''Strange Adventures'' is a series of

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical originating in the United States, on average 32 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of ''Action Comics'' ...

s published by

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

, the first of which was August–September 1950, according to the

cover date The cover date of a periodical publication is the date displayed on the cover, which is not necessarily the true date of publication (the on-sale date or release date); later cover dates are common in magazine and comic book publishing. More unusu ...

, and published continuously until November 1973.

Original series

''Strange Adventures'' ran for 244 issues and was DC Comics' first

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

title. It began with an adaptation of the film '' Destination Moon''. The sales success of the gorilla cover-featured story in ''Strange Adventures'' #8 (May 1951) led DC to produce numerous comic book covers with depictions of gorillas. The series was home to one of the last superheroes of the pre-

Silver Age of Comic Books The Silver Age of Comic Books was a period of artistic advancement and widespread commercial success in mainstream American comic books, predominantly those featuring the superhero archetype. Following the Golden Age of Comic Books and an int ...

era,

Captain Comet Captain Comet (Adam Blake) is a superhero appearing in American Comic Books published by DC Comics, created by editor Julius Schwartz, writer John Broome (writer), John Broome, and artist Carmine Infantino. Once a minor character in the DC Comics ...

, created by writer John Broome and artist

Carmine Infantino Carmine Michael Infantino (; May 24, 1925 – April 4, 2013) was an American comics artist and editing, editor, primarily for DC Comics, during the late 1950s and early 1960s period known as the Silver Age of Comic Books. Among his character creat ...

in issue #9. A combination of the "Captain Comet" feature with the "gorilla craze" was presented in issue #39 (December 1953). Other notable series included Star Hawkins which began in issue #114 (March 1960) and the

Atomic Knight Atomic Knight is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC comics, and was briefly a member of the Outsiders team. He is sometimes depicted as one of a group of Atomic Knights, which first appeared in '' Strange Adventures'' #117 ...

s which debuted in issue #117 (June 1960). In "The Strange Adventure That Really Happened" in issue #140 (May 1962), real life comics creators editor

Julius Schwartz Julius "Julie" Schwartz (; June 19, 1915 – February 8, 2004) was a comic book editor, and a science fiction agent and prominent fan. He was born in The Bronx, New York. He is best known as a longtime editor at DC Comics, where at various t ...

and artist Sid Greene struggle to make writer Gardner Fox recall a story he has written that holds the key to saving the Earth from alien invasion. In a rare acknowledgement of the rest of the DC universe in ''Strange Adventures'', one panel mentions Gardner Fox having previously met the

Flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Barry Allen) ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Wally West, the first Kid ...

in the iconic Silver Age story "

Flash of Two Worlds "Flash of Two Worlds!" is a landmark comic book story that was published in ''The Flash (comic book), The Flash'' #123 (Sept. 1961). It introduces Earth-Two, and more generally the concept of the Multiverse (DC Comics), multiverse, to DC Comics. ...

". ''Strange Adventures'' #180 (September 1965) introduced

Animal Man Animal Man (Bernhard "Buddy" Baker) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. As a result of being in proximity to an exploding extraterrestrial spaceship, Buddy Baker acquires the ability to temporarily "borrow" t ...

in a story by Dave Wood and Carmine Infantino. The character was revived by writer Grant Morrison in 1988. Writer Bob Haney and artist Howard Purcell created the supernatural character the Enchantress in ''Strange Adventures'' #187 (April 1966). The Enchantress appears in the 2016 live-action movie '' Suicide Squad'', portrayed by Cara Delevingne. Initially a science fiction

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

title with some continuing features starring SF protagonists, the series became a supernatural-fantasy title beginning with issue #202, for which it received a new logo. Deadman's first appearance in ''Strange Adventures'' #205, written by Arnold Drake and drawn by

,McAvennie "1960s" in Dolan, p. 125: "In a story by scribe Arnold Drake and artist Carmine Infantino, circus aerialist Boston Brand learned there was much more to life after his death...Deadman's origin tale was the first narcotics-related story to require prior approval from the Comics Code Authority. In addition, Neal Adams, the artist who succeeded Infantino with the second issue, would soon become an industry legend". included the first known depiction of narcotics in a story approved by the Comics Code Authority. The "Deadman" feature served as an early showcase for the artwork of

Neal Adams Neal Adams (June 15, 1941 – April 28, 2022) was an American comic book artist. He was the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates, and was a creators-rights advocate who helped secure a pension and recognition for Supe ...

