Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Jim Aparo, R.I.P.

Comic book artist Jim Aparo has died at the age of 72 following a recent illness. Despite a bit of training at the Hartford Art School, Aparo considered himself a self-taught illustrator. A lifelong fan of comics, he always wanted to work in the business but his samples did not arouse any interest until around 1966 when Dick Giordano, who was then an editor at Charlton, decided to give him a try...on a teen strip called "Miss Bikini Luv." That, and subsequent assignments for Charlton's war, western and ghost comics worked out so well that, despite Charlton's niggardly pay rates, Aparo was able to quit his day job at a Hartford advertising agency and realize his dream as a full-time comic book artist.

Jim continued to work for Charlton and in 1968, when Giordano became an editor at DC Comics, Jim began drawing for that firm, as well. For a time, he labored for both, and his run on Charlton's version of The Phantom (1969-1970) was especially outstanding. But once his contract with Charlton was up, DC grabbed him full-time and he never stopped working for them until the early nineties when health problems cropped up.

Aparo drew Aquaman, The Phantom Stranger and The Spectre for DC, but the vast majority of his work was with Batman, including a long run drawing the Batman team-ups that appeared in The Brave and the Bold. The strip allowed Aparo to draw just about every character in the DC Universe but especially to display a memorable, exciting interpretation of The Caped Crusader that built on the Neal Adams revamp (circa 1969) and took it off in a unique and powerful direction. Many fans will tell you that Aparo was their all-time favorite Batman artist.

Also notable about Aparo were his meticulous work habits. Except for a few brief exceptions, he always pencilled, lettered and inked his own work at the rate of one page per day — no more, no less. He'd pencil that page in the morning, break for lunch, letter it and then almost always have it finished by bedtime. This was possible because editors found him so trustworthy that there was no need to have him show the work in the pencil stage. They could just send him a complete 22 page script and then, 22 workdays later (plus travel time), they had the finished art. In the DC offices, there would sometimes be panic — "We need to have a script ready for Aparo by Tuesday" — because he delivered like clockwork.

Aparo worked with a wide array of writers...though not everyone. Some writers, who prefer to work "Marvel method," were frustrated that Jim could not or would not work from a plot synopsis with the dialogue to be written later. Those who did craft full scripts for him, however, appear to have been unanimous in their happiness with the finished product. He was a diligent, talented craftsman and going by the few times I met him, a very nice and dedicated gentleman.

• Posted at 11:45 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

I really like going to Costco. Rumor has it they will soon erect one about a mile from me, which will be great. But until they do, I have no hesitation about visiting any of three that are 6-8 miles away. I find them friendly and clean and usually well-stocked, and I love all the free samples of food, which I have come to refer to as Costco Dim Sum.

I liked Costco even before I learned how well they treat their employees. Some folks seem to think that for "competitive reasons," you have to pay rock bottom wages and impose a plantation worker mentality on your work force. Not so, as Costco proves. This article tells how well their approach is succeeding.

• Posted at 10:18 AM · LINK

Con Reports

Tom Spurgeon reports on the Eisner Awards, which were handed out last Friday night at the Comic-Con International. I was going to say his commentary was more entertaining than the awards themselves, but...well, fill in your own joke about watching paint dry or watching flies die. Tom's report is very funny, as you'll see for yourself.

Augie DeBlieck reports on the con. Here's part zero, here's part one, here's part two and here's part three.

Greg Hatcher reports on the "Working With Will Eisner" panel...

...while Brian J. Apodaca reports on the Golden/Silver Age Panel.

You'll note that I'm not linking to any reporter whose con coverage didn't mention my panels. There are certain benchmarks one can use to determine if a writer is worthy of reading, and that's one of them.

• Posted at 8:08 AM · LINK