Secret Origins
#27
[Direct]
(June 1988)
DC,
1986 Series
- Price
- 1.50 USD; 2.00 CAD; 0.60 GBP
- Pages
- 52
- Indicia Frequency
- monthly
- On-sale Date
- 1988-02-16
- Publisher's Age Guidelines
- Approved by the Comics Code Authority
- Indicia / Colophon Publisher
- DC Comics Inc.
- Brand
-
DC [bullet]
- Editing
- Mark Waid (editor); Roy Thomas (creative editor)
Issue Notes
Shipping date of February 23, 1988 per Direct Currents #1 (January 1988). Corrected shipping date of February 16, 1988 per Direct Currents #2 (February 1988), confirmed from copyright registration.
As detailed in Back Issue #24, the framing story and Zatanna segments were originally plotted by Randy and Jean-Marc Lofficier, but the plot was significantly reworked by Robert Loren Fleming, due to concerns that the original plotters may have inserted an homage that might cause legal action. As part of these changes, the character Felix Faust was substituted for the original villain Wotan.
This issue has variants:
As detailed in Back Issue #24, the framing story and Zatanna segments were originally plotted by Randy and Jean-Marc Lofficier, but the plot was significantly reworked by Robert Loren Fleming, due to concerns that the original plotters may have inserted an homage that might cause legal action. As part of these changes, the character Felix Faust was substituted for the original villain Wotan.
This issue has variants:
[no title indexed]
Zatanna; Zatara / cover / 1 page
- Pencils
- Tom Artis (signed)
- Inks
- Doug Hazlewood (signed)
- Colors
- ?
- Letters
- Todd Klein
- Genre
- superhero; adventure; fantasy-supernatural
- Characters
- Zatara; Zatanna
Indexer Notes
Letters credit from http://kleinletters.com/.
![Cover Thumbnail for Secret Origins (DC, 1986 series) #27 [Direct]](https://files1.comics.org//img/gcd/covers_by_id/12/w200/12720.jpg?-7528403638780196017)
![Cover Thumbnail for Secret Origins (1986 series) #27 [Newsstand]](https://files1.comics.org//img/gcd/covers_by_id/1120/w100/1120217.jpg?5411248413795880159)
![Cover Thumbnail for Secret Origins (1986 series) #27 [Canadian]](https://files1.comics.org//img/gcd/covers_by_id/1555/w100/1555061.jpg?-4137352401888871017)
A Symphony of Shadows - First Movement: Once Upon a Time...
Zatanna; Zatara / comic story / 15 pages
- Script
- Randy Lofficier (under joint name Ehrich Weiss) (original co-plotter); Jean-Marc Lofficier (under joint name Ehrich Weiss) (original co-plotter); Robert Loren Fleming (revised plot & dialogue)
- Pencils
- Tom Artis
- Inks
- P. Craig Russell
- Colors
- Gene D'Angelo
- Letters
- Gaspar Saladino
- Job Number
- G-3393
- Genre
- superhero; adventure; fantasy-supernatural
- Characters
- Zatanna; Dr. Mist [Nommo]; Felix Faust; Marco Polo (cameo); Christopher Columbus (cameo); Vasco da Gama (cameo); Cagliostro (cameo); Leonardo Da Vinci (cameo); Thomas Jefferson (cameo); Thomas Paine (cameo); Benjamin Franklin (cameo); Dekan Drache (cameo); Dr. Occult (cameo); Sargon the Sorcerer (cameo); Zatara
- Synopsis
- The origin of Dr. Mist and his creation of the Homo Magi.
- Keywords
- Eiffel Tower; World War I
Indexer Notes
Story includes material on the background of Felix Faust and Dr. Mist of the Global Guardians. According to the story, Nommo (Dr. Mist) has created the entire line of DC magicians.
Second Movement: The Length of His Sleeve
Zatara / comic story / 10 pages
- Script
- Robert Loren Fleming; Roy Thomas (plot)
- Pencils
- Grant Miehm
- Inks
- Fred Fredericks
- Colors
- Gene D'Angelo
- Letters
- Duncan Andrews
- Genre
- superhero; adventure; fantasy-supernatural
- Characters
- Dr. Mist [Nommo]; Zatara [Giovanni Zatara]; Flamel (cameo); Cagliostro (cameo); Nostradamus (cameo); Leonardo Da Vinci (cameo); Luigi; Adolph Hitler; Top the Magic-Master (cameo); The Last Merlin (cameo); All-Star Squadron [Hawkman; Starman [Ted Knight]; Spectre; Green Lantern [Alan Scott]; Flash [Jay Garrick]; Sargon the Sorcerer] (cameo)
- Synopsis
- Dr. Mist, behind the scenes, leads Giovanni Zatara into learning real magic and becoming Zatara.
- Keywords
- Spear of Destiny; World War II
Third Movement: The Coming of Zatanna
Zatanna / comic story / 13 pages
- Script
- Randy Lofficier (under joint name Ehrich Weiss) (original co-plotter); Jean-Marc Lofficier (under joint name Ehrich Weiss) (original co-plotter); Robert Loren Fleming (revised plot & dialogue)
- Pencils
- Tom Artis
- Inks
- P. Craig Russell
- Colors
- Gene D'Angelo
- Letters
- Gaspar Saladino
- Genre
- superhero
- Characters
- Dr. Mist [Nommo]; Justice Society of America [Green Lantern [Alan Scott]; Hawkman; Flash [Jay Garrick]; Atom] (cameo); Global Guardians [Sandman [Wesley Dodds]; Johnny Thunder; Spectre; Starman [Ted Knight]; Legionary; Wingman; Green Flame; Fluer-De-Lis; Tasmanian Devel; Seraph; Olympian; Rising Sun] (cameo); Zatanna; Zatara; Sindella; Allura; Justice League of America [Hawkman; Hawkgirl; Atom; Green Lantern; Elongated Man; Green Lantern; Green Arrow; Superman; Flash [Barry Allen]; Black Canary] (cameo); John Constantine (cameo); Dr. Occult (cameo); Sargon the Sorcerer (cameo); Deadman (cameo); Spectre (cameo); Phantom Stranger (cameo); Felix Faust; Wotan
- Synopsis
- The history of Zatanna is related and then Zatanna defeats Felix Faust and frees Dr. Mist.
[no title indexed]
With Johnny DC / promo (ad from the publisher) / 1 page
Indexer Notes
Page includes DC List.
[no title indexed]
Secret Admirers / letters page / 2 pages
- Script
- Peter Sanderson; Roy Thomas
- Letters
- typeset
- Job Number
- L-3126
Indexer Notes
Includes letters from Charles J. Sperling, David Metz and Kevin Carhart.
Editing
Related Scans
Series Information
Table of Contents
-
0.
[no title indexed]
Zatanna; Zatara -
1.
A Symphony of Shadows - First Movement: Once Upon a Time...
Zatanna; Zatara -
2.
Second Movement: The Length of His Sleeve
Zatara -
3.
Third Movement: The Coming of Zatanna
Zatanna -
4.
[no title indexed]
With Johnny DC -
5.
[no title indexed]
Secret Admirers
This issue was modified by, among others
- Boris Ammerlaan
- Jerry Hillegas (R.I.P.)
- Denys Howard
- Mike Nielsen
- Jim Van Dore
All portions of the Grand Comics Database™, except where noted otherwise, are
copyrighted by the GCD and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). This includes but is not necessarily limited to our database schema and data distribution format.