| Jerry Ordway | |
|---|---|
 Ordway at the 2012New York Comic Con | |
| Born | Jeremiah Joseph Ordway[1][2] (1957-11-28)November 28, 1957 (age 67) |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Writer,Penciller,Inker |
Notable works | The Adventures of Superman All-Star Squadron Crisis on Infinite Earths Infinity, Inc. The Power of Shazam! Superman |
| Awards | Inkpot Award 1994 Inkwell Awards 2017 Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame |
Jeremiah Joseph Ordway (born November 28, 1957)[3] is an American writer,penciller,inker and painter ofcomic books.
He is known for his inking work on a wide variety ofDC Comics titles, including the continuity-redefiningCrisis on Infinite Earths (1985–1986), his long run working on theSuperman titles from 1986 to 1993, and for writing and painting theCaptain Marveloriginal graphic novelThe Power of Shazam! (1994), and writing the ongoing monthly series from 1995 to 1999. He has provided inks for artists such asCurt Swan,Jack Kirby,Gil Kane,John Buscema,Steve Ditko,John Byrne,George Perez and others.[4]
Jerry Ordway attendedMilwaukee Technical High School,[5] where he took a three-year commercial art course, before joining a commercial art studio as atypographer in 1976. He subsequently worked his way "from the ground floor up at the art studio" between 1978 and 1981.[2][4]
Among the artists Ordway considers influential areCurt Swan,Jack Kirby,Gil Kane,John Buscema,Steve Ditko, all of whose pencils he would later ink over. He citesGene Colan,Wally Wood,Alex Raymond,Hal Foster, andRoy Crane as early inspirations. He names contemporaries such asLee Weeks,John Romita Jr.,Ron Garney,Mike Weiringo andAlan Davis, and inkers such asJoe Sinnott,Dick Giordano,Tom Palmer andKlaus Janson.[4]
Before beginning his professional career as an inker, Jerry Ordway entered the comics industry as an artist and publisher for small-presscomics 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 inTim Corrigan's Superhero Comics No. 4 (April, 1975), and his own self-published fanzineOkay 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 featured a pin-up of a character "called Acrobat" who was "the first superhero [Ordway] created. His birth was Dec. 1969."[6]
Spending the late 1970s working as a painter in a commercial art studio in Milwaukee, between 1978 and 1979, he provided illustrations for a number of fanzines and pro-zines, includingOmniverse andThe Comics Journal. His first professional work was forWestern Publishing'sGolden Books on young-reader Marvel books, and theSuperheroes Golden Beginning Stampbook '79.[2][4]
Having produced comics-related artwork for fanzines and licensed 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", (includingWeird War Tales andMystery in Space[2]) in which he "inkedCarmine Infantino,Trevor Von Eeden, as well asJoe Staton, andDave 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, includingMachlan,Pat Broderick, andAl Vey".[4]
At DC, he would illustrateAll-Star Squadron, a series which he helped launch in aninsert preview inJustice League of America No. 193 (Aug. 1981).[7] With writerRoy Thomas, he co-createdInfinity, Inc. inAll-Star Squadron No. 25 (Sept. 1983)[8] and the new team was launched in its own series in March 1984.[9] Ordway inkedDC Comics Presents Annual No. 4 (1985) over artistEduardo Barreto's pencils, was one of several artists onBatman Annual No. 9 (July 1985), inkedGeorge Pérez's pencils on the epic crossover miniseriesCrisis on Infinite Earths in 1985 and Superman artistWayne Boring's pencils for a retelling of the definitiveGolden Age Superman origin story written byRoy Thomas inSecret Origins No. 1 (April 1986), which he considers a particular favorite.[4] Ordway was the penciller and inker for the DC Comics adaptation of the 1989Batman film which was published as a "movie special".[7]
Ordway has noted that "Inking is a weird job, because as much as you put into it, the page still belongs to the penciler."[4]
