Mort the Dead Teenager

Mort the Dead Teenager
Cover of Mort the Dead Teenager #1 (Dec. 1993), featuring Mort Graves (center, also in corner box) and Teen Death (behind, in car). Art by Gary Hallgren
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Limited series
Genre	Comedy Coming-of-age story Supernatural
Publication date	October 19, 1993-January 18, 1994
No. of issues	4
Creative team
Written by	Larry Hama
Penciller(s)	Gary Hallgren
Inker(s)	Gary Hallgren
Letterer(s)	Gary Hallgren
Colorist(s)	Gary Hallgren (Issue 1) Hanne Kjeldegaard (Issues 2-4)
Editor(s)	Bobbie Chase Rob Tokar

Mort the Dead Teenager is a limited series published by Marvel Comics. The comic centers on the titular Mort who dies while street racing and returns as an incorporeal being who is tormented by both the living and the dead. Despite its offbeat humor and bizarre scenario, it has been designated as officially being part of the Marvel Universe.

Publication history

According to writer Larry Hama, the idea for the comic came about during a meeting where many Marvel executives were considering optioning several of the publisher's comics to be adapted into film and television productions, although few of the successful comic adaptations at that time were based on Marvel titles. Hama recalls a sort of elevator pitch where he "went in and came up with some new stuff that wasn't really a superhero, that somebody could do fairly cheap. A youth market-type thing." The executives approved of the concept, and shortly after pitching the name alone, Hama began writing the comic. Hama later recalled that while working at Marvel, he received praise from Stan Lee for only two works: Mort, and The 'Nam.

The miniseries ran for four issues dated December 1993 to March 1994, with writing by Hama while the art was handled by former Air Pirates member Gary Hallgren. A preview was issued in mid-to-late-1993 to comics distributors and shop owners, to gague interest in pre-ordering the series for sale to consumers. The preview was printed in monotone and scanned from the manuscripts.

The distinct Brookhaven, Long Island setting was chosen due to Hama and Hallgren's area of residence at the time of production. Much of the two's interests were incorporated into the comic, such as Studebaker cars, the Long Island Rail Road, and their experience in a band. Said band, the K-Otics, appears in the third issue alongside caricatures of other members of the group, all of whom were New York-area comic artists and writers at the time of creation.

Hallgren, through his since-defunct website, has confirmed that he retains the original manuscripts and color guides for the series, which were for sale at one point before 2016. Available to purchase on the site were also signed copies of the comic, but due to the website's closure in early 2023, they are unavailable for purchase.

Plot

Mort Graves is a slacker teen from Mistake Beach, Long Island, New York, who, in a futile attempt to impress his crush Kimberly Dimenmein, races against her boyfriend Lance Boyle in his father's recently refurbished Studebaker Champion after an argument. While doing so, he gets struck and beheaded by an oncoming train and ends up in the afterlife where he meets Teen Death, the son of the actual Death.

Hell is already full and Heaven is closed for repairs. With no other choice due to his morally dubious nature, Mort is sent back to the living world where he is now a ghostly being and discovers that his family is in "mourning" for him (actually more concerned with other things relating to his death). To Mort's pleasure, Kimberly seems genuinely saddened at his death while Maureen, a tough motorcycle-riding teen who was friends with him prior to the incident, accuses her of not caring about him prior. Mort fails to realize that Maureen clearly had feelings for him though his friends, Slick and Weirdo, can see it's obvious.

After an unintentional reaction to a haunting in a movie theater, Mort is visited by Teen Death and is dragged to a processing division of the Netherworld for youth casualties, wherein he is told that his haunting isn't up to the quality expected, and is advised to try better in another setting, his high school. Mort soon discovers that he wasn't very well-known or respected at his school, and attacks the school grief psychologist through her hearing aid after an argument between Maureen and Kimberly. Slick and Weirdo then advertise auditions for a garage band, and invite Mort to come. At dinner that night, Mort is left alone with his younger brother Kyle who demands that he pay back his loans owed to him and his relatives or suffer a blackmailing. After a stressful conversation with his family, Mort attends Slick and Weirdo's band tryouts and are quickly joined by Kimberly and Maureen. Jealous of the chemistry between Slick and Kimberly, Mort attempts to sabotage their equipment, but Weirdo's dad loves their new sound and names himself their manager, much to Mort's chagrin.

