Just over a week ago, comic book writer/artist Keith Giffen passed away.
I was exposed to Giffen's work very early in my comic book hobby but it took me quite some time to really take notice of his name. My first exposure to Giffen's artwork was almost certainly a copy of All-Star Comics #62 that my family picked up at a church bazaar (it took a very long time to pick up All-Star Comics #63). Not too long after I encountered Giffen's writing via Justice League International #11 but I didn't like it very much - the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League comics really didn't appeal to me as a child.
I became a Giffen fan thanks to his work as artist/co-writer of Ambush Bug (with co-writer Robert Loren Fleming). The original mini-series, 2nd mini-series (Son of Ambush Bug) and Christmas special were all available at low discount prices in comic shops and I took to them immediately. I didn't understand all of the references in the comics - Giffen loved to invoke obscure DC Silver Age stuff - but they made me laugh and I was always happy to return to them. I drifted away from DC in my teens and therefore missed the launch of his 1992 Ambush Bug: Nothing Special but when I did find that comic I was obsessed with it. The only Ambush Bug comic I've ever reviewed on my blog was Secret Origins #48. There was also the 2008 mini-series Ambush Bug: Year None but it had a weird passive-aggressive tone that seemed to be Giffen and Fleming talking down to comics fandom - that was off-putting.
I really came to love Giffen's work when I discovered he wasn't all funny stuff but also a deft hand at space opera. His 2004 Thanos comics with Ron Lim were probably the best Thanos stories not written by Jim Starlin himself. That led to his good Drax the Destroyer mini-series with artist Mitch Breitweiser which in turn led directly to Annihilation, which he wrote the largest part of. Annihilation was Marvel's first big cosmic event series since the 1990s and its follow-up event Annihilation: Conquest led directly to the revival of the Guardians of the Galaxy, which owed a tremendous amount to Giffen's Annihilation: Conquest - Star-Lord mini-series with artist Timothy Green. (I wrote Annihilation-adjacent books back then but never so much as exchanged an email with Giffen, more's the pity)
Giffen's own art style was quirky but he was also a great mimic of Jack Kirby, especially early in his career. His time on Defenders (especially under the inks of Kirby's inker Mike Royer) are possibly the best Kirby comics not drawn by Jack Kirby (and certainly the Zodiac arc written by David Kraft in Defenders #48-50 is a series highlight).
And there's so much more; I found the Heckler almost impenetrable but what I did follow I enjoyed a lot; his March Hare one-shot with Fleming was right in the spirit of Ambush Bug and it's a shame it wasn't an ongoing. I found the character of Lobo uninteresting but his first 1990 Lobo mini-series with co-writer Alan Grant and artist Simon Bisley was good fun; he drew the layouts for DC's 52 weekly series; and he drew a ton of Legion of Super-Heroes comics with writer Paul Levitz that I really ought to read one of these days (I liked the dozen or so that I have read).
Giffen's art and writing were idiosyncratic yet he made a solid career for himself in comics for about 50 years; he was unique and given most of his work appeared at the major publishers - Marvel and DC - his presence in comics was certainly felt by the vast majority of people who read comics. Comics are poorer for want of Giffen. Rest in peace, sir.
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