. With issue #217, the title gained another new logo and began reprinting stories of Adam Strange and the Atomic Knights, among other stories. Several ''Strange Adventure'' stories were also reprinted in some of DC Comics' later anthologies such as ''

From Beyond the Unknown ''From Beyond the Unknown'' was the title of an American science fiction comic book series published by DC Comics from 1969 to 1973. Publication history ''From Beyond the Unknown'' was published as a bi-monthly comics anthology series for 25 iss ...

''. In 1978, DC Comics intended to revive ''Strange Adventures''. These plans were put on hold that year due to the

DC Implosion The "DC Explosion" and "DC Implosion" were two events in 1978 – the first an official marketing campaign, the second a sardonic reference to it – in which DC Comics expanded their roster of publications, then abruptly cut it back. The DC Explos ...

, a line-wide scaling back of the company's publishing output. When the project was revived a year later, the title was changed to ''

Time Warp Time travel is a common theme in fiction, mainly since the late 19th century, and has been depicted in a variety of media, such as literature, television, film, and advertisements. The concept of time travel by mechanical means was popularize ...

'' and the series was in the

Dollar Comics Dollar Comics was a line of DC Comics comic book publications issued from 1977 to 1983 and revived in 2019. The 1977-1983 line included the titles ''The Superman Family'', ''House of Mystery'', ''G.I. Combat'', ''World's Finest Comics'', '' Batman F ...

format.

Publication history

Continuing features in ''Strange Adventures'' included: *

Chris KL-99 Chris KL-99 is a 1950s science fiction comic book character whose adventures were published by National Comics, now known as DC Comics. He first appeared in '' Strange Adventures'' #1 (cover-dated August 1950), and was created by science fiction a ...

(issues #1–3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 15) *

Darwin Jones Darwin Jones is a fictional scientist, a comic book character published by DC Comics. He first appeared in ''Strange Adventures'' #1 (August 1950), and was created by David V Reed and Paul Norris. Publication history The first Darwin Jones story ...

(issues #1, 48, 58, 66, 70, 76, 77, 79, 84, 88, 93, 149, 160) *

(issues #9–44, 46, 49) (cover feature many times) * Space Museum (issues #104, 106, 109, 112, 115, 118, 121, 124, 127, 130, 133, 136, 139, 142, 145, 148, 151, 154, 157, 161) * Star Hawkins (issues #114, 119, 122, 125, 128, 131, 134, 137, 140, 143, 146, 149, 152, 155, 158, 162, 173, 176, 179, 182, 185) *

s (issues #117, 120, 123, 126, 129, 132, 135, 138, 141, 144, 147, 150, 153, 156, 160, with reprints in 217–231) * Faceless Creature from Saturn (issues #124, 142, 153) *

Star Rovers A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

(from ''

Mystery in Space ''Mystery in Space'' is the name of two science fiction American comic book series published by DC Comics, and of a standalone Vertigo anthology released in 2012. The first series ran for 110 issues from 1951 to 1966, with a further seven issues c ...

'', #issues 159, 163) *

(issues #180, 184, 190, 195, 201) *

Immortal Man Immortal Man, also known as Klarn Arg, is a superhero in the DC Comics Universe. He first appeared in ''Strange Adventures'' #177 (June 1965). Multiple versions of his origin connect him to the villain Vandal Savage, with both gaining immortality b ...

(issues #177, 185, 190, 198) * Enchantress (issues #187, 191, 200) *

Deadman Deadman or Deadman's may refer to: * "Deadman" or "dead man", are alternative terms for a dead man's switch * "Deadman's foot" is another name for a Salamander in metallurgy * "Deadman anchor" is a buried object (log, concrete, block, etc.) used ...

(issues #205 to 216) * Adam Strange (reprints in #217 to 244; new stories in #222, 226 and 227 text stories with illustrations)

Awards

The series was nominated and awarded several awards over the years, including

Alley Awards The Alley Award was an American annual series of comic book fan awards, first presented in 1962 for comics published in 1961. Officially organized under the aegis of the Academy of Comic Book Arts and Sciences, the award shared close ties with the ...

in 1963 for "General Fantasy", in 1965 for "Best Regularly Published Fantasy Comic", in 1966 for "Best Fantasy/SF/Supernatural Title", in 1967 for "Best Cover" (for issue #207 by

), in 1967 for "Best Full-Length Story" ("Who's Been Lying in My Grave?" in issue #205 by Arnold Drake and

), and the 1967 for "Best New Strip" ("Deadman" by Drake and Infantino).

