Category Archives: Humour

Buried Treasure #2 [1990] – Lockjaw the Alligator

Posted on January 21, 2005 by Bob

This issue of the Greg Theakston edited comic contains a reprint of the S&K story from PUNCH & JUDY COMICS V2#10 (1947), introducing Lockjaw the Alligator. It’s a fun 7-page story, with a action packed splash of the most common sight gag in the series, Lockjaw swinging the diminutive Professor like a club. The story features the Professor looking for a rare alligator in the Everglades, and finding a talking alligator, Lockjaw, who learned to talk because all the animals in comics do.

bt2

This is a fun, kind of surreal, stream-of-consciousness type story, with scenes like the Professor trying to get Lockjaw booked in Punch&Judy comics (with cameos from some of the other characters and the editor) and Lockjaw using the Professor as a water stopper.

This story was also reprinted in the third COMPLETE JACK KIRBY volume.

Published 1990

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Destroyer Duck #2 [1983]

Posted on January 20, 2005 by Bob

The year after the lawsuit benefit one-shot, DESTROYER DUCK returned for a regular series, with the Gerber/Kirby/Alcala team re-united up to #5. This issue features “Mommie Noises”, which begins with Duke building a device to get back to his Earth while Holmes is suing GodCorp. Duke is targetted for assassination, but defeats the would-be assassin (with some odd asides about Mariel Hemingway which I don’t get). Meanwhile, in one of my favourite scenes in the series (and setting up my absolute favourite in an upcoming issue), company man Booster Cogburn delivers some arms and a message to a General in Hoqoom, and gets uppity, only to get shot and have his spine crawl off.

We then catch up with the GodCorp executives and their plans for Hoqoom, including the exploitation of Vanilla Cupcake, and then we meet Medea, a rather strange but brilliant parody of the then-popular Elektra. While Duke has his battle with her, we find out more about Vanilla Cupcake and the Cogburn.

It’s a fun issue setting up the storylines for the next few issues, with some nicely wacky characters and some interesting art by Kirby in the fight scenes. I really like Alcala’s inks in here as well, especially with the very nice paper and printing that Eclipse had at the time.

The cover is by Kirby/Alcala, and this issue also has the first chapter of the Jerry Siegel/Val Mayerik series “The Starling”.

Published 1983

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Destroyer Duck #1 [1982] – It’s Got the Whole World…in Its Hand!

Posted on September 15, 2004 by Bob

DESTROYER DUCK #1 is a bit of an angry comic. With good reason, given that writer Steve Gerber was engaged in a lawsuit with Marvel regarding another Duck (for which profits from this book benefited), and Kirby was had his own issues with the company.

But clearly anger works as a motivating force, since this is a really good story. The analogy is obvious enough, with Duke “Destroyer” Duck going on a mission of vengeance on behalf of “The Little Guy”, a talking duck who was exploited, cheated and ultimately killed by the monolithic GodCorp. Kirby’s got an interesting funny animal style that he only had a few chances to use in his career, and this is a nice mix of that and his traditional action art. That works well with the slightly off-kilter, cynical satire of Gerber, who’s rarely been better than he is here.

DESTROYER DUCK is one of the most wholly successful of Kirby’s 1980s books, and well worth picking up. It would be nice to some day see a reprint of the whole series.

The inking on the story is by Alfredo Alcala, and it’s really good. I wouldn’t have thought the combination would work, since Alcala can be a bit of an overpowering inker sometimes, but the end result is very nice, with a bit of an echo of the linework style from the S&K work circa 1950. The cover is inked by Neal Adams.

Published 1982

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