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.