I didn't buy this specifically to cue up "Electric Chair," but as long as we're here...

Kamandi gets the sad walking-away cover here ala Amazing Spider-Man #50, but doesn't have enough costume to leave in a garbage can. From 1974, Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #20, "The Electric Chair!" Written, drawn, and edited by Jack Kirby; inks by D. Bruce Berry.

Pursued by gorillas--including the unfortunately named Sgt. Ugash--Kamandi finds refuge in Chicago, which appears to have been spared the ravages of the Great Disaster and still has talking, intelligent humans! That are living a pastiche of 1920's gangster life, but still. Kamandi had managed to convince the gangsters that they needed to fight off the gorillas just like they would any rival gang; but when a gangster gets his face smashed, he's revealed to be a robot, who still legs it out of there when the cops show up. Kamandi and Ugash are taken in--with possibly a smidgen of excessive force on Ugash.

Kamandi and Ugash end up in the pokey, with another mobster-robot; which Ugash promptly smashes before breaking out. The gorilla was both out of his element, and sick of listening to Kamandi; but the pair wander the station, filled with immobile people, until they get to the courtroom and things start up again. Ugash plans on tearing them all apart, while Kamandi realizes the numbers were against him.

Ugash is dragged to the electric chair and strapped in, perhaps not initially realizing its purpose; and Kamandi is too kind-hearted to let the mean ape just fry. He signals Ugash's gorillas, and the ensuing shoot-out seems to bring in everybody in Chicago.

Ducking into a service door, Kamandi finds his way to the inner workings of the city, and massive banks of computers. I do like the Kirby bombast of "Now for the fantastic, hope-destroying TRUTH!" He yells out, for whoever was in charge to show themselves, but the place was only run by computers, who show him the door. He comes out of a theme-park, "Chicago-Land, the Fully Automated Living Museum," but barely notices, as he was alone again. Aw!  

The computers in this one are maybe locked into their programming, but at least aren't actively unhelpful. Meanwhile, I just tried searching "Jack Kirby mobsters" and got a bunch of results for Kirby monsters. Admittedly, he's better known for those, but that wasn't the question! He had also done In the Days of the Mob in '71 and the Skrull gangster-planet in Fantastic Four #91 in '69!

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"Messed."

Plotwise, I kind of know where this is going to end, but it's still open enough for things to surprise me. I don't know if I had more planned for Hallow's Eve and Chasm right now: they might have been derailed by the last week of work! The TMNT Jack Kirby gets to make an appearance, because I really liked him flanked by Crystal and Sersi in the year-ender post. And Doc Samson came up before in this storyline, when Kurt mentions him to Moonstone, back in October! 

I know in regular Marvel continuity, he's a big green Sasquatch now, and...I don't see it? This might be me overlaying Frasier on top of him, but I see Samson as maybe being a bit fussy and fastidious, approaching snooty. He maybe thought becoming a gamma-powered he-man would change that, and maybe it did for a bit, but old habits...He probably overcorrected when he realized the amount of control he would have to maintain on his strength. That and Samson would never, ever allow himself to agree with someone like Moonstone, even if she was in the right on this one.

I really wanted to use the phrase "pardon my back" in the panel where Doc Samson moves to leave, since I remember it from an old Hulk comic! But it wasn't from Samson: Bruce says it to Samantha Parrington, after the Hulk/Valkyrie fight fizzes out, in Incredible Hulk #142, which was collected in a paperback.  

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As usual, the first comic you read will set the tone for the year...as usual, hmm.

It's not a minty-fresh copy, but let's be honest, I'm not super-minty-fresh myself. (Spine damage, faded colors, pretty sure I too am missing a staple...) From 1968, Not Brand Echh #10, cover by Marie Severin.

This was a "worst of" issue, but it opens with a great one, "The Silver Burper!" from Not Brand Echh #1, by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Frank Giacoia. That was from May 1967, and it was a riff on Fantastic Four #57, on sale 09/08/1966! Well, it's probably easier to spoof a recent issue, the plot's maybe still fresh in mind. A picture of that one, rather than cramming it in the scanner, but that panel is a favorite.

