King Kobra!

Ernie Chan
Jack "King" Kirby's last stand at DC Comics in the mid-70's was a little project titled Kobra. And I consider this comic like near-beer, it sort of tastes the same and looks the same, but it's not really the same at all actually.

Original Kirby Splash Page
The project was originally called "King Kobra" and it was the brainchild of Kirby assistant Steve Sherman, who under the tutelage of Kirby had been given the green light to try his hand at a new feature for DC's First Issue Specials series. He created a story about two characters who chase after one another, one a calm and collected man of some years who works with world police agencies to track down the other, a megolmaniacal leader of a Thugee cult called King Kobra. Kirby looked at the treatment and suggested a Corsican Brothers bond between the two central characters and the comic was born, more or less.

It was scripted, drawn and delivered at about the same moment that Jack Kirby left the DC digs for his return to Mighty Marvel. So the project fell into the hands of Gerry Conway, a Marvel writer taking his talents to DC at the same time. He was given "Conway's Corner", a self-created niche at DC where he could create and write his own projects. Ironically Conway's deal seems to have actually been the deal that Kirby was promised when he switched over some years before, but never actually got to realize because of editorial interference.

Revised Splash Page
Marty Pasko, a novice talent was given the "King Kobra" pages to revise for inclusion in the Conway's Corner. He took the material and employing the significant skills of Pablo Marcos began to slowly but surely revise the original. The protagonist was changed into a twenty-three year old college kid and so his counterpart was also given the gift of youth despite the fact that undermined his cred as world-beating villain. The story became less of a manhunt for the cult leader and more of an accidental meeting of the two "heroes". Many of the faces were changed and almost all the dialogue got transformed, but the basic material drawn by Kirby and inked by Bruce D. Berry was still present.

The story begins in the lair of Kobra as three thugs meet him to arrange some nefarious transaction or other. The three criminals make the mistake of pulling guns on the master villain and he retaliates with a giant robot who he says is from a probe from space. The robot kills the thugs and then Kobra orders it to seek out Jason Burr. The robot leaves and goes on a rampage through New York City. At a resturant Burr is meeting with Lieutenant Perez of the NYPD about Burr becoming part of the investigation into the doings of Kobra. The robot appears and captures Burr but then when the robot crushes down on Burr the pain is also felt by Kobra who then orders his robot to self-destruct. Burr and Perez then drive away and the story of how two siamese twins were separated at birth and one was taken by a mysterious snake cult is related. One grew up to become Burr and the other was raised by the cult to become its legendary leader Kobra. Burr uses the physical link between himself and Kobra to attact the villain and the two meet for the first time but the NYPD is there to attempt a capture. Kobra escapes leaving Burr to ponder his future.

It's not a bad tale as far as it goes. It sets up a decent premise, though the original premise had more direction since it wasn't necessary for the Burr character to be so naive about his origins. I guess the thought was it made him more identifiable, but it resulted I think in making him yet another college kid in a comics world at the time full of such types.



These pages show the artwork in transition, as mostly the pasted on Marcos additions have fallen off, but in some cases can still be seen.

"King Kobra" changed to merely "Kobra" was given its own series and last for seven issues, though there was a hiatus in there somewhere. After the first and only Kirby issue, talents like Marcos and later Michael Nasser drew the adventures of the master villain. The cover of the debut story is by Ernie Chua (not yet Chan) though the text page inside suggests that Joe Kubert will be doing the honors. Everything about the comic wreaks of the last-minute.

I like Kobra okay, but when I see what it was before the hand of Pasko got to it, I think I liked that much better. I'm not upset at Marty Pasko for any reason, he just did what he was told, and he did what he thought best. It is sadly ironic that Kirby's last project for DC at this time was wrought with the same problem his first work at DC had suffered, the replacement of heads by other artists. This time it was Pablo Marcos and not Murphy Anderson, but the result is the same, a lack of real confidence in the immense talents of the "King".

That Kobra still lingers in the DC universe in some fashion is a testament to the talent of Jack Kirby, because even the least of what the King touched still resonates.

Unpublished Kirby Image of King Kobra
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Master Of Nightmares!

Jack Kirby & Mike Royer
Simon and Kirby came back together in 1974 for one more offbeat collaboration for DC Comics. Both men had been working on their own highly idiosyncratic creations for DC and obviously it must've been a desire to see this dynamic duo reunite to rekindle the magic of bygone days. They resisted but did do The Sandman.


It was a one-shot dated "Winter Issue" for 1974. Under a dynamic cover by Jack Kirby and Mike Royer, we meet a young boy named Jed in the throes of a mighty nightmare about a man being hurled up on the breakers in a powerful storm, and he clutches a green scaly doll. He alerts his Grandfather and sure enough they find a man on the rocky shore of Dolphin Island. They rescue him from the water but he succumbs leaving behind the hideous doll.


