Joe Giella

Joe Giella
Giella in 2009
Born(1928-06-27)June 27, 1928
New York, New York, United States
DiedMarch 21, 2023(2023-03-21) (aged 94)
Area(s)Penciller, Inker, Painter
Notable works
Batman, Detective Comics, The Flash, Green Lantern, Justice League of America
AwardsInkpot Award (1996)
Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame (2018)

Joe Giella (June 27, 1928 – March 21, 2023) was an American comic book artist best known as a DC Comics inker during the late 1950s and 1960s period which historians and fans call the Silver Age of Comic Books. Due to his long and prolific career, Giella has been described as "one of the creators synonymous with the Silver Age of Comics."[1]

Biography

Early life and career

Born on June 27, 1928,[2] in New York City,[3] Giella grew up in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, and attended the School of Industrial Art in Manhattan.[1] He also studied at the Art Students League in Manhattan, alongside future comics professionals Mike Sekowsky and Joe Kubert, and took commercial art courses at Hunter College.[2] He began working in art at 17, he said in a 2002 interview, explaining that "when your parents are struggling to keep the house going, the first son in the family, especially in an Italian family, had to go to work." He described his first professional job as the humor feature "Captain Codfish", which the interviewer described as "a less-eccentric 1940s ancestor of SpongeBob SquarePants".[4] A standard reference, the Grand Comics Database, lists one "Captain Codfish" feature, running six pages with the art signed by Giella, in Hillman Periodicals' Punch and Judy Comics #11 (cover-dated June 1946).[5]

Golden Age of comic books

Giella later freelanced for Fawcett Comics, commuting by bus to C. C. Beck's and Pete Costanza's studio in Englewood, New Jersey, to ink Captain Marvel stories. In either 1946 or 1947, he began freelancing for Timely Comics, the 1940s precursor of Marvel Comics, and shortly afterwards joined the staff. His start was rocky, however; as a 2012 article related,

What he needed was a regular paycheck, so he kept dropping by the offices of Timely Comics ... hoping to get a job. [Editor] Stan Lee rewarded his persistence with a tryout inking a strip that cartoonist Mike Sekowsky had penciled. Giella's elation on his trip home soon turned to panic. "The first job he gave me I lost on the train. No one slept at my house that night," Giella jokes. "I went in the next morning and thought that's the end of my job." He was nearly right. As a frantic Lee screamed at Giella for his carelessness, Sekowsky came to his defense. "Mike repenciled the whole job that I lost on the train and I did the inking," he says. "Stan liked what I did and I got the staff position. I never left anything on the train again."[4]

"I would do any work that they offered," Giella had recalled in a 2005 interview. "I started out doing a little touch-up work, a little background work, a little inking, redraw this, fix this head, do something with this panel".[6] Later, he assisted Syd Shores on Captain America Comics, finishing backgrounds, making pencil corrections and inking occasional pages. Giella did similar duty on Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, and humor stories. Inking soon became his specialty. In 1948, he joined the Naval Reserves, continuing with them for eight years.[2]

His friend Frank Giacoia began drawing for DC Comics in the late 1940s; Giella joined him at that company in 1949.[1] There, Giella inked stories featuring the Flash, Green Lantern, Black Canary and other characters under editor Julius Schwartz.

The Silver Age and later comics work

During the early-1950s lull in superheroes, Giella inked Westerns penciled by Alex Toth, including the feature "Sierra Smith", and Gene Colan on the series Hopalong Cassidy, splitting the work with fellow inker Sy Barry.[5]

When the era called the Silver Age of comic books began with the resurgence of superheroes in 1956, Giella began inking science-fiction stories, including the feature "Adam Strange" in Strange Adventures. In the 1960s, he prominently inked Carmine Infantino on The Flash and Gil Kane on Green Lantern.[1][3][5] Giella inked the "Flash of Two Worlds" story in The Flash #123 (Sept 1961).[7] This story introduced Earth-Two, and more generally the concept of the multiverse, to DC Comics.[8] When Julius Schwartz became the editor of Batman and Detective Comics in 1964, he assigned Giella to ink the two series. This assignment led to Giella drawing the daily "Batman" comic strip from August 8, 1966 to March 16, 1968.[9] His final issue of Batman was #214 (August 1969) while his last Batman story in Detective Comics appeared in issue #401 (July 1970).[5] He inked the pencils of Dick Dillin in both Justice League of America and World's Finest Comics until 1972.[5][10]

