Siskoid and Mike Peacock team up to bring your the rhyme-filled glory that is DC Comics Presents #66(6), starring Superman and the Demon vs. druidic sensation Blackbriar Thorn, by Len Wein and Joe Kubert. You are cordially invited to this marriage of heaven... and hell!
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Relevant images and further credits at: FW Team-Up Supplemental
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I bought this one right off the rack. I will admit Kubert’s art was a bit hit-or-miss with me in those days, but even then I felt his work “fit” this story. Kubert didn’t do a lot of horror in this career, and that’s a shame, because I think his visceral style would have been perfect for it.
I did want to attend the Kubert School, but I was too much of a homebody to really pursue it, and instead went to a nearby state university. But I do hear tell one of our own went there. I wish they would speak up on it!
Chris
Funny, I don’t remember seeing Chris OR Xum at JKS.
I loved this issue, it’s cool seeing Superman paired with someone so completely different than he, and of course the Joe Kubert art job (rare for the time in a non-Sgt Rock context) is phenomenal. We used to pepper him with questions about his comics work, but I don’t ever remember this one coming up, I wonder what compelled him to do it?
I agree with Mike in that I think The Demon is one of Kirby’s finest (if relatively unheralded) creations. The whole gestalt of the thing is terrific, and of course the character design is wonderfully weird. Probably not a character meant to take center stage for long, but there’s a lot there for any industrious writer/artist.
Fun show boys!
Impressive pod cast. Most impressive. Joe Kubert was the man. I took a few of his schools World of Cartooning correspondence cores. It was awesome. The man could ink with a paint brush he was that good. His Super-Man looks great. His Bats not as much. His Rag Man was awesome. The supernatural in this also looks great. I only know the villain from his appearance in JSA. When he and others were beaten by a healing Wild Cat. He seems pretty awesome in this. I know of his first appearance in G.L. er the Allen Scott. Not a fan of Jason Blood guy, but he and Clark team up well. Was a cool comic. Can’t wait to hear the next pod cast.
I did like Jason Blood in his brief appearance in Madam Xanadu book. But, that was about it. Supes is always awesome.
I really should go back and finally read Kirby’s Demon, which would hopefully be a revelation like OMAC and not like, y’know, the rest of his ’70s output. The episode reminded me of my fondness for Etrigan, though the devil’s share of that is the Ennis/McCrea run, so I might not appreciate them in an earlier evolutionary state. I wonder if maybe they just had design material of Blackbriar Thorn around when they were first putting Who’s Who together and just repurposed it? Or maybe an editor said “Hey Joe, while you’re here, you want to knock out a commission piece of the guy from this job you’re turning in today?”
On Kubert, he’s one of those guys that I objectively recognize as a great, and who has made me happy at times, but I’m not especially into.
I think it’s easier to plug a non-powered Batman into any story than it is to come up with reasons for Superman to hang out with, say, Air Wave. Easy doesn’t necessarily mean better though, and I really enjoy Superman as DC’s Ben Grimm in team-up relativity.
Nice discussion of this issue, guys. I think it’s been said plenty of times that mismatched team-ups are more fun, and that sounds true in this case. But it’s also strategically sound to pair Super-vulnerable-to-magic-man with the magically powered Demon. Pretty cool.
I haven’t read any early Demon issues, but got Matt Wagner’s mini and Alan Grant’s run, so I’m less familiar with kinda-sorta-heroic Etrigan. While interesting, I think his later versions became more interesting and less predictable.
I’m still gobsmacked that Siskoid got to defend the “guest” of the issue instead of the “star”! When was the last time that happened?
August 2017: Superman and OMAC. But it happens again in the next couple of episodes!
I always love the amalgam mash-ups at the ends of these podcasts! I don’t think I have this issue, and I don’t recall if I picked it up later as a back issue, but you got me to wondering where I first encountered The Demon. Very likely , it was in an ad. DC for a time was selling surplus back issues in combination packages. These were the short-run series of the mid-seventies, at the end of Carmine Infantino’s reign as publisher. According to Mike’s Amazing World, praise be his site, The Demon made an appearance in Challengers of the Unknown #87, which I certainly bought. That short-lived revival series introduced me to the Challs, Swamp Thing, Deadman, Rip Hunter, and apparently The Demon! When he showed up in Man-Bat’s story in Batman Family drawn by Michael Golden, I was blown away!
Great look back at a really fun issue. Len Wein was a natural for team-up books. He seemed to “get” every character that he tackled.
While I like Kubert’s art, I have seen a lot of it since he didn’t do a lot of Super Hero stuff. I thought his cover to this DCCP looked like an homage to his own Showcase 103, featuring Hawkman and Hawkgirl
http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/features/comic.php?comicid=24391
I was a bit surprised by your comments about Kubert’s Lana. I never really considered Kubert a “good girl” artist. I’ve often wondered if Rima the Jungle Girl wouldn’t have sold better if interior artist Nestor Redondo hadn’t done the cover instead of Kubert. While Kubert’s covers are great, I think Redondo’s Rima is one of the most beautifully drawn female characters I’ve ever seen, in spite of the fact that I normally prefer dark-haired girls. Sorry to be a little sleazy, there, but I was only a teenager when I got my first Rima back issue.
Would you like an appointment with Shagg to discuss this further?
Don’t judge, dude. Back in the early 80s, we didn’t have them fancy new-fangled VCRs or no high-falutin’ internet. When we young nerds wanted to crush on a pretty girl, the ladies in our comics were all we had.