Stimulating Zonk & Zap

More comics, this time from 1970 dating back to Jack Kirby’s defection from marvel to DC and his work on Jimmy Olsen: Superman’s Pal a title which had been around a long time before Jack came on board to jazz it up.  Kirby went back to one of the staples of his earlier work, essentially a gang of kids running wild, solving crimes.  In this title they were Jimmy Olsen’s Newsboy Legion, who contrary to all good health and safety regulations and best practice, constructed a huge techno car called the Whizz Wagon in which to explore The Mountain of Judgment and its’ mysterious denizens, The Hairies*.  There’s even a reference to Vietnam:

Needless to say by the end it’s a gas, gas, gas until the monster vehicle/train from Motorhead’s Another Perfect day turns up (nine years early) to menace our plucky, renegade reporters and their blue-tighted bodyguard:

By the end Jack Kirby has written some eminently entertaining nonsense about how the Whizz Wagon is an embodiment of life, ‘in search of stimulating ZONK and ZAP and how everyone should be … rolling … their … own ? and all this in DC Comics?!** Mighty.

I really enjoyed these and Kirby’s art is, as always a treat – I particularly like the use of collage techniques on a few pages, it does make it feel very (retro) contemporary.

325 Down (still)

*you need to Use a Lot of Capitol Letters here, comic etiquette demands it.

**I know I’ve misquoted and deliberately misconstrued what he meant, but hey I was just rolling my own reality, dig?