"I Am...The Odd Man!"
I love the splash page from the debut of the new Steve Ditko's The Odd Man. It was produced, but published only as a part of DC's Cancelled Comic Cavalcade. He also makes a cameo in the Creeper story in this comic book as well. A revised version of the Odd Man story did finally appear in Detective Comics #487. The original story was later published in The Steve Ditko Omnibus Vol. 1.
Armed only with his wits and a slew of elaborate gadgets intended to disorient and confuse, private investigator Clayton "Clay" Stoner, aka The Odd Man, sets out to fight the good fight, Those gadgets include his crazy tilting headquarters, a weighted extended tie, a spray he developed which melts certain plastics, gloves that emit powder or smoke when he claps his hands together and a slippery oil spray. The Odd Man is also able to cause people to black out, although that is quite ambiguous how he does it.
Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2
"The Pharaoh and the Mummies"
Clay Stoner, investigates jewel thefts, as The Odd Man. He encounters a man dressed as a Pharaoh who mummifies his victims in some sort of plastic. Discovering all the stolen gems are Nile stones, he begins to suspect the administrator of the Egyptian wing of the museum and her companion. When Odd Man breaks into the administrator's home, she and the Pharaoh get the drop on him and seal him in a sarcophagus. Odd Man had prepared for that special plastic the Pharaoh uses, escapes his tomb and defeats the faux Egyptians.
Detective Comics #487
"The Pharaoh and the Mummies"
Revised version of the story published in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2. Most of the dialogue was rewritten.
The Steve Ditko Omnibus Vol. 1
"The Pharaoh and the Mummies"
The story originally intended for unpublished Shade, the Changing Man #9. A revised version of the story was published in Detective Comics #487.
The Odd Man was said to have appeared in Superboy #65, even showing on the cover, but I have not been able to check it out. The Creeper and Hawk and Dove also appear in that issue though!
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| The first comic book I ever bought! Amazing Spider-Man #38, which I got signed by Stan Lee a few years ago! |
Thank goodness for the two Ditko Omnibuses and many other hardbacks I have seen of late. Now if only his later works were more widely available, like Mr. A and Missing Man. Always something to wish for!
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I remember at least one Odd Man story in Detective, which is the whole reason I bought it. Another bizarre Ditko hero! What a costume! And his wild HQ or hideout with floors and ceilings and what not all tipsy turvy...Ditko is so creative, so unique, a man apart from the rest. Always something there worth looking into, even in his "Objectivist tract" stories and essays.
ReplyDeleteReally amazed to find a blog that almost always covers comics I either really like or really want to track down!