Keith Giffen, longtime comic book writer and artist, best known for his work on Justice League, Legion of Super-Heroes and Lobo, has died aged 70.
His death was announced on his Facebook page, in a post that appeared to have been pre-written by the writer before his death.
Who was Keith Giffen?
Keith Giffen was an American comics artist and writer. He is known for his work for DC Comics on their Legion of Super-Heroes and Justice League titles as well as for being the co-creator of Lobo and Rocket Raccoon.
Keith Giffen Biography
Keith Giffen was born in Queens, New York on November 30, 1952. His first published work was “The Sword and The Star”, a black-and-white text story featured in Marvel Preview #4 (Jan. 1976), with writer Bill Mantlo.
Giffen and Mantlo created Rocket Raccoon in Marvel Preview #7 (Summer 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. Giffen plotted and pencilled the fourth volume of the Legion which began in November 1989.
After successfully experimenting with his unorthodox brand of humor in the 1985 Legion of Substitute Heroes Special, Giffen began employing this style in many of his works. He co-created the humorous Justice League International series in 1987 with J. M. DeMatteis and 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. The Giffen/DeMatteis team worked on Justice League for five years and closed out their run with the “Breakdowns” storyline in 1991 and 1992.
The two writers and Maguire reunited in 2003 for the Formerly Known as the Justice League miniseries 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)[14] as well as the irreverent “want-to-be” hero Ambush Bug. A Doctor Fate series of back-up stories, written by Martin Pasko and drawn by Giffen appeared in The Flash #306 (Feb. 1982) to #313 (Sept. 1982).
DC later collected Pasko and Giffen’s stories into 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) 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.
Keith 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.
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. 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 other than the title. Keith Giffen died from a stroke in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on October 9, 2023, at the age of 70
Keith Giffen cause of death
Born in Queens, New York on November 30 1952, it’s been reported by The Hollywood Reporter that Keith Giffen died from a stroke.
Giffen’s family announced his death on Facebook Wednesday via a sardonic post pre-written by the comic book writer-artist: “I told them I was sick…Anything not to go to New York Comic Con, Thankx,’ adding “Bwah ha ha ha ha.”
His death was affirmed by longtime collaborator Paul Levitz. “The sad news is now official: Keith Giffen has gone off to create new worlds that are beyond our living reach,” Levitz wrote on Facebook. “Keith was probably the most fertile creative mind of our generation in comics. He had an infinite number of ideas, pouring constantly out.
Levitz continued, “We did over 60 stories together. Many of them he made far better than they might have been with any other collaborator, because of his ideas and contributions to character moments and dramas. A few we had rough times on, but I think no more than could be expected in a long relationship.”
Keith Giffen Age
Keith Giffen was born November 30, 1952, died on October 9, 2023 at aged 70.
Keith Giffen Parents
The identity of Keith parents is not known.
Keith Giffen Siblings
Keith was not known to be an only child, however, details about his siblings are unclear.
Keith Giffen Wife
Keith as not known to have been married and hence, she had no husband or spouse.
Keith Giffen Children
Not much personal details about Keith have been shared online by his family following his death but he is believed to have never given birth, hence, she had no kids.
Keith Giffen Family
Father: Not Available
Mother: Not Available
Siblings: Not Available
Spouse: Not Known
Children: Not Known
Keith Giffen Net Worth
Per reports, Keith Giffen had an estimated net worth of $5 million at the time of her death.
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