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| Copyright DC COMICS |
Here it is, KIRBY fans, the third and final part of The DEMON cover gallery, designed to dazzle and delight all lovers of the Jolly one's output for DC COMICS, way back in the sizzlin' '70s nearly 40 years ago. As usual, Jack did his best during his time at DC, but - for whatever reason - his mags there failed to inspire the same degree of demand amongst comicbook readers as those he had collaborated on with STAN LEE over at 'The House of Ideas'.
If anyone wants to pitch in with their ideas as to why, feel free.
Jack "king" Kirby has no bigger admirer than me, but the guy was kind of a "high-altitude thinker"...his mind just jumped around all over the place. Seemed to me he'd get bored with an idea after a while...what writer doesn't? I don't know what happened with the Fourth World exactly, maybe he saw it as a concise story where the main characters died, the story ended, it's literature but it's anathema to comics. Then D.C. stuck him with trying to create a supernatural comic, one based on "The Planet of the Apes," then the Losers, Omac, Sandman...
ReplyDeleteI thought "Demon" was great, all of it was great, but then he just said everything he had to say. Exit stage left. M.P.
The Demon comic was not a favourite of mine,I dont like the character.
ReplyDeleteAs usual I consulted my kids who access a different comicbook world than I did.
They know Etrigan and Kamandi and others because they make guest appearances in the dc cartoons.
I find it odd then that characters considered as a small failure are still being pushed forward to the kids.
I would just like to add that when I think of The Demon I immediately start to rhyme,no kidding.
Is that a crime?
MP, I count myself as a Kirby fan, but I find some of these covers quite poor. I think JK had little interest in doing the mag and only did so to meet his quota.
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Baab -
Not a crime as such, m'lad,
Unless your rhyme is really bad.
I think Kirby by the 70s was a guy that had just had his time - a bit like a superstar footballer who at 38 ends up playing in the Scottish league for a mid-table team. The moves are there but you still know your team are gonna get relegated. Whilst Kirby still had a fantastic imagination, to me he wasn't able to translate that into words ( I think his art was still pretty good) and he just got lost in the massive expanse of his own 4th World series, which is why I think the relatively self-contained worlds of titles like Kamandi and the Demon were his best stories. Its strange folk feel that the DEMON was a filler for Kirby as I really liked the Demon (though his Kamandi was his best DC work for me) and even if there are a couple of weak episodes (and there are), overall it’s pretty much populated with wild characters, gruesome figures and an energy only he had. - McScotty
ReplyDeleteI couldn't have said it better myself. M.P.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see the opinions on The Demon, I like him cos he's what we'd call -edgy- these days, well as edgy as you get under the comic code. I think Kirby pulled a neat trick and he's still difficult to label under a stereotype. As for poor sales, I'm not really sure about that, I think there's some room to quibble about numbers because of DC's habit of aggregating their circulation figures. The price hike is an obvious culprit and its effects are very evident in the figures. The other thing is that Kibry's tenure, I think, coincided with or came just after, the distribution shake up, which must have impinged on DC's profits and could probably be cited as one reason for the price hike.
ReplyDeleteJust noticed I failed to respond to the above comment, nearly 10 years ago. Or did I reply to it and mess up publishing it? I guess we'll never know after all this time.
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