- Jerry Ordway
-
Jeremiah Joseph Ordway[1][2] 
Jerry Ordway at the 2008 New York Comic Convention.Born November 28, 1957 Nationality American Area(s) Penciller, Inker, Writer Notable works The Power of Shazam!, Superman, Adventures of Superman
Jeremiah "Jerry" Ordway (born November 28, 1957)[3] is an American writer, penciller, inker and painter of comic books.
He is known for his inking work on a wide variety of DC Comics titles, including the continuity-redefining classic Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985–1986), his long run working on the Superman titles from 1986–1993, and for writing and painting the Captain Marvel original graphic novel The Power of Shazam! (1994), and writing the on-going monthly series from 1995–1999. He has provided inks for artists such as Curt Swan, Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, John Buscema and Steve Ditko.[4]
Contents
Early life and influences
Ordway was inspired in his childhood by Marvel Comics, and dreamed of drawing Daredevil, Spider-Man, and Avengers. (To date he has only worked on the latter.)
Among the artists he considers influential are Curt Swan, Kirby, Gil Kane, John Buscema, Steve Ditko, all of whose pencils he would later ink over. He also cites Gene Colan, Wally Wood, Alex Raymond, Hal Foster and Roy Crane as early inspirations. He also names contemporaries such as Lee Weeks, John Romita JR, Ron Garney, Mike Weiringo and Alan Davis, and inkers such as Joe Sinnott, Dick Giordano, Tom Palmer and Klaus Janson.[4]
Jerry Ordway attended Milwaukee Technical High School, where he took a three-year commercial art course, before joining a commercial art studio as a typographer in 1976. He subsequently worked his way "from the ground floor up at the art studio" between 1978 and 1981.[2][4]
Comics career
Before beginning his professional career as an inker, Jerry Ordway broke into comics as an artist (and publisher) for small-press comics fanzines. Ordway discovered Marvel comics in "June of 1967," and wrote in 1975 (aged 17) that he had "been drawing superheroes [ever] since." His first published work, a story entitled "The Messenger", appeared in Tim Corrigan's Superhero Comics No. 4 (April, 1975), and his own self-published fanzine Okay Comix followed in May–June, 1975.[1] Okay Comix featured stories by Ordway and his friend Dave Koula, and art predominantly by Ordway himself. Ordway's own hero "Proton" headlined the 'zine, which also featured a pin-up of a character "called Acrobat" who was "the first superhero [Ordway] created. His birth was Dec. 1969."[5]
Spending the late 1970s working as a painter in a commercial art studio in Milwaukee, between 1978 and 1979, he also provided illustrations for a number of fanzines and pro-zines, including Omniverse and The Comics Journal. His first professional work was for Western publishing's Golden Books on young-reader Marvel books, and the Superheroes Golden Beginning Stampbook '79.[2][4]
DC Comics
Having produced comics-related artwork for fanzines and licenced publishers, Ordway attended "a talent search at the 1980 Chicago Comicon," held by DC Comics. After showing them his "DC related artwork from the Golden Books," he "walked away with a promise of work."[4] This work began in the summer of 1980 for "DC's anthology comics," (including Weird War Tales and Mystery in Space[2]) in which he "inked Carmine Infantino, Trevor Von Eeden, as well as Joe Staton, and Dave Cockrum." After continuing to work at the art studio for a further six months, inking comics for DC by night, Ordway began "freelancing full time in February 1981." During the mid-1980s, he "shared a studio with other artists, including Machlan, Pat Broderick, and Al Vey."[4]
At DC, he would go on to co-create and illustrate titles such as All Star Squadron and Infinity Inc with writer Roy Thomas. Ordway inked DC Comics Presents Annual No. 4 (1985) over artist Eduardo Barreto's pencils, he was one of several artists who contributed art for Batman Annual No. 9 (July 1985), and more notably also inked George Pérez's pencils on the epic crossover miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985. Ordway also inked legendary Superman artist Wayne Boring's pencils for a retelling of the definitive Golden Age Superman origin story written by Roy Thomas in Secret Origins No. 1 (April 1986), which he considers a particular favorite.[4] Ordway was also the penciller and inker for the DC Comics adaptation of the 1989 Batman film which was published as a "movie special".
