The Demon's second annual is far better known for
introducing Hitman, but this one's got Klarion and Teekl, Eclipso, and mushrooms! So...yeah. From 1992,
the Demon Annual #1, "Ex-Nihilo...Death!" Written by Alan Grant, pencils by Joe Phillips and David Johnson, inks by John Dell.
Jason Blood and his pal-turned-seat cushion Harry Matthews fly into San Francisco, summoned by a note that claims "Xavier Nihilo" can free him from being bound to Etrigan. Making their way through the city, they are attacked by a scorpion monster, and wreck up what I think is a thinly-veiled version of
Comix Experience! But meanwhile, next door at an occult bookstore, the owner tries and fails to throw out a browser: Teekl, the cat familiar of Klarion the Witch Boy! (First, it would take some nerve to try and take on a cat reading a spell book; second, take some pictures and coast on internet cred forever!)
After Etrigan defeats the scorpion, Jason and Harry continue to Nihilo's castle outside of town; followed by Klarion and Teekl, who have stolen a motorcycle. They have fun! Xavier Nihilo is of course a nut, who had sent the scorpion to test Etrigan; but he has an excuse: he was like 9000 years old! Nihilo had survived the Great Deluge, the Biblical flood, which in DC continuity had been Eclipso's work: God may have fired him after that for being a little too into his work. Nihilo tried to save his family in a little boat, but Eclipso kills them, then curses Nihilo to walk the earth until he came again. Only his precious
"amanita" kept him going, but he also had a piece of Eclipso's black diamond: that power could free Jason of Etrigan, if he will only kill Nihilo. Jason balks at that, and gets clobbered by a largish brute; while Harry is stuffed full of mushrooms and goes on a little trip.
Before Nihilo can turn Jason into Etrigan--everybody knows the words!--Klarion steals the diamond, Eclipsing himself and Teekl. Eclipso remembers Nihilo, but can't really play with him until he takes care of "the
rage that drew me here" by wiping out Etrigan, and the fight goes back and forth for a while: even lashing Klarion to a flagpole in a lightning storm won't get rid of Eclipso! He was vulnerable to sunlight, and dawn was a ways away...! And Nihilo tries to keep the fight going, since he can't trust Eclipso to kill him.
I got this one on the strength of Joe Phillips art--around the same time, he did the
Timber Wolf mini-series I love. I know I didn't read all of the "The Darkness Within" crossover annuals; mostly just whatever titles I was reading at the time. I remember being mildly annoyed Anarky took a loss in the
Robin Annual, also written by Alan Grant.
3 comments:
I now find myself an instant fan of this Joe Philips guy. It's not a bad cartoonish style actually, and it really did fit the decade well back then.
Happy Halloween to you & yours btw. What we eating & watching tonight?
Yeah, Alan Grant's Demon run was great and vastly underrated (RIP to him, by the way- he died a few months ago) but this was not one of his best. It seems like crossover issues were usually his weakest ones- no shame in that, considering most of his DC work starting around this time was on the fringe of the DCU or at least the fringe books of the big characters. Nice art though, definitely- I feel like he'd worked with Joe Philips on another annual or something like that.
Definitely recommend checking out most of the rest of his Demon run though, along with most of his other work. He has way more hits than misses.
@H: Aww damn, Alan Grant died? Shit, RIP then :(
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