Happy Belated 75th Anniversary to Zatara the Magician

Actually, his 75th anniversary was last year.









And he's got a cute daughter, too.  

Zatara was a character I knew nothing about when I first encountered him in a mid 70s JLA story (the one which introduced Sindella) and I've seen very little of him since, I must admit. Probably the one scene which actually sticks in my memory was his death in Swamp Thing #50, a genuinely dramatic moment (made even more so by the fact that he'd just told Sargon to shut up and die with dignity because he was upsetting his daughter).

And this year is Zatara's 80th anniversary!

(Though I'm not sure if DC will do much to celebrate that.)

"Much"? I'm guessing "nothing". I think a certain other character might overshadow the celebrations.

Every year is the anniversary of something. You can't celebrate them all, or people start getting anniversary fatigue.

MajorHoy wrote:And this year is Zatara's 80th anniversary!

(Though I'm not sure if DC will do much to celebrate that.)

I'm not seeing this image on my computer, but a google search seems to indicate it could be this:

from DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #5 (November-December 1980)

And looking through the GCD, it would appear the last Golden Age appearance of Giovanni "John" Zatara's feature may have been in  World's Finest Comics #51 (April-May 1951):

MajorHoy wrote: . . . And he's got a cute daughter, too.  

Zatara's first re-appearance during the Silver Age of comics was thirteen years later in Hawkman #4 (October-November 1964), even if it was for just one-panel in the story that introduced his daughter Zatanna.

Zatanna has been attempting to rescue her father from the afterlife in recent issues of Justice League Dark.