First published in HOUSE OF MYSTERY #84 [1959], then reprinted in HOUSE OF MYSTERY #194 [1971], now the 8-page “The Negative Man” is reprinted in SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY #1, along with 538 other pages of comics from the first 21 issues of the series edited by Joe Orlando from 1968 to 1971.

In this story, two scientists build a miniature town to test their power transmission through radio waves device. A loose watch straps makes all the energy go through one of the men, creating a negative energy duplicate of him.

The negative being goes on a rampage, until the original scientist plans to sacrifice himself to destroy it. Fortunately for him, what he didn’t know was the secret of the negative being which made it afraid of him.

I really like what I’ve read of the Kirby stories from DC in this period, and it looks really sharp in this book (except for the enlarged gutters they would put in reprints back in the early 1970s). That first panel in the scan is just really evocative and does a great job of capturing movement on a comic page.

Great book overall, too, maybe my favourite book in DC’s new SHOWCASE PRESENTS line so far, thanks to the sheer variety of great artists from that era, with much better reproduction than the stories got the first time around.

Published 2006

The issue opens with OMAC enjoying some virtual reality entertainment, battling a monster protecting the secrets of the giant talking skulls. He’s pulled out of the “movie” to get his official credentials to act as a One Man Army on behalf of the faceless Global Peace Agents, but before he goes on his first official mission he’s introduced to a couple applying to act as his parents, OMAC having forgotten his life as Buddy Blank. I’m always unclear on how creepy Kirby meant this stuff to be.

OMAC is then sent on his mission to take down Marshal Kafka, a tyrant who has put together his own army of a hundred thousand. His jet is shot at on the way down, leaving him fighting from his chair until that’s shot out from under him. He quickly gets through the Kafka’s forces until he finally reaches the Marshal.

Like I said, a bit of a creepy beginning, followed by a quick high-action story. Kirby was throwing out the ideas fast in this series, a lot of which are never returned to.

D. Bruce Berry inks the cover and 20-page story.

Published 1975

This issue starts what is my favourite of Kirby’s SPACE ODYSSEY series, with “Norton of New York 2040 ADa tale of the near future. First we start with Harvey Norton, who participates in some live action super-hero roleplaying as White Zero in Comicsville. In the middle of the game he encounters the Monolith, which awakens a sense of wonder in him that makes the unreality of the game stand out in sharp contrast.

Later he’s at an artificial beach, opening his eyes to the fact that the whole world he lives in is just as fake as the game. “It’s a comfortable Hades — and not without beauty — but is it enough for Harvey Norton?” is what he’s driven to ask, and the answer is clearly no, as the Monolith appears again and pushes his curiosity in the direction of space, so that two years later Norton is in orbit around Neptune when an alien ship is detected, and they encounter a strange beautiful alien woman. Soon after they see her, their ship is confronted by a giant alien ship.

Wonderful story progression, echoing the original movie without mimicking any of the story beats, and a lot of thought clearly went into the “comfortable Hades” of the future that Norton was eventually driven to escape.

Mike Royer inks the cover and 17-page story.

Published 1977 AD

In “The Devil’s Arena” Kamandi and company stock up on supplies in the ruins of Las Vegas this issue, where among other things Kamandi finds a copy of THE DEMON #1. Before they can leave they find themselves in the middle of a war between the gorillas and the tigers, and Kamandi is taken prisoner by the gorillas. Thrown in with some of those less intelligent humans, Kamandi leads them in an escape and then finds his way to the cell of a tiger prisoner, Prince Tuftan.

Kamandi finds out that Tuftan allowed himself to be taken prisoner so he could be on the inside during a full tiger attack and steal an ancient human warplane that would make the tigers dominant his father Caesar’s quest for world domination. Kamandi realizes that such an act would doom what’s left of humanity and destroys the plane in order to ensure mankind gets a second chance.

A nice action-packed look at some of the battles going on in Kirby’s post-disaster Earth, I especially liked Kamandi leading the escape from the gorillas. Tuftan is also a lot of fun, it’s a shame he was never more than a semi-regular in the series, vanishing for long stretches.

Mike Royer inks the cover and 22-page story.

Published 1973

This issue is available in the recent KAMANDI ARCHIVES v1

The first half of this issue is most of the original proposed CAPTAIN VICTORY #1 from the 1970s (except a few pages that were in #1), and the second half is from the pages that were added when the story was expanded to a proposed 50-page graphic novel, before finally being published by Pacific for the then-emerging direct market. Pick up the CAPTAIN VICTORY GRAPHITE EDITION for more details.

It’s interesting to read this imagining it as a first issue, without the background that was in the first issue. It does seem Kirby originally planned to jump right into the story, with the Insecton invasion already underway and starting with Victory’s first encounter with the law on Earth.

In this story, Victory goes with the local sheriff to check out an Insecton body they have at the morgue, which promptly self destructs. Meanwhile, the other Rangers face a small Insecton force, while in Spartanville the Insecton’s use their devices to take mental control of the population to use as workers and hostages.

Victory orders the Tiger to seal off the area with an experimental negative barrier, which the Insectons manage to weaken by sacrificing some hostages and soldiers in a frontal assault while the Lightning Lady prepares a new type of Insecton.

Mike Royer inks the 25-page story and Mike Thibodeaux inks the front cover and backcover, which has headshots and brief blurbs on the major members of the main Rangers. The Kirby checklist credits Royer with inks on the alternate cover on the inside cover, but it looks a little flat to me compared to the other Royer inks.

Published 1982

One of the not quite so long-lived Marvel monster books, this issue at least had a pretty cool Kirby monster, apparently inked by Christopher Rule. Very weird look on the monster’s face, he looks a bit tired of this rampaging lifestyle he finds himself trapped in.

Published 1959

A 7-page Kirby/Ayers reprint from JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #79 (1962) leads this collection of reprints. This is a variation on the Jekyll/Hyde story, with a brilliant but arrogant scientist developing a serum which makes plants and animals immortal, but also makes them huge and monstrous. When his affections are spurned by a young woman he vows revenge, and tries the serum on himself.

For the record, this was originally published the month before HULK #1.

He goes on a cross-country rampage looking for that engineer who he thinks stole his woman, only to eventually fall into a trap, a deep hole constructed by that same engineer, not even realizing that he was being pursued (though you’d think he might have heard from either his old room-mate or teacher, who the monster threatened in pursuit of him, but maybe he actually killed them both between the panels).

Nice short story, both for the variation on the Hulk concept and some of the staging, like the final scene where the monster is falling down the pit.

Published 1972