The band, Positive Feedback, treks to a formerly major club to perform with Mort following along. Weirdo threatens Mort with ensuring the performance goes smoothly, due to the loans his father took out to finance the band that could have him and his parents evicted if not paid. While in the bathroom, Mort once again gets dragged back to the Netherworld by Teen Death who tells him that he needs to begin haunting again or he will be left in purgatory. The group gets on stage to perform with Mort creating a wide variety of strange effects to please Teen Death's quota, only to realize they were playing to an empty house, save Weirdo's confused and distraught parents. After coming home from the previous night's show, Mort discovers that Weirdo's parents were robbed and their car stripped, and that his father's debt is inescapable.

Fed up with the stress of non-existence, alongside his friend's predicament, Mort confronts Teen Death who proposes three different potential outcomes had he not died. The first involves him having a menial job at a car wash and getting put into an irreversible coma after being drafted in an upcoming war with Canada. The second has him marry an overweight Kimberly, still working the car wash, while all of his friends have become successful, and the last has him quitting his car wash job to travel the world where he is gifted a bag of gold in Tibet, with which he buys a NASCAR racer, only for aliens to attack during the car's inaugural race with him as driver.

Mort returns to the present where his family still doesn't respect him enough, Weirdo has become homeless and is bunking with his grandmother, Slick gets into science fiction, Maureen changes her style and starts dating Lance, and Kimberly runs away to become a beat poet. After laughing at Kimberly's performance, Mort awakens to realize the whole ordeal was a dream and is alive again. However, he seems destined for failure as he leaves in his dad's Studebaker to relive the incident that caused his demise.

Characters

• Mort Graves – An inept loser teenager who was beheaded by a train in a racing accident. It seems that before his death, he already had a pathetic life. After his death, his life is actually much worse with his family being totally indifferent to his situation. He has a crush on Kimberly and is oblivious to Maureen's clear feelings for him. As a ghost, he has the ability to detach his head, float around, and become invisible and otherwise intangible to living people. He also has the ability to affect electronic equipment using a technique he named "ectoplasmic shock". Mort can also look into daydreams of others and interact with film as if he were in a movie, and create objects or props alongside multiple apparitions of himself in the event of a haunting.
• Kimberly Dimenmein – A beautiful brunette teen who is admired by Mort. She is into poetry and singing, and though despite showing no interest in Mort prior to his death, openly showed sadness when he passed. Is Lance's on-and-off girlfriend, until she leaves him to run away from home in the hopes of becoming a performance artist. She assumes lead vocals and songwriter for Positive Feedback after her audition in the second issue.
• Maureen Redding – A tough biker girl who showed an interest in Mort while being a platonic friend. After his death, she was noticeably distraught. Maureen was a childhood guitar prodigy, and though she dislikes Kimberly, she was nevertheless willing to play alongside her when she joined Slick and Weirdo's band. Maureen mentions that the Harley-Davidson motorcycle she rides is her dispatched brother's, who was currently serving at Guantanamo Bay during the events of the comic. Maureen later sells the bike once she begins dating Lance in Kimberly's absence, apparently unbeknownst to her brother.
• Teen Death – The son of Death who takes in dumb teens who died in ridiculous predicaments. He loves his job and apparently likes to torment Mort. Despite this, he has admitted that he does care for him to some degree. Teen Death acts as a tour guide/employer for Mort in the Netherworld, where many bizarre subdivisions exist for different deaths. He shows a particular interest in trains and video games, alongside trying to get Mort to haunt his family.
• Lance Boyle – Kimberly's handsome jock boyfriend. Initiates the race that lead to Mort's death, but inadvertently comes to his funeral because of Kimberly's objections. He later leaves Kimberly after she runs away from home and decides to hook up with Maureen.
• George "Slick" Slikowski – One of Mort's friends. He is a tall lanky boy with long hair. Slick seems to have a fascination with Kimberly, which Mort is particularly afflicted by. His parents are science fiction fans. Plays the bass in his and Weirdo's band.
• Reardon "Weirdo" Weedlow – One of Mort's friends. He is a short stout boy with a half shaved head and sunglasses. More cooler and reserved than Slick, Weirdo is the voice of reason amongst Mort's friends. His parents are doting and extremely well-meaning to the point of destruction. Plays the drums in his and Slick's band.
• Bruce Graves – Mort's father who seems more concerned with the state of his Studebaker than the loss of his son.
• Wendy Graves – Mort's mother who is upset about how things have been going for the family. Is the most caring of Mort's family post-death, though is still bitter that Mort left so soon.
• Kyle Graves – Mort's younger brother who is an expert in finances and wants his brother's room. Known blackmailer amongst his family.
• Cyndi Graves – Mort's older sister who uses Mort's death as a way to pick up boys. Before the events of the comic, it's implied that Cyndi's fashion taste was much more reserved and modest, but after Mort's death, she's taken on a more bombastic style.
• Digby "Grandpa" Graves – Mort's crotchety grandfather. Lives at a nursing home and doesn't get out much. Likes fast food and Wheel of Fortune.