Also this issue: "Peter Pooper vs. Gnatman and Rotten" Written by Stan Lee, pencils by Marie Severin, inks by Frank Giacoia. (With a guest-panel by John Romita!) Man, we mentioned Marie Severin last week with Alf, but she was on point for years! Posting this so you'll know when I inevitably steal "SKLUNCH!" and here's some panels that were maybe stolen--er, homaged--in my favorite Spider-Ham story in Marvel's later What The--?!:

Well, this bodes well for the rest of the year! (Something had to...) Read more!

"The End" Week: The Eternals #19!

I feel like I've brought this up before, and you guys maybe tarred me for it, but I didn't hate the Eternals movie. It maybe bit off more than it could chew, and I don't know if making them all mostly unlikeable space robots was a great idea; and a little friggin' color wouldn't have hurt...OK, I'm not really selling it there; but one swerve was that Druig--the moody prick with mind-control powers who seems to be living in a Jonestown kinda situation--seems like he's going to be the worst but then turns out to be right about a lot of things? I think the character was maybe a one-dimensional nutbag when first introduced, and um, still is today: he was the bad guy in Chasm: Curse of Kaine, probably as an expedient means of setting up a fight. But with all the later reveals and retcons, was Druig maybe right all along? Maybe we'll see: from 1978, the Eternals #19, "The Pyramid" Story and art by Jack Kirby, inks by Mike Royer.

Druig was one of the "Polar Eternals," and man, I always forget how many of those guys there are? It's like the Inhumans, you always maybe see the same six or eight of 'em, but there's whole cities crammed full of more you usually only see in background shots; even though in the Eternals' case even Druig's little toadie Sigmar would have been crazy powerful. This issue, with Ikaris captured, Druig is free to head out to the "Pyramid of the Winds," where he's going to kick God in the teeth. Metaphorically: he's really gunning to destroy a Celestial! Ikaris is against it, saying the other Celestials would retaliate and destroy everything. Druig uses a little ice-sled vehicle to get to the Pyramid, which I thought was weird, since the Eternals can all fly; but the sled had force-fields to protect him from the Pyramid's "killing wind" defense. Unfortunately for him, he then finds a wall of doors marked with sigils, and didn't know the right one to choose...

Ikaris manages to free himself, and cows Sigmar into helping him: Sigmar had maybe been around the last time the Celestials visited earth, or at least had the gist of what happened, and claims they had fought amongst themselves, with one fatality. The Pyramid had been left behind and secreted by the Polar Eternals, but as they fly to it, a Celestial seems to be headed that way as well. As Sigmar leads Ikaris through the back way, Druig figures out the doors: the one marked with Ikaris's symbol! He finds "a pistol made for a giant's hand," a very Kirby space-gat. Ikaris catches up, and fights Druig, who uses flame-blasts here. Ikaris is at a disadvantage, since he was unwilling to murder his cousin; but Sigmar encourages him to disentegrate that fool before he blows up everything. Perhaps as a compromise, Ikaris disentegrates the space-gun, but the release of the energy therein engulfs and seemingly kills Druig.

Carrying the defeatist Sigmar, Ikaris escapes the collapsing Pyramid, but the energy was continuing to expand and destroy. The arriving Celestial stops it; leaving Ikaris to marvel at "an unconquerable enigma--mysterious and majestic among the creatures of the cosmos!" The final caption box, seemingly from the King himself, wonders if man might eventually gain the status to stand with them, and know their secrets. Which seems optimistic as all get out, today.

Still not sure about Druig's motive for Celestial-murder (Celesticide?) from this issue, but was he maybe right? I know I read a bit of Eternal stuff in their crossover with the Avengers and X-Men, but am vague on the details now. And like we said, Druig just appeared recently: it's not a modern classic, but I did like Chasm: Curse of Kaine. Perfectly readable mid-tier superhero book; and I like the notion of broody grump Kaine having to be the adult in the room, while his nutty 'brother' and his hot goth girlfriend play us-against-the-world. Read more!

