Daily Archives: November 26, 2004

Strange World Of Your Dreams #3 [1952]

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This short lived series from the early 1950s featured two Kirby stories in this issue. The first is “The Woman in the Tower”, which has been reprinted in DC’s BLACK MAGIC #9 and Pure Imagination’s JACK KIRBY READER v1.

Later in the book is a two page dramatization of a dream sent in by reader “Thomas R”, who has visions of coming to a tower with ladders going up the side, and climbing up as the rungs keep breaking beneath him. Apparently this has something to do with his lack of confidence despite his success.

But the Kirby highlight of this issue is probably the cover. Great images of a horned lion, eye-stalked plants and other weird beasts.

Strange World Of Your Dreams #3 [1952]

There is a story inside based on this cover, not by Kirby. Oddly, it does have the same images, though a bit less dramatic, but the script doesn’t mention them (ie, the art shows a horned lion, but the script doesn’t mention the horns. The art shows eyes on the plants, but the script just mentions that there are plants. Kind of makes you wonder if the art was spruced up, maybe to match the cover, after the story was finished?

Published 1952

Monster Menace #3 [1994] – Zzutak

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Back in 1993, during one of their periodic attempts to flood the market, Marvel published a few reprint mini-series of their horror comics from various eras. The Atlas monster era was represented in MONSTER MENACE.

“Zzutak, The Thing That Shouldn’t Exist” is a 13-page Kirby/Ditko story reprinted from STRANGE TALES #88 (1961), featuring a comic book artist who specializes in monsters for books like STRANGE TALES, given a set of special paints which bring what’s painted to life. He’s drawn to a remote valley in Mexico, where he finds a giant canvas and paints Zzutak, who of course comes to life.

Monster Menace #3 [1994]

All part of a scheme from an Aztec chief to return his people to power. The artist paints another monster to come out and fight Zzutak, leading to some nice battling monster pages.

It’s a fun story, with some exceptionally nice inks by Steve Ditko, who brings some interesting textures to the monsters. Ditko’s also represented in this issue with a solo reprint, plus three new pieces: a cover, a pin-up and a funny spot illustration on the text page.