I might be biased, because this story was one of the first handful of Kirby stories I read (in an early 1980s digest reprint), but I think THE DEMON #1 is one of Kirby’s strongest art jobs in the 1970s. It’s just a gorgeous book, with Kirby really throwing himself into the job. Starting off with a splash page of Merlin, then an amazingly detailed double page spread leading to the fall of Camelot, onto great scenes in the modern age, including the antiques in Jason Blood’s home and the gargoyles in Merlin’s lair.

This is a great first issue, setting up some of the background of the character in the mythic past, then launching in the modern age. Lots of great new characters, in particular Jason Blood, who promises a rich history, and Etrigan, who just seems to move in such a unique way when drawn by Kirby. Morgaine Le Fey is also a nicely ornate Kirby villain design.

Fortunately by this time Mike Royer was handling all the inking for Kirby, and had really gotten into the swing of things. Also helping out here, at the time DC was giving a few more pages of story, 24 in this issue, and that really let Kirby’s work breathe more than the incredibly shrinking counts of the later years.

Kirby also writes a text page for this issue, “A Time To Build”, mostly about the cancellations of the Fourth World books, as well as plugging this new one and the upcoming KAMANDI. It’s an odd but interesting piece about myths and storytelling.

Published 1972

More reprints from the S&K Prize horror series of the 1950s in this issue. Starting off with the cover, a reprint of the cover to the original #17 (v2#11), a moody piece with one of the classic horror set-pieces, a dark attic, with a chained freak. The 8-page story from that issue, “Freak!”, is reprinted in here, featuring art credited to Kirby/Meskin in the updated Kirby checklist. The Meskin part is heavy, which is probably why the story was missing from earlier Kirby checklists, but the Kirby parts are definitely there, especially in how some of the characters hands are posed. A decent short story, although the cover kind of gives away too much.

Also in this issue is “The Cloak”, a 7 pager from the original BM #2.
This is sort of a modern urban gothic horror story. An unemployed man in Budapest gets a chance at a job, but needs to look good for the occasion. He has one good suit left, and goes out to rent a cloak to wear for it (this is back when men wore cloaks. And hats). It gets delivered to him by a mysterious guy, it has a label “Asmodeus”, and still he doesn’t get the hint. He wears it, and it attempts to kill him several times before he ditches it, giving it to a derelict. Our man Paul then calls the tailor offering to pay for the cloak, and finds out it wasn’t from the tailor, the cloak he ordered is still waiting to be picked up. Now he looks up “Asmodeus”, realizes the guy he gave the cloak is in danger, and tries to save him. He fails, and the cloak vanishes. And that’s it. Dead vagrant, and no idea if Paul got a job.

A good, if simple, story. And the art just has to be seen. The various accidents that Paul runs into with the cloak are great, like being dragged by a train. And the backgrounds are excellent. I don’t know if Budapest actually looked like this, but it should have.

Published 1975

Here’s a nice late 1962 cover, from shortly before all of the Atlas fantasy books were taken over by the super-heroes. Very pretty cover, I like the police-officer and the car. Inker unknown, but some speculation down in the comments that it might be one of the Kirby inked covers of the era. The interior art for this story is by Don Heck.

This issue reprints the story from TALES TO ASTONISH #31 (1962), another Kirby/Ayers story. Surprisingly bland splash page, where the giant mummy looks nice, but the background is just blank. The rest of the story fares better, with some backgrounds of the museum curator’s office with various artifacts, and the inside of the tomb.

The story is about a curator who theorizes that the pyramids are all copies of an original one, built as a prison rather than a tomb. He manages to find it (after a great looking dust storm), and in a scene I’m sure archaeologists would hate he actually blasts and opening in the pyramid with dynamite. Of course they find a giant mummy, who turns out to be an alien invader with a secret.

The particular twist ending for this one isn’t as satisfying as some, but there’s some good art along the way.

Published 1975

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.

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

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.

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.

This 1970s reprint anthology contains the 7-page Kirby/Rule story from STRANGE TALES #96, “I Dream of Doom”. In this story, a man goes to a doctor with a story about being haunted by a giant Kirby monster in his dreams, always escaping just in time. In a stunning breach of professional ethics, the doctor says he’ll give the man something to stay awake, but slips him a sedative instead. This leaves the man to become a victim of the monster, and reveals a twist ending that calls into question the nature of reality.

Just about all the Kirby monster stories of this era look good, and this one is no exception, with some a nice looking monster, some very good storytelling in and out of the dream sequences and some very nice inking. Pleasantly, this is also one of the better written of the stories, with a fairly clever resolution and several interesting bits. I’d love to see it reprinted in a more permanent edition some day (as I put together a dream MARVEL VISIONARIES JACK KIRBY v2 in my head…).

Published 1975