Giella inked two New Teen Titans drug awareness comic books sponsored by the American Soft Drink Industry[11] and IBM,[12] respectively, which were published in cooperation with The President's Drug Awareness Campaign in 1983–1984.[13]

After the death of Julius Schwartz in February 2004, DC Comics Presents was revived for a series of eight one-shot issues.[14] Giella drew two of these tribute issues.[5]

Giella's final work for DC Comics was a variant cover for Archie Meets Batman '66 #6 (March 2019).[15][16]

Comic strips

Giella also assisted on such King Features syndicated comic strips as Flash Gordon[10] (inking Dan Barry in 1970), and The Phantom,[10][17] on which he worked for 17 years, sometimes helping Sy Barry with pencilling when deadlines became too consuming for Barry. In 1991, Giella succeeded Bill Ziegler as artist on the Mary Worth daily and Sunday newspaper strip.[18][2] Giella retired from Mary Worth in 2016, with his last strip appearing on July 23, 2016.[19]

Other work

Outside comics, Giella did commercial art for advertising agencies including McCann Erickson and Saatchi & Saatchi,[2] and publishers such as Doubleday and Simon & Schuster.[2]

Personal life and death

As of 2010, Giella lived in East Meadow, New York, on Long Island.[18] Giella and his wife Shirley[20] had three sons and a daughter.[21] His son Frank is an art history and cartooning instructor at Forest Hills High School,[4] and a colorist for the comic strip Mary Worth, which Giella penciled and inked until 2016. Joe Giella died on March 21, 2023, at the age of 94.[22][23]

Accolades

Giella received the Inkpot Award in 1996.[24][25] In 2016, he received the Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award at the Harvey Awards.[1] Giella was the Guest of Honor at the 2017 Inkwell Awards ceremony at HeroesCon in Charlotte, North Carolina.[26][27] In 2018, Giella was awarded the Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame Award for his many years of inking.[28]

Bibliography

Archie Comics

DC Comics

Dell Comics

IDW Publishing

  • Batman:The Silver Age Newspaper Comics Vol. 1 1966–1967 HC ISBN 978-1613778456 (2014) includes Batman comic strips from August 8, 1966 to December 31, 1967 featuring storylines drawn by Giella
  • Batman:The Silver Age Newspaper Comics Vol. 2 1968–1969 HC ISBN 978-1631401213 (2015) includes Batman comic strips from January 1, 1968 to March 16, 1968 featuring a storyline drawn by Giella