Particularly highly regarded for his inking, Ordway has however noted that "Inking is a weird job, because as much as you put into it, the page still belongs to the penciler."[4]
Superman
Main articles: Superman and The Man of Steel (comics)In 1986, along with writer/artist John Byrne and writer Marv Wolfman, Ordway was one of the architects trusted with revamping Superman, in the wake of the Ordway-inked continuity-redefining maxiseries Crisis on Infinite Earths. Launching, with a revised origin and new continuity, in Byrne's miniseries, The Man of Steel, Superman soon returned to featuring in a number of titles. After the titular title Superman was cancelled and replaced with Man of Steel, it was swiftly relaunched as Adventures of Superman, continuing the numbering of the original Superman comic, with Wolfman as writer and Ordway as primary artist.
When Wolfman departed the title, John Byrne briefly took over scriptwriting duties before Ordway assumed the mantle of writer-artist and took over the series solely. Switching from Adventures of Superman, Ordway took over as writer-artist on the companion title Superman (vol. 2) between 1989 and 1991, before later returning to Adventures as writer. While writing for the Superman family of titles, he helped devise the epic "Death of Superman" storyline in 1992. After seven years working on the character, Ordway largely left the Superman titles in 1993, although he would make frequent returns to the character as writer and artist throughout his career.
In 1988, during the 50th anniversary celebrations for Superman, he inked over John Byrne's pencils for a Time magazine cover and interior spread celebrating the Man of Steel's anniversary. Ordway has also produced a large number of covers for DC from 1982 onwards, including for issues of Secret Origins and the painted cover art to the hardcover reprint collection The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told (DC Comics, 1990). He also produced the cover art for the prestige format graphic novels, Superman: The Earth Stealers in 1988 (where he also inked over Curt Swan's pencils) and Superman For Earth (1991), among other work.
In 1989, he would take time off from his monthly work on Superman and illustrate the comic book movie adaptation to director Tim Burton's blockbuster movie, Batman.
Captain Marvel
Main article: The Power of Shazam!In 1994, Ordway masterminded the return of the original Captain Marvel to the DC Universe with the 96-page hardcover graphic novel The Power of Shazam!, which he both wrote and painted. The story saw Ordway depict the revamped origins of the former-Fawcett Comics superhero. An early example of the one-shot Original Graphic Novel, it proved to be a success, and was followed by an on-going monthly series, also titled The Power of Shazam! (which ran between 1995 and 1999). Ordway wrote and provided painted covers for the entire run of the regular series, as well as illustrating fill-in issues between series-regular artists Peter Krause and Mike Manley. Towards the end of the series run, he again took on the dual role of writer & artist.
Other work
Non-DC work
During the mid-1980s, Ordway provided covers and occasional artwork to titles from a number of different comics companies. Companies included Richard and Wendy Pini's WaRP Graphics, AC Comics, Charlton Comics, Paragon Publications and fan-turned-pro Marty Greim. For Eclipse Comics, Ordway provided pencils for a short "Epilogue" story in Mark Evanier's DNAgents No. 18 (Jan 1985).[6] He also produced Munden's Bar for First Comics, and provided pencils and inks on an issue of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.[2]
For Image Comics, Ordway co-created the character WildStar (with Al Gordon) in 1993, and published his creator-owned one-shot The Messenger in July 2000.
Although the vast majority of Ordway's professional work has been produced for DC, between inking All-Star Squadron and Crisis on Infinite Earths for DC, Ordway inked issues of Marvel's Fantastic Four. He produced occasional work for Marvel between 1984 and 1988, then returned a decade later to write and illustrate a three-issue arc of Avengers (vol. 3) #16–18 (1999), as well as penciling the four-issue crossover mini-series Maximum Security (#1–3 and prologue Dangerous Planet) in 2000–2001.
