry — who’s turning 67 — is that he is unassuming and a genuinely nice guy. And he’s always willing to lend a hand to both pros and amateurs alike. Plus, he’s a polyhyphenate! He broke in as an inker. And much like the great Murphy Anderson, Jerry added a vibrant consistency to any penciller he embellished. That can be seen in his early work, especially on All-Star Squadron where he quickly added pencilling chores to his resume.

But it wasn’t long before he stretched his wings as a writer, notably on the Superman triangle books of the ’90s. And then he took on the daunting task of writing, drawing and painting the Power of Shazam! graphic novel before moving onto writing the ongoing series and painting those magnificent covers.

Jerry has continued to make his mark to this day, occasionally popping in on a Justice Society of America story or by lending his talent to a variety of variant covers. And he also keeps busy by drawing wonderful commissions.

While I’m a huge fan of his Captain Marvel work, this year I wanted to surprise him, as well as Bat-Fan supreme Dan Greenfield, by coloring some of Jerry’s Batman commissions! We’ve been showing them off all week. (Links below!)

I absolutely adored his 1989 Batman movie adaptation and never understood why he didn’t do almost any Batman work at DC after that. That’s a crying shame and I hope you’d agree, especially if you’re up to date on Jerry’s birthday week celebration!

Well, we’re going to close this party off with a bang!

A couple of months ago, I had come up with an idea for a What If? type comic called The Dynamic Duo after seeing and coloring Anthony Castrillo’s piece featuring the Caped Crusaders of Earth-Two.

With that in mind, when I saw this awesome piece by Jerry…

… I couldn’t help but think that it could be the next issue! So, Holy Sidekicks, Batman — I just had to color Da Ordster’s titanic pairing of the Golden Age Caped Crusader (who appears to have borrowed his Earth-One counterpart’s costume) and the E-2 Robin in his later, Neal Adams-designed, long-johns.

And here it is!

Happy birthday, big guy! I look forward to seeing what you’re going to bring in the coming year!

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MORE

— DAY 1: The JERRY ORDWAY and GIL KANE BATMAN Miniseries That Should Have Been. Click here.

— DAY 2: The ORIGIN OF THE BAT-SIGNAL… Through the Pencil of JERRY ORDWAY. Click here.

— DAY 3: Dig This Beaut: JERRY ORDWAY’s Dark Knight Over Gotham. Click here.

— DAY 4: BATMAN DANCE PARTY: Swing It Sixties-Style With the Hit Record You’ve Never Heard. Click here.

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A 10-year-old Walt Grogan fell in love with the Big Red Cheese thanks to essays written by Dick Lupoff and Don Thompson in the paperback edition of All in Color for a Dime, released in 1970 and bought for him by his father off a paperback spinner rack in a liquor store on the South Side of Chicago. Walt runs The Marvel Family Web Facebook page devoted to all incarnations of the Fawcett/DC Captain Marvel and blogs about Captain Marvel at shazamshistorama.com.