In 1986, along with writer/artistJohn Byrne and writerMarv Wolfman, Ordway revampedSuperman, in the wake of the Ordway-inked continuity-redefining maxiseriesCrisis 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 titleSuperman was cancelled and replaced withThe Man of Steel, it was relaunched asThe Adventures of Superman, continuing the numbering of the originalSuperman series, with Wolfman as writer and Ordway as artist.[10]
When Wolfman departed the title with issue #435, Byrne briefly took over script writing duties before Ordway assumed the mantle of writer-artist and took over the series solely with issue #445 (Oct. 1988), making his writing debut two issues earlier with #443 (Aug. 1988). Ordway had also served as co-plotter on a few issues during both Wolfman and Bryne's writing tenures (issues #426, 435–437, 439–442, and 444). Switching fromThe Adventures of Superman, Ordway became the writer-artist on the companion titleSuperman vol. 2 between #34 (Aug. 1989) and #55 (May 1991), before later returning toAdventures of Superman as writer and sometimes as cover artist from issues #480 (July 1991) to #500 (June 1993). Ordway was the writer and primary artist for the story in which Clark Kent proposes toLois Lane (Superman vol. 2 #50).[11][12] While writing for the Superman family of titles, Ordway cowrote such storylines as "Panic in the Sky"[13] and "The 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 throughout his career, co-writingAdventures of Superman withKarl Kesel from issues #539–540, 558–562, 564–567 in 1996, and 1998–1999.[7] In Nov. 2017, he drew thevariant cover forAction Comics #992 (cover dated Jan. 2018).[14]
During the 50th anniversary celebrations for Superman, he inkedJohn Byrne's pencils for the cover of the March 14, 1988 issue ofTime magazine[15] and an interior spread celebrating the Man of Steel's anniversary. Ordway has produced a large number of covers for DC from 1982 onwards, including for issues ofSecret Origins and the painted cover art to the hardcover reprint collectionThe Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told.[16] He produced the cover art for the prestige formatgraphic novels,Superman: The Earth Stealers in 1988 where he inkedCurt Swan's pencils andSuperman For Earth (1991), among other work.[7]
In 1994, Ordway masterminded the return of the originalCaptain Marvel to theDC Universe with the 96-page hardcover graphic novelThe Power of Shazam!, which he both wrote and painted. The story saw Ordway depict the revamped origins of the former-Fawcett Comics superhero. It proved to be a success, and was followed by an ongoing monthly series, also titledThe 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 artistsPeter Krause andMike Manley.[17] Towards the end of the series' run, he again took on the dual role of writer & artist with issues #42–47.[18]
During the mid-1980s, Ordway provided covers and occasional artwork to titles from a number of different comics companies. Companies includedWendy and Richard Pini'sWaRP Graphics,AC Comics,Charlton Comics,Paragon Publications and fan-turned-proMarty Greim. ForEclipse Comics, Ordway provided pencils for a short "Epilogue" story inMark Evanier'sDNAgents No. 18 (Jan. 1985).[7] He producedMunden's Bar forFirst Comics, and provided pencils and inks on an issue ofT.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.[2]
ForImage Comics, Ordway co-created the characterWildStar withAl Gordon in 1993,[19] and published his creator-owned one-shotThe Messenger in July 2000.[20]
Although the vast majority of Ordway's professional work has been produced for DC, Ordway inked issues of Marvel'sFantastic Four. He produced occasional work for Marvel between 1984 and 1988, then returned a decade later to write and illustrate a three-issue arc ofThe Avengers vol. 3 #16–18 (1999), guest artist onCaptain America (vol. 3) #32 (Aug. 2000) with writerDan Jurgens, as well as penciling the four-issue crossover mini-seriesMaximum Security (#1–3 and prologueDangerous Planet), and writer/penciller on aU.S. Agent mini-series in 2000–2001.[7] He was artist for the one-shotCaptain America and the Invaders: Bahamas Triangle with writer Roy Thomas, released in July 2019.[21]
