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Joe Giella

Joe Giella

Legendary Inker, famously known for his work on Flash, Green Lantern, Batman and Detective Comics. He studied at the Art Student League alongside Joe Kubert. Mr. Giella received the Inkpot award in 1996. Also worked as a Ghost Artist for Bob Kane in the Batman comic strip.

Name:
Joe Giella
Aliases:
Birth date:
June 27th, 1928
Death date:
March 21st, 2023
Home town:
New York
Country:
United States
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Born in 1928, Joe Giella grew up in the same neighborhood as Tony Bennett. He also attended the Manhattan's School of Industrial art, where they both studied. Joe furthered his education at both Hunter College and the Art Students League in Manhattan alongside comic book legends Joe Kubert and Mike Sekowsky. Joe left the school 3 months shy of graduation to help support his depression era family.

Joe began his art career in the 1940s and at age 18 he began penciling the periodical cartoon "Captain Codfish". Then he inked Captain Marvel stories in the mid 40's. Then he got a job with Timely comics freelancing and shortly after joined the staff. He soon began being an assistant on Captain America issues, he also did work on Human Torch, Submariner and Humor issues. Then in 1948 he joined the Naval Reserves and continued with them for 8 years.

Frank Giacoia convinced Joe to make his way to DC in 1951. Though an accomplished penciller, Joe Giella made his name at DC as a talented and versatile inker starting on The Flash, Green Lantern and Black Canary and others under the editor at DC Julius Schwartz. He did a lot of work with Carmine Infantino, Sheldon Moldoff, Gil Kane, and Neal Adams and his work on Batman and Detective comics is highly sought after by Bat-Fans. He still does convention appearances. He worked only occasionally on Justice League Of America until 1969, at which point he teamed with penciller Dick Dillin for a landmark tenure. Joe is also partially responsible for the Batman Logo update-he worked on with Carmine Infantino on Batman #170. The Batman logo has remained relevant and used on the cover until the end of the Vol.1 series is 2011. Giella also inked the first appearance of Poison Ivy in Batman #181.

Also took over as a penciler for the Batman daily comic strip for the newspaper after Sheldon Moldoff left it. Unfortunately he "ghosted" for Bob Kane meaning he did not credit for his work in this position.

He also inked the first appearances of Hal Jordan (in Showcase #22), Black Canary (In Flash Comics #86), Poison Ivy (in Batman #181) and Phantom Stranger. He also inked the covers to the first appearances of Weather Wizard, and Kid Flash!

partially retired Joe continues to draw for the Mary Worth Daily and Sunday newspaper strip. He also takes time for his 10 grand-kids in New York.

Joe Giella creations

  • Arthur Reeves
  • Johnny Dune
  • Knights of the Galaxy
  • Invisible Destroyer

1 small part taken from Biographies, Crisis On Multiple Earths, 2002, DC Comics.

Issues

August 1947

September 1947

October 1947

November 1947

December 1947

January 1948

February 1948

March 1948

June 1948

October 1948

December 1948

February 1949

April 1949

May 1949

December 1949

January 1950

July 1950

September 1950

November 1950

March 1951

January 1952

May 1952

August 1952

October 1952

December 1952

February 1953

March 1953

April 1953

June 1953

Volumes

1937

1938

1939

1940

1941

1942

1952

1954

1955

1956

1958

1959

1960

1964

1966

1968

1969

1971

1973

1974

Characters