Here, thanks to a referral from our pal James H. Burns, we have a nice but error-ridden piece on two veteran comic artists, Al Plastino and Joe Giella. The Giella part ain't bad but he didn't draw The Phantom for DC Comics. He worked on the syndicated newspaper strip by that name. The article also leaves out the most important part of the anecdote Joe tells about his first job…
It was penciled by Mike Sekowsky and Joe was given the job of inking it. He lost the pages on the subway. The next morning, sure that his career was over before it had begun, he admitted his error to editor Stan Lee who told him, basically, "Well, now you have to redraw the whole thing because we're not going to pay Sekowsky to draw it again." Drawing a story was then beyond Giella's level of ability and he didn't know what he was going to do. Then Sekowsky heard about it and told Joe (then, a total stranger to him), "Don't worry. I'll redraw it for you." And he did. Joe offered to pay Mike a few dollars a week out of his paycheck until Mike had received his usual rate. Mike said, "No, just help out some other kid in trouble some day."
See? Isn't that a better story than the way the reporter told it? It's also true.
The part about Plastino is less accurate. No, he didn't co-create "The Legion of Justice." He drew the first story of The Legion of Super-Heroes. No, he didn't use "…his own hairstyle as the basis for Superman's cowlick." He drew the same one the artists before him had been drawing. It says he did a four-year stint on Batman and people will think that means he drew Batman comic books but he never did. He worked on that character's syndicated newspaper strip.
Eyes may widen at the claim he did "…some work on Peanuts during the period when creator Charles Schulz was out sick." To the extent that suggests Plastino ghosted the newspaper strip, it's flat-out wrong and Mr. Schulz got very angry when anyone claimed that. My understanding is that at one point, someone at the syndicate decided to line up a good ghost artist for the strip in case they ever needed one to replace Schulz either for health or contractual reasons. Plastino did up very impressive samples but Schulz never needed replacement or ghosts and the samples Plastino did were never published. I suppose it's possible he did some art on Charlie Brown merchandise so the claim of "some work on Peanuts" might have a little accuracy to it but it's sure misleading.
Lastly, the reporter says of the man, "He also is a frequent guest at Comic-Con, the popular convention for fans of comic books and graphic novels." That suggests the Comic-Con International in San Diego…a convention which Plastino has never attended. He's been invited a few times and has always declined. I believe he has made a few appearances at smaller conventions closer to home but he actually has not been very visible at cons. Maybe he'll reconsider coming out to San Diego some year. It would be great to let his fans out here meet him and honor him for his impressive body of work.
Sorry if I sound irate about matters of little consequence here but I do this for a reason. It reminds me that not everything you read in a newspaper is accurate and that I should apply a certain amount of skepticism to the front page…where things do matter.