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A popular celebrity, in and out of the field of comics, Ellison has shown up as himself and in various homage and parody forms in many comics. Here are a selection of a few.
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BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS
Book 4, 1986, DC Comics
"The Dark Knight Falls"
writer/artist, Frank Miller;
inks, Klaus Janson
Ellison is mentioned on pages 13-14 (165-166 collected) as an on-air
guest during television coverage of a nuclear attack on Gotham
Collected in trade-paperback editions, most recently The Dark Knight
Returns: Tenth Anniversary Edition, 1996, DC Comics
IMAGES OF ELLISON |
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DARK HORSE PRESENTS
Issue 66, Date, Dark Horse Comics
"Byrdland's Secret"
writer/artist, Paul Chadwick;
art assist, Jed Hotchkiss
Concrete story which takes place at the Ellison Wonderland-like home
of "Dwayne Byrd," an Ellison homage. Ellison is a Concrete fan and
has plugged it in some of his essays on comics.
Reprinted in Concrete: Short Stories 1990-95, Dark Horse Comics
GALLERY ENTRY
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DARK WOLF
Issue 2, August 1987, Malibu Comics
"Night Vision"
writer, R.A. Jones;
art/cover, Butch Burcham
Ellison appears as himself, a friend to the main character.
GALLERY ENTRY
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DNAgents
Volume 1, Issue 4, July 1983, Eclipse Comics
"The Man With The Vision"
writer, Mark Evanier;
art, Will Meugniot & Mike Royer; cover, Will Meugniot & Al Gordon
This is included for historical interest only as
it turns out not to be an Ellison homage. The author Mark Evanier
e-mailed me and said "I didn't have Harlan in mind when I wrote
that." So that's that.
Source: Email from Mark Evanier
According to Kim Thompson in his article "The Ellison Comics Connection":
"A
more carefully disguised [appearance of Ellison] was written into
DNAgents #4 by Mark Evanier (although as Journal columnist
R. Fiore pointed out, he appears to have been cross-pollinated
by John Smith, one of Harlan's idols)."
Source:
"The Ellison Comics Connection," Amazing Heroes #44, April 1, 1984,
Fantagraphics
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FAANS
Issue 3, 1999, 6 Handed Press
Issue 4, 1999, 6 Handed Press
"Heroes"
"Cypherpunk"
writer, T Campbell;
art & cover, Jason Waltrip
Two issues of comic about group of Science Fiction/Fantasy/Comic Book
Fans. These concern a conspiracy and murder plot at a Convention where
one guest is Arlen Staranka, an acknowledge homage to Ellison. The
homage was praised by Ellison at a convention appearance.
GALLERY ENTRY
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JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA
Volume 1, Issue 89, May 1971, DC Comics
"The Most Dangerous Dreams of All"
writer, Mike Friedrich;
art, Dick Dillon & Joe Giella; cover, Neal Adams
Features a Television writer from Ohio named Harlequin Ellis, who
falls in love with Black Canary and after being rebuffed by Green
Arrow has a series of dreams in which he takes revenge. Dreams which
become true.
GALLERY ENTRY
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NORMALMAN/MEGATON MAN
1994, Image Comics
writer/artist, Jim Valentino & Don Simpson
An appearance of a Ellison-like character in parody of the comic book
industry. On page 9 a figure appears jumping up and down shouting:
"Imbeciles!! They're only interested in pretty pictures! -- The Illiterate
Morons!! When are we going to see a super-hero a sixty-year old can
truly believe in?! All they want is fight scenes." The figure is wearing
a t-shirt that reads "Angry Old Fart." This is one of numerous characters
appearing in the book; Chris Claremont and Neil Gaiman also appear
in the same two-page spread.
IMAGES OF ELLISON
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SAVAGE DRAGON
Issue 68, October 1999, Image Comics
Megaton Man - "The Comicon On The Edge of Forever"
writer/artist, Don Simpson
Another parody of Ellison by the artist of Normalman/Megaton Man.
This features Megaton Man at a comic convention examining author Harding
Eddison's anthology "At Least Damaging Aversions," published
not as a book but as a Virtual Reality Game wherein "the 'reader'
is flown out to Los Angeles to help Harding complete work on the book."
Megaton Man then proceeds to accidentally destroy all copies of the
work (along with reels of lost "Magnificent Ambersons" footage)
with his Megaton Vision.
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SENSATIONAL SHE-HULK, THE
Issue 7, Marvel Comics
"I Have No Mouth And I Am Mean"
writer/artist, John Byrne
This parody simply a world play on Ellison's story "I Have No
Mouth, And I Must Scream...". Writer/Artist John Byrne would
later go on to adapt that very story in Harlan
Ellison's Dream Corridor.
GALLERY ENTRY |
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VEGENAUTS, THE
AMAZING HEROES
Issue 62, January 1, 1985, Fantagraphics
"The Vegenauts"
writer, Heidi MacDonald
Fake comic announcement in Amazing Heroes annual preview issue. The comic is The Vegenauts to be published by Fantagraphics Books and written by Harlan Ellison. The article goes on to describe it as follows:
"Comic books based on toys have had wide success in recent years, and Fantagraphics Books will be presenting its first foray into this field next spring when it launches The Vegenauts, based on Plastiqueoh's popular line of poseable figures. The series will be written by Harlan Ellison with art by Olga Tcherpinskaya and 'Lucky' Lou Swackhammer. Gary Groth edits.
"The Vegenauts are the last free members of the entire Clorophus garden system, and all of their countryplants have been conquered by the Aphids, whom Ellison describes as 'evil and oppressive. Mean, too.' Led by Captain Spinach, the Vegenauts roam the universe in their ship, the Corn Husk. 'Its the cutest thing,' says Ellison. 'It's shaped like a corn husk.'
"Why did Ellison, a noted science-fiction writer, choose this as his first regular comics series? 'It was just too good an opportunity to pass up. This is a theme I've been wanting to work on for a long time–a small band of vegetables struggling against an empire of evil aphids. Besides, those toys are so goddamn cute. Their arms move, and everything.'"
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