The Fastest Man Alive
Reconsidering the twilight art of Carmine Infantino
Recently, I was thinking about how critical I was as a teenager of Carmine Infantino's art in his twilight years. Infantino was a comic book artist and former editor and publisher of DC Comics, whose glory days were cemented during the Silver Age of comics in the 1950s & 1960s. He was a great cover designer and visual storyteller with a unique style.
I first encountered Carmine Infantino's art when he was drawing DC Comics' THE FLASH in the early 1980s. I was getting into alternative and independent comix but I still had strong tethers to mainstream superhero comic books. I distinctly remember craving something new and picking up an issue of The Flash and immediately rejecting it from the Infantino art alone. It's looked rushed. Anemic in areas. The figures appeared to have been drawn sideways (not really, but that's how I remembered it). My untrained eyes declared it a hack job. But was it? Beloved mainstream artist John Romita Jr. once declared most comic book art as "deadline art." Meaning, the artist has 4-5 weeks to draw 20-24 pages and a cover. Most mainstream comics come out monthly and all that story and art is created under intense pressure and very little time.
Besides producing 4.5 seasons of THE RED HOOK, a weekly webcomic published on Webtoon, I've also drawn a few monthly mini-series, including THE FOX for Archie Comics. The first mini-series I drew was THE THING: Night Falls On Yancy Street, written by Evan Dorkin for Marvel in 2003. It was tough for me to do. There was a lot of great stuff going on in Evan's script but I was nervous. Having doubts in my ability to draw (a doubt that remains to this day). And there was going to be a lot of eyes tearing apart my art. Not only from Marvel editorial but critics and fanboys alike. I'll never forget the conversation I had with the then-editor-in-chief who told me I would probably never get regular work at Marvel while I was in the middle of drawing "Night Falls On Yancy Street." It took the wind outta my sails. I lost all confidence. I started to second guess myself with fears of blowing the deadline. Halfway through issue #3 (of 4), I was assigned an inker, Wade Von Grawbadger, to help complete the series. Wade is one of the best inkers in the business yet I still felt like a total failure. A fraud. An imposter. I learned a lot on that job. One of the things I learned is that I'm not a monthly comic book artist. I'm not John Romita Jr. and I'll never be as good or great as he is.
When we launched THE FOX, I was already three or four issues in on a 5-issue mini-series. When I needed to produce 26-weekly chapters of THE RED HOOK per season, I had already produced 16-18 chapters before launch. I convinced my editors and publishers it was smarter for me to get as much work into the can before making it available for sale. To this day, even with my current "Deep Cut" comix, I try to have at least half the book done before I start crowdfunding. I usually take a financial hit but I don't wanna be one of those creators who takes too long to deliver. Or never.
Which brings me back to Carmine Infantino's 1980s work on THE FLASH. I was a guest at Cosmic Con NY last weekend and there was a dealer selling old comic books. I started rummaging through a long box and came across THE FLASH illustrated by Carmine Infantino. I had the same reaction I had as a teenager -- almost like I was allergic to his art style. But this time I pulled out six consecutive issues of THE FLASH #s 334 - 339 and I paid $40 for them. Why? Because I needed to know. I needed to confront my contempt for Carmine Infantino's latter work. A phase in the life of every veteran artists tenure (if you're lucky to live long enough) when your eyesight is starting to fade. You can't hear. Your hands hurt. Your body is in mortal pain. You can't sit at the art table like you used to. And, in Infantino's case, you gotta make a monthly deadline, draw "the fastest man alive," or get fired.
Not to overstate this fact: but drawing a monthly comic book is brutal. There's a lot at stake. Optimizing a visual short hand is necessary to succeed or you get kicked to the curb. And the way comic books looked like in the 1980s is very different than how they look in 2025. It's almost unrecognizable. Like two wholly different industries. To claim that I prefer a mainstream comic book produced decades ago than one produced today is not farfetched. But I still keep my eyes and ears open for the new stuff. Mainstream and indie. Print and digital. Otherwise you limit yourself.
As I enter my senior years, I employ context into the work of any writer and artist. Whether you're a rookie learning on the job or a veteran who is starting to slip a little, I respectfully put their work in context. Nobody complains when you're hitting your stride and knocking it outta the ballpark. You're a rock star. But life isn't consistent. Life is like a clock. Tick tock ticking away until you reach that time when time is too precious. So, when I choose to sit at the art table while experiencing physical pain and severe doubt in my ability, I try to pepper my existential crisis with joy. Reminding myself on a daily basis, "If you're not having fun, don't do it."
If you're like me, someone who is fascinated by the twilight years of a cartoonists career (see: Jack Kirby's Super Powers or Captain Victory), try to keep your eyes and heart open to the struggle. Try to be somewhat forgiving. When Carmine Infantino illustrated these six FLASH stories I grabbed from 1984, he was 59 years old. I'll be 58 at the end of May.
And with that, I'm gonna step back in time. Pick up what Cary Bates, Carmine Infantino, Frank McLaughlin, Bed Oda and Carl Gafford were laying down, and pay proper respect to a crew of professional creators making their monthly deadlines with the intent to entertain.
Vito Delsante and I had a great conversation with Zuperhero Universe creator/publisher, Mahdi Khene on the VITO x DINO podcast. We talk about a wide range of things including appointment comics, bootleg comix, the power of self-publishing, and making comix for the joy of it.
I did a pin-up for Kevin Conn & Nate Lovett's COMMANDER TOMORROW Kickstarter!
And please don’t forget I’m producing a new story titled “A Day Away,” featuring a brand new character I created called A.I. Joe for Tales From EroTech - A NSFW Indie Anthology with Sex Robots. Check out a naughty sneak-peek of my pencils for page 2 in this link to the Kickstarter.
I’m a guest of Indie Comics Creator Con (IC3) on Saturday, March 15th, 2025, held at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, CT.
IC3 is a new comic book convention focusing on creators and those supporting independent art & ideas. Here’s a complimentary ticket link.
Click here for more details.
If interested in buying a copy of CHEST FACE, please DM me for details or check out my Etsy store.
See you in the gutters—
—Dean
Instagram / Website/Blog / Nightwork Studio / Etsy / VITO x DINO
Great set-up— wonderfully written— but really just Part 1. Now I want to hear what you think once you actually READ those comics. (And, as I see you already acknowledge in other replies, the problem with these FLASH books isn't just the art. And I say that knowing full well no one sets out to make a bad comic at Marvel or DC. But when you have to put something new out there every four weeks…)
One of the things I've struggled with as I grow older is the need to RE-INVENT myself. Mostly I feel I'm scrambling to keep up. Only once— when I decided I wanted to write instead of only ink— only then was I ahead of the curve. That was a moment when I was re-inventing myself BEFORE people had made up their minds who I was and what I could do. But for most of my career I have found a place I like and stayed there. Until it became a rut. And then became hard to get out of.
As I get older and clearly see I have fewer days ahead of me than I have behind me, there's a deep and growing need to step away from working with others and produce some work on my own that IS my own. And thank God for crowdfunding, or I'd never be able to consider that as a remote possibility. Infantino certainly didn't have that option at my age (currently 66[!!])…
We'll talk.