“The Monster Fetish” is one of my favourite KAMANDI stories, great high-adventure in Earth A.D. Opening somberly with the funeral of Flower, Kamandi’s brief companion killed in the previous issue, with full military honours courtesy of Sultin of the Lion Rangers, they’re then attacked by a gorilla scout. It turns out the gorillas are trying to free the simple-minded giant gorilla Tiny, who’s being held by the lions. They succeed in freeing Tiny, but he turns on them, being interested only in Kamandi, who he thinks of as a toy.

After Tiny is knocked out and Kamandi is freed, Sultin takes Kamandi to the lion city, which is surprisingly sophisticated compared to most that Kamandi would encounter, and Kamandi finds out about their legends of the Founding Lions from the fabled land of “Zuu”. Tiny attacks again, this time scaling a skyscraper, and is knocked down by the new experimental bi-planes the lions have designed from old photos. As Kamandi observes, “even the ancients, with their imaginative movies, couldn’t have produced anything like this”.

Mike Royer inks the 20-page story and the cover, and really shines on this issue, even more so than usual. I love the texture he brings to the art in this one, especially the animal faces and hands, which Kirby clearly had a blast drawing.

Published 1973

An obscure late entry in the Kirby bibliography, ANYTHING GOES was a benefit book published by the Comics Journal due to a lawsuit filed against them. Kirby contributed an odd three page story, made of three splash pages featuring characters from his Pacific Comics books of a few years earlier, CAPTAIN VICTORY and SILVER STAR. Joe Sinnott inked the three pages.

It’s a weird three pages, a kind of gag with Kirby’s sense of humour at its quirkiest. Pretty fun, and interesting to see Sinnott inking work of that era (Sinnott’s inked a number of Kirby things since, like several TJKC covers, but it’s usually work that was actually penciled in the 1960s or 1970s. The only other 1980s art I can think of him inking is a WHO’S WHO piece). As is typical for Kirby’s work of the era, the anatomy is a bit wonkier than normal, but still a nice power to the work, and some nice design on the final page punchline.

There’s also a short bio of Kirby in the contributor notes section. The editorial also thanks them, but mistakenly notes its their first collaboration in 15 years, forgetting the many covers and the SILVER SURFER graphic novel in Kirby’s last Marvel stint.

Published 1986

The adventures of X-51 continue, as he’s plagued by nightmares regarding his humanity. Still on the run from the Army, he visits a gas station and buys some tires (using some newly created diamonds for currency. Meanwhile, Doctor Spalding, who had met X-51 back in #1, is dealing with a patient who is having odd delusions about being in a space-ship falling into a sun.

As the army catches up with him, MM bursts out of the gas station (which I guess explains why he grossly over-paid for the tires) with his new wheels (three tires attached to him with rods) and escapes. He then goes out and drives some motorcyclists off the road (I’m not sure if that’s still Kirby working out his resentment of the motorcyclists outside his first California home, as mentioned in one TJKC article).

He then arrives in Central City and goes to see the doctor, who agrees to help him. Just then MM notices an interstellar transmission, which is the same thing the patient had been receiving, and translates it into a visual representation of a ship in distress. They begin to plan a rescue, which will lead to the battle with Ten-For.

Mike Royer inks the 17-page story, Frank Giacoia inks the cover and Jack Kirby writes a text page about potential machine rights.

Published 1978

Another DD classic, this issue sees Devil and Moon-Boy out looking for Moon-Boy’s people, the Small-Folk, while they’re being tracked by the Dino-Riders, who are impressed that Moon-Boy has been able to tame such a large beast. As Moon-Boy finds his people and tries to convince them that Devil isn’t dangerous, the Dino-Rider’s attack.

Devil is captured, and they attempt to break him with various types of physical and chemical abuse, but DD is having none of that. Meanwhile, Moon-Boy convinces his people to help drive the Dino-Riders out of the valley and leads the assault. Devil finally frees himself when the head Rider, Gray Tooth, is threatening Moon-Boy, and makes short work of Gray Tooth and his mount.

