RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books Keith Giffen interview

From THE JACK KIRBY COMIC COLLECTOR # 29

Giffen is one of my favorites from the scattered work he did in the mid/late-1970's, on DEFENDERS 42-54, AMAZING ADVENTURES (Killraven) 35 and 38, CLAW 8-12, a few scattered issues of MARVEL PREMIERE, ALL-STAR COMICS, and so forth.

But he became one of my favorites with his work on LEGION OF SUPERHEROES 285-306 (a series of issues I just recently re-read for the Nth time), and for his "Doctor Fate" backups in FLASH 306-314 (reprinted nicely in IMMORTAL DOCTOR FATE 2 and 3 in 1984, Issue 1 being Simonson and Nasser stories), along with his Ambush Bug stories beginning with DC COMICS PRESENTS 52, and continuing in scattered issues of ACTION COMICS in 1983-1984, before spinning off into two AMBUSH BUG miniseries. Although truth told, I think the backups were better than the miniseries.
OMEGA MEN (Giffen did issues 1-5) was a prestigious series also for Giffen, one of DC's first deluxe-format Baxter series.
There was also a really funny LEGION OF SUBSTITUTE HEROES SPECIAL he did.


Giffen also collaborated with J.M.DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, Adam Hughes and Bart Sears on JUSTICE LEAGUE and JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE (plus a number of JUSTICE LEAGUE ANNUAL, QUARTERLY and SPECIAL issues, and related miniseries) from 1987-1992, that I think tried to recapture the playfulness and humor that was largely gone from comics in those years, and arguably still is.

Plus its recent revivals as FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE JUSTICE LEAGUE, and JLA: CLASSIFIED.
This is also somewhat related to the Alan Grant interview I posted a few weeks ago, since they collaborated on the L.E.G.I.O.N. '89 and LOBO series.

The stuff Giffen rants in the interview, about the decline of the industry, really resonates for me. When he largely lost interest in creating and working for the major publishers, is pretty much when I largely stopped reading, about 1993-1994, for precisely the reasons he describes.

I also found it interesting how he basically pissed off pretty much everyone at DC in the late 70's, before he came back as a superstar penciller in 1982-1983. It's funny to picture a guy with that kind of stardom, being given work on probationary basis at DC, secretly being given a second chance.

Keith Giffen killed Karate Kid and for that he must die

For anyone who doesn't know, that was in LEGION OF SUPERHEROES (fourth series, "Five year Gap" run, 1989) issue 5.
You'll notice I didn't include that story in my most-loved run of LEGION issues (second series, issues 285-306).

It didn't bother me so much that Giffen killed off Karate Kid, as the fact that it was done so cheaply and unfeelingly. It was a chore to read.
By Giffen's own account in the interview, that was at a point where he'd grown bored with the LEGION series, and that it was not his best work.

Giffen continued to do (2nd series) 307-314, and (3rd series) 1-5, but it was in this weird pseudo-Alex Toth art style, and issues 1-5 swiped a few pages from Driullet's LONE SLOAN/DILIRIOUS series in HEAVY METAL.

Giffen came back like 4 years later and did more LEGION work toward the end of the 3rd series (1988-1989), but it just wasn't the same.


But far worse waited for the LEGION in the 4th series "Five Year Gap" storyline, and the abandonment of 35 years of continuity after issue 61 of that series, with the "Zero-Hour" storyline. As loyal and devoted to continuity of the series as Legion fans are, I'm surprised the editor and other creators of that continuity departure haven't joined Salmon Rushdie in permanent hiding for the rest of their lives.

As I recall, there were reports of Giffen swiping for years prior to the Driullet incident. Ultimately, the Comics Journal even printed an article about it.

Zero Hour is the pits. It has to be the worst thing in comics, ever.

I want them to show Karate Kid waking up one morning and saying something like, " Holy shit! I just had this really bad dream about some crap called " Zero Hour " and thank God it was just a dream! "

Yeah, even in Giffen's best work, there were swipes from various artists, as he acknowledges in the interview. Jose Munoz was, I guess, pretty pissed off about Giffen's swipes of his work.
Giffen borrows a lot from Kirby, and in the peak issue of the Great Darkness Saga (issue 294) he swipes a panel by Starlin from CAPTAIN MARVEL 34.

They were, as you say, a regular item in the COMICS JOURNAL's "swipe file".

Giffen may be second only to Rich Bucker for his sins in that category.

yeah...Rich Buckler. I remember when I was a kid, Buckler drew an issue of Batman were the swipes were so obvious: Batman looked different from panel to panel. In one panel he looked like a Neal Adams drawing, in the next a Jim Aparo drawing, then a Berni Wrightson drawing, etc.

It was so bad that the first time I read the book I thought Rich Buckler was a psuedonym for "D. Hands," the Marvel term for a book where different pages were drawn by different artists to meet a deadline.

Did you mean BATMAN 265 ?


I actually thought that was a really good issue. Particularly since it was inked by Berni Wrightson in his prime(1975).

I wasn't looking for swipes in that issue, I'll have to go back through it and give it a second look.
Buckler also pencilled a later issue, BATMAN 297, that was inked by Colletta, also a fun and charming story. I don't recall him doing many BATMAN stories, possibly no others than these two.

Buckler had a long run of stories in WORLDS FINEST (circa 1979-1982) where I recall the Neal Adams swipes being a lot more obvious. In that period Buckler was doing a lot more work for Continuity, and Adams kind of encouraged his stable of artists, whether on advertising or comics work, to clone his style.

Yeah, I'm almost tempted to find a cheap copy of that issue, just so I can catalog the changing styles. But I forgot that Wrightson inked it. That must be why some panels looked like his work.

Giffen is the shit. I just wish he would draw something...not just breakdowns for crappy weakly comics...

For the most part I enjoyed his time on Legion in his various capacities. He took to much glee in killing Karate Kid (twice!) though. I think he made a mistake also by not using costumes & code names when starting up the 5yr gap Legion. The 9 panel grid he used also didn't lend itself well to a book with such a large cast like the Legion. Yet for this old fan it was a treat to see the adult Legion & it was never boring when he was on the Legion.

If you liked his Justice League stories I recommend his Planetary Brigade. Fun stuff.

Love his Ambush Bug, JL/JLI and Lobo, like his L.E.G.I.O.N. (which musnt't by confused with LoSH). Haven't yet read his LoSH.