Daily Archives: July 16, 2005

Marvel’s Greatest Comics #75 [1978] – At the Mercy of Torgo

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Marvel's Greatest Comics #75 [1978]a

You tell ’em, Ben.

This issue has an edited reprint of FF #93 (1969), finishing off the “Thing Enslaved” storyline. Reed, Johnny and Crystal follow the trail of the Skrull slave ship while Ben fights Torgo in the arena, holding his own and trying not to harm Torgo while figuring out how to stop the Skrull threat to the homeworlds of their slaves.

Marvel's Greatest Comics #75 [1978]

The rest of the FF finally arrive and dress up in 1920s mob wear themselves as they make their way to the arena. The story ends kind of abruptly after that, I’m not sure if it was supposed to go somewhere else at first and changed for the usual reasons or what. Lot of nice bits in the art, like the flying 1920s car over the faux-1920s city, Torgo leading the final rebellion of the slaves after the FF free them of the fear of retribution against their home planets and Reed, Johnny and Crystal in 1920s garb.

Two pages edited out, both of Ben in the arena. One is just a recap of what we know from the previous issue but the other is right before this page so the first half of Torgo’s sentence is missing. I hope the money from that Hostess ad was worth it, Marvel…

Frank Giacoia was the inker on the story and cover here, doing a great job of filling in for Joe Sinnott and keeping the look of the book consistent.

Published 1978

Minor landmark time here at ye olde Kirby webloge, with this book I have comments and samples up here of 400 Kirby publications that you can peruse using those alphabetical and chronological lists over in the sidebar (once I update them in a few minutes).

Devil Dinosaur #4 [1978]

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“BONK BONK BONK”. That’s the sound of a dinosaur stomping on an alien invader. In case you ever wondered. Gotta love that old Devil Dinosaur stomping action.

Devil Dinosaur #4 [1978]

The adventures of Devil Dinosaur and Moon-Boy ramp up in this issue with an invasion of the Valley of Flame by mysterious aliens, as foretold in prophecy and in Moon-Boy’s dreams at the beginning of the issue (including a great two-page splash). The invasion is swift and effective, as Moon-Boy is taken prisoner and Devil is left stunned. Eventually Devil teams up with two other Dawn-Men, Stone-Hand and White-Hairs, and plan a rescue.

Kirby also writes the text page for this issue, “Dinosaurs as Devils and Moon-Boys as PRIMITIVES”, about how the tendency of people is to treat the non-human as unintelligent, whereas he thinks “every living creature is capable of an intelligent and compassionate move”.

Mike Royer inks the 17-page story while Joltin’ Joe Sinnott inks the cover.

Published 1978