DC Finest: Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying

In a career that has spanned nearly 30 years, Marv Wolfman has helped shape the heroic careers of DC Comics’ Green Lantern, Blackhawk, and the original Teen Titans, as well as Marvel Comics’ Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and Nova. In addition to co-creating The New Teen Titans and the universe-shattering Crisis on Infinite Earths with George Pérez, Wolfman was instrumental in the revamp of Superman after Crisis, the development of The New Teen Titans spin-off series Vigilante, Deathstroke the Terminator, and Team Titans, and created such characters as Blade for Marvel, along with Night Force and the retooled Dial “H” For Hero for DC. In addition to his numerous comic book credits, Wolfman has also written several novels and worked in series television and animation, including the Superman cartoon of the late 1980s and currently the hit Teen Titans show on Cartoon Network.

A self-taught artist, Jim Aparo first attempted to break into the industry in the early 1950s at the legendary E.C. Comics group. When E.C. rejected his work, Aparo turned to advertising art in his native Connecticut, where he specialized in illustrating newspaper fashion ads while continuing his efforts to work in comics. His dream was finally realized in 1966 when Charlton Comics editor Dick Giordano hired him to draw a humorous character called Miss Bikini Luv in Go-Go Comics. Sharpening his skills on such features as the Phantom, Nightshade, Wander and Thane of Bagarth, Aparo followed Giordano to DC Comics in 1968 where he quickly gained notice for his smooth, realistic style on such titles as Aquaman, The Brave and the Bold, The Phantom Stranger, The Spectre, The House Of Mystery, The House Of Secrets, Batman, Detective Comics, and Batman and the Outsiders. An artist whose work is still considered a high-water mark for the industry, Aparo died on July 19, 2005.