Posted in: Boom, Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, NYCC | Tagged: justice league, justice league international, keith giffen, lobo, Maxwell Lord, new york comic con, one punch, rip, rocket raccoon

Keith Giffen, Co-Creator Of Rocket Raccoon & Lobo, Has Died, Aged 70

Keith Giffen, co-creator of Lobo, Rocket Raccoon, Maxwell Lord, Jaime Reyes: Blue Beetle and the Justice League One Punch, has died, aged 70.

Keith Giffen, co-creator of Lobo, Rocket Raccoon, Maxwell Lord, Jaime Reyes: Blue Beetle and the Justice League One Punch, has died at the age of 70. He suffered a stroke on Sunday, the 8th of October and died on Monday the 9th. In accordance with his family's wishes, the following was posted to his Facebook page tonight.

I told them I was sick…
Anything not to go to New York Comic Con
Thanx
Keith Giffen 1952-2023
Bwah ha ha ha ha

Keith Giffen was known as a true virtuoso of the comic book form for almost fifty years, especially for his work on Justice League and Legion Of Superheroes comic books. And in his first year working in comics, co-created Rocket Raccoon with Bill Mantlo for Marvel Preview in 1976.

In the early eighties, he worked with Paul Levitz, writing and drawing Legion Of Super-Heroes, including The Great Darkness Saga. His work on the Legion Of Substitute Heroes in 1985 led him to apply a more irreverent style to DC's standard bearer, the Justice League Of America, first dropping "Of America" for the first time, making it Justice League International and running it for five years alongside Justice League Europe.

This sitcom take on the Justice League was the reason I even got into reading DC superhero comic books in the first place, and I felt physically betrayed when, five years in, his was replaced with a more traditional take on the characters. With JM DeMatteis, Keith Giffen gave us something closer to Seinfeld but with superheroes, and it inspired the Justice League TV pilot – mostly panned, but had excellent vox pop-to-camera moments that The Office would later make famous. It was also a principal influence on Joss Whedon's Buffy The Vampire Slayer and The Avengers movie. The "bwah hah hah hah" from Giffen's post-death post was a reference to that comic's best known catchphrase.

Keith Giffen took the comedy further with Ambush Bug, a self-aware comedy character that preceded the likes of Deadpool, and was meta two decades before people were even using that term. Keith Giffen returned to the JLI for Formerly Known as the Justice League in 2003, I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League in 2005, and Justice League 3000 in 2013.

Keith Giffen also co-created Lobo, which would gain increased popularity with Alan Grant and Simon Bisley, as a parody of the kind of extremely violent comics that were becoming more prevalent, and then that audience embraced Lobo as well. It is rumoured than Jason Momoa will play him in an upcoming movie.

He also had a great independent line of comics, with Trencher as an early Image Comics title that sold hundred of thousands, and gave him another new art style that he used on Lobo Infanticide and Images Of Shadowhawk. His Hero Squared launched Boom! Studios, in the JLI style, as well as creating new comics 10, Tag, Zapt!. I Luv Halloween, Common Foe, Tabula Rasa and Grunts. While working through Valiant titles such as X-O Manowar, Magnus, Robot Fighter, Punx and Solar, Man of the Atom. As well as 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, Division 13, Agents of Law, SuperPatriot, Freak Force and Vext.

He took a break from the comic industry for several years, working on storyboards for television and film, including shows such as The Real Ghostbusters, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi and Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy. But he couldn't resist the siren call back to comcis, as long as they were on his own terms. He was the breakdown artist on the DC weekly comic 52, as well as Countdown To Final Crisis, doing breakdowns for all 104 issues. He also helped popularise the Guardians Of The Galaxy comic book series before the movies, writing the Annihilation event, including Thanos, Drax, Silver Surfer and Star-Lord.

He worked at DC Comics with the coming of the New 52, on OMAC, Green Arrow, The New 52: Futures End, Infinity Man and the Forever People, Sugar And Spike and The Inferior Five. He was also the co-creator of Jaime Reyes, the new Blue Beetle, who also just had a movie out.

He was known for shifting his art style, turning on a pin to channel the likes of Alex Toth, George Pérez, Jim Starlin, Jack Kirby and José Muñoz – and in doing so, educated the young me regarding comics history. I was thankfully able to tell him all this, and he seemed do take amused pride in the idea that, in some ways, he was to blame for me.

I talked to Dan DiDio, long time friend and creative collaborator of Keith Giffen. I told me that he was "Having a hard time finding the right words. All I know is that Keith would be annoyed by this whole thing, but if anyone truly deserved praise and appreciation from the comic industry. It would be Keith. I guess it's a good thing he's not here to hear it."

DC Comics Editor-In-Chief Marie Javins is expected to lead a tribute to Keith Giffen at the DC Comics panel at New York Comic Con tomorrow. Our condolences to his friends, family and fans.

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