Dick Giordano: Changing Comics, One Day at a Time by Michael Eury (2023 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Back Issue's Michael Eury chronicles the life of comics great Dick Giordano. Giordano was a soft-spoken man who let his proteges speak for themselves. Imagine if there was a chart that depicted Stan Lee as the pinnacle of self-promotion in the world of comic books, then Dick Giordano would be on the other end of the spectrum. Yet that doesn't mean that the predominantly DC Comics writer, illustrator, inker and editor was any less influential to the medium than Stan Lee was.

Throughout this biography, Dick Giordano is referred to as an amazing teacher and mentor who always fought for his employees. Neal Adams might get all the credit for ensuring Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster received over-due compensation for their body of work. But it was Giordano who was working behind the scenes with both DC and Marvel executives to provide not just royalties but work and recognition to countless talent who worked for peanuts in anonymity in the early days of comics.

If you were a DC Comics fan who grew up during the late 70s and early 80s, then you owe your awesome childhood to Dick Giordano. Along with working on the comics themselves, the Italian New Yorker had a hand at any and all promotional and commercial items featuring the likes of Superman, Batman and friends. Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez gets almost all of the credit for the design of the beloved Super Powers toy line from Kenner. But it was Giordano who inked every little bit of packaging that made these 1984-86 action figures and accessories so eye-catching.

Without Dick Giordano, Charlton Comics would have folded in the 1960s. Having penciled most of Charlton's Western and War lineup as a freelancer, Giordano became the fledgling publisher's editor in 1965 introducing the company's Action Heroes line, who would later join the ranks of the DC Universe a couple of years before Charlton gave up the ghost in 1986. 

Dick Giordano was such a soft-spoken kind of fellow, that I long gave Crisis on Infinite Earths creators Marv Wolfman and George Perez grief over the death of one of my all-time favorite characters, Supergirl. Yet I learned in this book that the driving force behind the demise of the Maid of Might was Giordano! However, fans should delight in knowing that Dick was instrumental in keeping Hawkman off the Crisis chopping block!

Changing Comics, One Day at a Time was published in 2003. As of the Charlotte HeroesCon of 2007, Giordano was still signing copies of the book which is now no longer in print. Only digital copies of this biography remain for sale by publisher TwoMorrows. Giordano was said to have retired from the con circuit in 2008, spending his remaining time with his children and grandchildren. Richard Joseph Giordano passed away at the age of 77 at his Ormond Beach, Fl. home on March 27, 2010.

Completing this review completes Task #50 (Prose non-fiction about comic book history) of the 2023 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.