Revivals

Vertigo miniseries

In 1999, DC Comics' Vertigo imprint released a four-issue

mini-series A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

reviving the ''Strange Adventures'' title and concept. It featured stories written by

Brian Azzarello Brian Azzarello (born August 11, 1962 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American comic book writer and screenwriter who first came to prominence with the hardboiled crime series ''100 Bullets'', published by DC Comics' mature-audience imprint Vertigo. ...

Brian Bolland Brian Bolland (; born 26 March 1951)Salisbury, Mark, ''Artists on Comic Art'' (Titan Books, 2000) , p. 11 is a British comics artist. Best known in the United Kingdom as one of the definitive Judge Dredd artists for British comics anthology '' 2 ...

Dave Gibbons David Chester Gibbons (born 14 April 1949) is an English comics artist, writer and sometimes letterer. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Alan Moore, which include the miniseries ''Watchmen'' and the Superman story "For the Man ...

Bruce Jones Bruce Jones may refer to: * Bruce Jones (actor) (born 1953), British actor *Bruce Jones (American football) (1904–1974), American football player *Bruce Jones (comics) (born 1944), American comic book writer *Bruce Jones (surfboards) (?–2014), ...

Joe R. Lansdale Joe Richard Lansdale (born October 28, 1951) is an American writer and martial arts instructor. A prose writer in a variety of genres - Western, horror, science fiction, mystery, and suspense - he's also written comic books and screenplays. Se ...

, John Ney Rieber,

Robert Rodi The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

Doselle Young Doselle Young is an American science fiction author, graphic novelist and contributor to both prose and comics anthologies. Biography Doselle Young is a Los Angeles-based author, story consultant and graphic novelist. He has written stories for ...

and Mark Schultz. Artists included

Edvin Biuković Edvin Biuković (22 June 1969 – 5 December 1999) was a Croatian comics artist. Biography Biuković made his debut in 1987 with the strip ''Dokaz'' published in the third issue of Croatian magazine ''Patak''. He spent several more years wor ...

, Richard Corben,

Klaus Janson Klaus Janson (born January 23, 1952) is a German-born American comics artist, working regularly for Marvel Comics and DC Comics and sporadically for independent companies. While he is best known as an inker, Janson has frequently worked as a penc ...

, Frank Quitely, James Romberger, and John Totleben. The miniseries is cover-dated November 1999 to February 2000.

''JSA Strange Adventures''

In 2004, ''Strange Adventures'' was again revived, in modified format, as the six-issue

limited series Limited series may refer to: *Limited series, individual storylines within an anthology series *Limited series, a particular run of collectables, usually individually numbered *Limited series (comics), a comics series with a predetermined number of ...

''JSA Strange Adventures'', which presented a new

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during ...

Justice Society of America The Justice Society of America (JSA, or Justice Society (JS)) is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The team was conceived by editor Sheldon Mayer and writer Gardner Fox during the Golden Age of Comic ...

story incorporating fantasy-fiction themes. It was written by

Kevin J. Anderson Kevin James Anderson (born March 27, 1962) is an American science fiction author. He has written spin-off novels for ''Star Wars'', ''StarCraft'', ''Titan A.E.'' and ''The X-Files literature#Novels, The X-Files'', and with Brian Herbert is the ...

, with art by Barry Kitson and Gary Erskine. The miniseries is cover-dated October 2004 to March 2005, and was collected in trade paperback in 2010.

''Strange Adventures'' (2009)

Jim Starlin James P. Starlin (born October 9, 1949) is an American comics artist and writer. Beginning his career in the early 1970s, he is best known for space opera stories, for revamping the Marvel Comics characters Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock, and ...

wrote an eight-issue limited series called ''Strange Adventures'' which focused on Adam Strange, Bizarro and

, which started in May 2009. This series continued the "Aberrant Six" storyline, as well as plot developments from the '' Rann/Thanagar Holy War'' and ''

Countdown to Adventure ''Countdown'', also known as ''Countdown to Final Crisis'' for its last 24 issues based on the cover, was a comic book limited series published by DC Comics. It debuted on May 9, 2007, directly following the conclusion of the last issue of '' 52' ...

