Danger Street Signs - Dingbats Of Danger Street!

In anticipation of a review of Danger Street by Tom King, Jorge Fornes and assorted cover artists I am representing my thirteen reviews of DC's 1970's Showcase-style comic 1st Issue Special. The books by King and company make use of ALL of the sundry heroes and heroines who appeared in these pages. So, let's continue. 

As his disappointing contract with DC Comics ran its course, Jack Kirby was obliged to knock out fifteen pages a week or thereabouts. With the "Fourth World" cancelled, it meant a lot of random projects got the green light. Among those was Dingbats of Danger Street which ran in the sixth issue of 1st Issue Special. It's the third and final entry by Kirby in the series and in many ways his weirdest. The titular "Dingbats" are four young men ("Good Looks", "Krunch", "Non-Fat" and "Bananas") who live as a small gang of sorts on Danger Street, a part of an unnamed city which seems especially loaded with wild characters and zany criminals. They are not affiliated in any way but a cop named Lieutenant Mullins crosses their path and attempts to help them out from time to time. In the debut story two villains named "Jumping Jack" and "The Gasser" are running amok after stealing some tiny film canister. The film itself doesn't matter, only that the Dingbats come into possession of it and the villains are more than willing to kill to get it back. 

This story was produced when DC suggested that Kirby partner with is old colleague Joe Simon to fashion a new kid gang for the modern world of the 70's as they had done with great success in the 40's and 50's with Newsboy Legion, Boy Commandos, and Boys Ranch. But the two men didn't really want to work together anymore and so each created his own version of a modern kid gang. Simon knocked out three issues of The Green Team with artist Jerry Grandenetti and Kirby did three issues of Dingbats. Eventually Simon's work was published in a manner of speaking Cancelled Comic Cavalcade, but the two remaining Kirby Dingbat stories were not because frankly the artwork was apparently stolen and today is believed to exist in private collections in Europe. 

But the folks at Twomorrows Publishing had access to Kirby's copies and from those finally at long last published the two long-lost Dingbats of Danger Street tales just a few years ago in 2019. Those two tales focus on the background of two of the Dingbats. We learn that "Good Looks" lost his parents when they were murdered before his eyes by the villain "Snake-Meat". The second  Dingbats tale shows how he gets a measure of justice at long last. The third and final Dingbats tale concerns "Krunch", the strong man of the team and we learn that he is related to a devious man named "Birdly Mudd" who wants to imprison the youngster so that Mudd can have full access to rich estate. Krunch is able to escape his Dickensian trap and return to his friends on Danger Street. More stories featuring "Non-Fat" and "Bananas" were conceived but best evidence is they were not produced.

But we are lucky to have these Kirby classics. The Dingbats of Danger Street isn't the best comic Kirby ever produced by a longshot, but the three stories are fun and full of vim, vigor and excitement. Next time it's another superhero revival and the artist is none other than Steve Ditko. 

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Danger Street Signs - Manhunter!

In anticipation of a review of Danger Street by Tom King, Jorge Fornes and assorted cover artists I am representing my thirteen reviews of DC's 1970's Showcase-style comic 1st Issue Special. The books by King and company make use of ALL of the sundry heroes and heroines who appeared in these pages. So, let's continue. 

When Jack Kirby's grand project of the "Fourth World" was shelved because of disappointing sales he was nonetheless required to fulfill his contract for DC which called upon him to create many pages of new comics material. Many great projects resulted such as The Demon and Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth. And there were several one-shots as well in 1st Issue Special such as Atlas in the debut issue of the try-out series. Now it came time for another Kirby creation and as he had done with The Golden Guardian in the pages of Jimmy Olsen, he plucked a hero from his halcyon days as a partner with Joe Simon during DC's  Golden Age. That hero was Manhunter. 

Manhunter had been like Sandman, a hero that Simon and Kirby had revised and polished up but alas they did relatively few issues with the hero. The "Manhunter" name was used by DC several times over the decades as in a one-shot issue of 1st Issue Special's precursor Showcase. More famously Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson  had revived Simon and Kirby's hero Paul Kirk in a much admired series which alas saw the demise of the tragic hero. Now it was Kirby's turn to bring back the "Manhunter" name and his hero is a well-meaning fellow named Mark Shaw. 

