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Comics Archivist and Publisher Greg Theakston Has Died, Aged 65

Published Tue, 23 Apr 2019 08:00:18 -0500

Last updated Tue, 23 Apr 2019 17:11:21 -0500

Yesterday, Nancy Danahy posted on Facebook that 'my former (and only) husband passed away today. RIP Greg Theakston, November 21, 1953 – April 22, 2019.'

Comics Archivist and Publisher Greg Theakston Has Died, Aged 65 — Photo by Luigi Novi

Greg Allen Theakston was a comic book historian, publisher and archivist, including the process that DC editor Dick Giordano named after him, Theakstonization, which bleached published comic book pages of colour, leaving just the black and white, to be recoloured for republishing purposes. Before digital scanning and manipulation, this was the best was to get clear copies of artwork for which no original existed and was used for many archival comic book projects.

Greg was part of the earliest comic convention scene, one of the organisers of Detroit Triple Fan Fair in the seventies, which he would later own, publishing fanzines and working with Jim Steranko and Neal Adams at their studios, as well as working for all major comic book publishers, and mainstream publications such as Playboy, Rolling Stone, New York Times, TV Guide and National Lampoon, including drawing for MAD Magazine for ten years. He also publisher in-depth looks at the work of Jack Kirby and Bettie Page.

He received the Shel Dorf Torch Bearer's Award in 2010 for "Preserving the Flame of the Spirit of Comics and Carrying the Torch Forward in the Comic Industry."

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