As usual for DD, the story is simple but fun, with some good excuses for action, and some nice scripting for Gray Tooth and the other Dino-Riders in this issue.

Mike Royer inks the 17-page story, and I was a bit surprised to find out when I looked it up on the Kirby checklist that Walt Simonson inked the cover. I don’t really see it, but then I’m familiar with Simonson’s more distinctive later style. It does look nice.

Published 1978

Three Kirby/Ayers reprints in this double-sized issue, which begins and ends with the two “Gorilla-Man” stories from TALES TO ASTONISH #28 and #30.

“I Am the Gorilla-Man” features evil scientist Radzik, first exiled from his home country for forbidden experiments, then perfecting a machine which lets him switch bodies with animals. After a test experiment switching with a cat, he decides the most logical use of this invention would be to switch to a gorilla body to commit crimes. Must have been a comic fan. So he steals a gorilla, placates him with bananas and switches bodies. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize that gorillas were evolved enough to be able to control his body, and the gorilla has Radzik in the gorilla body send to the zoo, where he gradually become more beast-like.

Two issues later (far too soon to actually be by popular demand), the sequel “The Return of the Gorilla-Man”. After a short recap, we see Radzik, apparently not so far descended into bestial state, gets hold of a crayon, and writes a note to a guard promising a reward for his freedom. Yes, the guard actually falls for this. Eventually Radzik finds himself among scientists, but his hands get burned on the way so he can’t write. He does prove his intelligence in other ways, such as doing puzzles, playing poker, playing ping-pong and driving.

And yes, I know that all those require more use of hands than is required for writing….

Confident that the scientists would find a way to restore his humanity so he can resume his planned life of crime, Radzik is surprised to find himself herded onto a rocket, where he’s sent on a trip to the stars, something the scientists were reluctant to sacrifice a human volunteer on.

Two fun goofball stories, and I love the way way Kirby draws gorillas.

Also in this issue, “What Lurks on Channel X?” from JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #73. In this story, a couple with a cranky landlord is given a free experimental TV. The TV begins to hypnotize them, and tell them of the conquest plot this is part of. Fortunately, the landlord comes to the rescue when he takes down their antenna as a violation of apartment rules. The aliens give up at this point. I love how poorly all these alien would-be conquerors take even the smallest set-back in these stories. Not a great story, but it does have a brilliant splash page, which can be seen on the Monster Blog (as can, by the way, splash pages and covers from most of the Atlas stories I mention here, if you ever want to check out more).

The cover is also Kirby/Ayers from the cover of TtA #28, which is an unusual panel layout cover, with a different take on the Gorilla-Man story.

Published 1971

Ah, one of Kirby’s final contributions to the Marvel Universe, Devil Dinosaur and Moon-Boy. The brief nine-issue run of the book, ending when Kirby left Marvel to devote his time to animation, is often maligned, mostly by those who haven’t read it. Certainly I didn’t really approach it with any expectations when I got around to getting the back issues. Turns out it’s a fun adventure comic, where Kirby was free to let his imagination roam, with some genuine heart. One of the charming things about Kirby comics is his almost complete lack of pretension and his obvious enthusiasm for the work, which manages to sell some of the wildest concepts that wouldn’t work with less.

In this debut issue, we meet Devil Dinosaur, a bright red dino, presumably a T. Rex (although Kirby wisely doesn’t use actual dino names for most of the series), and his young companion, Moon-Boy of the Small-Folk, residents of the dangerous Valley of Flame, a heavily volcanic area. After a battle with Thunder-Horn, Moon-Boy remembers how he first met Devil, when the Killer-Folk killed Devil’s family and seared his flesh, and they rescued each other. After that, Moon-Boy’s people fled in fear of Devil, while the Killer-Folk plot revenge.

This all works a lot better in comics form, of course, and later issues got even weirder, as Kirby threw in science-fiction concepts with wild abandon.

Mike Royer inks the story, Frank Giacoia inks the cover and Kirby also writes a text page introducing the series.

Published 1978