Dick Giordano, DC Comics editor, artist

The cause was complications of treatment for leukemia, Pat Bastienne, a longtime friend and colleague, said in an e-mail.

Mr. Giordano worked in the comic book industry for more than 40 years. As an editor at DC, he oversaw projects that signaled a new level of maturity in the medium, including “The Dark Knight Returns,’’ about an aging Batman, and “Watchmen,’’ about heroes in a world on the brink of nuclear war. During his tenure, DC Comics also introduced its first graphic novel collections, a format that has grown increasingly popular and profitable.

His skills as an inker — the artist who interprets the penciled page — influenced a generation of comic book creators.

One of Mr. Giordano’s first jobs was in 1952 at Charlton Comics, where he began as a freelance artist, illustrated many covers, and became editor in chief.

At Charlton, he helped come up with a line of action heroes, including Blue Beetle, the Question, and the Peacemaker, that would later be purchased by DC Comics and become the basis for the characters in “Watchmen,’’ which was adapted into a feature film last year.

In 1967, Mr. Giordano moved to DC Comics, where he worked as an artist and an editor.

Mr. Giordano left the company in 1971 and cofounded, with the artist Neal Adams, Continuity Associates, which handled commercial artwork and supplied illustrations to publishers.

He returned to DC Comics in 1980 and eventually became vice president/executive editor, a title he retained until 1993. During that period he worked with artists George Perez and John Byrne on, respectively, “Crisis on Infinite Earths,’’ an epic story conceived to simplify the accumulated histories of the DC heroes, and “The Man of Steel,’’ which restarted the Superman myth for a new generation of fans.

As an editor, Mr. Giordano uniformly credited writers and artists on the covers, the first such policy by a major comic book publisher, Paul Levitz, the president and publisher of DC Comics from 2002 to 2009, wrote in an e-mail.

Richard Joseph Giordano was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan to Graziano and Josephine Giordano on July 20, 1932. He discovered comic books early.

“Dick fell in love with comics as a kid when he had scarlet fever and his cabdriver dad brought them home for him to read during his long recovery,’’ Levitz wrote.

Mr. Giordano was well regarded for his work as an inker. “As far as those who keep track can tell, he inked more pages for DC than anyone else,’’ wrote Levitz, who added that Mr. Giordano, with his fine lines, and Joe Sinnott, with his broad brush work, are seen as two of the industry’s preeminent inkers in the Silver Age of comics, from the late 1950s to the early 1970s.

Mr. Giordano retired from DC Comics in June 1993.