Shaw is a dedicated public defender who is frustrated that justice is so elusive for those without means and influence and that those who deserve punishment escape it too often. His uncle informs him of an ancient cult dedicated to justice called the "Shan" and their "Manhunters". Shaw makes contact and is a accepted into the still-thriving cult and becomes a Manhunter, wearing striking red armor and a blue metallic mask. He is successful in defeating a weird collector who enslaves people and severs their heads, and the story stops abruptly as he makes his way to confront an enemy named "The Hog". 

This Manhunter is seen no more until a few years later when Steve Englehart revives the character of Mark Shaw and the Manhunters, turning the concept on its head a bit and making them into robotic zealots who hide a dark secret as old the DCU itself. The Manhunters become a grand concept which supplied DC with some dandy storytelling twists for years to come in the post-Crisis era. 

Next time Kirby strikes again with a brand new kid gang. 

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Danger Street Signs - Atlas!

In anticipation of a review of Danger Street by Tom King, Jorge Fornes and assorted cover artists I am representing my thirteen reviews of DC's 1970's Showcase-style comic 1st Issue Special. The books by King and company make use of ALL of the sundry heroes and heroines who appeared in these pages. So, let's begin the debut of Atlas. 

At the end of his run at DC back in the 70's, Jack Kirby was attempting to fulfill the terms of his contract and get out from under what had become a rather disappointing time in his career. He'd come to DC with such promise and vigor and had his dreams of a multiple formats and sweeping epics killed by short-sighted editorial controls. So it's very surprising that something as vigorous as Atlas really came from his hand at this time. Atlas appeared exactly one time, in this debut issue of First Issue Special and then was heard from no more...for a very long time. 

Frankly I've always wondered if John Mileus and the folks who made Conan the Barbarian movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger had seen this comic as Atlas and his epic world always put me in mind of that classic flick, which came several years later. You have a young man with enormous powers who sees his family and entire tribe killed or stolen in front of his young eyes by a villain with a dominant snake motif. The boy grows up to be a dynamo in and out of the gladiatorial arena and eventually confronts the villain who destroyed his family and his home. That's all the story we have from Kirby, but it sure sounds familiar doesn't it.

James Robinson got hold of the Atlas idea many years later and made the mighty figure an opponent for Superman of all people. I have to confess being tempted by these comics at the time, but my dread of modern comics in general forestalled me, and I'm glad now that I waited to pick up the trade collection of that four-issue storyline.  I have to say it's a lackluster outing. Atlas is stolen from his own mystical land and transported to the modern DCU to become a magical force against the Man of Steel. Who does this and why is obscure in this four-issue run that focuses on the battle between Atlas and Kal-El and as it turns out Krypto the Superdog too. It must've been murder to wait for these issues to dribble out as this is what amounts one long battle sequence stretched over four installments, which in real comics time was nearly a quarter of a year. I read the whole thing in about fifteen minutes total. This is why I've given up on modern comics many years ago. 

But it was nice to at least see Kirby's Atlas up and kicking, even if they've taken the somber giant and transformed him into a somewhat befuddled and bitter monster of a man. I'd only recommend these issues to Kirby purists, who like me want every gram of the King's work they can afford. Otherwise, it's a curiosity you likely can let go of.

 Above is a wonderful bit of Kirby art featuring Atlas. Below is the house ad made from it.

And here is the TJKC cover from it.

But while Atlas fell into minor oblivion, 1st Issue Special lingered on a bit longer in 1975 and 1976. 

More coming on the second issue featuring The Green Team next time. 

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The Last Boy On Earth - Part Three!

With the twenty-first issue of Kamandi The Last Boy on Earth the series enters into its second half under the control of its creator Jack "King" Kirby. By the end of this second score of issues Kirby will be gone and before that his influence on the series will be diminished. But more on that as we progress.

The story picks up on the shores of what is called "Monster Lake" which had during the Great Disaster absorbed much of what was once Chicago and the lands around. Kamandi comes upon a battle between a creature called Ahab and a weird mob of soldiers apparently from the sea. Kamandi assists the lone warrior and discovers he is the trained guard human for an intelligent Dolphin named Inspector Zeel. He and Ahab are heading to a place called Seaway and Kamandi joins up with them. Along they way they battle a giant crab, encounter giant frogs fleeing ferocious packs of wild humans. The humans break the water-bearing container Zeel depended on and the trio press on but are on their last legs when they finally find Seaway.

