Today is Jim Aparo's birthday

Today is the birthday of legendary DC artist Jim Aparo. Jim passed away in 2005, but the legacy of his work in comics lives on.

While he worked on many comics, his most memorable work was on the Batbooks - Detective and Batman as well as The Brave and the Bold. It’s a thrill for me when I find an old issue with his art because I know I’m in for a treat. I love Neal Adams’ work on the Batbooks from the same period, but Aparo’s work always seems more elegant to me. And defining. For example, when I think of Jim Gordon, the image I think of is Aparo’s Jim Gordon.

The work of Aparo that many people are most familiar with is “A Death in the Family” and perhaps his most famous image:

While I love his interious, my affinity for Aparo also comes from his covers featuring DC women including Batman Family in the 70s - most of which included Barbara Gordon as Batgirl including this one:

Go get’m, Babs!

Aparo also drew the covers for “The Lazarus Affair”, one of my favorite Bronze age Batman tales.

Batman/Selina/Talia. Funny how some things never change, do they? And here are two final Aparo covers. The first one let him draw almost all of Batman’s Bronze Age Rogues and even one of Superman’s.