"[2] Born on June 27, 1928,[3] Giella grew up in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, and attended the School of Industrial Art in Manhattan.

[5] Giella later freelanced for Fawcett Comics, commuting by bus to C. C. Beck's and Pete Costanza's studio in Englewood, New Jersey, to ink Captain Marvel stories.

His start was rocky, however; as a 2012 article related, What he needed was a regular paycheck, so he kept dropping by the offices of Timely Comics ... hoping to get a job.

[6] Later, he assisted Syd Shores on Captain America Comics, finishing backgrounds, making pencil corrections and inking occasional pages.

[2] There, Giella inked stories featuring the Flash, Green Lantern, Black Canary and other characters under editor Julius Schwartz.

During the early-1950s lull in superheroes, Giella inked Westerns penciled by Alex Toth (including the feature "Sierra Smith") and Gene Colan (on the series Hopalong Cassidy, splitting the work with fellow inker Sy Barry).

[5] When the era called the Silver Age of comic books began with the resurgence of superheroes in 1956, Giella began inking science-fiction stories, including the feature "Adam Strange" in Strange Adventures, and Batman stories pencilled by the likes of Sheldon Moldoff (ghosting for Bob Kane), and Carmine Infantino.

[7] His son Frank is an art history and cartooning instructor at Forest Hills High School,[4] and a colorist for the comic strip Mary Worth, which Giella penciled and inked until 2016.