Description

Key Comic

• 1st appearance of Lord Death Man, a Japanese crime lord

Information

Release: Mar 1966
Cover: May 1966
DC Comics
Action | Adventure | Crime | Super-Heroes
Silver Age | Color | USA | English
Direct Edition
Comic | 32 pages | $ 0.12

Estimated grade: Good/Very Good (3.0)

This Silver age issue of Batman introduces the character Lord Death Man also known as Death Man. He is a Gotham City gangster skilled at yoga(!), entering a death-like state and faking his own death.

Interestingly, this comic was published in 1966 when the Batman TV series starring Adam West was a worldwide success. In Japan, there was a Batman craze, and a local publisher licensed the rights to make their own Batman stories, with the full consent of the original Batman publisher, DC Comics. This publication based the storylines on the DC counterparts but was implemented in the Japanese Manga style adding more depth to each story. This story is one of those and it presented a more interesting take on this character. These publications lasted only for a short time, between 1966 and 1967, and were mostly forgotten until 2008 when they were republished in the book Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan.

With this new exposure, this Japanese take on Lord Death Man went from being a forgotten obscurity to a cult-favorite villain almost overnight.

This comic book is provided by Loftfar – Comic book Conservation.

We seek out vintage comics, clean and press them to make them as presentable as possible, and introduce them to new owners. By adding little nuggets of history with each one, we hope that new collectors will join our hobby and keep it going for the next generations.

Please check out our website for more information www.loftfar.com, or send us an email at loftfar@loftfar.com