Maybe the best thing about an old, kinda beat-up Kamandi comic? By god, it looks like a comic! And this one's got the classic Batman and Robin vs. a mummy Twinkies ad! How could you ask for more? From 1975, Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #28, "Enforce the Atlantic Testament!" Edited, written and drawn by Jack Kirby, inks and letters by D. Bruce Berry.

Kamandi and Ben Boxer were currently undercover in the "Horse Marines," serving under Anglophile bulldog Captain Pypar. Humans were dumb animals here, but the gathered military forces seemed to be less amazed that Kamandi could talk than annoyed, they had other things going. Kamandi is sick of chores and marching, but Ben suggests they need to see what was happening: the bulldogs had patterned themselves after British soldiers, and their allies the gorillas were Prussians, with French wolves. Checking out one of their maps, Ben finds they had crossed the Atlantic ocean over a land bridge; that was new. Captain Pypar also had "articles of guardianship," which meant they had the section of America now called "the Dominion of the Devils" as a protectorate, under "Nations of the Atlantic Testament Orders." Kamandi realizes, they mean NATO!

Perhaps understandably, Pypar gets mad at the animals pawing through his stuff, but Kamandi and Ben quit after Pypar takes an unwise swipe at Ben. They explore a bit of the new Canada, a bizarrely lush new forest of huge insects, giant plants...and resources to be exploited. The Sacker's Company, leopards, were abusing the land; possibly in violation of the Atlantic Testament somehow, but they were also well-prepared for a fight. Kamandi and Ben find artillery, and can see a frontal assault would be suicide. Ben tells Kamandi to warn Pygar, while he tries to spike the guns, but his steel body isn't completely invulnerable and he gets knocked out by a high-velocity grenade.

The bulldogs make their charge, down the barrel of the leopards' guns, and are "decimated!" as Kamandi watches. He sneaks behind the leopard gunners, gets a gun, and plays mad dog, barking and threatening to blow up a stack of ammo cases. The leopards break and run, leaving Pygar and his forces to overrun the lines: Pygar is annoyed to see Kamandi there, a dumb animal in the midst of battle? Kamandi gives him a sarcastic salute, then catches up with Ben: their next adventure would be "The Legend!" A fun issue, although I think Kamandi maybe saved the bulldogs from learning a lesson: he has a comment, that the animals had picked up man's worst habits...I think I had just watched a Night Gallery episode ("Hatred Unto Death") that repeated the then-common environmentalist/peacenik creed that animals would get along just fine without humanity, but that slogan seemed to paint them as innocent little lambs and didn't give them credit for having their own desires, and maybe their own grudges. Kirby maybe realizes, even animals can be jerks. Read more!

This is like the third issue of this we''ve blogged; why am I still surprised it was a reprint book?

From 1974, Black Magic #6.

I had to check Mike's for the newsstand situation in July 1974, and there were a fair amount of horror books there, new and old. Marvel's Crypt of Shadows and Dead of Night were on the racks then as well--wait, they also had Weird Wonder Tales, Where Monsters Dwell, Uncanny Tales, and two issues of Vault of Evil. All of those were pretty consistently reprints; rarely if ever new: Marvel did have a magazine, Haunt of Horror, but other books like Fear or Supernatural Thrillers were de facto superhero books, featuring Morbius and the Living Mummy, respectively. DC would've had Ghosts, House of Mystery, and House of Secrets; and those were probably all-new. Anyway, back to the comic at hand, I guess: "The Thirteenth Floor!" from 1952's Black Magic #11, art by John Prentice. Clement Dorn just wants a little privacy for his suicide, but instead finds a departure area for heaven and hell, on the thirteenth floor. No spoiler to say, he's talked out of it.

"Satan's Sister!" from 1951's Black Magic #3 has pretty much the same twist as the middle story of Karen Black's Trilogy of Terror, so if you've seen that, there you go. (Art by Bill Draut.) "The Girl Who Walked on Water!" is also from 1952's Black Magic #11 and is another Joe Simon/Jack Kirby number. Two guys try to make it rich with young Anna Marie Kunowski, an ordinary young woman...who could walk on water, up walls, whatever. How? The guys think, it might just be because she thinks she can, so she can. It's all fun and games, until a young man is injured trying to walk down a wall like she did. Her big break then breaks, as she learns fear, and loses her ability. Aw. Read more!

