Monday, May 2, 2011

Best wishes and speedy recovery to Carmine Infantino!

According to an update from Vanguard Productions on Facebook, J. David Spurlock (Infantino's agent) just announced the comic book legend is recovering from surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome. Carmine Infantino retired from comics in 2005, but not before drawing practically every character out there for Marvel, DC and Warren. He's best known for his work redefining the Flash and touching off the Silver Age, but he also drew a pile of Star Wars comics and Spider-Woman among others. Somewhere in there, he became DC's publisher and brought Jack Kirby to that company where the King's Fourth World epic-- deemed something of a financial failure at the time-- eventually became part of the underlying myth/narrative for all their superhero books.

At one point in the 1960s, Infantino apparently handled the art for some sort of character with a kind of "bat" theme, but nothing came of it and not much is known about that obscure property. They can't all be winners, even for the greats. Much more influential on the industry was Infantino's pencil work on Marvel's Star Wars #15, one of the many comics I read until they disintegrated during the early days of my comic book fandom. Many of you are no doubt huge fans of the characters Crimson Jack and Jolli.

Get well soon, Mr. Infantino!

No comments: