Here is the latest in our year-long look at one cool comic (whether it be a self-contained work, an ongoing comic or a run on a long-running title that featured multiple creative teams on it over the years) a day (in no particular order whatsoever)! Here's the archive of the moments posted so far!
Today we continue a multi-part look at the various notable recurring features in Strange Adventures over the years - today's spotlight is on Darwin Jones, one of the strangest characters ever to be a featured comic book character.
Enjoy!
The oddity of Darwin Jones comes from the fact that he appeared in Strange Adventures in about as far away from what we think of as a featured character as possible.
For one, his stories were not LABELED as "Darwin Jones" stories. In fact, for some of his later appearances, like this one from Strange Adventures #76, he was not even MENTIONED at the beginning of the story!!
He just showed up later on.
The other odd thing about him is that after appearing in the first issue of the title, created by writer David V. Reed and artist Paul Norris, Jones did not appear again for nearly four years!!
Here he is as he first appeared, as a member of the Department of Scientific Investigation...
he would show up again in #48, written by Sid Gerson and drawn by Carmine Infantino...
I love the abruptness of this story's ending...
He next showed up in #58, written by Bill Finger and drawn by Sy Barry...
He would appear more regularly after that, featuring in #66, 70, 76, 77, 79, 84, 88 and 93.
The creative teams were never really consistent - with all of the writers who wrote for Strange Adventures taking a crack at the character.
After #93, he disappeared until #149!!
In that issue, Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino featured him (in a rather clever little story)...
Finally, in Strange Adventures #160, France Herron and Sid Greene featured the final appearance of Darwin Joens in Strange Adventures...
Jones did better than some of the other science characters after Strange Adventures finished - he popped up here and there over the years.
People speak of Grant Morrison often when they see these characters, thinking that they would be right up his alley - well, he seemed to make a reference to Darwin Jones in Final Crisis, so that's cool (Jones was also mentioned in James Robinson's Cry for Justice).