World Wrestling Federation Lifestyles of the Brutal & Infamous #21842

Name: World Wrestling Federation Lifestyles of the Brutal & Infamous #21842
Brand: Acclaim / Valiant

Jan 1991 · Acclaim / Valiant · 2.95 USD

“Every Man Has His Price”

About this Issue

This 1991 one-shot stands as one of the earliest comic-book appearances of The Undertaker, arriving just months after his WWF debut, and captures the character at the very beginning of his run as the promotion's most menacing heel. Its second story — pitting The Undertaker and Paul Bearer against Big Boss Man in a surveillance-and-funeral-parlor thriller — transplanted WWF superstar personas into a pulp-crime narrative framework that was genuinely unusual for licensed wrestling comics of the era. The book is also a snapshot of Valiant's pre-superhero-universe identity: a publisher sustaining itself on licensed properties before the Valiant Universe proper launched. Because all material from the WWF one-shot series was subsequently reprinted in the *Battlemania* ongoing, this issue occupies a foundational position in Valiant's complete WWF publishing run.

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writer Laura Hitchcock · artist Don Perlin · artist David Lapham · inker Nicholas James · letterer Brad K. Joyce · colorist The King and His Court · cover Steve Ditko, Don Perlin

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History

The WWF one-shot series, of which this book is a part, grew out of a licensing arrangement Valiant secured through Western Publishing, which already held WWE and Nintendo rights and used them to achieve retail distribution beyond the direct market — reaching Kmart, Walmart, Toys 'R' Us, and Woolco in a digest-adjacent 'illustrated action book' format measuring 6.5 × 9.5 inches rather than standard comic dimensions. Jim Shooter, Valiant's founder and editor-in-chief, personally wrote the Undertaker/Big Boss Man story ('Pain or Peace') and assigned penciling duties to Steve Ditko, whom Shooter had recently brought aboard after Ditko had been let go by Marvel — a remarkable circumstance Shooter later described in interviews, noting that the clear moral polarity of WWF faces and heels satisfied Ditko's famously strict Objectivist standards for storytelling. The first story in the issue, 'Every Man Has His Price,' was written by Laura Hitchcock with art by Don Perlin and a young David Lapham — a collaboration Shooter would later identify as Lapham's first professional comics work.

Trivia · 7 facts

One-shot published in 1991 by Valiant Comics under the Acclaim/Valiant imprint as part of the WWF 'Illustrated Action Books' line; GCD series index number 21842.
The book contains two stories: 'Every Man Has His Price' (written by Laura Hitchcock, art by Don Perlin and David Lapham) and 'Pain or Peace' (written by Jim Shooter, pencils by Steve Ditko, inks by Don Perlin).
The 'Pain or Peace' story features The Undertaker and manager Paul Bearer running a funeral parlor under surveillance by Big Boss Man, who suspects foul play — one of the earliest comics stories to portray The Undertaker's mortuary persona in a narrative context.
Steve Ditko — co-creator of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange — penciled the Undertaker/Big Boss Man story, making this issue a notable late-career Ditko artifact.
Jim Shooter has recalled in interviews that WWF scripts were among the first work he was able to offer Ditko at Valiant, as the moral clarity of face/heel dynamics aligned with Ditko's creative principles.
David Lapham (later creator of *Stray Bullets*) worked on the DiBiase/Virgil story in this issue, which multiple sources identify as among his earliest professional comics work.
All stories from this one-shot series were reprinted in the first four issues of Valiant's companion ongoing title *WWF Battlemania* (1991–1992), which ran five issues before cancellation despite solicitations promoting a 12-issue subscription run.