Keith Ian Giffen (November 30, 1952 – October 9, 2023) was an American comics artist and writer. He was known for his work for DC Comics on their Legion of Super-Heroes and Justice League titles and as the co-creator of Lobo, Rocket Raccoon, and Jaime Reyes.
Early life Keith Ian Giffen was born in Queens, New York City, on November 30, 1952.
Career His first published work was drawing the spot illustrations for a text piece introducing "The Sword and The Star", a black-and-white story featured in Marvel Preview #4 (Jan. 1976) written by Bill Mantlo. Giffen and Mantlo created Rocket Raccoon in the second instalment of "The Sword in the Star", in Marvel Preview #7 (July 1976). Giffen is best known for his long runs illustrating and later writing the Legion of Super-Heroes title in the 1980s and 1990s. Giffen and writer Paul Levitz crafted "The Great Darkness Saga" in Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 2, #290–294 in 1982. In August 1984, a third volume of the Legion of Super-Heroes series was launched by Levitz and Giffen.Manning "1980s" in Dolan, p. 208: "As DC began to toy with the idea of relaunching some of their more popular titles using high-quality Baxter paper, the Legion of Super-Heroes was an obvious chioice. Utilizing the talents of writer Paul Levitz and artist Keith Giffen...the Legion was off and running in their own new title with a major new storyline...the Legion's other monthly comic changed its moniker to Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes with issue #314." Giffen plotted and pencilled the fourth volume of the Legion which began in November 1989.Manning "1980s" in Dolan, p. 241: "Plotted by Keith Giffen and inker Al Gordon, scripted by Tom and Mary Bierbaum, and pencilled by Giffen, this relaunch of the formerly teen team of heroes and heroines broke new ground in the fictional realm of the 30th Century.
After successfully experimenting with superhero humor in the 1985 Legion of Substitute Heroes Special, Giffen began employing this style in many of his works. He co-created the often-humorous Justice League International series in 1987 with J. M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire.Manning "1980s" in Dolan, p. 228: "It was clear that the [Justice League] needed a major overhaul. But no one quite expected how drastic the transformation would truly be in the hands of writers Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis and artist Kevin Maguire." The success of that series led to a spinoff in 1989 titled Justice League Europe also co-written with DeMatteis, and later with Gerard Jones, and featuring art by Bart Sears.Manning "1980s" in Dolan, p. 239: "Spinning out of the pages of Justice League International, an offshoot of the Justice League set up camp in Paris. Written by Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis with art by Bart Sears." The Giffen/DeMatteis team worked on Justice League for five years and closed out their run with the "Breakdowns" storyline in 1991 and 1992.Manning "1990s" in Dolan, p. 251: "The lauded Giffen/DeMatteis era of the Justice League came to a dramatic close with "Breakdowns", a sixteen-part storyline that crossed through the pages of both Justice League America and Justice League Europe." The two writers and Maguire reunited in 2003 for the Formerly Known as the Justice League miniseriesCowsill, Alan "2000s" in Dolan, p. 311: "In 2003, writers J. M. DeMatteis and Keith Giffen and original artist Kevin Maguire worked on a six-part series reuniting [their version of] the team." and its 2005 sequel, "I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League", published in JLA Classified.
Giffen created the alien mercenary character Lobo (with Roger Slifer)Manning "1980s" in Dolan, p. 202: "When space-bike-riding renegade Lobo made his debut during the "Citadel War" storyline in The Omega Men by Roger Slifer and artist Keith Giffen, he was hardly recognizable as the rebellious anti-hero who would become one of the best-selling DC characters of the 1990s." as well as the irreverent "want-to-be" hero Ambush Bug.Manning "1980s" in Dolan, p. 199: "[Ambush Bug] made his debut in the pages of DC Comics Presents #52...[by] writer Paul Kupperberg and artist Keith Giffen." A Doctor Fate back-up series, written by Martin Pasko and drawn by Giffen, appeared in The Flash #306 (Feb. 1982) to #313 (Sept. 1982). DC later included Pasko and Giffen's stories in a three-issue limited series titled The Immortal Dr. Fate (Jan. 1985 – March 1985). He was one of several artists on Wonder Woman #300 (Feb. 1983)Manning "1980s" in Dolan, p. 200: "The Amazing Amazon was joined by a host of DC's greatest heroes to celebrate her 300th issue in a seventy-two-page blockbuster...Written by Roy and Dann Thomas, and penciled by Gene Colan, Ross Andru, Jan Duursema, Dick Giordano, Keith Pollard, Keith Giffen, and Rich Buckler." and was one of the contributors to the DC Challenge limited series in 1986. Giffen plotted and was breakdown artist for an Aquaman limited series and one-shot special in 1989 with writer Robert Loren Fleming and artist Curt Swan for DC Comics.
Giffen worked on titles owned by several different companies including Woodgod, All Star Comics, Drax the Destroyer, Heckler, Nick Fury's Howling Commandos, Reign of the Zodiac, Suicide Squad, Trencher, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, and Vext. He was responsible for the English adaptation of the Battle Royale and Ikki Tousen manga, as well as creating "I Luv Halloween" for Tokyopop. He worked for Dark Horse from 1994 to 1995 on their Comics Greatest World/Dark Horse Heroes line, as the writer of two short-lived series, Division 13 and co-author, with Lovern Kindzierski, of Agents of Law. For Valiant Comics, Giffen wrote X-O Manowar, Magnus, Robot Fighter, Punx and the final issue of Solar, Man of the Atom.
