Hero Initiative, the charitable organization responsible for helping veteran comic creators in medical or financial need, has just announced Joe Giella as the 2016 Lifetime Achievement recipient. This award recognizes individuals who produced incredible work in this American art form, as well as promotes the merits of an impressive career in the comic industry. Joe Giella will be accepting this honor at the 2016 Harvey Awards for his enduring career as DC Comics inker and Mary Worth pencil artist.

Joe Giella began his career during the Golden Age of comics, working at both Fawcett and Timely Comics in the 1940s. During the late ’40s, Giella worked at DC Comics on titles such as The Flash, Green Lantern, Strange Adventures, and Batman under the direction of Julius Schwartz. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Giella continued inking for DC working with Silver Age talents such as Mike Sekowsky and Carmine Infantino, as well as Bronze Age talents Gil Kane and Dick Dillin. Giella remained a constant artist for DC Comics all the way to the early 1980s.

Since 1991, Giella has drawn Mary Worth for King Features, in addition to previous work on Flash Gordon and The Phantom comic strips. As Giella retires from the business this year, Hero Initiative and Baltimore Comic-Con are no doubt honored to feature him as their guest.

“Joe Giella is one of the greats. We had an immediate positive response when we first published his name as attending the show, and to honor him with The Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award at this year's Harveys is going to be the cherry on the sundae. We cannot wait!” Marc Nathan, promoter of the Baltimore Comic-Con said.

The 2016 Harvey Awards ceremony is being held on Saturday, September 3 at the Baltimore Comic-Con, located at the Baltimore Convention Center in the Inner Harbor. Tickets for both events are available now and can be found at baltimorecomiccon.com.