I’m reading a lot of comics again at the moment, lots of pictures not much text suits my brain down to a tee. Again thanks to my Uncle Jim, I’ve been grooving to Jack Kirby’s The Demon from 1972/73. The Demon was Kirby’s take on a horror series, DC thought that was where they could sell a lot of units at the time and Kirby came up with a demonic protagonist woven around an Arthurian mythos – Merlin used Etrigan (the demon) to do his bidding on Earth, Morgana Le fey also crops up, albeit misspelt. Sadly it only lasted for 16 issues before being cancelled, but I really like it, there’s some real power here and some really great artwork.
This two-parter involved Ugly Meg and the Iron Duke* getting at Merlin through his servant the Demon.
I remember The Demon cropping up again in Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing in later years where, again, he defeats the strange monkey-like fear beast, which amongst all the cartooning here stands out as genuinely scary and gritty:
However gritty was never Kirby’s métier, he tended towards derring-do and gangs of lads doing the right thing. However, there are signs all was a little less wholesome under the bonnet in the very last issue of The Demon, #16.
In brief(s) Jason Blood (the Demon’s alter-ego)’s latest squeeze finds a mysterious stone in his apartment, nope it’s not his pet rock, it happens to be The Philosopher’s Stone (of Harry Potter fame) and she gets kidnapped by The Sorceress who has subdued the Demon and is putting him through his paces, S&M style.
The busty lady on the right triumphs, narrowly beating the busty lady on the left; just before the whole series was cancelled.
So there you have it, some under the counter stuff, hidden away amongst all the guys in tights. But seriously, this was a good series, I’ve not seen the first three issues but I own the rest. Jack Kirby’s DC work gets a bad rep sometimes, unjustifiably so I think, okay so he wasn’t pushing the boundaries as hard as he had been doing in his peak years but this was still very far from being hack work.
Just time for a brief Ad-break. Sadly it was a tiny ad and so it’s all gone very blurry when I’ve tried to blow it up. To save your eyesight it reads: Raquel Welch Pillow: What man wouldn’t enjoy spending a night with Raquel Welch! Well, we can’t deliver her, but we can deliver the next best thing – a 12″ by 24″ inflatable pillow of Raquel made from rugged vinyl to serve as your headrest. Keep her for yourself, or show her to your friends. Livens up parties when everyone sees and feels this great gag item.
Hmmm. sounds very, umm seedy to me. I’m off to wash my hands.
417 Down (Still)
*my next band name, easy.
Morgaine bears a distinct resemblance to Mama Kardassian “Bong”
Woo-hoo!
I bet you wanted to call those busty ladies “Bewwbly”.
I used to be a BIG Big big (hear the echo?)…reader of Archie comics when I was much younger (much to my mom’s chagrin). Our British housekeeper would unload her grandson’s old Archies from the ’70s. Those tiny ads were the BEST! And seedy! I remember learning about no-crotch knickers from the ad section of an Archie. Crazy! This housekeeper also gave me an old Whizzer and Chips annual for my birthday.
Wow! I can’t believe they allowed those sort of ads in 70s British comics! Whizzer & Chips I used to love, didn’t really do Archie (prob just as well!), then went straight on to 2000ad.
Bewwwbly!!
Haha, sorry for the misunderstanding – the Archies were from North America (USA, probably – like our govt would allow printing that…). The ones with the suggestive ads were also the typical magazine-style comics, not the “Double Digests” paperback books which had hardly any ads. My housekeeper’s grandchildren were Canadian and who she got the Archies from. She would go back to London in the summertime for visits, but would often come back with copies of Whizzer and Chips. BTW, I have seen W&C sold here in Canada at the British Imports shops.
I remember finding an Archie that was of the more Christian theme. Wish I still had it…speaking of suggestive, in this story, Betty was having a crisis of faith as Archie was pressuring her to do lose her virginity. It was much darker than Betty having the devil and angel on her shoulder. This was for older teens in the age of the AIDS panic of the 80s, too. I had never read anything like it since.
Then there’s the French translated Archie I got when I was in Quebec. Same everything – just translated into French…
Wow there’s whole new worlds there.
In case you’re interested, a whole treatise:
http://generationexploitation.blogspot.com/2006/06/history-of-christian-archi_114951302719460209.html
Sadly, my “Betty loses her virginity” one isn’t presented, but interesting all the same.
Vapor of mortality? I’ve been overcome by them myself. I’d say Kirby was seeing what he could get away with here. Love this. The whims of Morgaine Le Fey must be served….indeed.
Comics are wasted on kids!