Sandman, a yellow and red superhero stationed at his Universal Dream Monitor in a zone between reality and dreams gets alerted to the problem. He invades Jed's dream in which Jed is being assaulted by a version of the doll. Jed's grandfather attempts to destroy and bury the offensive thing.


We then meet General Electric, a former Japanese WWII general who has suffered extreme brain damage and has been fitted with a transparent prosthetic skull loaded with mechanisms to take the place of his lost brain matter. He has a similar female-looking doll. Sandman meanwhile is alerted to a fire caused by an earthquake, where the authorities are unclear of his intentions.



On Dolphin Island Jed finds the creepy little doll his Grandfather hid, but is assaulted by a trio of WWII leftovers. Sandman comes to his aid but both are captured and taken before General Electric who uses the two dolls he now has to ignite explosives hidden in Washington, DC.


Sandman has a whistle which can summon his two assistants, Glob and Brute, and it gets blown unwittingly by one of the WWII types and the two associates arrive and unload a bag filled with weird dream creatures which defeat the WWII gang. The whistle then is blown and shatters General Electric's glass skull. The heroes escape and the threat is ended as they head back to the zone between dreams and reality.

It's a wild and wooly comic book and closes out with a rambling essay on the general topic of dreams by Allan Asherman.


Jerry Grandenetti
The creation of this issue must have been a fitful process. The cover above is by Jerry Grandenetti and is a version of the debut cover ultimately drawn by Kirby. Apparently Simon wanted to do this comic with his partner on Prez, Green Team and The Outsiders. But that must have been scrapped when Kirby became available.


Jack Kirby & Joe Simon
There is a version of the cover inked by Joe Simon too. Both draft covers use logos simliar to one used inside the comic, but neither made to print. A very modern looking logo, doubtless by Gaspar Saldino is the final version.

The one-shot apparently did quite well, and after the infamous paper shortage of the mid-70's, the character was green-lighted for a series. Unfortunately save for Kirby on the covers, none of the original talent aside from inker Mike Royer were on hand for the ongoing. Instead, the scripting fell to Michael Fleisher and the penciling went to Ernie Chua/Chan.



Jack Kirby & Mike Royer
Sandman #2 reintroduces Jed and his Grandfather on Dolphin Island but this time the threat comes from a weirdie named Doctor Spider. The plot is very similar in many ways to the debut.


Jack Kirby & Mike Royer
Sandman #3 takes Sandman into the dreams of a young girl named Susie who has a scientist father who is the object of a deposed and somewhat deceased European Count and his Zombie Gorillas. I have to say, the Zombie Gorillas cracked me up.


Jack Kirby & Mike Royer
Sandman #4 sees the return of Jack Kirby on pencils for the interiors too, as the hero fends off an alien invasion of Earth through mankind's dreams. Jed and his Grandfather are on hand once again also.


Jack Kirby & Mike Royer
Sandman #5 changes up the status quo as Jed's Grandfather is killed fishing for sea monsters and Jed has to go and live with his repulsive Aunt and Uncle and his two cousins. He is made a defacto servant on their farm but still finds time to help Sandman and escape his harsh reality by rescuing a Princess from a Frog army.


Bill Draut & Wally Wood
Sandman #6 sees the end of the series. Michael Fleisher scripts his final Sandman saga and brings back Doctor Spider. The artwork on this issue really shines as Wally Wood is tapped to ink Jack Kirby's pencils. There's no indication in the "Dream Dome", the series letter column that his is the final installment, but there is great mention made that the artwork by Kirby and Wood might just be a gem for the ages.


Another issue was planned, but never published, at least not until Sandman's adventure with Santa Claus saw the light of day (sort of) in Cancelled Comics Cavalcade, and later still in 1982 in Best of DC #22 digest.


The Sandman then disappears for a time in those Pre-Crisis years, but shows up of all places in Wonder Woman #300 where he is "revealed" to be Dr.Garret Sanford a man trapped in the Dream zone when he tried to save a President.


Later still in Justice League of America Annual #1, he's prisoner of Dr.Destiny and the League is needed to help save him and all of reality from Destiny's threat.


The Sandman series is not utterly exquisite by any stretch. Fleisher's scripts are adequate, Kirby's artwork is not prime, and the inking is sometimes indifferent. The books seem to have been produced quite quickly. But they are a fun read from a time when comics in general and DC comics in particular were bristling with energy if not consistency.

I've never read a single story from the later Sandman rendition by Neil Gaiman. It's just never appealed to me. I like the Golden Age Simon and Kirby version well enough, but to be honest my favorite is this wacky mid-70's model. For all its many weaknesses in presentation, it's a comic brimming with charm, and that's a rare thing indeed.

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Impy's Haunted!

In the final months of Sal Gentile's reign as editor-in-chief at Chartlton, the company rolled out Haunted, a series featuring some lush Steve Ditko covers and typical Charlton ghostly stories inside.