Marvel Comics

Tower Comics

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Dueben, Alex (March 1, 2019). ""I'm Ninety and Sometimes When I Think About It I Get Worried.": An Interview with Joe Giella". The Comics Journal. Archived from the original on May 24, 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Joe Giella". Lambiek Comiclopedia. March 24, 2023. Archived from the original on June 5, 2025.
  3. ^ a b Farago, Andrew (April 4, 2023). "Joe Giella June 27, 1928 - March 21, 2023". The Comics Journal. Archived from the original on May 26, 2025.
  4. ^ a b c Bubbeo, Daniel (August 16, 2012). "Long Islanders behind Batman comics". Newsday. Melville, New York. pp. B4 – B5. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved August 18, 2012.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Joe Giella at the Grand Comics Database
  6. ^ Amash, Jim (September 2005). ""Joe Giella is Like a Fine Wine - He Gets Better With Age!" The Man Who Inked DC's Silver Age & Part of the Golden Age, to Boot!". Alter Ego. 3 (52). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing: 6.
  7. ^ Daniels, Les (1995). DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes. New York, New York: Bulfinch Press. p. 132. ISBN 0821220764.
  8. ^ McAvennie, Michael; Dolan, Hannah (2010). "1960s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9. This classic Silver Age story resurrected the Golden Age Flash and provided a foundation for the Multiverse from which he and the Silver Age Flash would hail.
  9. ^ Desris, Joe (2014). "A History of the 'Batman and Robin' Comic Strip". In Mullaney, Dean (ed.). Batman: The Silver Age Newspaper Comics Volume 1 (1966–1967). San Diego, California: IDW Publishing. pp. 11–12. ISBN 978-1613778456.
  10. ^ a b c Bails, Jerry (n.d.). "Giella, Joe". Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999. Archived from the original on December 16, 2024.
  11. ^ "The New Teen Titans (American Soft Drink Industry) #2". Grand Comics Database.
  12. ^ "The New Teen Titans (IBM) #3". Grand Comics Database.
  13. ^ "Turner, Carlton E.: Files, 1981–1987 – Reagan Library Collections". Simi Valley, California: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. n.d. Archived from the original on October 15, 2014. This series contains material relating to the development and distribution of the Teen Titans drug awareness comic books. The comic books were designed to communicate the dangers of drug abuse to elementary school children. The Drug Abuse Policy Office coordinated the project, DC Comics developed the story line and artwork, and private companies funded the production costs. The Keebler Company sponsored the fourth grade book (released in April 1983), the National Soft Drink Association sponsored the sixth grade book (November 1983), and IBM sponsored the fifth grade book through the National Federation of Parents for Drug Free Youth (February 1984). The files consist primarily of correspondence with educators, parents, and children.
  14. ^ Cowsill, Alan "2000s" in Dolan, p. 314: "When DC Comics' icon Julius Schwartz sadly passed away in February 2004, some kind of major tribute was required...To celebrate his life, DC revived the DC Comics Presents series, producing eight one-shots in which DC writers and artists put their own twists on covers inspired by Schwartz and reimagined classic Silver Age stories".
  15. ^ "Archie Meets Batman '66 #6 [Cover B Joe Giella]". Grand Comics Database.
  16. ^ Greenfield, Dan (October 13, 2018). "Exclusive: Joe Giella Returns to Comics With Archie/Batman '66 Cover". 13thdimension.com. Archived from the original on July 31, 2025. Joe Giella, an artist who helped define Batman's look in the 1960s, signed on to do one of the variant covers for Archie Meets Batman '66 #6.
  17. ^ Leiffer, Paul; Ware, Hames (eds.). "Giella, Joe". Who's Who of Comic Strip Producers G-Part 1. The Comic Strip Project. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
  18. ^ a b Bubbeo, Daniel (May 5, 2010). "LI cartoonists, animators drawn to evolving industry". Newsday. Melville, New York. Archived from the original on August 19, 2012. Retrieved August 18, 2012.
  19. ^ Moy, Karen (July 23, 2016). "Joe Giella Retires From Drawing Mary Worth". Mary Worth. Archived from the original on July 30, 2016. Saturday, July 23, 2016, features the last Mary Worth strip drawn by the legendary Joe Giella. After decades of incredible work, Joe is taking much deserved time away from the drawing board.
  20. ^ Barr, Mike W. (May–June 1981). "DC Profile #71: Joe Giella". The Superman Family (207). DC Comics. Archived from the original on May 9, 2023.
  21. ^ "Joe Giella". National Cartoonists Society. n.d. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016.
  22. ^ Sheriff, Amand; Vaughn, J.C. (March 22, 2023). "In Memoriam: Joe Giella". Scoop. Archived from the original on March 22, 2023. Retrieved March 25, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  23. ^ Anderson, Jenna (March 23, 2023). "Silver Age Comics Artist Joe Giella Dead at 94". comicbook.com. Archived from the original on July 18, 2024.
  24. ^ "Inkpot Awards". www.comic-con.org. 2025. Archived from the original on June 18, 2025.
  25. ^ "Congratulations to the recipients of the 2011 Inkpot Awards". San Diego Comic-Con International. Archived from the original on July 25, 2011. Retrieved September 15, 2011.
  26. ^ Evans, Rhys (July 2, 2017). "2017 Winners". Inkwell Awards. Archived from the original on August 16, 2017.
  27. ^ "2017 Inkwell Award Winners". Newsarama. June 19, 2017. Archived from the original on August 16, 2017.
  28. ^ Evans, Rhys (July 22, 2018). "2018 Winners". Inkwell Awards. Archived from the original on September 2, 2018.

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