Jerry Ordway

27
Jerry Ordway bigraphy, stories - Writer

Jerry Ordway : biography

November 28, 1957 –

Jeremiah "Jerry" Ordway (born November 28, 1957) 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 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.

Early life and influences

Ordway was inspired in his childhood by Marvel Comics, and dreamed of drawing Daredevil, Spider-Man, and the Avengers. (To date he has only worked on the latter.)

Among the artists he considers influential are Curt Swan, Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, John Buscema, Steve Ditko, all of whose pencils he would later ink over. He cites Gene Colan, Wally Wood, Alex Raymond, Hal Foster and Roy Crane as early inspirations. He 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.

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.

Personal life

Ordway is married to Peggy May Ordway (b. 1959).

Comics career

Tim Corrigan’s Superhero Comics Okay Comix Okay Comix Okay Comix Okay Comix

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, 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.

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." This work began in the summer of 1980 for "DC’s anthology comics," (including Weird War Tales and Mystery in Space) 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."

At DC, he would illustrate All-Star Squadron, a series which he helped launch in an insert preview in Justice League of America No. 193 (Aug. 1981) at the Grand Comics Database With writer Roy Thomas, he co-created Infinity, Inc. in All-Star Squadron No. 25 (Sept. 1983) and the new team was launched in its own series in March 1984.Manning "1980s" in Dolan, p. 207: "Written by DC’s Golden Age guru Roy Thomas and drawn by Jerry Ordway, Infinity, Inc. was released in DC’s new deluxe format on bright Baxter paper." Ordway inked DC Comics Presents Annual No. 4 (1985) over artist Eduardo Barreto’s pencils and was one of several artists on Batman Annual No. 9 (July 1985), and more notably inked George Pérez’s pencils on the epic crossover miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985. Ordway inked 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. Ordway was the penciller and inker for the DC Comics adaptation of the 1989 Batman film which was published as a "movie special".