[DC Comic Book Art Connoisseurs Club] presents 80th Anniversary Characters: Hourman and Dr. Fate May 2020

[Don-El]

Fellow DC Comic Book Art Connoisseurs club members and great art lovers of the world, welcome back to our very special corner of the DC Universe Community!

Happy 80th to Hourman and Dr. Fate in DC comics and other media!!!

For the next three weeks, we’ll be enjoying, sharing and gazing upon the dynamic artwork since May 1940 for both Hourman and Dr. Fate! Which artists have best carried the action of Hourman stories along? Who has best brought to light the mystery of Dr. Fate? (Sadly, DCU is missing Showcase #56 where Dr. Fate and Hourman do a neato 1960s teamup pictured above, but maybe someday).

Vote here for your favorite art version of Hourman through the decades:

• 1940s Golden Age Hourman
• 1960s Justice League Crossover Hourman
• 1970s All Star Squadron Hourman
• 1980s Infinity Inc Hourman II
• 1990s Android Hourman One Million
• 2000s JSA Hourman

Vote here for the best Dr. Fate rendition pen and ink:

• 1940s More Fun Comics Dr. Fate
• 1960s Justice League Crisis Dr. Fate
• 1970s All Star Squadron Dr. Fate
• 1987 Dr. Fate Series (Giffen)
• 1988 Dr. Fate (McManus)
• 1994 Fate
• 1999 JSA Dr. Fate
• 2015 Dr. Fate

Here are some (but not all) of the runs of Hourman and Dr. Fate currently stored securely in the DC Universe Comic Book Library:

Original Hourman Rex Tyler and original Dr. Fate (Kent Nelson)

All Star Comics 3-57 + 1970s 58-74 All Star Comics Hourman and Dr. Fate

More Fun Comics Dr Fate in More Fun Comics 1940s

Justice League of America, the annual Earth 1 / Earth 2 crossovers (#21-22, 29-30, 37-38, 46-47, 55-56, 73-74 etc) : Justice League Yearly Crisis

Infinity Inc (especially the first dozen issues or so): Infinity Inc

Post Crisis Hourman Rick Tyler:

Infinity Inc (#20 on): Infinity Inc

JSA 1999-2006 (#79 great Alex Ross Hourman) JSA 2000s

Android from the far Future Hourman : (same DNA!)

DC One Million: DC One Million 4 issue Series 1996

His own 25 issue series: Hourman 1999

JSA 1999 (first several issues) JSA 1999

Dr. Fate comics (various people, often same “Nabu”)

4 Fates 80 years

Dr. Fate in the New 52 series “Earth 2” Khalid Ben-Hassin

Earth 2 series 2012

Earth 2 World’s End 2014

Earth 2 Society 2015

And perhaps you can find both Hourman and Dr. Fate in these two Convergence (2015) issues:

Convergence Justice Society 2015

Will Hourman be on Stargirl? Stay tuned!!!

[Don-El]

Doctor Fate where you least expect him…

And I just can’t resist a powerful chess board themed cover even if it is from the 1940s!

[Captainspackles.78135]

I love the chess theme covers myself. DC and the other guys had a lot of awesome 1970’s covers with that theme

[Don-El]

it’s funny how compelling the chess board theme is. A quick Google search of it brings up all kinds of wonderful covers from Strange Adventures, Justice League and of course the Defenders and some other Marvel comics.

[Don-El]

By the way, one of these two characters will appear on the new Stargirl TV series.

[Captainspackles.78135]

I just watched the 1st episode. It was a good time and I eagerly await the new JSA to appear.

[Don-El]

Lots of Hourman artwork rendition goodness with first generation and new & beyond in JSA (1999-) 65 to 66!

[Captainspackles.78135]

I like that cover with the scaling up of clocks and characters. I havent read it yet, but the big one sure looks like Spectre in the Hourman costume.

[Don-El]

I’m pretty sure that is actually the Android Hourman from the far future, the one at the very top.

[Walker]

That interesting, it’s like some sort of illusion where Hourman is changing by the time it is.

[Don-El]

Here’s the link to part 1
https://www.dcuniverse.com/comics/book/-/bb7a99c8-c829-402b-bd4c-c33876355363

[Don-El]

One of the neat side benefits of First Issue Special being digitized recently for us is this incredible relaunch of Dr. Fate by Marty Pasko and Walt Simonson in 1975.

M Pasko in this very issue introduced the enduring concept of Nabu existing in the helmet of Dr. Fate and controlling whoever wore it!

[Don-El]

Another rendition of Doctor Fate in the early 60s from Justice League 22, the second part of the first Crisis crossover.

As a side note, it’s interesting we see Black Canary here in this fun white background montage full page scene- this is the Black Canary of Earth 2, not the Black Canary we usually think of in Green Arrow or Birds of Prey.