The Scarecrow was created by writer
Scott Edelman and artist Rico Rival and first appeared in
Dead of Night #11 (August 1975).
Gil Kane and
Bernie Wrightson provided the cover art. Artist
Bill Draut was to have drawn the first appearance of the Scarecrow, but did not complete the assignment. The Scarecrow was originally scheduled to appear as a feature in
Monsters Unleashed and
Giant-Size Werewolf, but both of those series were cancelled before the Scarecrow feature could appear. It was then rescheduled for
Dead of Night and after that series was cancelled as well, the character was to have a self-titled
Scarecrow series, but it was not published. Edelman and artist Ruben Yandoc produced a follow-up story which appeared in
Marvel Spotlight #26 (February 1976), and the story was eventually concluded by
Bill Mantlo and
Ron Wilson in
Marvel Two-in-One #18 (August 1976). Many years later, he was brought back in the pages of
Dr. Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #31 (July 1991) in which he took on the name "the Straw Man" to differentiate himself from the costumed killer named the
Scarecrow. He subsequently appeared in issues #38 and 40, meeting
Daredevil in the latter issue. The Scarecrow did not speak in his early appearances. However, in his later appearances he did and he pretended to be a newscaster named "Skirra Corvus", Latin for "Scarecrow". ==Fictional character biography==