Giffen took a break from the comic industry for several years, working on storyboards for television and film, including shows such as The Real Ghostbusters and Ed, Edd n Eddy.
Giffen and his Justice League colleagues, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire, have applied their humorous brand of storytelling to a title that he had drawn in the 1970s, Marvel Comics' The Defenders. Giffen later confessed concerning his 1970s run, "Back then, I was the kind of moron that I now warn new guys against becoming. ... When I think of Defenders, I think of what could have been if I'd had an ounce of professionalism in my body at that time." The Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire trio also produced the Metal Men backup feature which appeared in Doom Patrol.
Giffen and DeMatteis collaborated with artist Joe Abraham on the creator-owned title Hero Squared for Boom! Studios. The two-issue mini-series Planetary Brigade chronicled the adventures of characters originating from this series.
Giffen was the breakdown artist on the DC Comics title 52, a weekly series following in the wake of the Infinite Crisis crossover, written by Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid and Grant Morrison.Cowsill "2000s" in Dolan, p. 325: "The title was masterminded by writers Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, and Mark Waid, with Keith Giffen providing art breakdowns." He continued in that role with the follow-up weekly series Countdown to Final Crisis. He was the lead writer for Marvel Comics's "Annihilation" event, having written the one-shot prologue, the lead-in stories in Thanos and Drax, the Silver Surfer as well as the main six issue mini-series. He wrote the Star-Lord mini-series for the follow-up story Annihilation: Conquest.
Between 2005 and 2007 he co-created and often authored or co-authored independent comics such as 10, Tag and Hero Squared for Boom! Studios, Zapt! and I Luv Halloween for Tokyopop, Common Foe and Tabula Rasa for Desperado Publishing/Image Comics and Grunts for Arcana. Many of these were co-authored with Shannon Denton.
Giffen co-wrote OMAC with Dan DiDio as part of The New 52 company-wide relaunch until its cancellation with issue #8. In October 2011, he became writer of Green Arrow from issues #4–6. Giffen and Paul Levitz collaborated on the Legion of Super-Heroes for issues #17 and 18 in 2013. Giffen reunited with J. M. DeMatteis on the Justice League 3000 series launched in October 2013.Manning "2010s" in Dougall, p. 341: "The future reality of the Legion of Super-Heroes was explored by writers Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis and artist Howard Porter." In 2014, he and Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens, and Brian Azzarello co-wrote The New 52: Futures End. That same year, Giffen and Dan DiDio reunited on Infinity Man and the Forever People. In 2016, Giffen wrote the scripts for a series about young adult versions of Sugar and Spike, drawn by artist Bilquis Evely and published as one of the series in DC's Legends of Tomorrow anthology. In 2019, he worked with artist Jeff Lemire on an Inferior Five series, one that shared nothing with the original 1960s superhero humor series other than the title.
Giffen died from a stroke in Tampa, Florida, on October 9, 2023, at the age of 70. In November, DC Comics ran a series of memorials in comics that were released on what would've been Giffen's 71st birthday, and Marvel Comics followed suit a week later.
Analysis of style Artwork
Giffen's art took on many styles over the years. His early work tended towards a heavy influence from Jack Kirby. After an early stint at Marvel, he began doing layouts for artist Wally Wood during the 1976 revival of the Justice Society of America in All Star Comics. When he returned to comics after a hiatus, his style was more precise and reminiscent of George Pérez and Jim Starlin, and helped make Legion of Super-Heroes DC's second most popular comic after Pérez's New Teen Titans. It was his work on the Legion that rocketed him to comic book artist fame. He peppered his artwork with in-jokes such as upside down Superman logos, hidden Marvel characters, eyeball creatures, and scrawled humorous messages on signs in the background of his panels in the alternate futuristic alphabet Interlac.
As Giffen's style loosened up, he found himself drawn to the work of José Muñoz (see Controversy). Soon thereafter he developed a scratchier, more impressionistic style, using a highly stylized method of drawing directly with ink, on titles such as Trencher, Lobo Infanticide and Images Of Shadowhawk.
After his lengthy sabbatical from comics work, Giffen returned with a style influenced by his Justice League artist Kevin Maguire that was midway between the tight, controlled pencils of his early Legion days and the freer but less anatomically realistic style he had later adopted.
Writing
For many years, Giffen plotted and did the panel-to-panel break-downs for stories he drew, but did not write the final script. He relied on others such as Robert Loren Fleming and Tom and Mary Bierbaum to supply captions and dialogue, even when he was the main creative force behind the book. He co-wrote the Freak Force series with Erik Larsen and co-wrote two SuperPatriot mini-series. Beginning with Trencher, Giffen started writing comics fully by himself, although he still collaborated when the project called for it.
Giffen was also known for sudden plot twists and abrupt often tragic turns of fate. During his late 1980s-early 1990s run on the Legion of Super-Heroes, light comical issues were often followed by darker ones where popular characters were maimed or killed.