Carmine Infantino passes

[CharlieRock]

DC illustrator, writer, and publisher Carmine Infantino passed away recently.

[Yoc]

Very sad news.  All the greats are passing on.

[chaard]

Alas, everyone dies, eventually. Me too, maybe next week even. There go the greats of previous generations. Now we need new generations of greats, to carry on and expand the field and its possibilities. Some 11-year-old doing animated webcomix now will be mourned when she passes, next century. C'est la vie, y'all.

[darkmark (RIP)]

Stan Lee can't be far behind.

[OtherEric]

I've never been a huge fan of Infantino like some people.  I like his stuff well enough, but he's never been one of those I sought out.

BUT...

My oldest original owner comic, beat all to heck though it may be, is Star Wars #21.  It may not have been the first comic I read- in fact it certainly wasn't- but it was the first one I KEPT.  So he clearly had an impact on me, even if it was mixed in with my general love of Star Wars at that age and Archie Goodwin's writing.

For that, I salute you, Carmine Infantino.

[CharlieRock]

I've never been a huge fan of Infantino like some people.  I like his stuff well enough, but he's never been one of those I sought out.

BUT...

My oldest original owner comic, beat all to heck though it may be, is Star Wars #21.  It may not have been the first comic I read- in fact it certainly wasn't- but it was the first one I KEPT.  So he clearly had an impact on me, even if it was mixed in with my general love of Star Wars at that age and Archie Goodwin's writing.

For that, I salute you, Carmine Infantino.

Was that the really weird series Marvel put out that seemed like an alternate universe for Star Wars? (with Jaxxon the giant green bunny-dude). I loved that series. I got the Droid world issue!

[Roygbiv666]

Didn't Marvel have to produce the first bunch of issues without having seen the film?

[Yoc]

So Roy Thomas likes to tell it yeah.

[John C]

It's definitely a possibility.  The movie was released in late May, whereas the cover date for the first issue was July.  Wikipedia's brief cover date article says that comics largely shifted to a three-month separation in 1973, meaning it very probably hit the stands shortly before the movie hit theaters.

Add in some lead time to, y'know, create the book, and even seeing a preview/rough cut to the point where you'd remember anything but the title of the flick isn't so likely.

That's all hypothetical, mind you.

[jfglade]

I'm sad to learn of Infantino's passing. I was quite fond of his work on the "new" Flash from 1959 until I pretty much switched over to Marvel three or four years later. I would sometimes buy Detective after the Elongated Man replaced Manhunter from Mars just because I liked the way Infantino drew the ductile detective. He's one of the artists I think about when I think about the early silver age, along with Kubert, Swan, Kane, Kirby, Ayers, Ditko, Everett, and others. I feel a little older each time one of the men who worked so hard to entertain me in my childhood passes on. Infantino certainly qualifies as one of my heroes.