Where Monsters Dwell!

Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and John Romita

Where do Monsters dwell? Right here! At the Dojo this month as a part of the Countdown to Halloween there will be a focus on all things monstrous.


I hope to touch on a range of topics relative to the rather broad topic of "Monsters". One thing for sure this month will be a close reading issue by issue of the DC classic series Swamp Thing. It's been a few years since I read the epic and I'm hankering to dig into again, this time paying close attention to the virtues and vices of each and every issue of the series in its most early days. What else I'll be doing I don't even know yet, allowing the whims of the day to guide me. What I do know is by the end of October I  hope to have reflected on this whole monster thing a lot more. I hope you come along a very monstery ride.

As for today's cover, this issue of Where Monsters Dwell was in many ways the doorway to my appreciation of monsters. I'd seen a few of the classic Atlas monsters before in issues of Fantasy Masterpieces (Fin Fang Foom for instance) but this title, soon to be followed by Where Creatures Roam was a regular comic showcasing classic old-style art and some rather imaginative monsters. Cyclops I knew from reading Greek myth, so he's a natural monster to bring back to life, just as the story suggests. This cover by Kirby and Ditko (modernized by Romita) is incredibly dramatic. Below is the original for your comparison pleasure.

Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko

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