Click on image above to see larger view of today’s comic.

More about “Widow” artist Dick Giordano:

“The First week I was there (DC Comics) I went to Dick’s office, one of the messiest, most comforting places I’ve ever had the pleasure to spend time in, to ask him for guidance. I explained I had been given no specific set of responsibilities…I asked him what my job was exactly. He just sat back, gave me one of those wonderful Dick smiles and just said: ‘You’ll figure it out.’

“And, of course, he was right. With his wind at my back and all the support I could have ever asked for, I got to do everything: learn, create, innovate, play, change.

“Few people know how to lead creative people to do their best work…Thank you, sir, for being the best boss and teacher I ever had.”

–Richard Bruning, VP-Creative Director, DC Comics, January 2003
from Michael Eury’s Dick Giordano: Changing Comics, One Day at a Time

Art by Giordano. ©2010 DC Comics

“When Dick left DC the second time, I told friends the company was losing its heart. That’s not to say no one who remained there or came…after Dick…acted on their generous impulses or…strove to be fair to…freelancers. But that kind of behavior never again seemed to me to be a core value of the company.

“He was a good guy because he was a good guy. He wasn’t a good guy because it was a smart way to do business, although it surely was…He wasn’t a good guy because the company mandated that persona. He loved comics and he loved comics people. He was a good guy…”

–Tony Isabella from Tony’s Online Tips, March 29, 2010

Sprechen Sie Deutsch? To read “Widow Miss Muffet” and other Last Kiss comics in German click here.

Click on image above to see spectacularly larger view of today’s comic.

More About Dick Giordano…

“Several [Charlton Comics] artists…did less than their best because they had to work faster to put food on the table, but Dick Giordano’s talent enabled him to be fast and still do great work…

“Dick was too good to stay at Charlton so he moved down to DC Comics…

“He worked hard and achieved a lot…He was willing to pay the price for success, long sleepless nights at the drawing board, long boring rides on the train, and the constant struggle to be the Last Man Standing in the DC office.

“I always admired Dick and what he achieved. I never envied him.”

–Joe Gill former Charlton Comics staff writer, December 2002
from Michael Eury’s Dick Giordano: Changing Comics, One Day at a Time

Covers by Dick Giordano. Art and characters ©2010 DC Comics

Sprechen Sie Deutsch? To read “Widow Miss Muffet” and other Last Kiss comics in German click here.

Click on image above to see spectacularly larger view of today’s comic.

How Fast is Fast?

Dick Giordano started his comics career at the Iger Studios and was such a fast inker that some of the other artists asked him to slow down.

The Iger artists were paid by the hour when they took work home. By turning out pages so quickly, Dick made it look too easy.

Later, though, when Dick started working at Charlton Comics the staff artists were paid by the page. So the faster they drew, the more they made.

Dick was “dazzled by the speed of the more seasoned staff artists.” One artist could pencil eight pages a day. Dick could “only” manage two — which was still darned fast!*

“I’m kind of fast. Anybody from my generation…is usually a little faster than the people who’ve come up recently because…the only way you could get a decent salary in the ‘50s and ‘60s was to do a lot of pages…

“You had to learn to cut through the unimportant stuff, to make only the important lines show up so you could do a few more pages.” —Dick Giordano in an interview by John Lustig, 2001

*Info in the first four paragraphs is summarized from Michael Eury’s Dick Giordano: Changing Comics, One Day at a Time

Sprechen Sie Deutsch? To read “Widow Miss Muffet” and other Last Kiss comics in German click here.

Click on image above to see spectacularly larger view of today’s comic.

“I met Dick [Giordano] for the first time when I was 15. I was convinced I was ready to work for him at Charlton. Needless to say, he threw me out of his office — not unkindly, but firmly — leaving me with a single remark. To paraphrase, ‘Your work is too timid — be brave.’

“Dick has no memory of this meeting, and hey, why should he? But a day doesn’t go by that, as I sit at my drawing table, I don’t recall that remark and try a little harder to be a little braver.

“Like an awful lot of my peers, I owe Dick Giordano a huge debt — both for the professional advice and direction he gave freely and with love — but more importantly, for the example he set…The guy’s a prince for God’s sake.”

–Howard Chaykin, January 2003
from Michael Eury’s Dick Giordano: Changing Comics, One Day at a Time

Sprechen Sie Deutsch? To read “Widow Miss Muffet” and other Last Kiss comics in German click here.

Click on image above to see spectacularly larger view of today’s comic.

I’m busy packing for this weekend’s Spokane Comicon so I’ll go light on the text and give you a visual treat instead. Dick’s superhero work is well known to fans, but here’s something you don’t see every day. These scans are from some romance covers that Dick loaned to me years ago. Click on the covers to see larger versions.

Sprechen Sie Deutsch? To read “Widow Miss Muffet” and other Last Kiss comics in German click here.

My daughter Caitie Lustig and my brand-new son-in-law Chris Gunderson are moving to California on Monday. And I wouldn’t be able to hang out with them these last few days if I was at Bumbershoot.

(Me taking Caitie down the “aisle” at her wedding to the theme from Star Wars. No, it wasn’t a traditional wedding.)

Caitie is going to be a grad student at the University of California Irvine. She’s going to get her masters and then her doctorate in Computer Science.

(Caitie Lustig & Chris Gunderson get hitched July 2, 2009.)

There will be other Bumbershoots. But this is the only weekend I’ve got before my daughter leaves town. No contest. I’m staying home.

Just got back from the wedding a few minutes ago. Very unconventional and fun. Thanks for the good wishes everyone. (By the way–as you probably guessed–today’s comic is not based on anything from my real life. My new son-in-law totally has my approval!)

This episode now available in German.

Confession Time: I created this comic at my daughter’s and not-so-future son-in-law’s request. They used the comic for their wedding invitations. (Which went out really late so the cartoon was even more appropriate.) Caitie Lustig and Chris Gunderson are tying the knot Thursday, July 2, 2009–which is the sixth anniversary of when they met!

Sprechen Sie Deutsch? To read this comic (and others) in German click here.