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Questions and Answers
Here are questions posed to Nick Cardy and Nick's answers. Questions may have been edited. Q: Where can I send comics for Nick Cardy to sign? A: Sorry, we cannot accept comics for signatures. Q: Is Nick related to Chris Viscardi, creator of the incredible "Adventures of Pete and Pete" TV show? A: Nick says he doesn't know of any relation. If fact, outside of his family he doesn't know anyone else with the Viscardi surname. Q: Did many other DC silver age artists like yourself draw differently when they did a job for Julius Schwartz or Mort Weisinger than when they worked for Jack Schiff or George Kashdan? Ramona Fradon, Jim Mooney, Gil Kane, you... to me, the work of the same artists looks very different under different editors, even when the work is all fairly contemporaneous. Would you dispute or support this? A: Nick says over the years we worked for Murray Boltinoff on Legends of Daniel Boone, Gangbusters and Aquaman his style evolved. Nick says he never really thought he had a style until one day Gil Kane said to him, "Oh Nick, I can always recognize your work." It's not that Nick was told how to draw but that his style was always changing and he was always experimenting. As for his own styles. Nick says his later Teen Titans work is looser than in the earlier issues. On Bat Lash, Nick says his style was even more looser. In the B&B stories with the Teen Titans and Black Canary, Nick went back to the traditional "old type" style. In Teen Titans 13 he says he "broke the mold". Nick was going to quit DC after this story so he wanted to show them what they would be missing. Q: I have never seen an artist switch gears as beautifully as Cardy, when his Aquaman covers (and interiors too) shifted from a very crisp bold-yet-sophisticated style to a much more fine-line romantic style. This happened around 1967-68. Subsequent covers were his absolute masterpieces! I don't know issue #s, but the prime example of this gorgeous poster-style is a cover depicting Aquaman dead on the beach with a reward note pinned on his costume by the underworld. My question is whether this huge mood shift in the drawing style was a personal artistic statement by Nick, an outgrowth of the shift in story tone, or a request from newly installed Artistic Director/later Publisher Carmine Infantino (I understand he was doing all the cover layouts then?). Possibly the shift was inspired by new editor Dick Giordano? Whoever motivated the change isn't as important as Nick's incredible success in portraying it. Classic, brilliant work. A: Nick says he got several cover layouts from Carmine Infantino. For example the Superman covers with kids were usually laid out by Infantino. Nick says that Julius Schwartz tells this story about one day when Nick brought in a cover and Carmine says "This isn't the layout I gave you!". Nick says "No, it's better". Nick credits Infantino with giving him a lot of artistic freedom. Q: I have an idea for a comic book but no ideas how to bring it to fruition. I have found possible artists but I don't know what a customary relationship would be between myself, who would just write copy, and a artist who would do the real work. Any ideas for budding entrepreneurs? A: Writers and artists have different dynamics. A writer won't work the same way with different artists and vice versa. According to Nick, he worked from full scripts from writers like Bob Haney and George Kashdan. These scripts would tell Nick what to draw. Nick says he never embellished the plot but sometimes he would do the storytelling differently but wouldn't change the story. |
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Gallery || Rare Cardy || Recreations || Q & A || Messages |