''. This series was collected in trade paperback in 2010.

''Strange Adventures'' (2011 Vertigo one-shot)

An 80-page ''Strange Adventures'' #1, an anthology one-shot, with short science fiction and fantasy stories was released with a July 2011

. Contributing writers and artists include Peter Milligan, Scott Snyder,

Jeff Lemire Jeff Lemire (; born March 21, 1976) is a Canadian comic book writer, artist, and television producer. He is the author of critically acclaimed titles including the '' Essex County Trilogy'', '' Sweet Tooth'', and '' The Nobody''. His written work ...

, Eduardo Risso,

Paul Pope Paul Pope (born September 25, 1970, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American alternative cartoonist. Pope's work combines the precision and romance of European comics artists with the energy and page design of the manga tradition. Pope's tw ...

, and Paul Cornell.

''Strange Adventures'' (2020 DC Black Label series)

A new ''Strange Adventures'' series was written by Tom King with Mitch Gerads and Doc Shaner. The series was released in March 2020, under the

DC Black Label DC, D.C., D/C, Dc, or dc may refer to: Places * Washington, D.C. (District of Columbia), the capital and the federal territory of the United States * Bogotá, Distrito Capital, the capital city of Colombia * Dubai City, as distinct from the ...

imprint. The limited series ran for 12 issues, ending in October 2021. For the 2022

Hugo Awards The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...

, the series received a Best Graphic Story of 2021 nomination.

Collected editions

* '' Captain Comet Archives'' Vol. 1 collects

stories from ''Strange Adventures'' #9–44, 46, and 49, 400 pages, August 2013, * ''

Showcase Presents ''Showcase Presents'' was a line of black-and-white paperback books published by DC Comics (from 2005 - 2016) at an average rate of two per month. Much like Marvel Comics' '' Essential Marvel'' volumes, each book usually included over 500 pages of ...

: Strange Adventures'' Vol. 1 collects ''Strange Adventures'' #54–73, 512 pages, December 2008, * ''

: Strange Adventures'' Vol. 2 collects ''Strange Adventures'' #74–93, 520 pages, November 2013, *''The Steve Ditko Omnibus'' Volume 1 includes ''Strange Adventures'' #188: "Don't Bring That Monster to Life" by Otto Binder and Steve Ditko and ''Strange Adventures'' #189: "The Way-Out Worlds of Bertram Tilley" by Dave Wood and Ditko, 480 pages, September 2011, * ''DC Goes Ape'' collects ''Strange Adventures'' #201, 168 pages, October 2008, * ''Deadman'' ** ''The Deadman Collection'' hardcover collects ''Strange Adventures'' #205–216, 356 pages, December 2001, ** ''Deadman'' Vol. 1 trade paperback collects ''Strange Adventures'' #205–213, 176 pages, July 2011, ** ''Deadman'' Vol. 2 trade paperback collects ''Strange Adventures'' #214–216, 160 pages, February 2012, * ''JSA: Strange Adventures'' collects ''JSA: Strange Adventures'' #1–6, 200 pages, February 2010, * ''Strange Adventures'' collects ''Strange Adventures'' volume 3 #1–8, 256 pages, April 2010, * ''Adam Strange: The Silver Age Omnibus'' collects (in addition to ''Showcase'' #17–19 and ''Mystery in Space'' #53–100, 102) ''Strange Adventures'' #157, 217, 218, 220, 221, 222, 224, 226, 235, and 241–243, 848 pages, July 2017,

In other media

In October 2019,

WarnerMedia Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

announced that Greg Berlanti, the producer of

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

's Arrowverse, would be producing a new "super hero anthology" under the title ''Strange Adventures'' for the streaming service

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...

. The series had reportedly been in development previously for the

DC Universe The DC Universe (DCU) is the fictional shared universe where most stories in American comic book titles published by DC Comics take place. Superheroes such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Robin, Martian Manhunter, The Flash, Green Lant ...

streaming service. In August 2022, Kevin Smith, who was writing the script with Eric Carrasco, stated that the series had been cancelled.

References

External links

* * *
''Strange Adventures''
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