1st Issue Special #6 [1975] – Dingbats of Danger Street

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What better way to end a year?

Definitely the oddest piece to come out of Kirby’s five year stay at DC in the 1970s (at least among the published works) is his try at an updated kid gang, the Dingbats of Danger Street. This is strange by Kirby standards, and this is a guy who created a flying cosmic surfer.

The Dingbats are Good Looks, Krunch, Non-Fat and Bananas, as they announce to us on the first page. Orphans all, who have formed their own gang to get by on Danger Street. In their debut adventure, they unintentionally help cop Terry Mullins capture the villain Jumping Jack, and in the process Non-Fat almost chokes on the film strip canister Jack was smuggling and hid in his hot dog. And then Jack’s partner the Gasser shows up, and things get really kooky.

It all has an odd charm, but I think it does deserve some of the mockery that’s been heaped on it over the years. I did find Lt. Mullins kind of interesting, and wonder if he’d have become a gruffer version of Jim Harper to the Dingbats with time.

Mike Royer inks on this one, so that always looks nice.

The job codes (as documented in the JACK KIRBY CHECKLIST) suggest that Kirby drew the first issue shortly after MISTER MIRACLE and THE DEMON were canceled, while he was also working on the middle issues of KAMANDI and the early issues of OMAC, and he drew at least three issues in a few months (some have suggested even more exist, but I don’t think pages have ever turned up). For some reason DC didn’t rush it into print, and only published the first issue as one of the “1st Issue Special” one-shots some time later. About half the pages from the other two known issues have seen print in the various fanzines, mostly THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (including the full 2-page spread meant for this story, modified to a single page as published), and are actually even more fun than the first, if you can judge based on such a random sampling of pages scattered across a half-dozen books. The second issue had a great two-page spread. I’m sure someday soon we’ll see a deluxe hardcover collecting all three issues.

Published September 1975.

2 thoughts on “1st Issue Special #6 [1975] – Dingbats of Danger Street

  1. John S.

    “It all has an odd charm, but I think it does deserve some of the mockery that’s been heaped on it over the years.”
    Really? I think not. Some people don’t seem to understand the concept of HUMOR. The mockery that’s been heaped on DINGBATS over the years comes primarily from humorless fanboy dullards who honestly think the monthly crap from Marvel is great literature and who, let’s face it, are mostly just dingbats themselves. So if those idiots don’t like it, it must actually be pretty good. And in fact, it is pretty good. It’s a creative, sensitive, amusing, entertaining and (as you point out) charming start to what would have been a fine series — more or less Kirby’s version of The Cosby Kids, from the old Saturday morning FAT ALBERT cartoon. What’s sad here is that the vast majority of comics readers are unwilling to accept anything that doesn’t fit into their beloved superhero soap-opera formula — which, if the truth be known, is FAR more ludicrous than the adventures of the Dingbats could ever be!

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