Two S&K reprints from 1952 issues of Prize’s BLACK MAGIC in this issue. “Nasty Little Man” (from #18[v2#12]) features three bums riding the rails who run afoul of a leprechaun. After teasing them with treasure, one of the men chokes the little man, who curses them and causes a rockslide to de-rail the train.

The crash kills the man who actually did the choking, and the leprechaun then pursues the other two men, capturing one as the other escapes, only to wake up to find his legs amputated and the leprechaun catching up with him.

“The Angel of Death” (from #15[v2#9]) is a story about a mysterious illness running through a small french town, accompanied by visions of an “angel of death”. The investigating doctor traces it back to an archaeological dig, where they’ve unearthed various ancient animals, some still living encased in amber, including a giant mosquito-like creature which escaped when the amber cracked. Eventually they manage to hunt it down.

The plots in these two are a bit weak, but they have some nice scripting and some really nice art, in particular the splash pages of each.

Published 1974

And thanks to Tony Isabella for the plug in his most recent column, which led to a spike in daily visitors. Welcome, all. And Tony’s been looking at several of Kirby’s 1950s DC covers for the past week, with some interesting observations, so be sure to check that out.

Another of the stories intended for SPIRIT WORLD #2, “Horoscope Phenomenon or Witch Queen of Ancient Sumeria?” is a 10-page Kirby/Royer story. The first page is reduced slightly to make room for an introduction by Destiny, host of the book, drawn by Bernie Wrightson.

It’s a slightly disjointed story, with three vignettes of people seeing visions of a mysterious woman with a form representing their zodiac sign that helps them, from a copy given a clue how to get out of a volatile stand-off, a woman who finds a hidden treasure in a house she inherited and a man who avoided a rockslide which would have been fatal.

We find out that these are among the stories collected by our friend Dr. E. Leopald Maas, all linked to a Sumarian priestess/witch-queen whose temple he unearthed.

While the story seems like it was cut off and meant to be more, the art is really stunning, with Kirby tossing off odd imagery and action (especially in the police vignette) and Royer’s inks matching the mood perfectly.

Also in this issue is a 2-page text feature by Evanier and Sherman, also intended for SPIRIT WORLD #2.

For the other three books containing stories intended for SPIRIT WORLD #2, check these prior posts:

Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion #6 [1972]
Weird Mystery Tales #2 [1972]
Weird Mystery Tales #3 [1972]

Published 1972

Four S&K reprints from various 1953 issues of the original BLACK MAGIC series in this issue.

First up is the six page story “Fool’s Paradise” #26[v4#2], the tale of a criminal on the run from the law in a park, when an old man helps him escape. The old man tells him to meet a mob boss at a certain place, where he arrives just in time to stop a hit. Working for the mob boss, he rises quickly up the ranks, and plans to take over and fools around with the boss’ girl. Eventually he ends up on the run again, back in the park, where the whole thing starts over.

“The Cat People” #27[v4#3] is a six page story about a man visiting a friend and getting creeped out by some kids playing “Cat’s Cradle”. He recounts a story about his trip to Europe, where he encountered an old woman and her daughter living in the hills, and how he witnessed them turning into giant cats in a midnight ceremony using rituals similar to a “Cat’s Cradle” game and how he barely escaped with his life.

Up next is a short but creepy three page story “Birth After Death” #20[v3#2], about a pair of grave-robbers in the 1700s who are startled when their intended victim rises from the grave. The robbers are shot, and the woman lives, apparently having been mistakenly buried in a stare resembling death. Five years later she gives birth to a baby boy (with the same doctor attending. I don’t know about you, but after a bit of malpractice like that I get a new doctor), and that boy would grow up to be Sir Walter Scott!!! Out of curiousity I did a quick search, and couldn’t find any reference to Walter Scott’s mother being buried alive. Could it be these startling true stories are in fact fabrications?

“Those Who Are About to Die” #23[v3#5] is last, a five page story about an artist who has a vision of death while eating in a restaurant.

He takes this as a cue to ask the cashier at the restaurant to pose for him (no, that’s not creepy at all), but ends up painting another woman being pushed into a coffin by a skeleton. When he and his wife go to the restaurant the next day, the find the cashier is missing, but just out sick, but the woman in the painting is the server, who had just died of lung cancer in exactly the spot where the skeleton is touching in the painting.

This is a really fun issue. Although none of the stories are that great, mostly variations of themes that Kirby and others did better elsewhere, the art is really sharp and moody throughout, with a lot of different settings that Kirby does well.

Published 1974

More leftovers from the unpublished SPIRIT WORLD #2, this time featuring “The Burners”, Kirby and Mike Royer taking on spontaneous human combustion in a 10-page story.

