"The Dead Lady of Clown Town" is a science fiction novella by American writer Cordwainer Smith, set in his Instrumentality of Mankind future history.
A graphic novel adaptation by Elaine Lee and Michael Kaluta was to have appeared in DC Comics during the late 1980s, but never materialized.
Cordwainer Smith wrote several stories set in a fictional milieu called the Instrumentality of Mankind.
[1] The story tells how D'Joan becomes a martyr for the underpeople, which leads to the founding of the religion of "The Robot, the Rat, and the Copt" that stands behind the future vision of love and equality that forms the basis for the end of the novel Norstrilia.
He is an ancestor of Lord Jestocost, who plays a critical role in "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" and Norstrilia.