They were men cursed to share their existence with a monster.
Jack Kirby’s Demon, a supernatural variation on the Hulk concept, should have had a longer run than a mere 16 issues, I always thought. But somehow the execution never quite measured up to the elemental power inherent in the conception.
Reading this DC series, which began in 1972, I realized that many of Kirby’s characters could be seen to represent the awesome and dangerous power of the unconscious mind — among them the Demon, those transforming pre-hero Marvel monsters and the Hulk (who could originally only appear at night, when we sleep). Kirby’s two versions of the Sandman dealt directly with dreamscapes.
“Etrigan maintained a double identity,” noted comics historian Don Markstein. “His Demon persona lay buried under that of Jason Blood, who appeared normal in every way except that he didn’t age. In fact, Blood himself didn’t know about his dual nature until, in The Demon 1 (Aug.-Sept. 1972), a spell brought out the Demon in him. Since then, he’s used his demonic powers in dozens of adventures, often serving a righteous cause (probably because of having been somewhat humanized during his centuries as Jason Blood), but seldom able to keep his evil nature completely in check. Between times, he sometimes reverts back to human form, and sometimes doesn’t.
“The Blood/Etrigan connection goes back to the time of King Arthur. To counter an all-out attack by Arthur's half-sister, the sorcerous Morgaine le Fay, Merlin the Magician conjured up Etrigan from the depths of Hell. But Camelot fell anyway; and to neutralize the menace he’d unleashed, Merlin transformed the Demon into a man.”
Etrigan’s transformational chant — Gone! Gone! The form of man. Rise, the Demon Etrigan!! — was as catchy a tune as Green Lantern’s oath.
This bounding, yellow-skinned super-antihero’s eye-catching design was an homage to comic strip artist Hal Foster. In the 1930s, Prince Valiant had disguised himself as just such a demon, using goose skin.
Jim Vlcko:
ReplyDeleteHow is the unconscious mind dangerous? By virtue of its ipso facto definition, it is not conscious. If it was really a danger, society would be in a lot of trouble, don't you think? We'd have a lot of Demons running around. Kirby, btw, was not a psychologist.
I replied:
We HAVE a lot of demons running around, and society IS in a lot of trouble. What do you think causes all these mass shooting murderers? Unconscious, ugly, dangerous urges. And Kirby was an artist. He didn't need to be a psychologist.
Mark Engblom:
ReplyDeleteMy adulation of Kirby is primarily confined to the decade of the 1960’s and his co-creation of the Marvel Universe. Sadly, I found the vast majority of his 70’s and 80’s solo work too odd and obtuse for my tastes.
However. “The Demon” series was the exception to that indifference. For whatever reason, Kirby’s brand of bombastic visuals and rough-hewn dialogue completely WORKED for me on The Demon. So much so, that I greedily (and fairly recently) bought the entire 16 issue run for my collection. Was it completely bananas? Of course…but for some elusive reason I may never understand, it entertained me when so much of Kirby’s other solo work left me cold or scratching my head (often both).
As for the Prince Valiant “homage”, it felt a bit more like an outright THEFT of Foster’s demonic design than a winking tribute when I finally saw the original version.
I replied:
Agreed, although I do think Kirby meant is as an homage. He was perfectly capable of coming up with his own independent design, even in his sleep.
Johnny Williams:
ReplyDeleteDan, I’ve always felt that if Jack had been able to introduce a really strong story arc across multiple issues featuring Etrigan, the character would have taken off more so than he did.
That also would have been a perfect vehicle in which to involve many of DC’s more mystical super heroes like Doctor Fate and Zatanna’s with Jason’s enigmatic alter ego.
Martin Dudley:
ReplyDeleteAlan Moore gave Etrigan a good shot in his first appearance in Swamp Thing.