Apparently Dr. Maas has come across all sorts of case history on the phenomenon, all lovingly rendered by Kirby. He dismisses those who would link the burnings to UFO activity (although that does give Kirby a chance to use one of his collage pages), as even Maas has limits on what he can believe.

Maas does some readings on one subject, a depressed man who is generating huge amounts of electricity. He notices smoke coming from the man just as he leaves, and pursues him in his car (I’m not sure how the man got such a lead on Maas). Unfortunately, he arrives too late and the man has flamed out in his car. Apparently Maas’s theory is that there is an “ability to fulfill a death wish by a self-activating thermo-chemical process”. Y’know, not something silly like UFOs.

This is a gorgeous looking story. It’s amazing how much detail he was putting in some of the pages at this time, and how perfectly Royer was able to capture it all. The actual plot is a bit weak, maybe with some more pages he could have fleshed it out and gotten something more satisfying, but it serves the art nicely.

Published 1972

Reprint of TALES TO ASTONISH #1 (1959), inks attributed to Chris Rule.

A ship encounters a giant lobster, just one in a series of giant sea life they’ve encountered as Professor Briggs leads them on an expedition following the map of Doctor Parker. The ship is capsized by what seems to be a giant moving island, and Briggs and Captain Kane wind up on the shore of another island, where they find Parker. Turns out he’d been conducting experiments on hormone regulating systems, but hadn’t yet found a way to control it, leading to the giant turtle currently escaping from behind a huge gate. As they flee, Kane considers the potential wealth and problems of taking such a giant beast to civilization.

Ultimately he decides not to, and on the way out they encounter an even bigger turtle from an earlier experiment, the very “island” that had capsized the ship.

A hodge-podge of ideas already cliche as the time, borrowing heavily from KING KONG of course. The monsters in this are also a let-down, being just large versions of real animals. I did like the odd perspective shot of the stockades that the turtle was held in, though.

The cover is also from TALES TO ASTONISH #1, also Kirby/Rule, but heavily modified for the reprint. In the original the monster shown through the gates is clearly a large turtle, just walking out, as in the story, in the reprint it’s completely redrawn as some huge snarling clawed beast.

Published 1974

Since I was leafing through my various old digests, I figured I’d post about the few other Kirby stories I have, stories I’ve subsequently got better copies of. Almost all the digest reprints of older work were modified to some degree, and they weren’t printed on the best of paper.

This issue’s theme was “Secret Origins”, and reprinted THE DEMON #1 from 1972, which I previously posted about here. As I mentioned then, I love the double page spread from this story, one of Kirby’s best, and it still looks nice at this size.

This was the way I originally read the story, and I read it several times. Man, is this stuff overdue for a nice reprinting.

Published 1980

Kirby continues the first adventure of Etrigan with “My Tomb In Castle Branek” in this issue. With Merlin as our guide, as Etrigan continues his battles in a European castle against the forces of Morgaine Le Fey. A great looking fight in there, with elaborate Kirby renderings of the castle and various statues. Unfortunately, Le Fey knows how to changed him back to Jason Blood and escapes to attempt to use her stolen spells to restore her youth.

Meanwhile, back in Gotham, Jason’s friends Glenda, Harry and Randu hang around Jason’s apartment, with its collection of artifacts and portraits of Jason’s “ancestors”. Jason and the local police inspector, Stavic, race on horseback to attempt to stop Le Fey’s spell, and are blocked by one of her monsters. Fortunately, Randu is able to use his mysterious powers to evoke Etrigan, who attacks Le Fey at the crucial moment of her spell, with no idea if she was able to finish.

More intriguing hints about what is going on. I kind of wish Kirby had stuck with the Merlin / Morgaine Le Fey for a few more issues at the beginning, as it had some more potential that was never explored. Great artwork, too, with detailed backgrounds, fun monsters and nice fights.

Mike Royer inks the cover and 23-page story.

Published 1972

This issue reprints the Kirby story from TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED #16 (1957). Unfortunately, they added a framing sequence to the issue with all the DC horror comic hosts of the era, so they cut out the title image on the first page and start with the bottom tier of the first page. Not sure if they did any other editing.

Anyway, the story features Bard, a prospector, finding a hammer out in the desert, and finding it causes rainstorms when thrown. He sells the rain-making ability for a while, then finds out the hammer can also cause destruction when thrown, and plans to use it to rob banks. Suddenly he’s confronted by the figure of the Norse god Thor.

Thor explains how the mischievous Loki stole his hammer centuries ago, and how Thor’d been punished by being reduced to human size until he found his hammer. With his hammer returned, Thor grows to his old godly size, leaving Bard scared straight while Thor goes out to take care of Loki.

This is a really attractive story, especially with these Thor and Loki characters, who really have some potential. I suppose it’s not too likely, but I’d love to see a collection of Kirby’s scattered short stories and covers for the DC sci-fi/fantasy books of the 1950s.

Published 1969