Seaway is in fact a community of Dolphins who use humans as labor and press some into battle as squires. Kamandi is delighted to find Ben Boxer, Renzi, and Steve living and working in Seaway, the trio having been rescued by the Dolphins when the team was forced into the ocean off the shore of Florida.

Boxer informs Kamandi that the Dolphin society is under threat from their arch-foes the equally intelligent but more ferocious Killer Whales. The most deadly agent of the Whales is mysterious human named "Red Baron". As the story closes Kamandi joins Ben and the others as they rush out into the water to fend off the attack of the Red Baron.

The Red Baron is confronted and rebuffed but not defeated. Ben rescues Kamandi who had been struck by the Red Baron and then they lick their wounds.

Soon Boxer and his comrades decide they must use their mutant might to fend off the Red Baron's attacks and use their atomic powers to transform themselves into metal and rush to battle where a great explosion appears to end the fighting for all. Kamandi then encounters one of the Killer Whales and is attacked and left to drift in the great lake.

Coming ashore Kamandi is startled to find a massive mansion on a small island.

In that massive house he encounters a Monkey named Flim-Flam and three humans named Jukie, Lukie, and Dukie. It turns out the mansion in which they are all stranded is "haunted" and the power in the place takes possession of first one then another of the mute humans. Finally Kamandi is able to discover the secret of the power and determines it is not supernatural but the residue of long-ago experiments in mind control.

Kamandi and his new allies look for a way to leave their remote island but before they begin three metallic figures walk out of the sea.

Once again Kamandi is reunited with his friends Ben Boxer, Renzie, and Steve. The trio have had a hard go walking along the forests of the sea bottom after defeating the Red Baron. Now this new group of allies look for a way to get back to Seaway and find a hovercraft, but a deadly sea creature blocks their way. They get it operational only to find that after they start the come under attack by deadly flying Sharks. This forces them to enter the fog-enshrouded barrier to a new weird and deadly zone.

The Kamandi adventures have a slam-bang pacing which keeps the reader breathless. Kamandi himself jumps headlong into danger and uses his wits and sheer bravado often to survive. He is also blessed with a great deal of good luck. In this sequence he is reunited with the Ben Boxer team and already this feels more akin to destiny than mere good fortune. These characters find one another across the broad landscape of the ruined Earth and always greet each other with good cheer and comradeship. In fact it's evident that at this point Kamandi is finding as many friends as enemies in this apocalyptic world.

The artwork takes a hit sadly as D. Bruce Berry is simply not as adept at adding the drama to Kirby's pencils that Mike Royer had done. The closest analog to Berry that I can think of is Chic Stone who was a key Kirby inker at Marvel for a few years. Both Stone and Berry offer an open style, but Stone was able to give the work more energy than Berry accomplishes. Perhaps that is also reflective of how loose Kirby's pencils have become in the intervening decade.

In the twenty-fifth issue of Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth Jack Kirby sends his blonde-haired hero on arguably his weirdest adventure yet. In the course of the preceding issues  Kamandi has bounded all across the North American continent and beyond but always in the upper reaches of that continent has been a territory mysteriously labeled "Dominion of the Devils". We met a "Devil" in some earlier stories, and it turned out to be an enormous grasshopper Kamandi bonded with.

Now in this story Kamandi and Ben Boxer prepare to leave Ben's comrades Renzi and Steve behind as well as the oddball cadre of Flim-Flam and his trained humans. The duo use a giant Eagle to fly over a great barrier into this unknown territory. The Eagle is injured and dies in the attempt but does get them into a new land filled with giant plants and giant insect life. Attributed to a Greenhouse Effect the land once known as Canada has become a wild jungle filled with teeming life of all kinds. Not least among these are the Leopards who work for Sackers Department Store. They are in this land to capture what they can and kill what they can't. Needless to say Kamandi and Boxer have other ideas.

Kamandi and Ben Boxer also find the offbeat Captain Pyper, a member of a European army of British Bulldogs who have affected the dress and style of the British Cavalry as seen in the classic poem "Charge of the Light Brigade" by Tennyson.

