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!!
Thanks for posting this. Aparo's art here is astounding, but then again, when isn't it?
ReplyDeleteBy 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.
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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