Posted By Dan Greenfield on Nov 24, 2024 | 3 comments

Hey, it’s JERRY ORDWAY’s BAT-TASTIC BIRTHDAY WEEK!

I’m a big Jerry Ordway fan. You’re a big Jerry Ordway fan. But you know who’s an even bigger Jerry Ordway fan? Why, our pal Walt Grogan, that’s who.

Some of my favorite pieces that Walt has colored over the years have been illustrated by Jerry. So, we decided to celebrate Jerry’s upcoming birthday Thursday — Da Ordster will be 67 — with five days of gorgeous color renditions of black-and-white sketches.

Some Jerry pencilled, some he inked. All are fantastic. Walt opted to take this celebration to Gotham City (and beyond), so here’s our first of five installments of JERRY ORDWAY’s BAT-TASTIC BIRTHDAY WEEK:

As you can see, Gil Kane pencilled this one in 1992, Jerry inked it in 2017 and Walt colored it a few days ago.

Kane’s original:

I especially like it when Walt takes an image and interprets it as a house ad or cover. And this is a perfect one for that. Because how great would a Gil Kane/Jerry Ordway Batman miniseries have been?

Gawsh, the mind reels.

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MORE

— Dig JERRY ORDWAY’s Magnificent Tribute to BATMAN History. Click here.

— Glorious! BILL FINGER, JERRY ORDWAY and THE FIRST BATMAN. 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.