A fixture at Marvel Comics during its Silver Age period and into its Bronze was artist Frank Giacoia, whose inking credit (along with those of Syd Shores, Dick Ayers, and Dan Adkins) graced many a splash page across Marvel's entire line of books. I was always surprised to see his embellishment work on a story, as it seemed he "floated" between assignments; in those instances, he was generally filling in until the book's regular inker either returned or could be lined up. Much of his work could be found on issue covers, as well, but it was always his story work that I was pleased to see, as his style was always reliable and complimented the pencils rather than suppressed them to any degree. There were surely those pencillers who appreciated what a strong inker brought to their table; but I have no doubt that many were happy to have old pros like Giacoia and Shores assigned to their books, knowing that the work would be handled on time and consistently professional.
Giacoia's work in comics dates back to 1940, when he and Carmine Infantino were assigned what would become their first published work--an insert for the new Timely Comics title, U.S.A. Comics. It was Infantino who inked Giacoia's pencils on a story featuring the Golden Age character, Jack Frost (no relation of course to the Iron Man villain who would go on to become Blizzard):
In his first appearance, Jack becomes quite the crimebuster, in a virtual sea of crimebusting mags that apparently flew off the shelf during this period. Though at his story's end, it looks like he may not stay on the side of the law for long!
When Timely morphed into Marvel Comics, it was a rare day when you would see pencilling work from Giacoia. One job that comes to mind is a Sons of the Serpent arc in The Avengers, with Giacoia handling pencils on Part 1 of a two-part story. Along with inker Sam Grainger, he turns in quite a nice collection of pages.
An "unsung" but no less distinguished inker for most of his time at Marvel (a category which I'd also apply to Shores), Giacoia would receive a thoughtful dedication in the 1989 graphic novel, The Amazing Spider-Man: Parallel Lives, one year after his death at the young age of 63.
I made every effort to find a mention of Giacoia's passing in the (very abridged) Bullpen Bulletins page of Marvel's books around the time of his death, which was then using most of its limited space to promote profiles of various Marvel editors, but I came up empty. If anyone can track it down (assuming such a mention exists), I'd appreciate any info on it because I'd certainly like to include it. In its absence, hopefully our tip of the hat to the man here at the PPC will serve to give a well-deserved acknowlegement of Giacoia's contribution to the medium.
Frank Giacoia, circa 1970 (inking FF #97)
(with thanks to Alan Kupperberg via Sean Kleefeld)
Giacoia, along with Josef Rubinstein, was added to the Inkwell Award's 2016 class of the Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame.
BONUS!
Have a look at a few selected PPC posts which feature Mr. Giacoia's work.
Daredevil #16 and #17
4 comments:
Giacoia's pencilling on that Avengers book was terrific - I've read elsewhere that he was extremely slow (more procrastinating than anything, apparently), which led him to get help from others...looking at some of those pages you've shown, there's more than a hint of Buscema (either one) in those layouts. Pity he couldn't keep at it, it was great stuff, regardless of who was responsible (Roy T must have thought so, too - look how he's left that page of the Panther prowling about town both dialogue and caption free...not often he'd do that, surely).
Giacoia was a great inker! One of Kirby's best inker, just under Joe Sinnott IMO. His work on Kirby's Cap run in the 60s was bold and powerful. Plus, Gene Colan had said that he counted Giacoia a one of his best inkers. Even John Buscema liked his work and he hated inkers! Lol!
Verrrry nice stuff on the Avengers, there.
Say, didn't Jack Frost show up in The Incredible Hulk, years later? I seem to remember that.
M.P.
Indeed, M.P., with pencils and inks by Steve Ditko (though it was the latter Jack Frost and nemesis of Iron Man who appeared in the story).
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