Film adaptation

A film version of Mort the Dead Teenager had been in development since 1997. Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg were attached to produce at Dreamworks with Larry Hama and Joe's Apartment director John Payson writing the script. Elijah Wood was in talks for the starring role of Mort and Dominique Swain as his love interest.

In November 1996, a little less than a year before Dreamworks' adaptation was announced, Wizard Magazine claimed that an animated television adaptation of the comic was in early development for UPN, but this would also not come to fruition.

Production had switched sometime around 2002 with Quentin Tarantino and Madonna replacing Spielberg and Zemeckis, production now at A Band Apart, with Dean Paraskevopoulos hired to direct. Jim Cooper, screenwriter and future Jeopardy! contestant, had contributed a draft for this iteration of the project. Jessica Simpson was reportedly cast as Mort's love interest a year later, with test footage shot. Hama later stated that he had no large involvement with any of the attempted adaptations despite writing a screenplay, and that his involvement with the future of the comic ended after it was finished.

Prior to being assigned writer of the Marvel Zombies project, The Walking Dead co-creator Robert Kirkman believed he was to be assigned a reboot comic of Mort supposedly created to drum up hype for the announced film adaptation, though there was no planned comic. Kirkman recalled,

And then I said, "If you ever want anything done with zombies in it, let me know!" And I was totally joking! And I think that day, or maybe the next day, there was an announcement that they were going to do a Mort the Dead Teenager movie, which I guess never happened, and he (Tom Brevoort) was like, "Oh, I don't know...maybe there's something...let me get off the phone and talk to somebody." And I'm like, "What are you talking about, Tom?" And he said, "I think I have an idea for something you can do....hang on!" And I thought he was gonna call me up and be like, "Hey, you wanna do this Mort the Dead Teenager book?"

And then, like two or three weeks later, Ralph Macchio called and he said they were doing this Ultimate Fantastic Four arc where we're trying to make it look like the Ultimate FF meet the FF from the Marvel Universe, but what they're actually doing is meeting this zombie Fantastic Four.

And I said, "Well, that sounds crazy."

As of 2023, the film has not been made and it is assumed to have been shelved. None of any of the attempted adaptations' production material has resurfaced in any form, though Hama has mentioned that some of the Simpson test footage was cut into a pitch trailer, which was being shopped around as late as 2009 according to a since-deleted tweet from television writer Kevin Biegel.

Legacy

In 1994, the miniseries was serialized in Norwegian comics magazine Magnum, which at the time was popular for previously publishing The 'Nam alongside the then-current run of The Punisher. Norway is also the only country that the series received a complete physical edition, as a part of the Pocketserien collection of digest comics in 1997.

Spanish comics blog ADLO! Novelti Librari, through frequent contributor Jónatan K. Sark, published an article in 2022 titled "Le Mort d'Marvel", as a retrospective of the comic and the multiple attempts to adapt it into a film. Sark jokingly speculates, through a page from Marvel Age promoting the series, that Mort could have possibly been named after Marvel editor Mort Todd due to his mention in the magazine's paragraph about the comic.

See also

• List of unproduced film projects based on Marvel Comics
• Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja: Another Hama Marvel project with creative similarities to Mort.

External links

• Mort the Dead Teenager on the Marvel Wiki