I have a couple of questions about Zatanna (which you would have guessed from the Thread title, if you had been paying attention). Given that we have a huge number of [del]geeks living in their mothers’ basements[/del] dedicated Comics Fans on the SDMB, I’m certain I can get answers in no time flat.
What is here real name, or, if Zatanna is her real name, what is her family name?
I seem to recall a Silver Age comic in which Zatanna smokes a cigarette. Does my memory play me false? I thought the Comics Code forbade that.
I have no idea about the cigarette (although the number of characters who smoke pikes and stogies makes me doubt the CCA has any rule against it), but her full name is Zatanna Zatara. I don’t know what her father’s full name is.
Neither the Wikipedia article on the Comics Code Authority nor Lambiek’s Illustrated Comics Code have any mention of smoking or cigarettes. Lambiek has pre-Code examples which would have been prohibited under the CCA.
The Toonopedia says his name was Giovanni Zatara, though he went by “John.” This was established long after he had stopped being a regular character, however; during his career, it was just Zatara the Magician.
There is a Hellblazer comic where Zatanna (along with John Constantine and several other characters) actually smoke pot – grown by the Swamp Thing, no less! – at Constantine’s 40th birthday party. At one point, as they’re all laying around, stoned, Zatanna says “’!ecaf ym attuo m’I”
I can’t seem to recal Zatanna ever smoking, but smoking itself wasn’t verboten, at least until very recently. In Marvel Comics, Nick Fury was never seen without a cigar in his chomper, and the Thing & Wolverine both frequently lit up a cigar. IIRC, Commissioner Gordon in “Batman” was often seen with a cigarette in hand.
Nowadays, I believe at least the bigger comics companies (Marvel & DC) both have strictures against showing any character smoke.
Smoking cigarettes wasn’t forbidden in the Silver Age. The Black Panther’s first appearance (1967) showed him smoking a cigarette (to reinforce his jet-set coolness). Punks and criminals in comics smoked 'em by the pack. Remember, the Comics Code predated the Surgeon General’s Report by about a decade.
There was a recent trade paperback that reprinted most of Zatanna’s major SA appearances. Was the smoking scene in there?
Commissioner Gordon has taken up his pipe again. How he fell back into this fould addiction is one of the great mysteries of DC’s One Year Later event.
