Friday, December 13, 2013

Today in Comics History, December 13, 1946: Gotham City's Most Ironic Death Sentence

Hey, remember that TV show Early Edition, about the guy who got newspapers from the future?


opening titles from Early Edition (CBS, 1996), theme composed by W. G. Snuffy Walden

Well, as we all know...Batman did it first.


from "The Man Who Could Not Die!" in World's Finest Comics #32 (January 1948), script by Bill Finger, pencils by Paul Cooper, inks by Ray Burnley, letters by Ira Schnapp

When he finds out he is unkillable for 365 days (366 days if it's a leap year), crook Lucky Star does what all of us would do in the same situation: he cosplays as Ted "Starman" Knight.




Uh oh! It's into the pokey for Lucky Starr. But could that prediction of the day he dies actually come true, Alanis? Why...yessssssssssssss.


Most tragically of all: Lucky never lived to see his theme song finally hit the top of the pop charts.


"Lucky Star" by Madonna (1983), written by Madonna

2 comments:

Erik Johnson Illustrator said...

I remember Early Edition, my mom was an avid fan. Good light fantasy-drama. Though getting tomorrow's newspaper is now a concept that has likewise gone the way of the '90s.

I can just imagine a revival series were he gets all of the Walking Dead spoiler tweets on Saturday night.

BillyWitchDoctor said...

Ah, Golden Age comics...where two grown men locked in mortal combat in mid-air can stop to casually argue over a newspaper one of them apparently keeps tucked away in his cape.