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Sunday, October 15, 2023

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3162 - Keith Giffen RIP - Comic Book Sunday for 2310.15



A Sense of Doubt blog post #3162 - Keith Giffen RIP - Comic Book Sunday for 2310.15

I am a bit behind on my blog! I have had a busy week since the 15th as I write this on the 20th.

Very sad that another of my icons, my favorites, artists who spoke to me, has died.

KEITH GIFFEN.

I may do a larger cover gallery because I am sadly missing his Legion work (early and later) as well as the NEW 52 OMAC, which I adored (pictures at the bottom). I also loved his Dr. Fate stint and of course the Justice League run with DeMatteis, which was brilliant, fun, and a welcome breath of fresh air in an industry that was trying for dozens of imitations of The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen in that era.

RIP Mr. Giffen.

You will be missed.

Thanks for tuning in.


KEITH GIFFEN DIED!!!!!!!!!






RIP Keith Giffen

He was a real one.

By
 Heidi MacDonald
 -
3

Keith Giffen, co-creator of Lobo, Rocket Raccoon, Jamie Reyes, creaor of Ambush Bug and many more, and one of the most creative and influential artists of the last 40 years, passed away at age 70 this week. In typical fashion, he announced his own passing with a message:

I told them I was sick…
Anything not to go to New York Comic Con
Thanx
Keith Giffen 1952-2023
Bwah ha ha ha ha

 

Giffen was a true original, a curmudgeon with a heart of gold, an artist who took chances and went his own way…and showed others the way. 

Among his notable runs, a long stint on Legion of Superheroes, Doctor Fate, Amethyst, Aquaman, and Lobo (co-created with Roger Slifer for Omega Men). His most influential run was on Justice LEague International, along with JM DeMatties and Kevin Maguire, a book that took a skewed look at superheroes without going the grim and gritty route, with a comedic, sardonic tone that centered characters like Booster Gold and Guy Gardner. Ambush Bug was all Giffen’s own, a deeply weird and unsettlingly hilarious look at superhero that led the way for today’s Deadpool/Harley Quinn vibe. He even did a book for TokyoPop, I Luv Halloween, a book I interviewed him about and think about often as the season approaches. 

In recent years he was something of the “script doctor” for some of the big events of the Crisis era, including doing breakdowns on DC’s 52 and Countdown to Final Crisis, and writing Marvel’s Annihilation event. 

Giffen was deeply respected and loved by his fellow creators, and it’s fair to say in death he’s getting an outpouring of love publicly that was felt privately by all.

We’ll have a longer obituary later but a few of the social media posts marking his passing. The Beat send condolences to his family, friends and fans. 





























https://atomicjunkshop.com/r-i-p-keith-giffen-1952-2023/


R.I.P. Keith Giffen, 1952-2023

You already know this, and everyone’s been posting images all over social media, and it just gives me a reason to once again post one of the funniest pages from one of the funniest comics ever:

Rest in peace, Mr. Giffen. Bwah-ha-ha to you.

(Yes, I know Robert Fleming is credited as scripter on this comic, but a lot of this has to be Giffen, right?)
(Oh, this is Ambush Bug Nothing Special from 1992. If you don’t have it yet, your life is more joyless than it has to be, and you should remedy that.)





Dork Times




https://coffee-for-two.com/2023/10/11/my-misspent-youth-o-m-a-c-by-keith-giffen-and-dan-didio/

My Misspent Youth — O.M.A.C. by Keith Giffen and Dan Didio





DAN SEEGER

I read a lot of comic books as a kid. This series of posts is about the comics I read, and, occasionally, the comics that I should have read.

In 2011, DC Comics embarked on the most ambitious initiative in their long history producing comic books. They brought every title in their line to a conclusion, including Action Comics, Detective Comics, and others that had been published continuously for decades. The next month, they relaunched completely, giving venerable superheroes new beginnings and occasionally drastic revamps. Previous continuity became only a soft suggestion, giving new, curious readers a clean entry point. As part of the venture, several talented comic book creators were allowed to let loose with their wildest imaginings, and few were better equipped to take full advantage of such a prompt than Keith Giffen.

A writer and artist, Giffen had plied his trade on plenty of DC comics by that point, his distinctive spins with the Justice League in the nineteen-eighties maybe standing at the most notable. For the DC reboot event, dubbed the New 52, Giffen teamed with company co-publisher Dan Didio for O.M.A.C. The history of O.M.A.C. went back to Jack Kirby’s star-crossed, spectacularly inventive tenure with DC, but it had recently onboarded an overbooked flight’s worth of extra baggage in conjunction with convoluted crossover events. In the new series, co-written by Giffen and Didio and drawn by Giffen, the entirety of that past was squeezed into the story, even as the tale also introduced a new alter ego for O.M.A.C., a young man of Cambodian descent named Kevin Kho. Often, though, all those details seemed like merely so much busy business put in place solely to serve as marginally consequential connective tissue between Giffen’s dynamically rendered action scenes.

There might have been all sorts of O.M.A.C. comics to draw from, but Giffen is clearly most inspired by Kirby’s version of the character and concept. The comic is filled with panels that borrow heavily from Kirby, in the blockiness of the figures, the gargantuan, swooping machinery, and even bountiful loads of Kirby Krackle. Like the King before him, Giffen goes big and bold at every opportunity.

“It’s a build,” Giffen told Comic Book Resources shortly before the first issue hit shops. “You start mundane, you introduce the fantastic and you keep introducing more and more of the fantastic, layering it and layering it and layering it. By the end, you have this massive crescendo. It’s kind of an internal rhythm we hope the book will adopt. In the first issue, I definitely felt as I pushed forward — it had to top what went before. If every issue starts off with something you can recognize and by the end you’re going, ‘What the hell — what the hell just happened?’ we won!”

I devoured every last issue in the truncated run of O.M.A.C., relishing every booming, zooming moment. I can absolutely confirm Giffen’s goal was repeatedly met. They won. And because they won, so did the readers.


Previous entries in this series (and there are a LOT of them) can be found by clicking on the “My Misspent Youth” tag.





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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2310.15 - 10:10

- Days ago = 3026 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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