Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Masters of Adventure Week! Black and White Wednesday: "Requiem for a Deadman!" by Wein, Conway, and Aparo

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! Betcha were wonderin' how Ol' Groove was gonna pull off a Black and White Wednesday version of Masters of Adventure Week, weren't ya? Well you know how sneaky Yers Trooly can be...are ya ready for this? Today we're gonna dig on "Requiem for a Deadman!" by Len Wein, Gerry Conway, and Jim Aparo. Deadman had been apearing in the Dollar Comics version of Adventure Comics and had apparently done well enough to warrant a full-length try-out in DC's short-lived Showcase revival. Regular Adventure writer/artist team Wein and Aparo were joined by author Gerry Conway and they concocted a 25 page extravaganza that even helped tie up such loose ends as Deadman's appearances in Jack Kirby's Forever People back in 1972. The boys meant for this tale to be special. A real doozy! Aparo worked up an awesome cover, and "Requiem..." was scheduled for Showcase #105.

Problem was, Showcase #104 would turn out to be that title's grand finale. T'was the Summer of the DC Implosion (duhn, duhn, DUHN!). At that time, though, the stars were being kind to the Ghost of Boston Brand, and the powers that were decided to use "Requiem..." in Deadman's regular Adventure Comics berth (albeit not without cutting Deadman's rescue of the boy on the roof on pages 4-6). Now, since it's Black and White Wednesday, Ol' Groove ain't runnin' the color/condensed version of "Requium..." from Adventure #464 (April 1979). Nope, you're getting the full-length black and white version from Cancelled Comics Cavalcade #2 (Fall 1978). Got all'a that? Good! (Oh, the lengths Ol' Groove goes to to follow his own goofy rules!) Now, enjoy!!























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2 comments:

  1. Edo BosnarJanuary 22, 2014 at 7:06 AM

    Thanks for posting this. Aparo's art here is astounding, but then again, when isn't it?
    By the way, I think the Deadman features were my favorite part of Adventure during its brief run as a dollar comic. Wein really wrote some great stories, and the art, by either Aparo or Garcia Lopez, was always lovely.

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 23, 2014 at 10:34 AM

    DC just reprinted the published, 23-page version in volume 4 of their Deadman tpb series, and it's a shame that they didn't include the excised stuff from the original 25-page version from Cancelled Comics Cavalcade. They printed the CCC-Ditko stuff in their recent Ditko books, so..... - Jeff Clem

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Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


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