Thursday, April 4, 2013

Public Personas That Influence Our Lives

Once again many of us are affected with sadness of the passing of public personas that influence our lives. Roger Ebert, film critic, will be sorely missed by many, but for me the passing today of Carmine Infantino, the great comic book artist and editor affects me more.

The losses of Carmine Infantino, today, and Joe Kubert in the recent past have shook me more than I would have believed, only matched by the passing of Walt Kelly many years ago. These men have created work that kept me motivated professionally and personally from my earliest childhood.

I am grateful that each of these men left us such a huge body of work to be enjoyed again and again.

A turning point for me, as a young boy, was the publication of Infantino's sketches in the Flash Annual #1 that demonstrated how he drew the stylish renderings of his iconic character. It opened my eyes to possibilities that I still wield all these years later.


I met Infantino but briefly, yet significantly for me. Above is a sketch that he based on a drawing he had done for a cover of the in-house DC fanzine from many years ago, that I recently sold at auction as part of our fund-raising for our daughter's education.

It's hard seeing an adventurous creative era coming to a close.

3 comments:

Daniel [oeconomist.com] said...

I hope that Infantino had some sense of the importance that his work had for so many children, and that it was an importance that would carry into their adult lives.

Thomas Haller Buchanan said...

Indeed. Well said, Daniel. His work (and Kubert's) helped make comics seem (if not actually be) more adult oriented.

Artman2112 said...

well said Thomas. t'was a sad day yesterday, indeed :(