Other DC work
As well as inking most of Marv Wolfman and George Pérez's Crisis on Infinite Earths, Ordway also inked the second of DC's continuity-redefining event titles in 1994 by inking writer-artist Dan Jurgens' pencils on Zero Hour. To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the original Crisis, DC published Geoff Johns' Infinite Crisis limited series (Dec 2005 – Jun 2006), for which Ordway provided the artwork for the flashback scenes set on Earth-Two, including a recreation of the cover to Action Comics #1, which he cites as another favorite piece of his.[4] In the wake of Infinite Crisis, he inked over Dan Jurgens' pencils once again in the "History of the Multiverse" back-up stories in the weekly comic book Countdown (issues No. 39 and #38, Chapters 11 and 12) (October 2007).
In 2001, he drew the one-shot Just Imagine... Stan Lee with Jerry Ordway Creating the JLA as part of comics legend and Marvel-stalwart Stan Lee's foray into the DC Universe, in which the two of them re-imagined DC's Justice League of America. He inked the last year (May 2002 – May 2003) of the Batman family title Azrael: Agent of the Bat (#88 – #100), and also provided the artwork for a six-issue story arc in Wonder Woman (vol. 2, issues #189–194), with writer Walt Simonson in 2003. From 2003-2008, he also provided new covers to Superman: The Man of Steel series of six trade paperbacks, collecting the early adventures of the Post-Crisis Superman.
Recent work includes pencilling three issues of The Brave and the Bold (volume 2) (#11–13, May–July 2008) with writer Mark Waid, and pencils for Justice Society of America Annual No. 1 (Sept. 2008), alongside some interior artwork for the on-going Justice Society of America series during late 2008.
Personal life
Ordwayand his wife, Peggy May, have a son, Thomas.[2][3]
Bibliography
As writer
The issues listed include those where writing credits are for at least one story included in the issue.
Title Issue(s) Cover Dates Americomics No. 2 June 1983 Adventures of Superman #426
#443
#445–451
#453–456
#480–500
#539–540
#558–562
#564–567March 1987
August 1988
October 1988 – February 1989
April 1989 – July 1989
July 1991 – Early June 1993
October 1996 – November 1996
June 1998 – October 1998
February 1999 – May 1999Adventures of Superman Annual #2 1987 Superman #29
#31
#34–47
#49–55
#110March 1989
May 1989
August 1989 – September 1990
November 1990 – May 1991
March 1996Superman: The Legacy of Superman #1 1993 The Power of SHAZAM! 1994 Lois and Clark, The New Adventures of Superman 1994 Doomsday Annual #1 1995 The Power of SHAZAM! #1–47 March 1995 – March 1999 Showcase `96 #7 August 1996 The Power of SHAZAM! Annual #1 1996 Fandom's Finest Comics 1997 The Batman Chronicles #7 Winter 1997 The Power of SHAZAM! 1,000,000 November 1998 Superman: The Man of Steel 1,000,000 November 1998 The Avengers #17–18 June 1999 – July 1999 Domination Factor: Avengers #1.2–4.8 November 1999 – February 2000 Hulk #9-11 December 1999 – February 2000 Domination Factor: Fantastic Four #1.1–4.7 December 1999 – February 2000 The Messenger July 2000 USAgent #1–3 August 2001 – October 2001 Joker: Last Laugh Secret File #1 December 2001 References
- ^ a b Ordway, Jerry "What? Another 'zine?" in Ordway's Okay Comix No. 1 (May–June, 1975), p. 2
- ^ a b c d e f Bails, Jerry and Ware, Hames, "Jerry Ordway" in Who's Who in American Comics. Accessed March 13, 2009
- ^ a b Miller, John Jackson (June 10, 2005). "Comics Industry Birthdays". Comic Buyer's Guide. Archived from the original on October 29, 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5trAbNQWw. Retrieved December 12, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Jerry Ordway Interview at RoughHouseInk. Accessed March 13, 2009
- ^ Okay Comix No. 1 (May–June, 1975), p. 24
- ^ DNAgents #18 at Comics.org. Accessed March 13, 2009
External links
- Jerry Ordway blog
- Jerry Ordway at Lambiek.net
- Jerry Ordway on Marvel.com
- Ordway Bibliography for Jerry Bails and Hames Ware's Who's Who in American Comic Books.
Preceded by
John Byrne(Incredible) Hulk writer
1999–2000
(with Ron Garney)Succeeded by
Paul JenkinsCategories:- 1957 births
- American comics artists
- American comics writers
- Comics inkers
- Living people
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