Comic Book Biography: Keith Giffen by Rik Offenberger
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Comic Book Biography: Keith Giffen by Rik Offenberger It’s one of the better creator stories of the past couple of years. After a stretch where he could barely get a nod of recognition from Marvel or DC, Keith Giffen is experiencing a career renaissance rarely seen. While he was a major force to contend with in comics in the later ‘80s and ‘90s, thanks to his work on Legion of Super- Heroes and Justice League, both titles ultimately went through major shifts in tone, and as their directions changed, so did their writer. For a long-ish period, it seemed that Giffen was gone from comics as well. His name would pop up occasionally, but for the most part, comics seemed to have moved on, and Giffen wasn’t on the train. Give it a few years, and things do change. With a solid foundation based in translating popular manga series, and some new superhero work through Boom! Studios, Giffen is back in full force, overseeing not one, but two major events: Annihilation at Marvel and 52 at DC. It’s a comeback that would make not only any of Giffen’s contemporaries, but…well, any creator working in mainstream comics jealous. During some of his rare free time, we sat down with Giffen for a look back, around, and forward. Newsarama: Keith, let's just jump into it at the beginning - where did you study art? Keith Giffen: The Little Falls public library. I didn't really have any formal art training and it shows. The year I spent at the NY School of Visual Arts was a faux hippie, metaphysical nightmare and the night courses I took at the DuCret School only reinforced what I'd already pulled from the library's books. NRAMA: Your first published work was on The Sword and the Star, How did you break in with Marvel? KG: Odd luck. Ed Hannigan had just left The Sword and the Star and they needed a replacement, like... yesterday. It just so happened my samples were in John Romita's office at he time and Bill Mantlo saw them and thought I had what it took. He was so wrong. NRAMA: How did you go from a few fill ins here and there to working on the Defenders? KG: I don't know. It just seemed that I was always landing on projects that I wasn't experienced enough to carry. I'm going to say Gerry Conway had something to do with it because Gerry was a booster of my stuff back then. What he saw in me back then I'll never know. NRAMA: What's it like revisiting the team today? KG: Anyplace I go with JMD and Kevin is going to be a fun place to be. NRAMA: Why did you jump to DC? KG: Mostly because Joe Orlando was the only guy in the business willing to give me a second chance. I burned a lot of bridges the first time around, did dirt to a lot of good people. It took a real act of faith on Joe's part to let me back in at DC. NRAMA: You did some Doctor Fate back up stories in Flash, were you a Dr. Fate fan prior? KG: Nope. I did like Simonson's take on the character though... NRAMA: You ended up doing a lot more with Dr. Fate later, was this because of reaction to this early Dr. Fate work? KG: I'm going to say yes. Dr. Fate was the first character I did as a professional and not a pig headed jackass. The Doc's been good to me. Hi, Marty! NRAMA: Your first breakthrough work was on Legion of Super-Heroes, how did you get the assignment? KG: Mike Barr offered me some back-up work on the strength of my Dr. Fate stuff. Paul Levitz agreed to it; and let me state here and now that had I been in Paul's place I would have forked the evil eye and run. Paul's was the second act of faith that got my career on track. NRAMA: You were associated with the Legion of more then 10 years, what about them appealed to you? KG: Everything! The world building, the huge cast, the sci-fi elements! What's not to like? NRAMA: Since you left the Legion, have you followed the comic at all? KG: I've stayed shy of the Legion for the most part because I'm too close to the book. A fair assessment of anyone else's run is, pretty much, impossible. That said, I've been following Waid's rethinking of the concept and loving it. It's far enough removed from the Legion I did that I can actually see it past my ego. NRAMA: I always though Ambush Bug was hysterical, how did they let you get way with the things he did in Action Comics, which wasn't supposed to be a humor title? KG: Two words. Julie Schwartz. NRAMA: Likewise, you went seriously offbeat with Lobo. What was the appeal of Lobo? KG: I have no idea why Lobo took off. I came up with him as an indictment of the Punisher, Wolverine, bad ass hero prototype and somehow he caught on as the high violence poster boy. Go figure. NRAMA: You were in the first wave of creators to join the Image creators after it was founded, what was the appeal there? KG: I was sold a bill of goods about calling my own shots and being part of a creative collective. What can I say? I fell for it. But Lord above, the money was astonishing! NRAMA: Your art had changed a great deal from Defenders to Trencher, how did your art evolve? KG: I didn't want to draw everything twice so I thought I'd see what happened if I just dove right in on the inks. Definitely not to everyone's taste. NRAMA: Over the years, you've worked at Marvel, DC, Image, and Valiant. Is there any real difference between the companies? KG: Not really. They're all after the same thing and tend to go after it in pretty much the same way. Where I land has more to do with the personalities involved than the characters or concepts. NRAMA: Much of your work has been collaborative, with you plotting, scripting, doing layouts or finishing art, do you prefer to working as part of a team or was this an editorial decision? KG: It's my preferred method of working. I love creative give and take. NRAMA: Speaking to one of your more unusual collaborations, you've written English adaptations of some pretty popular manga. How do you script Battle Royale and Battle Vixens if you don't speak Japanese? KG: I get rough English transcripts that I then have to make sense of. NRAMA: Still with your collaborations, for five years you and J. Marc DeMatteis produced Justice League, usually bi-weekly between JLA and JLE, what made you think that it was the right time to bring back humor comics? KG: We never thought in those terms. It felt right so we did it. It still feels right. NRAMA: How did you convince DC? KG: We didn't tell them. Hell, before that first issue hit we were sure that this was the book that was going to end out careers. NRAMA: With Justice League, you were producing the number one comic at DC. Usually in comics when someone is successful other creators try to imitate that success, why did the other creators run from humor rather then embrace it? KG: I have no idea. NRAMA: Moving on to one of your more favored charatcers, In Crisis on Infinite Earths they started the series by bringing the Blue Beetle to the DCU, somehting which you made good use of in Justice League. How do you feel about them killing him to start Infinite Crisis? KG: As harsh as it may seem, I was done with him. What DC does with him from then on is their business. RIP, Ted. NRAMA: How did the death of Blue Beetle, the use of Booster Gold and Maxwell Lord affect your plans for I Can't Believe it's Not the Justice League? KG: I Can't Believe was done way before we knew Identity Crisis existed. The deaths didn't affect us at all because we'd finished the series already. Well... Okay... JMD got a bit weepy but that's about it. NRAMA: How does it affect plans for any future use of the group? KG: Don't know. Don't care. We're done with the characters. We told the tales we wanted to tell and its past time to go. NRAMA: Springing out of Infinite Crisis is the new Blue Beetle, how did you get the assignment? KG: Dan DiDio put it on the table. The challenge was irresistible. NRAMA: WHat can you say about your fellow creators on the title? KG: Cully Hamner on the art and John Rogers on the dialog. Cully's a known commodity. His talent speaks for itself and I couldn't be happier having him aboard. John Rogers is a produced screenwriter slumming around in comics until the next balloon payment on his house comes due. Actually, he's the most talented co- writer I've worked with since JMD. This guy's going to have whatever comic book career he wants; he's that frickin' good. NRAMA: Who is the new Blue Beetle? KG: Jamie Reyes.