A 7-page Kirby/Ayers reprint from STRANGE TALES #100 (1962) in this story, featuring a failing amusement park owner who designs an impossible to solve maze in order to prop up his business. There are some neat little visual bits in the designs inside the maze, although really, they’d have been pretty expensive to build for a failing amusement park. Trap doors, upsidedown rooms, optical illusions. The door giving off an electrical shock would also seem to be a health code violation.

Eventually he kills a reporter who threatens to expose him, and then confronts the owner of a rival maze (were mazes really all the rage back in the 1960s?), who turns out to be…

Well, the story (in both the original and reprint) say the rival is “Fate”, but some of the lettering and art on the last page looks to be changed, so I think it was originally supposed to be something more demonic, maybe “Satan”, and changed at the last minute.

Visually a very fun story, especially the weird maze on the first page and all the weird perspective bits inside the maze.

Published 1974

Joe Simon’s packaged reprints of stories from the 1950s BLACK MAGIC series started off with a trio of great S&K stories from 1954, late in their run on the book.

“Maniac” from v5#2 (#32) is about two brothers, one a bit slow and picked on by the other kids and the other who tries to defend him. A now-cliche bit of misdirection which I’m sure was fresher back then, this story also has some really good use of shadow and some real power in the layouts.

“The Head of the Family” is from v4#6 (#30) and, well, the (non-Kirby) cover kind of gives away the ending (the original Kirby version did as well), but it’s still a fascinating story about a woman brought into the strange family of the man she loves. A classic bit of horror.

“The Greatest Horror of Them All” v4#5 (#29) was one of the stories that was brought up in the hearings on horror comics of the era, and probably seems a bit tame now (I don’t know if Simon did any re-drawing on it for the reprint). A good companion piece to the previous story, this time it’s the man who falls in love with a beautiful woman who works in sanctuary for deformed mutants. Of course, everything is not as it seems, and it ends in violence as always.

Some great artwork in all of these stories, with strong confident layouts and heavy shadows on the inks. Definitely a strong period for the S&K team, cut short by circumstances.

Published 1973

The middle of the “Phantom of the Sewers” opens with a flashback to Etrigan battling an evil wizard and his creatures in the middle ages, presumably at least partly to have an action scene with Etrigan since he appears as Jason Blood for most of the book, and also to establish some backstory about what exactly happened to Etrigan/Blood between the fall of Camelot and modern times. A quick scene, but really fun looking, especially the two-page spread.

Back in the present, Jason has used the Philosopher’s Stone (that’s the Sorcerer’s Stone for you Americans…) to freeze out the Etrigan side of his nature, but Glenda has been taken by the Phantom, a scarred actor named Farley Fairfax, who mistakes her for a woman who betrayed and cursed him years ago. Our heroes pursue, and Jason is able to turn back to Etrigan (first only half-transforming, which looks kind of funny) and arrives in time for the final confrontation.

Mike Royer inks the cover and 23-page story.

Published 1973

Sorry, hitting the covers a bit much lately. I’ll get back to some story stuff soon. And you can’t really complain too much about stuff like this. Kirby Checklist has this as Sol Brodsky inks on the final pre-Iron Man ToS (but with the fantasy stories continuing as back-ups for a little while). That’s one tough looking genie.

Published 1963

Late in Kirby’s five year 1970s stint at DC they launched 1st ISSUE SPECIAL as a sort of SHOWCASE concept. One of Kirby’s concepts ran in the first issue.

Set in an ancient world of legends and wonders when man rose from barbarism, this issue opens as Atlas is exhibiting his strength while his companion Chagra looks for a challenger.

Atlas easily wins the combat set up for him, and is soon enbroiled in another mess which brings the attention of a familiar voice. Atlas has a flashback to his village being destroyed by a slaver when he was a boy, and his adventures growing up while seeking the slaver. His quest is at an end as the voice he just heard is the King of Hyssa, the slaver who killed his family.

All set-up in this issue, which is a shame, as there’s some promise in here and in the concept pages that have been published in TJKC #23 and #26 (plus an unused cover on TJKC #4).

D. Bruce Berry does the inks on the cover and 20-page story. The text page isn’t written by Kirby, but does feature a small version of what appears to be an alternate cover illustration for this issue, fully inked and coloured.

Published 1975

Just a Kirby cover on this final issue of the short-lived S&K companion book to BLACK MAGIC, featuring true stories. It says so right on the cover.

You’d think the fact that the killer is green would be enough information for an identification.

I love those trademark Kirby eyes on the killer, with that weird half-squint that he used so often (I can remember some especially memorable ones from Darkseid).

Published 1953

Wow, I’m just in awe of how gorgeous this cover looks. The shape and texture of the demon, the smoke, the girl in the background. Even more scary is how work like this was routine for Simon&Kirby in that era.

I sometimes wonder what Kirby’s 1960s and 1970s work would look like with this kind of inking sensibility. Different, certainly.

Published 1951

Okay, enough with the video interlude, back to print (although I should have at least one more video bit in the next week).

This short story from late in Kirby’s Silver Age stint at Marvel is one of the few stories he wrote solo there before the move to DC, where scripting his own work became the rule rather than the exception. It’s a quick 6-page story about a military pilot who crashes in Red China and is pursued by a mysterious figure.

This ends with a mystical twist, as it turns out the pilot died and the figure is just his benevolent guide to the afterlife, sort of like the Black Racer without the skis. An interesting story, a lot more like Kirby’s earlier BLACK MAGIC work or upcoming SPIRIT WORLD than most things he would do at Marvel. Some really nice visuals, especially with the “walking through walls” effect at the end of the story and on the cover.

John Verpoorten inks the story, and it’s a really nice job, especially the interesting half-tone effect on the mysterious figure on the splash page. Bill Everett provides the inks on the cover.

Kirby’s other CHAMBER OF DARKNESS script, “The Monster”, with a more complicated history, was covered in this post.

Published 1970

In the middle of the run of THE DEMON, Kirby trotted out various classic themes of horror novels and movies and gave them his own spin. In this story he played off the classic Frankenstein concepts to great effect. Etrigan confronts a giant beast on the rampage in a Gotham City park. He sees as the creature is captured by Igor, and is captured himself as he reverts to Jason Blood.

Igor turns out to be the servant of of Baron von Rakenstein (or von Evilstein, as his fellow scientists refer to him, since they’re apparently 8-year-olds), and the creature is one of his experiments. After various experiments, Rakenstein decides to transplant Blood’s head on the creature’s body. Meanwhile, Harry and Randu go to a para-psychology institute to try to find Blood, where unknown to them one of the test subjects has established a mental link with the creature.

Weird stuff, very frantic, but beautifully drawn. Mike Royer inks the 20-page story and cover.

For those curious about Kirby’s work habits of the time, the letter column gives a then-rare glimpse (of course now we have dozens of interviews and fanzines to consult). In answering a letter, Steve Sherman mentions that Kirby finishes an issue in about 11 days, writing as he pencils, and then goes through the pages to write the script. Royer then inks and letters an issue in about the same amount of time, and the whole package is sent to New York for the rest of the production.

Published 1973