by John | May 30, 2010 | Uncategorized
The “Widow Miss Muffet” storyline resumes tomorrow and wraps up Friday. In the meantime, here’s another mini-tribute to the artist of that saga and today’s comic, the late Dick Giordano.
“…Detective #457…showed me how much Dick Giordano was responsible for the greatness of those Neal Adams comics that I thought Dick had been ‘just inking’. This was a comic drawn with beautiful realism, perfect line work, dramatic lighting, phenomenally beautiful women, and all the things that made those Neal comics wonderful, only Neal wasn’t around for this issue. It turned out DICK WAS THE GUY who had been doing much of that all along. And there was a subtle difference in the storytelling. It was somehow more accessible, more “readable”, more directly told, than I was used to from this familiar style, and in many ways I LIKED IT BETTER!”
–Ty Templeton at http://tytempletonart.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/sad-to-hear-about-dick-giordano-passing-away/
Sprechen Sie Deutsch? To read Last Kiss comics in German click here.
↓ TranscriptWOMAN: Being happy is easy! Just love yourself…preferably several times a day…with rechargeable batteries!
by John | May 27, 2010 | Uncategorized
Click on image above to see spectacularly larger view of today’s comic.
“Dick [Giordano] holds the record of having inked more pages than any other artist in DC’s history. And this was from a man who had a full-time job, for most of his working years.
“For those of us who had the honor of working with Dick, you knew there was a unique quality about his leadership that made you feel like you could achieve anything…If he called you into his office for doing something stupid, you’d walk in shaking but walk out feeling like you were a million bucks.”
–Karen Berger, Executive Editor of DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint
from Berger’s March 29, 2010 memorium for Dick Giordano
Sprechen Sie Deutsch? To read “Widow Miss Muffet” and other Last Kiss comics in German click here.
↓ TranscriptPANEL 1, SCENE: Mitzi is stretched out on the ground unconscious in front of a luxury car. A chauffeur and a passenger are getting out of the car.
CAPTION: "Another inch and I'd have been the world's best dressed roadkill!"
PANEL 2, SCENE: A man (in silhouette) bends down to look at Mitzi. She's opened her eyes and she's smiling.
CAPTION: "It was a miracle! As soon as I opened my eyes, I knew I was...
MAN: Drop dead gorgeous! Good Lord! I think I'm...
by John | May 26, 2010 | Uncategorized
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“My mother taught me, in subtle ways, about the superiority of women.
“I’ve always wanted to have female characters as my protagonists, not only because they’re sexy, but because I believe that women have a better role in the world. Men are more emotional than women; women learn to control their emotions, but men hold them in, and therefore, they’re more emotional because they won’t let them out–they won’t cry, they won’t yell, they won’t do anything but hit.”
–Dick Giordano
from Michael Eury’s Dick Giordano: Changing Comics, One Day at a Time
Art by Dick Giordano. Art and characters ©2010 respective copyright owners
Sprechen Sie Deutsch? To read “Widow Miss Muffet” and other Last Kiss comics in German click here.
↓ TranscriptSCENE: Mitzi Muffet has run out into the street without looking and is startled to see that a car is speeding towards her--only a few feet away.
MITZI: Oh, mother of god! No! I can't die like this! I'm not wearing clean underwear!
SOUND: SCREEECH
by John | May 25, 2010 | Uncategorized
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More About Dick Giordano…
“Several [Charlton Comics] artists…did less than their best because they had to work faster to put food on the table, but Dick Giordano’s talent enabled him to be fast and still do great work…
“Dick was too good to stay at Charlton so he moved down to DC Comics…
“He worked hard and achieved a lot…He was willing to pay the price for success, long sleepless nights at the drawing board, long boring rides on the train, and the constant struggle to be the Last Man Standing in the DC office.
“I always admired Dick and what he achieved. I never envied him.”
–Joe Gill former Charlton Comics staff writer, December 2002
from Michael Eury’s Dick Giordano: Changing Comics, One Day at a Time
Covers by Dick Giordano. Art and characters ©2010 DC Comics
Sprechen Sie Deutsch? To read “Widow Miss Muffet” and other Last Kiss comics in German click here.
by John | May 24, 2010 | Uncategorized
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How Fast is Fast?
Dick Giordano started his comics career at the Iger Studios and was such a fast inker that some of the other artists asked him to slow down.
The Iger artists were paid by the hour when they took work home. By turning out pages so quickly, Dick made it look too easy.
Later, though, when Dick started working at Charlton Comics the staff artists were paid by the page. So the faster they drew, the more they made.
Dick was “dazzled by the speed of the more seasoned staff artists.” One artist could pencil eight pages a day. Dick could “only” manage two — which was still darned fast!*
“I’m kind of fast. Anybody from my generation…is usually a little faster than the people who’ve come up recently because…the only way you could get a decent salary in the ‘50s and ‘60s was to do a lot of pages…
“You had to learn to cut through the unimportant stuff, to make only the important lines show up so you could do a few more pages.” —Dick Giordano in an interview by John Lustig, 2001
*Info in the first four paragraphs is summarized from Michael Eury’s Dick Giordano: Changing Comics, One Day at a Time
Sprechen Sie Deutsch? To read “Widow Miss Muffet” and other Last Kiss comics in German click here.
↓ TranscriptPANEL 1, SCENE: Mitzi Muffet is standing next to a hospital gurney looking shocked. On the gurney is a body covered by a sheet. Standing on the other side of the gurney is a nurse.
NURSE: ...too late! He's colder than an Eskimo's outhouse!
MUFFET: This is awful! (Sob!) He didn't even get a chance to buy me any jewelry!
PANEL 2, SCENE: Cut to Mitzi sitting on a bed. In the background is an old man in a wheelchair.
CAPTION: "I dated a lot of men that week! At least, I think they were men!"
OLD MAN: This is just a disguise! Don't tell anyone, but...I'm really Britney Spears!