As well as inking most ofCrisis on Infinite Earths, Ordway inked the second of DC's continuity-redefining event titles in 1994 by inking writer-artistDan Jurgens' pencils onZero Hour: Crisis in Time.[22] In 2001, he drew the one-shotJust Imagine... Stan Lee with Jerry Ordway Creating the JLA as part of Marvel-stalwartStan Lee's foray into the DC Universe, in which the two of them re-imagined DC'sJustice League of America. He inked the last year (May 2002–May 2003) of the Batman-related titleAzrael: Agent of the Bat (#88–100), and provided the artwork for a six-issue story arc inWonder Woman (vol. 2, issues #189–194), with writerWalt Simonson in 2003. In 2004, Ordway was inker onJLA issues #94–99, the “Tenth Circle” story arc which reunited the formerUncanny X-Men creative team of writerChris Claremont and artistJohn Byrne. From 2003–2008, he provided new covers to theSuperman: The Man of Steel series of six trade paperbacks, collecting the early adventures of thePost-Crisis Superman.[7] To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the originalCrisis, DC publishedGeoff Johns'Infinite Crisis limited series (Dec. 2005–June 2006), for which Ordway provided the artwork for the flashback scenes set onEarth-Two, including a recreation of the cover toAction Comics #1, which he cites as another favorite piece of his.[4] In the wake ofInfinite Crisis, he inkedDan Jurgens' pencils once again in the "History of the Multiverse" back-up stories in the weekly comic bookCountdown (issues No. 39 and No. 38, Chapters 11 and 12) (October 2007).[7]
His work since 2008 includes pencilling three issues ofThe Brave and the Bold (volume 2) (#11–13, May–July 2008) with writerMark Waid, and pencils forJustice Society of America Annual No. 1 (Sept. 2008), alongside some interior artwork for the ongoingJustice Society of America series during late 2008.[7] In 2012, Ordway worked on aChallengers of the Unknown storyline forDC Universe Presents with DC Co-PublisherDan DiDio.[23] Later that same year, he drew aHuman Bomb limited series which was written byJustin Gray andJimmy Palmiotti.[24] Ordway and artistSteve Rude produced a Superman story for DC'sAdventures of Superman digital series in 2014.[25] Ordway drew the "Five Minutes" chapter inAction Comics #1000 (June 2018).[26] He drew the new cover art for the trade paperback collectionWonder Woman By Walter Simonson and Jerry Ordway, collectingWonder Woman vol. 2, issues #189–194 in 2018.[27]
Ordway received anInkpot Award in 1994.[28] In 2017, he was awarded theInkwell AwardsJoe Sinnott Hall of Fame Award for "an inking career in American comic books of outstanding accomplishment."[29][30]
Ordway is married to Peggy May Ordway (b. 1959).[2][3]
The children of the original Justice Society of America made their smash debut in this issue by writer Roy Thomas and penciler Jerry Ordway...All-Star Squadron #25 marked the first appearances of future cult-favorite heroes Jade, Obsidian, Fury, Brainwave Jr., the Silver Scarab, Northwind, and Nuklon.
{{cite book}}:|first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Jerry is the artist on it and we could not be happier.
Louise Simonson and Jerry Ordway typify the Man of Steel's miracles in 'Five Minutes,' while providing a fun look at the conflict Superman creates in the life of Clark Kent.
| Preceded by | All-Star Squadron artist 1983–1984 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by n/a | Infinity, Inc. artist 1984–1985 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Fantastic Four inker 1985 | Succeeded by Al Gordon |
| Preceded by n/a | The Adventures of Superman artist 1987–1989 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | The Adventures of Superman writer 1988–1989 | Succeeded by Dan Jurgens |
| Preceded by | Superman vol. 2 writer/artist 1989–1991 | Succeeded by Dan Jurgens |
| Preceded by Dan Jurgens | The Adventures of Superman writer 1991–1993 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by John Byrne | Hulk writer 1999–2000 (withRon Garney) | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Wonder Woman artist 2003 | Succeeded by |
