Heroes Against Hunger
comic book
Heroes Against Hunger is a 1986 all-star benefit comic book for African famine relief and recovery. Published by DC Comics in the form of a "comic jam" or exquisite corpse, the book starred Superman and Batman. Spearheaded by Jim Starlin and Bernie Wrightson, all proceeds from the comic went to hunger relief in Africa.
Publication history
Heroes Against Hunger came about in response to the devastating 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia. The concept was nearly identical to the earlier benefit comic, Heroes for Hope, published by Marvel Comics in 1985 (which was also spearheaded by Wrightson and Starlin), and was in the spirit of contemporaneous musical fund-raisers like Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?", USA for Africa's "We Are the World", and the Live Aid concerts.
Plot
In a story called "A Song of Pain and Sorrow!", Superman, Batman, and Lex Luthor try to curtail the Ethiopian famine. While there, they interact with Peace Corps member Lee Ann Layton. Their antagonist is a green-skinned, four-armed giant with a keyboard embedded on his chest called the Master. The Master feeds on entropy, so he is strengthened by the Ethiopian famine.
Contributors
The story was plotted by Jim Starlin with a plot assist from Bernie Wrightson.
The public source identifies “Heroes Against Hunger” as comic book. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Heroes, Against and Hunger.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Heroes Against Hunger”, the useful work is to connect “comic book” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q60771954. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1986, 1983 and 1985.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Heroes Against Hunger”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Heroes Against Hunger primary sources, Heroes Against Hunger archive and Heroes research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Heroes Against Hunger”?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Heroes Against Hunger” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.