Among the many things I liked about this new book on Dick Giordano was its sub-title: "Changing Comics, One Day at a Time." Michael Eury, who authored the book, said a lot of perceptive things about Dick but that may have been the wisest. Since the late sixties when he ascended to the top editorial position at Charlton, Dick has been changing comics, almost always for the better and almost always without sufficient notice. Charlton was a company that paid its writers and artists abominably and then printed their works on a glorified ditto machine. That Giordano was able to elevate the quality of their wares at all was a stunning achievement.
He then moved to DC where as an editor, he was uncommonly "creator-friendly." He didn't last long in that niche but he definitely had an impact, helping to redefine the editor/talent relationship, again for the better. For a while after, he worked mainly as an artist, often in a partnership with Neal Adams, and gave inspiration and first jobs to a pretty vast array of new talents. (For a time, half the artists in the business were trying to ink like Joe Sinnott and the other half were trying to ink like Dick Giordano.) Eventually, he moved back to the DC offices, at a point where the company had evolved closer to his style of editorial management.
It was all for the better but it was never abrupt. Dick just did what he did and waited for the industry to catch up to him. Michael Eury does a fine job of telling that story and giving us good insight into the man, so I am pleased to recommend Dick Giordano: Changing Comics One Day at a Time, published by my friends at TwoMorrows Publishing. Go to their site to buy a copy…or wait a day or three until I finish recommending several of their new releases.