HECKLER was a series he created with Mary and Tom Bierbaum, published for 6 issues from DC back in 1992. A really fun book that mixed slapstick and heroics in various unpredictable ways.
Giffen had a long association with the Justice League, writing and doing breakdowns, working with J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire most prominently, plus dozens of others, for a five year run from 1987 to 1992, often with multiple spin-offs going on, and with various encore returns. This was the post-Crisis League, often playing for laughs and elevating second- and third-string heroes and villains, but also doing some great bits with the big guns and exciting dramatic stories. That page down there is from #13, one of the few that Giffen fully pencilled.
Lobo is a character Giffen co-created in 1983 with Roger Slifer on the OMEGA MEN series, developing the concepts created by Marv Wolfman and Joe Staton. At first a very minor character, he was developed as a more comedic foil in books like Justice League and L.E.G.I.O.N., especially the latter co-written by Alan Grant, who went on to co-write several Lobo solo stories with Giffen and various artists, including Simon Bisley and Kevin O'Neill. Below is from the LOBO - INFANTICIDE mini-series, which, in a relative rarity, Giffen did the art solo, pencils and inks.
THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES is arguably the series where Giffen made the most impact, returning to it often for three distinct long runs, and a few shorter bits later (I was never clear on what happened with the last short bit...). The page below is from my favourite Legion run, the 1989 "Five Years Later" series written with Mary and Tom Bierbaum, initially drawn by Giffen and with a few other artists later. Dense stories building on the previous decades of Legion history, rewarding multiple readings over the years.
TRENCHER was an odd little project Giffen did in 1993 (four issues with a few later guest appearances, anthology stories and one-shots), one of the first times he wrote a project solo (usually working with co-plotters and/or scripters before this), and also handled the art solo, and even had a possibly fictitious editor (Bill "Bud" Shakespeare), so maybe the purest Giffen we ever got. It's... strange. Hyper-violent, profane, absurd and many other things that aren't always compliments, but in this case might be. Giffen took big swings, sometimes that results in loud fouls.
DOMINION, co-written by Ross Richie, only lasted two issues from Image in 2003, the second of which lost its colour, so a rare chance to see Giffen in black and white (the other major one being the 1986 one-issue wonder THE MARCH HARE, and a story in TABOO). Some interesting concepts that weren't fully explored about an alien virus creating random super-powers. Apparently Richie later restarted the series with other creators after he launched his own company, Boom, based on the concepts he and Giffen had for the series.
VIDEO JACK was a six-issue series that Giffen did with Cary Bates for Archie Goodwin's Epic line in 1987-1988. A frantic mix of science fiction, comedy and TV parody. I need to revisit it, been about 30 years since I've looked at it, but it looks bizarre.
This is from early in Giffen's first Legion run, drawing and co-writing (with Paul Levitz) some of the best Legion stories ever, following a particularly fallow period for good Legion stories. The Great Darkness Saga gets all the glory in this run, for obvious reasons, but I really love this story in ANNUAL #1 from 1982, which immediately precedes the first full chapter of that Saga, with Computo taking over Legion HQ. Visually inventive throughout, well paced, faithful to the classic Legion designs while taking it all to another level.
The first place I really noticed Giffen was just before (and overlapping with the first few months of) his first Legion run, with a series of back-up stories in THE FLASH featuring Doctor Fate, written by Martin Pasko and Steve Gerber. Playing around with page design in a way not too many mainstream artists were then, taking some big swings, connecting more often than not. He'd also return to Fate a few times. Also, tip of the hat to Larry Mahlstedt for his excellent inks of much of Giffen's work in this era.
I may have seen some of his work earlier, he's been around for a few years, mostly at Marvel, often with a style that, um, owed a lot to Jack Kirby, which isn't a bad thing to be at Marvel (something he'd go back to in ways both subtle and explicit throughout his career). I've only read a few things from that era, like this SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP issue and some Defenders and (at DC) JSA stories. I like what I've seen, at some point, now that more of it has been reprinted or is available digitally I should explore it.
THE LEGION OF SUBSTITUTE HEROES SPECIAL from 1985... well, what can I tell you that the title doesn't? Matter-Eater Lad eats matter, and Stargrave's nose is made of matter, you do the math (and M-E Lad is one who made it to the Legion proper, so imagine what the Subs are like).
Oh, and let's look at some covers...
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