He and his capable ally an Aborigine which is in fact a giant mutated Ant, help Kamandi and Ben Boxer escape the rapacious Leopards working for Sackers and the two end up effectively conscripted into his foreign force, with Kamandi assuming a role akin to the famous Gunga Din.

Kamandi finds that three armies have used a land bridge to travel from what was once Europe into this area formerly known as Canada.

The three forces are part of the Nations of Atlantic Testament Orders (N.A.T.O.) and are comprised of the Bulldogs which affect a British feel, Wolves which speak French, and Apes which have a Prussian cast to their dress and style. They are battling the Leopards for control of the Dominion of the Devils, and the resources there. After a great battle among the forces both Kamandi and Ben move on.

Kamandi and Ben Boxer see a flying Ape. They then find the Tablet of Revelation which tells the story of "The Mighty One" who looks very familiar to regular DC readers. A cult of Apes worship this Mighty One and have devised tests which attempt to approximate the powers he was reputed to have in order to detect who might be a worthy to gain control of the mantle of "The Legend".

Ben and Kamandi get drawn into these tests competing with an Ape named Zuma. The tests are to be flung up, up and away into the air by catapult, lift a great stone dubbed "The Daily Planet", and survive a hail of gunfire by being faster than a speeding bullet. Kamandi finds a familiar red and blue suit and knowing who the owner was leaves it for his eventual return.

Finally begins one of the weirdest Kamandi adventures yet. Kamandi and Ben Boxer take refuge in what they believe to be a small bunker but which is in fact a legit U.F.O.They found by the Pilot who takes them in tow and they travel quickly and far.

When they escape the craft they find themselves a junk yard of time with artifacts from across the whole of human history sprawled in the sand. Apparently these things are being sent through a vast door in space. Boxer and Kamandi find themselves on an airplane of the dead headed into the maw of this door but the activation of a briefcase nuclear device causes the doorway to abruptly close stranding the Pilot wgi confronts Kamandi and Ben but loses cohesion since it is a creature of pure energy when his suits is torn apart. Kamandi recovers only to find that Ben has changed dramatically.

Clearly Kirby is redirecting the series now, having entered the Dominion of the Devils he has exhausted the parameters of his original map of the post-Great Disaster world and must reach beyond it for more. Cleaving off Kamandi and Ben Boxer is smart as it reduces the cast and makes the adventures quicken in pace and style. Now we have the two most interesting characters in the series entering some truly startling new landscapes. The inclusion directly Superman is in keeping with Kirby's work since coming to DC, but it does specifically link the world of Kamandi with the larger DCU. With the U.F.O. adventure Kirby seems to want to expand beyond the limits of the post-Apocalyptic setting and get into some other sci-fi tropes. I'm not sure how effective it is, but we'll discover more next time.

More to come.

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The Last Boy On Earth - Part Two!

In the eleventh issue of Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth, our titular hero while escaping the the destruction of Tracking Site with Ben Boxer and his friend loses track of them and  gets picked up by Leopards who are functioning in the post-Great Disaster world as pirates of the Caribbean.

They gather up all sorts of goods and such and are transporting it to Sacker's Department Store.

Among their booty are slaves, both animal and human. Kamandi despite  his apparent intelligence is brusquely added to the latter where he finds himself confronting a giant creature the Leopards dub a "Devil".

That Devil is in fact an enormous Grasshopper who Kamandi quickly bonds with and which he names "KlickKlack".

The Leopards deliver their cargo in what was once Florida to the Sacker's organization which is headed by Mr. Sacker, a giant Snake.

Mr. Sacker takes a liking to Kamandi and immediately sees his worth as a potential rider in the upcoming races at Hialeah Park, an event at which Sacker makes enormous profit due to the wagering. Kamandi meets a beautiful girl named "Spirit" who is identical to his lost "Flower" and it turns out is in fact her sister.

Thrown into the kennel with the other humans Kamandi trains for his race at Hialeah and bonds to some extent with Spirit.

He learns that a human thug named Bull Bantam had driven Flower away with his brutal attentions and that same Bantam turns out to be Kamandi's primary opponent in the upcoming race. The races are a festival for the assembled animals as the humans are run through all manner of events including motorcycle races for strawberry shortcake and other minimal prizes for the entertainment of the mob.

The main event at Hialeah turns out to be the race between Bull Bantam atop a giant Bison and Kamandi riding KlickKlack.

