Today in Comics History: Deadman gathers Supermen from throughout time to help him with his last-minute Christmas shopping

This is an expanded and updated version of a post originally published December 24, 2012.

Hey, that's today!

from The Kingdom #1 (DC, February 1999), script by Mark Waid, pencils and inks by Ariel Olivetti, colors by John Kalisz, color separations by Chris Chuckry, letters by Phil Felix
(Click picture to ulna-size)

The Super DC Calendar for 1977 2022: October Oblong Objects

🎶 How'd you like to spend Halloween 🎶
🎶 On Easter Island... 🎶

Well, that's what Deadman and the Spectre are doing, and shame on you for not inviting them to your Halloween party. They were dying to go! It's okay, actually...they got to hang out with a big rock group!

"October" from Super DC Calendar 1977 (DC, 1976), art by Neal Adams
(Click picture to Moai-size)
Yes, as Bob Dylan sang, on this very Halloween, everybody must get stoned!

Today in Comics History, July 23: Happy birthday, Kelley Jones!

Born on this day: Kelley Jones, comics artist extraordinaire! He's renowned for his work on such DC titles as Sandman and the Batman books, but look, it's Marvel who's wishin' him a happy birthday here! (Explanation after the jump!)


from Marvel Age #31 and 55 (Marvel, October 1985 and October 1987); text by Jim Salicrup (#31) and Mike Carlin (#55); pencils and inks by Ron Zalme; colors by Andy Yanchus (#31) and Paul Becton (#55)

One Night in Rutland: 1977, Part 2

But Rutland Vermont had not seen the end of the Phantom Stranger, finely toned and defined as it was. A few months after his last appearance, the Ghost Who Walks and Who Is Also a Stranger in These Here Parts returned to Rutland to have another spooky Satanic adventure, but this time he's got some help from the bombastic mortally-challenged circus acrobat Deadman! I always felt that Deadman should have his own team-up series, and this could have been the pilot for it. Every issue Deadman would occupy the body of a different DC hero to solve a mystery or stop some fiendish other-wordly plot. Wouldn't you buy that? Especially the issue where he teams up with Wonder Woman and the story would be named after that famous Beatles quote: "Turn Me On, Deadman!"

Splash page of DC Super-Stars #18 (Winter 1978), script by Martin Pasko and Gerry Conway, pencils by Romeo Tanghal, inks by Dick Giordano, colors by Tatjana Wood, letters by Milt Snapinn
Geez, it looks like they statted that "DC Super-Stars" in at the last minute, didn't they? Maybe this was supposed to be Deadman Team-Up. And take note of the scripter and penciller for this titanic tale...there will be a test revelation later.

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 178: Turn me on, Deadman

House ad for DC Special Series #15 [Batman Spectacular] (Summer 1978); Showcase [Deadman] #105 (never published), Demand Classics #1 (never published); and Western Classics #1 (never published) printed in Batman #304 (October 1978)

I've discussed the DC Implosion earlier in this series, and here's a house ad for three out of four comics that fell like an abandoned building in the Implosion. That is, except for "Batman Spectacular" (actually DC Special Series #15), they were cancelled and never published. Demand Classics and Western Classics were to contain all reprints, so you didn't miss anything by them going kaput. What about the "25 all-new pages" of Deadman "from the pages of Adventure Comics..."? Well, they probably should have added at the bottom of that ad "To the pages of Adventure Comics, because yes, that story did see print ten months later in Adventure #464.


Cover of Adventure Comics #464 (July-August 1979), pencils and inks by Jim Aparo, colors by Tatjana Wood
Now, if you were the detail-oriented sort of comics reader, you may have specifically noticed that ad at the top had promised you a new 25-page Deadman thriller, but if you counted the story pages in Adventure #464, the Deadman story tops out at 22 pages. Where the Sam Scratch did the other three pages go? Into some sort of spooky limbo from which mortal man would seldom see them again?

Well, yes, sorta! Even tho' Adventure #464 was 68 hefty pages for a buck, three pages were cut from the original Deadman story to make it fit in the comic with the four other "all-new super-star features." As seen in Adventure, page four looked like this:


Panels from "Requiem for a Deadman!" in Adventure Comics #464 (July-August 1979); plot by Len Wein; script by Gerry Conway; pencils, inks, and letters by Jim Aparo; colors by Glynis Wein
The missing three pages fell between panels 2 and 3 of this page, and were published (to keep the copyright when Showcase ended) in the infamous Cancelled Comic Cavalcade, the Xeroxed book of stories that were left hanging high and dry after the DC Implosion. Here's what you were missing, a little ministory about Deadman saving a young kid in peril:




Pages from "Requiem for a Deadman!" in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2 (Fall 1978)
CCC #2 also published the artwork for what was to have been Showcase #105 (funny, why didn't they just adapt this for Adventure?)...


Original cover to Showcase #105 (unpublished), pencils and inks by Jim Aparo
...as well as the covers for what would have been Demand Classics #1 (look familiar?) and Western Classics #1:



Original covers to Demand Classics #1 and Western Classics #1 (unpublished). Demand: pencils by Dick Dillin, inks by Frank McLaughlin. Western: pencils by James Sherman, inks by Maurice Whitman
Why, they even published the last can of Who-Hash the text page that would have accompanied "requiem for a Deadman" in Showcase #105—with an unfortunate ad at the bottom:


Text page from Showcase #105 (unpublished), written by Paul Levitz
According to this, those three issues of World of Krypton I featured back on April 12 were to have been published in the pages of Showcase #110-112! Instead, Showcase's cancellation inadvertently led to the first comic book miniseries ever!

And, for completists' sake, here's a letter from Adventure Comics #464 that addresses how DC were using the backlog of unpublished stories in books like this one:


So there you go: a Deadman story that, just like its protagonist, wouldn't quite stay dead.

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 143

House ad for Strange Adventures v.1 #213 [Deadman] (July-August 1968); printed in Wonder Woman v.1 #177 (July-August 1968)
Ad designed and lettered by Gaspar Saladino

Since "one picture is worth a one thousand words," as the ad tells us, here's the full gorgeous cover for that ish:


Cover of Strange Adventures v.1 #213 [Deadman] (July-August 1968), pencils and inks by Neal Adams

And here, in the form of a double-page spread from that issue by Neal Adams, is a couple bajillion more!

Two-page spread from of Strange Adventures v.1 #213; script, pencils, and inks by Neal Adams
(Click picture to blow-your-mind-size)
Neal Adams: the man voted most likely to freak me out in the late seventies.

Today in Comics History, October 9, 2027: Deadman has scheduled a lot of dentist appointments

from The Kingdom #1 (DC, February 1999), script by Mark Waid, pencils and inks by Ariel Olivetti, colors by John Kalisz, color separations by Chris Chuckry, letters by Phil Felix

Today in Comics History, September 19, 2038: Deadman continues to build his 1:1 scale Superman action figure collection

from The Kingdom #1 (DC, February 1999), script by Mark Waid, pencils and inks by Ariel Olivetti, colors by John Kalisz, color separations by Chris Chuckry, letters by Phil Felix

Today in Comics History, August 11, 2040: Gog travels to the year 2040; is still a terrible character

from The Kingdom #1 (DC, February 1999), script by Mark Waid, pencils and inks by Ariel Olivetti, colors by John Kalisz, color separations by Chris Chuckry, letters by Phil Felix

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 170

Panels from Batman/Deadman: Death and Glory one-shot (1996), script by James Robinson, painting by John Estes, letters by Todd Klein