Flatliners, the comic!

I am positive I saw Flatliners--the original!--in theatre; even if I have no recollection of why, or the movie itself. I do know they were more hands-on in trying after death experiences, than the jerk in this comic: from 1974, Black Magic #4, reprinting "Last Second of Life!" from 1950's Black Magic #1. Script maybe by Jack Kirby, art by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

After his partner dies terrified and screaming, tycoon Matthew Crane starts investigating what happens after death, by trying to find someone just about to kick off and getting them to spill the beans. It's a morbid little search, where he examines and discards several terminally ill people that weren't going to die soon enough for him, finally settling on a young girl with maybe a week to go. He's furious when she lasts longer, but when the time comes, berates her to tell him what she sees...and she does. Spoiler: Matthew doesn't take it real well.

Also this issue: "The Girl the Earth Ate Up!" from 1951's Black Magic #6, with art by George Roussos: a woman wants something to control her partying daughter, and gets a magic pair of scissors from the black magic of Old Min. She thinks it will scare her daughter straight, and instead it sends her directly to hell? Well, she did look scared. And "His Father's Footsteps!" also from Black Magic #1, with Mort Meskin art: a hangman is afraid of his son following in his footsteps, and takes to murder to try and prevent it. But, as usual, blood will tell...(I'm not sure about the coloring on that one, it looks like he's going to nurse that kid.) 

Aw, I could've scheduled this for Jack's birthday the other day, but I'm never that organized! Well, this is pretty close, anyway. Read more!

See, this is why you don't set up autopay!

If slackassery could save the earth from an alien invader, rest assured I'm there for you like that. From 1976, Weird Wonder Tales #17, which opens with "I Was Captured by the Creature from Krogarr!" Reprinted from 1961's Tales to Astonish #25, written by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Dick Ayers.

This was a fairly standard monster number: a lazy sod of a new husband isn't adapting well to married life, when he's contacted by an alien from the planet Krogarr, through his television set. The alien gives the hubby instructions to rewire his set as a transmitter, so he could come to earth, but his intentions were less than friendly: the creature captures the hubby, and brings him back to Krogarr, as proof of his teleportation technology, which his people had scoffed at. Krogarr isn't the most hospitable planet, with gladitorial fights and slavery; but the hubby is saved when he mysteriously fades away back to earth. The Krogarrians kill the creature and smash his stupid machine, while the hubby is scolded by his wife, for not paying the power bill: when the power went out, he was brought home. Which...is kind of dumb.

Also this issue: "First Moon-walk," retitled and reprinted from 1954's Men's Adventures #26, with art by Gene Colan! Two childhood rivals spend their entire lives striving and exceeding, to beat each other, eventually taking their competition into space: both privately fund a rocket, to be the first to get to the moon, then both sabotage the other's rocket when they get there. And, another Venus story: "The Mad Mountain!" from 1952's Venus #18, story and art by Bill Everett. Venus is in a passenger plane crash, which all the passengers survive, but they find themselves in a weird valley, with creepy plant-men. The other passengers are all killed in a landslide, but Venus survives and makes it back to civilization, but is then told that plane disappeared twenty years ago, and she wasn't on it! What--but--so....Venus's guy-pal mansplains, weird crap like that always happens to her, no point in worrying her pretty little head about it. Actually, that's probably more on the page count than mansplaining, but same end result. Read more!

I thought I might have this reprinted or collected somewhere, but no, I maybe have just bought it multiple times. And it's a grabber, for sure. From 1975, Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #35, "The Soyuz Survivor!" Written and drawn by Jack Kirby, inks by D. Bruce Berry. Joe Kubert cover!

