Wednesday evening, the family of Keith Giffen released a statement confirming the comic creator’s passing. After the statement, which took a comedic tone as it was posted across the late cartoonist’s social media profiles, further reporting revealed he passed after suffering from a stroke over the weekend. Giffen was 70.
“Comic books, for such a small, incestuous, inbred, little business—and I mean that in a good way—we take this job so seriously,” Giffen explained in a 2000 interview with the Jack Kirby Collector. “All the time I was doing Justice League, even when it was number one and outselling everything DC had, there was not a day that went by that I was not pressured to take the humor out. “It’s destroying the book.” People would yank their characters out of the book. “I don’t want Keith getting them. He’ll make fun of them.” And the deal I had with people was when they walk in the door of the embassy they’re mine, when they walk out I will return them to you in the same shape they were when they came in. But some people couldn’t handle the idea that Batman had a wry sense of humor, or that Beetle and Booster could be bumpkins.”
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He added, They totally missed the point of the book. With Ambush Bug it was basically comic book Candide; innocent, but broad. It was deconstruction of comics and inviting people to come look under the rug. Maybe pointing out things the companies didn’t want you to know. Like when we did our spoof on Crisis, we told the truth: Crisis on the only Earth we’re allowed to use. It didn’t go over big. There were a lot of people who got their feathers ruffled. Lobo was originally meant as an indictment of the grim and gritty hero with a gun. To me they were villains who were doing the right thing for the wrong reason. But boy, so many people missed the joke.”
Creators from across the country have taken to social media to pay their respects. See what they’re saying below.
