Heroes Unborn Series™: John Byrne’s Ka-Davahr the Resurrected

I wanted to start a lil’ series here, one that highlights characters that never made it, maybe never got published or somehow barely made it out into the wild. Long lost character ideas that saw print in one or two fanzines, or were just a convention sketch, some model sheet, or forgotten character design, but still captured the imagination. Well, I loved John Byrne’s undeveloped, supernatural character named “Ka-Davahr the Resurrected”! The undead an’ maybe a little stinky antihero was published as the centerfold for Wally Wood’s HEROES, INC. PRESENTS CANNON #2 (CPL Gang Publications, 1976), and I’d always wished we’d got to see a bit more of him (outside of one profile portrait I recall). So, I figured I’d get a lil’ proactive, and today we can finally add a brand new sword-swinging image. I thought Ron Frenz would be a great choice, and man did he do a bang-up job! I provided Byrne’s 1974 pinup image and requested the color scheme, which I hoped would work, and I liked everything so much I ended up writing a short Ka-Davahr story. But, I don’t think CAF could support even a short story—would love to find a way to add it here, but ah well. Also, I hope to explore just a couple more long lost character ideas for this series (with a totally not stolen title), and I’d love to see anyone else’s ideas as well. Go and do likewise, CAF!

Thanks so much to Frenz, Kress & Byrne.
Art from 2025 - 9x12.

The totally not stolen title Heroes Unborn Series™ is Trademarked and Copyright © 2025 Joe Murray, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is uncool! 😉