The host of this comic was the mysterious "Impy the Imp", a tiny ghost all decked out in a white costume of some sort. Though not featured on the debut cover (unless like me you imagine that is Impy's face we see this one time only), Impy held sway in the comic for quite a while before giving way to Baron Wierwulf and his Haunted Library. (See here.) The title was retitled (at least on the cover) and Impy disappeared into the dim recesses of Charlton lore.

Here are Impy's Haunted cover appearances as illustrated by Steve Ditko, who is almost certainly his creator.






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Out Of This World!

This is one of my absolute favorite Steve Ditko images. For a while I thought this image was a Joe Staton cover until I looked more closely. I first ran across the image on the 1978 reprint comic cover Space War #30. Later I realized this was a Ditko cover from 1959 at a time when he was still signing his name "J. Kodti".

Below is an absolute fantastic image of the original artwork. The detail is outstanding.


And here is that reprint which first attracted my attention so many years ago.


Truly a cover that is "out of this world"!

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The Other Fly!

I've never been much of a fan of the 1986 remake of The Fly by David Cronenberg. I find his movies in general to be somewhat nauseating and at times dull. But my affection for the original version of this story from 1958 makes me pay attention at least to this later revision.

Yesterday I stumbled across a very cheap dvd of the remake and because of the extended behind-the-scenes material I popped for it. I love commentaries, and maybe I might find something in the movie I missed all those times before.

I do find the movie more palatable now, but the excesses of Cronenberg's special effects still get in the way sometimes. I don't mind gross necessarily, but I don't understand the need for gross when it actively undermines the storytelling. Trying to see this movie as a romance gone wrong does give me a fresh way to interpret what unfolds, even though I think that analysis falls apart given the ending.

But it is the dark and unrepentant ending which I find most satisfying about this movie. The decision to merely end it after the brutality of the heroine's last act makes the movie to remain fixed forever in a dark place which lingers like only really effective horror flicks can do.

The extras spend far far too much time on the laborious special effects. I get that is a draw in a movie like this for many, but for me while it's neat to remember how these vintage flicks were put together in a pre-digital age, it's nonetheless tiresome to have what seems a never ending array of puppetry shots.

So through the lens of the ending, I find I can appreciate the movie a bit more. I still prefer the original.


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The Many Ghosts Of Steve Ditko!

Steve Ditko did so many covers for Charlton, that sometimes it's hard to pick from the cache, but it seems he was particularly inspired on his run on The Many Ghosts of Dr.Graves. His then-modern style really fit well with the wild designs he was using. The covers are bright and pop very effectively.













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A Banjo For Sleestak!

Banjo music is often the butt of jokes, but personally I like it pretty well.


Other than classic Bluegrass tunes though, the few times banjo music has broken into the mainstream is when Steve Martin plays it on stage, or the old Delivance movie tune "Dueling Banjos" which dominated the AM airwaves for several months in the 70's.


The third instance of banjo music is the theme song for Land of the Lost, the Sid and Marty Krofft television classic.


I'm on record as loathing the Will Farrell-vehicle remake of the the classic television series, but my completist soul still wanted a copy if only for the Sleestak scenes. I finally found a copy cheap enough in a discount bin to justify my buying it.

Listening director Brad Silberling's commentary revealed a lot to me about how this regrettable movie came to be. First off, I found I enjoyed parts of it more this time since I've let go of the expectation it would give us a large-screen quasi-serious treatment of the themes in the original show. Knowing it was a farce, freed me to take it on its own merits. I have to say that Danny McBride is pretty funny at times.

And listening to the director it's clear that it was meant to be a farce from the get-go. What I knew to be true watching the movie was confirmed when certain scenes turned out to be improvisations, and despite sometimes being funny, it's these very scenes which bring the movie to a grinding halt in terms of plot. The director apparently the found the show a kitsch-laden hoot from his childhood and intentionally wanted to riff on the images which had attached to his memory.


Another movie which apparently inspired the remake was Beneath the Planet of the Apes and this can be seen in the rugged landscapes fused with bits and pieces of modern society as well as the graphic treatments used for the fonts of the logos and end titles. I will confess the movie looks great at times, especially when the cast is running away from the dinos across the bleak landscape.

Silberling did reveal though that the banjo theme song had a real intriguing and possibly disturbing origin given that we are talking about a kid's show. It seems as revealed by one of the Krofft brothers, that it was in fact the movie Deliverance and its music which inspired the banjo theme for the TV show.

So now we know that two of the most infamous river rides in cinematic and television history are linked not only by the happenstance of time, but by the enthralling and memorable nature of their musical identities.

Here is "Dueling Banjos" from Deliverance.



And here is the memorable theme song from Land of the Lost.



And here is Steve Martin playing "Dueling Banjos" with the Muppets. Why not?




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