Duck Of Destruction!

A book of comic legend, the debut of 1982's  Destroyer Duck from Eclipse Comics was most definitely a shot across the bow of the behemoth Marvel by talents Steve Gerber and Jack Kirby. Kirby had long been at odds with his sometime employer over the rights and credit for his bountiful creations. Steve Gerber's complaint was more newly minted, as his Howard the Duck was a big success for Marvel and he wanted a taste of that success. So these two joined forces with Alfredo Alcala, Steve Leialoha and others to produce a one-shot comic intended to help fund Gerber's lawsuit against Mighty Marvel. Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier created a little character named Groo who also appears in this significant comic. This is a milestone for sure.

Here's a great look at the original artwork, which shows off some of the gags which got trimmed out of the printed version.

The world envisioned by Gerber and Kirby is a hurly burly one in these first few pages which remind me of nothing less than the famous bar scene from Star Wars. That's somewhat ironic as another bone of contention for Kirby as he was convinced (and I believer rightly so) that his Fourth World served as something of an inspiration for George Lucas.

But a big surprise I think for one and all was that Destroyer Duck proved somewhat successful, so much so that additional issues were produced for Eclipse. Here's a look at the lush Kirby and Alcala cover artwork. 

Note the addition of Val Mayerik's The Starling to this cover. "The Starling" created by Jerry Seigel and Mayerik ran as a back up in all remaining issues of the comic.

After five issues Kirby and Gerber stepped away from their creation.

Gary Kato too a stab at the sixth Destroyer Duck cover. He also became the interior artist for the last two issues, both written by Buzz Dixon.

And Frank Miller stepped in to supply a very clever cover for the seventh issue. This proved to be Destroyer's farewell. He'd show up again many years later thanks to Erik Larsen alongside the  Savage Dragon.

But fans of a certain age, the "Marauding Mallard" was a statement, a firebrand of a comic character who pointed the way to a new way of doing business in comics.

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A Feast Unknown!

A Feast Unknown is not the Wold Newton novel for everyone. It's rude and crude and spends an unusual amount of time and space discussing the behavior of errant pricks of all sorts as one sort try to viciously kill each other and another sort are erupting at all manner of inappropriate times. This novel first appeared under the imprint of a porn house, and it shows. There is a lot of aberrant sex in this work, but apart from normal pornography this tale lacks an element of titillation for which that other stuff is mostly designed to deliver. There's a droll and dry presentation to the events which unfold furiously which intentionally undermines the prurient aspects of the story and instead keeps the reader focused on the main plot. I first read A Feast Unknown some decades ago and was taken aback by its content, but still remembered it fondly as a thoroughly complete action yarn. So I was eager to read it again now that's it has been reprinted in Titan Books efforts to get the Wold Newton novels back into the hands of readers.

Lord Grandrith by Rich Corben
That story is that of Lord Grandrith who is Farmer's Wold Newton stand in for Tarzan of the Apes. Grandrith has been alive a very long time and finds himself suddenly under attack in his jungle home by a small army of the local soldiery under the apparent command of Doc Caliban a thinly disguised version of Doc Savage. (Monk and Ham are on hand too, though a good sight older.) It is a particularly blood-thirsty Caliban who seems to want nothing more than Grandrith's demise. After much mucking about in the jungle we finally encounter The Nine, a mysterious group of ancients who control many of the world's most powerful people by doling out an elixir which grants relative immortality. Both Grandrith and Caliban are servants of The Nine and it finally comes out that Caliban believes that Grandrith has killed his cousin and one true love. A great deal of mayhem unravels the mystery and we learn along with Grandrith and Caliban secrets about their own origins.

Doc Caliban and Fab Two by Rich Corben
It's a rockem' sockem' story as the violence and action hardly relents. Apart from the depravity many of the players display, there is also a fantastic car chase, a valiant battle within a castle, and an absolute heap of weird characters. The story's focus on matters weirdly sexual dominates the first part of the tale, but gives way in the last half as the action quickens in anticipation of the finale.

A Feast Unknown is not a novel for everyone, but it is a novel I'd recommend to anyone interested in Tarzan, Doc Savage, or pulps in general and who is not put off by the truly offbeat and peculiar. It's a strange and arresting novel, and a highly memorable one.

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Black Friday!

It's absolutely wonderful that they've set aside a day on which we can reflect on the rich and vibrant contributions given to pop culture and to the broader society by African-Americans. It's a gracious and uplifting opportunity to explore the cultural impact of Black society on the broader American tapestry. It's...

What?

"Black Friday" is not a day to celebrate African-American citizens?!?

"Black Friday" is an every increasingly raucous and uncouth orgy of capitalism run amok as countless hordes of people stampede into stores in the dead of night to buy things they don't need for people they hardly like with money they don't yet have, and doing so in stores and shops which have fecklessly banked all their dreams of solvency on a few weeks of consumer madness in hopes, often in vain, of reaching a meager balanced ledger by the end of the annum. 

Oh.

Never mind.

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The Turkey Turns!

Irving Tripp

Unknown

Joe Musial

Walt Kelly

Leon Schlesinger
What if those delicious birds did not go gently into that good dish? Things might get very very complicated indeed.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving one and all!

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