The face is a ferocious event and only a clever bullet from the visiting Prince Tuftan of the Tiger Empire saves Kamandi at one precarious moment. But eventually Kamandi and his steed win the day, though KlickKlack is injured severely forcing Kamandi to put his ride down forever. Saddened Kamandi is discovered by Tuftan and Professor Canus who work to smuggle him out of Hialeah and away from Mr.Sacker's forces.

The reassembled friends head north into what was once Virginia around the Washington DC area.

They fall victim to a cult of Apes who worship mysterious and powerful voices in the heart of what was once the capitol of the United States itself.

It turns out these Apes have discovered the lost Watergate Tapes and are using some weird remaindered technology to turn those voices into a deadly weapon.

Tuftan and Canus are captured and Kamandi is with the help of the Tiger forces to invade the Apes temple and rescue his friends.

The satirical aspects of the strip really dominate these issues as modern consumer society is ridiculed as well as the particular political nonsense which was the defining event of the 70's, the Watergate scandal. It's rare for Kirby to do a push on something as specific as Watergate, but it's telling that he felt comfortable doing it at an institution like DC. 

In the sixteenth issue of Kamandi The Last Boy on Earth we finally learn something substantial about how this wild world of talking animals and feral humans came to be. Kamandi gets separated from his friends Tuftan and Canus (not unlike a true pet, Kamandi seems to constantly wander off on his own, he definitely needs a leash). Under the broken streets of what was once Washington DC he finds an underground lab belonging to the Apes.

One Ape in particular Professor Hanuman is trying to recreate the Cortexin experiments which in the days just before the Great Disaster succeeded in boosting the brain power of the animals when it got unleashed into the waters of the area. In a rather clever story Kamandi follows a parallel story which follows a journal of Michael Grant, the man who discovered Cortexin.

Kamandi finds himelf in the clutches of the Apes of Washington who are waging a ferocious battle against the Tigers of Tuftan who still look for Kamandi.

The Apes steal away with Kamandi as their prisoner into the relative wilds of Ohio where Kamandi escapes and eventually teams up with the weird gopher people who live under the mysterious mounds of that area. They are mutated humans and have limited intelligence but maintain an arcane machine which has a purpose Kamandi cannot really fathom.

While the Apes led by Sgt. Ugash search for their lost prize the Gopher People's machine is destroyed and its purpose is revealed when the giant worm it held at bay with its arcane noise rises up and attempts to consume everything in its path.

Kamandi is lucky to escape but many of the Apes and the Gopher People are not.

Heading on into what was once Chicago Kamandi finds himself waylaid by what appear to intelligent human beings, but humans who act and talk for all the world like gangsters from the early part of the 20th Century.

Ugash and his Apes come into conflict with these oddball humans too and the battle rages between the two groups.

In the twentieth issue the secret of the gangster society is revealed.

They are in fact merely elaborate machines who operate according to their programming maintained by a vast network of computers deep in the heart of what was apparently a museum of sorts built before The Great Disaster. Chicago itself is destroyed but its infamous legacy lives on in a way through the simulations. Kamandi is distraught that the human society is not in some sense real.

The tempo of the Kamandi stories really picks up. It had already quickened in the previous arc, but these stories fly by at a brisk and breathless pace as Kamandi is constantly swept up in one weird adventure and environment after another. Kirby's invention is on display, but you can also see he is parsing it out a bit more sporadically as the series seems assured of a long life. Also on display is Kirby's eccentric fascination with the gangster era of early America, specifically the Roaring Twenties and the Depression Era. These are clearly the characters of both pop culture and reality who made the greatest impression on  Kirby and he rarely passes up a chance to work them into his stories, even if that means some wicked contortions. That's certainly true here. I was much reminded of the Fantastic Four story featuring The Thing when he lands on a Skrull planet which likewise seems fascinated with the classic gangsters.

D. Bruce Berry becomes the regular inker and letterer on the series, which is a mark downward alas. Capturing the flavor of Kirby was a challenge, and Berry is adequate but lacks the depth supplied by Mike Royer for so long while Kirby worked at DC. Royer was exhausted keeping up with the King and needed a break. Berry stepped in and kept things looking pretty good, but you can see it's not quite the same.

More to come.

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