1) I guess the colorists work forms part of the atmosphere of the Novick/ Giodano Batman too; not sure if one of them did it themselves sometimes or not (maybe Giordano), but whoever’s work it was, it certainly deserves a mention, contributing substantially to the look and feel; I love the coloring of every Novick/Giordano Batman work I’ve seen.

2) Thanks for this interesting article on Novick!

Once he left the Batman comics, I lost interest myself. As good as Don Newton and Gene Colan were, who replaced Novick at that time, to me they didn’t have that special touch that Irv had.

I’m glad this webpage is a tribute to him. Irv Novick was a legend in my eyes!

The observation by many that his work evolved is entirerly correct. The reason is that my father evolved.
He was not a man who remained static in any aspect of his life – intellectual, emotion, education – he progressed constantly. He was an incredibly interesting man, not just an artist.

I think Novick’s last work was a Batman Fill-In issue during the “Invasion” cross-over. inked by Steve Mitchell, if I recall

It’s possible that the Flash story was drawn before the Invasion story, but the Flash story came out almost two years after the Invasion story, so I’d imagine that the Flash story was done last.

But, like I said, it’s possible that the Flash story was in the can for a long time already.

Novick was “THE” Flash Artist in my mind, as he was drawing the book when I started reading it (inked by Frank McLaughlin). As I collected, I heard about the amazing Carmine Infantino, and when he came back to the book, I couldn’t see what the big deal was. Of course his style had changed so much that it wasn’t the same artist at all.

Irv’s Superman wasn’t my favorite, as he made Supes look too “normal” to me. Garcia Lopez was (and is) my standard for Superman.

In looking at reprints of Irv’s Batman work, I do see Adams influences- not direct swipes, but similar enough to make me think Irv had seen a pose and it stuck in the back of his head- Gordan’s head on page 2 second panel looks like an Adams pose.

Some inkers weren’t the best fit for Novick (Colletta loses some of the polish of Irv’s work). Evan Calnan on the Superman pages changes Irv’s pencils a bit, reducing the line work, and squaring up Superman’s head a bit. (Calnan was the regular penciller on Batman when I fisrt started buying it, inked by Tex Blaisdel who inked Irv a few times).

God, I can’t beleive I remember all this.

Novick was the regular penciller on Batman when Len Wein was writing it in the late 70′s, again inked by McLaughlin. I prefer Giordano, but these were strong issues artistically- even if the stories were more of a 1950′s vibe to them.

Novick on Batman, Newton on Detective and Aparo on Brave and Bold. These were good times.

Nice to see some of the young turks give some lovin to the masters of the past.

DC had a much clearer house artistic style than Marvel in the ’70s and early ’80s. You could kind of tell a DC book without knowing the characters by clean look of the art. I kind of miss those days as a fan, but it certainly makes you overlook the talent of the people producing those pages.

Keep this feature up!

You know how to sell an artist, Brian! I have a weird fondness for those characters.

Also, as everyone else mentioned, Novick’s evolution as an artist is as impressive as his pages, and those are some very solid pages. I keep coming back to the shot of Jay getting hit with an “atomic-punch.” The poses there pretty much define dynamic anatomy. “Ka-Boooom,” indeed.

I always figured the Shield’s outfit must be uncomfortable to wear, because it seems so solid and pointy– but the art for his newest incarnation makes it look like spandex, and I find that disappointing.

Even when paired with some mediocre writers in DC Comics presents, most of his work was and still is readable.

Irv Novick, Bob Brown, Neal Adams – with writer Frank Robbins they created the best Batman ever.

Seems to fit the decade he was drawing in!