Doctor Doom fights the Yancy Streeters

so despirate to beat anyone,Vivtor Von Doom in a new costume,goes to Yancy Street to fight the one guys he thinks he can beat

1st Issue Special #6 [1975] – Dingbats of Danger Street

by Bob

Posted December 31, 2004 in Genre, Kid Gang.

What better way to end a year?

Definitely the oddest piece to come out of Kirby’s five year stay at DC in the 1970s (at least among the published works) is his try at an updated kid gang, the Dingbats of Danger Street. This is strange by Kirby standards, and this is a guy who created a flying cosmic surfer.

The Dingbats are Good Looks, Krunch, Non-Fat and Bananas, as they announce to us on the first page. Orphans all, who have formed their own gang to get by on Danger Street. In their debut adventure, the unintentionally help cop Terry Mullins capture the villain Jumping Jack, and in the process Non-Fat almost chokes on the film strip canister Jack was smuggling and hid in his hot dog. And then Jack’s partner the Gasser shows up, and things get really kooky.

It all has an odd charm, but I think it does deserve some of the mockery that’s been heaped on it over the years. I did find Lt. Mullins kind of interesting, and wonder if he’d have become a gruffer version of Jim Harper to the Dingbats with time.

Mike Royer inks on this one, so that always looks nice.

The job codes (as documented in the JACK KIRBY CHECKLIST) suggest that Kirby drew the first issue shortly after MISTER MIRACLE and THE DEMON were canceled, while he was also working on the middle issues of KAMANDI and the early issues of OMAC, and he drew at least three issues in a few months (some have suggested even more exist, but I don’t think pages have ever turned up). For some reason DC didn’t rush it into print, and only published the first issue as one of the “1st Issue Special” one-shots some time later. About half the pages from the other two known issues have seen print in the various fanzines, mostly THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (including the full 2-page spread meant for this story, modified to a single page as published), and are actually even more fun than the first, if you can judge based on such a random sampling of pages scattered across a half-dozen books. The second issue had a great two-page spread. I’m sure someday soon we’ll see a deluxe hardcover collecting all three issues.

Since I know you’ll want more, you can read the Scott Shaw! take on this issue here.

Published September 1975.

Journey Into Mystery #18 [1975]

by Bob

Posted December 30, 2004 in Genre, Horror/Fantasy, Science Fiction.

This mid-1970s reprint book has two Kirby/Ayers classics from the early 1960s. From TALES OF SUSPENSE #31 is “The Monster in the Iron Mask”, a 7-page story. In this one, an invading alien race sends an advance scout to soften up Earth before their full force attacks. The alien is first seen by the son of a struggling stage magician, and (seemingly foolishly) announces to the boy that his one weakness is gas, which he’s protected from by his mask.

The military keeps trying and failing to defeat him, hoping to get him to remove his mask, including an attack with an A-Bomb (they were pretty cavalier about A-Bombs in these stories). They fail until the magician from the beginning realizes that the alien’s announcement was a bit of mis-direction, and he was fully vulnerable to gas and the “mask” was his real face. Those aliens are tricksy.

Cool monster, although coloured a bit silly in this reprint. I also liked the boy’s dog who appears throughout this story, even if he didn’t have a story purpose.

From TALES TO ASTONISH #30 is “The Thing From the Hidden Swamp”, a 6 page story. A plain-looking woman unhappy with the lack of romance in her life goes on a cruise and then goes rowing alone in a swamp, where she finds a space-ship and an alien monster. Nice scene where we have both her and the alien’s thoughts for a few panels, as the alien is as afraid of her. She ends up helping the alien, and later finds that he’s made her attractive. Not a very satisfying story, but the art has several nice scenes, including the moody opening page.

New non-Kirby cover for this issue, allegedly illustrating “Hidden Swamp”, but amusingly completely missing the point of the story on several levels.

Happy Hanovers Marching Moron Society

Monday, August 12, 2013