The last boy on earth, is not on earth today; as Kamandi and Dr. Canus are in orbit with their new friend, "that alien fireball, pretty Pyra." Canus is freaking out a little bit: Pyra was an energy being, who could "wear" a humanoid shape, but it wasn't comfortable, hence the little trip in her ship. But, they soon see something more interesting: an ancient spaceship--well, from before the Great Disaster, at least. A Soviet Soyuz, to be precise. Canus forgets his fears and wants to explore it, and after airing the Soyuz back up, they board it, and find a dead cosmonaut, strangely in the lotus position. Dead? No, Pyra notes, he was still alive...Pyra introduces a bit of energy to the cosmonaut, then the trio step away to explore the rest of the ship, so they don't see this bit of nightmare fuel:

The mutated cosmonaut attacks Canus and Kamandi, seemingly now boneless, and secreting acid for defense. Canus is injured, before Pyra flames on to drive the creature away; and Kamandi realizes while he might sometimes resent Canus for not being the last of his kind, he still cares deeply for him. Pyra plays a flight recorder--noting she "unscrambled" it so Kamandi could understand it, which probably means translating it from Russian! The Soyuz crew could see whatever the Great Disaster was hit, and assumed it was nuclear war; then debated what to do next: Vassilov, the cosmonaut that was mutated, argues they have to obey their final order; but their ship was hit by shock waves, and probably radiation, from the Disaster.

Vassilov attacks again, and Pyra simply melts a hole for them to get back to her ship. Alone again, Vassilov pulls himself into a vaguely more human shape, then starts work on his final order: arming a doomsday weapon. But, the radiation and age had "long since rotted the parts to harmless junk" yet he would remain in orbit fiddling with it, probably forever...

This was only an 18-page story, which might've been the standard for the book, but feels a bit short. Kamandi could maybe have had something to do in his own book, too; but I don't think he often had a lot of control of where he was going. But, the imagery in this one...creepy stuff, a tool I don't think Kirby used often, but could. I wasn't quite getting comics off the spinner rack when this came out, but I'm also kind of glad I waited! Read more!

Did I miss shark week again? I never know.

We saw a water-damaged copy of Action Comics #456 some time back, yet another example of comics trying to cash in on whatever's popular at the time, in this case, Jaws. And if DC's going to do it, sure as shooting Marvel is too; in this case by dusting off a six-page yarn to reprint with a new cover. But, a minor problem: from 1976, Weird Wonder Tales #16, reprinting "The Shark" from 1954's Men's Adventures #25, art by Joe Sinnott.

Of course, it's a great white on the cover, they were the 'in' sharks of the time; but in the story our hero fights a tiger shark and the final shark boss is a hammerhead. Diamond smugglers try to put their eggs in one basket, by feeding diamonds to little fish, then those fish to the shark, then one of the double-crossing smugglers to the shark. The lunkhead hired to kill the shark was gung-ho to do it before even getting paid, and even though he loses a leg to the shark, he considers it worth it to get the bugger. Oh, and he gets to shoot a smuggler with a spear-gun; that's always fun.

It took me a few to figure out where I had read the next story, "The Box of Doom!" It's a Venus story by Bill Everett from 1952's Venus #19, the last issue of that series; but I would've read it in 1994's Silver Surfer vs. Dracula #1. (I thought we had seen that here at some point, since that issue also has the Howard the Duck/Hellcow story from Giant-Size Man-Thing #5! It's reprints all the way down...) A messenger delivers a creepy box to Venus late at night, and it tries to coax them into opening it to receive great evil powers. The messenger hops on that, and is turned into a vampire, then gets staked by Venus. No tip for you! Well, the tip of the stake, I suppose...crap. It's a good one, but it's also Venus's last appearance for over twenty years!

Lastly, from 1962's Tales to Astonish #31, "It Fell From the Flying Saucer!" another probably Lee/Lieber/Kirby sci-fi number. A somewhat surly artist is glad everybody's gone to the parade and he can finally get some art done, when he sees a flying saucer, which drops...a pencil? A magic pencil, with which the artist makes his surprisingly non-pornographic dreams come true. It's not bad, although the artist goes from zero to tyrant pretty quickly...quicker than some artists would, maybe? That and I liked this plot in Spongebob Squarepants better; that version had Doodlebob! Ain't he a doll? Read more!