Carmine Infantino

He had proven himself, certainly.  He had been handed what many thought was a difficult assignment, perhaps impossible, and even in the face of a truculent political enemy he had prevailed and caused a new appreciation of those who practiced his art.  Now, though, as nonviable as was his previous assignment, this one was more daunting.  So much so that no one else, and absolutely no one else, could have even been expected to reverse what seemed inevitable, as Carmine Infantino was charged with saving an icon.

It shouldn't have been that way.  Icons are designed, after all, to endure.  But, to do so, their importance and relevance need to be maintained.  This requires awareness, perspicacity, talent, and passion.  Those who had been entrusted to this icon did not have the proper portions of those qualities and the idol was so shaky as to be on the verge of an ignoble disappearance.

What made the charge even more complicated was that comic book superheroes had faded in popularity, as tastes had changed away from heroics and more towards the horror genre.  Also politicians, always eager to find provocative ways to attract media attention [as well as phoney-baloney causes that help facilitate graft], had decided that the biggest danger of the 1950's was not atomic war, the Soviet Union, the proliferation of radiation from testing [look up "Lucky Dragon 5" sometime], nor the global de-stabilization caused by the end of the age of empire, but was, in fact, "funny books".

So, Infantino, accomplished in his field and a veteran of resurrecting that which was thought dead, was summoned to the office upstairs, with walls adorned by the colorful creations of his current colleagues and those of legend who had come before, and was told of his very public fate.

Infantino had been selected to save...Batman.

Infantino was perfect for the job as he was primarily responsible for the resurrection of superhero comics in general.  Born in 1925 and attracted to artistic expression since childhood, Infantino had drifted into the best paying job available for a kid from Brooklyn and had the typical career of a journeyman illustrator for a variety of comic book companies, including Timely Comics where Stan Lee, later of Marvel Comics fame, worked as a writer.  While these jobs were all free-lance, they permitted him a living and notice within the tight world of illustrators, inkers, pencilers, cover men, and writers.

Then, in 1956, Infantino was offered a full-time job with the most prosperous comic book company in the United States: DC Comics, the home of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.  Seeking to expand their line by upgrading older characters that had been out-of-print, Infantino's first charge was to take "The Flash", a comic about a fellow who can run really, really quickly that had ceased to be published over a decade before, and make him accessible and popular to a new group of readers, those of a generation more interested in rock and roll and large cars with fins.  He did so, re-designing the character's alter ego, biography, and costume; not to mention drawing the character with a dynamism that had not been seen in the comics medium.

Well, I could talk about it, but it's best to show an artist's work, don't you think?  Below is the original, discarded "The Flash" from the 1940's:

The Flash, circa 1940

Yes, I always found that Mercury-style hat to be a little impractical.  This is what Infantino did when resurrecting the character:

The Flash, circa 1956

I always liked the ear adornments as they hark to the design features on cars of the 1950's.  Don't see a big difference?  Well, as stated above, the best element of the new, improved Flash was the artistry.  Here he is in motion as captured by the pencil of Infantino:

The 1956 version of The Flash was so successful that it began a general trend at DC where they resurrected and re-invented [I believe the current, vulgar term for this is "re-booting"] the characters of Green Lantern, Hawkman, The Atom, etc.  It is no exaggeration to say that Infantino created the modern superhero.  So popular did The Flash prove that there is currently a TV show enjoying a long run that is based entirely on Infantino's now 60+ year-old "re-boot".

Everything old is new again.

By 1964, the Batman comic was a joke.  As the comic audience had matured, not only had Batman retained its infantile quality, but the story lines had become gimmicky, obtuse, and dim.  Instead of combating the creative criminal class of Gotham City, Batman was more and more often taken into outer space, back through time, or in some realm of magic and magicians.  He had been given a dog, Ace, the Bat-Hound, a girlfriend, Batwoman [not to be confused with the later Batgirl] and her niece [whose name I've blissfully forgotten] and some weird, impish sprite named "Bat-Mite" [no, I'm not making that up].  Robin, too, was still around and his relationship with Batman still a little troubling.  Clearly, the character needed some dramatic form of address.

The "Batman Family", circa 1960.  I mean, seriously?

Infantino accepted the position and began immediately to change the whole concept of Batman, including a mild costume design that took advantage of contemporary color transfer capabilities. He also eliminated the dog, the sprite, the girlfriend and her niece, and re-cast Batman as "The World's Greatest Detective", rather than some space and time adventurer.  He also re-designed the villains.

Being Infantino, he started with the covers, and they were doozies:

Batman, circa 1964

As with The Flash, the new Batman was a hit; so big a hit that an ABC TV show based on the Infantino brand was a phenomenon of the late-60's.  Although far campier than the DC Comics version, it nevertheless brought in new readers and caused superheroes to be an increasing part of our common cultural conversation.  These days, when it seems that half of the new TV shows and all of the large budget movies concern long-established comic book characters, it's hard to conceive of a time when they were ready permanently to disappear from common media.

It is heartening to note, unlike some of those profiled in The Coracle, that Infantino was recognized during his time.  The success of Batman lead to his promotion as DC Comics' editorial director and then as its publisher.  Among his notable work in the latter responsibility, he negotiated the un-heard of practice of teaming a DC Comics character with one from their rival company, Marvel Comics.  Thus was born a comic book that will seize some rather large green if one happens to have an original copy to sell: Superman vs. Spider-Man

Carmine Infantino would retire, occasionally free-lance, and become one of the most popular panelists at comic book conventions for the remainder of his life.  An affable and humble presence, he would always have time to sign an autograph or talk to a fan, as if, even after all of those decades, he was surprised and delighted to find that there were people who enjoyed his work.

He would die at home in Manhattan in 2013 at the age of 87.  A long, good life spent entertaining most of the people in the western world and not a few in the eastern, reaching beyond what is accomplished by artists of more classical themes.  Heck, he even inspired a quiet kid in Ohio to appreciate what color, attitude, and position could do to render something common into something memorable and fun; for that, the kid from Ohio is eternally grateful.