Yes, this is sadly one of those posts, as another beloved comics icon dies. Dick Girodano was somebody who as an editor worked on the less visible end of the comics industry but was hugely influential in this role, first at Charlton, later and longest at DC, which is how I mostly remember him. His Meanwhile columns were often the first page I’d read in a new DC comic. But he was also an artist, usually as inker — his work over George Pérez on Crisis on Infinite Earth was beautiful, as was his work as penciler on the Jonni Thunder miniseries. Sadly however his work as editor kept him from doing much art.
But editors are important too and Giordana did good work. At Charlton in the sixties he created a line of “action heroes” with creators like Steve Ditko, Pat Boyette, Frank McLaughin and Pete Morisi, fondly remembered enough to be bought twenty years later by DC, basically as a birthday gift for him. When he moved to DC when Carmine Infantio — then the big man there — headhunted him, he managed to rejuvenate the company at a time when DC was seen as staid and oldfashioned and Marvel stole all its glory. Titles like Bat Lash and Deadman might not have been commercial successes, but they were critically well recieved and pointed the way towards a more adult approach for DC, of comics able to be enjoyed by adults as well.
An approach largely realised of course during Giordano’s second tenure at DC, during the eighties. DC became cool again, had huge successes like New Teen Titans, not to mention Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns. Under Giordano DC became a company that published the best (superhero) comics of the decade.
As an artist Giordano had a nice, clean line and drew in a semi-realistic, slick style that influenced quite a few socalled Bronze Age artists, like Byrne and Pérez. As said, he didn’t have the time do much after becoming executive editor at DC, but what he did is well worth checking out, like Jonni Thunder from which the artwork above is taken.