Sad News

I really hate to follow up yesterday's wonderful photo post (which I have since officially dubbed the Best Blog Thing to happen in our one-plus years of Exfanding) with something that's as sad as what I've got for today.

But that's life, I suppose.

Over the weekend, the comics industry lost one of its all-time greats as editor-artist Dick Giordano passed away at the age of 77. Giordano was a legendary figure in comics history, and served as DC's Executive Editor for 13 years in the 1980s and early 90s.

He worked as a prominent penciller and inker before his time as an editor, and he was known for his good nature and for his role in the changing landscape of comics. Perhaps most significantly, Giordano played a major part in the emerging role of the creator as we know it today.

To clarify, what I mean is the following. Today, fans follow writers and artists, and not just characters. Books gain and lose audiences according to the creative team attached to a certain project, and comics creators enjoy more respect now than did their predecessors. Giordano was an important part of this recognition of creators' talents.

I have two very minor connections to Mr. Giordano, and I'd like to mention them both here. First, I own an original piece of art that was in part produced by the artist. It's from Detective Comics , issue 529, and it was pencilled by Gene Colan and inked by Giordano.And the second connection I have is actually through a friend, but I think it's appropriate to share here. While I attended NYU, I hung around with a bunch of crazy writer friends, and when I graduated, I hung around with a bunch of crazy comics-writer friends.

And one of those crazy comics-writer buddies actually had the opportunity to work on a project with Dick Giordano.

It was an independent thing, and I'm not even sure if it's ever been published (though I have a feeling it was, but on a very small scale), and I didn't see much of the project as it was completed. The pages I did see were just what one would expect from an artist of Giordano's caliber.

But the thing that stuck with me is how my buddy talked about Giordano.

He always told me how nice of a person the artist was, and even though he was working with a then-unpublished writer, Giordano always treated him like he was Denny O'Neil.

I just thought that was pretty cool, and I wanted to share the story.

For anyone who might want to read more about Giordano's life and his impact on comics, there are two links I'd like to point you all towards. The first is from Mark Evanier's always-informative blog. When a comics creator passes away, it seems to fall to Evanier to write about the person. And every time, Evanier does a wonderful job of it.

Here's the link .

And the second link is to Tom Spurgeon's Comics Reporter site. This one's a bit more in-depth and it's well worth a read.

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We'll be back tomorrow with another edition of Waiting for Wednesday.