Jack Kirby, as I’ve mentioned before, was a singular fella. Working double duty and both a writer and an illustrator for both Marvel and DC Comics at different times, he had complete control over a whole army of characters that he created, scripted, drew and edited. In most hands, this would be a disaster - but Kirby made it work, because he made it work in a narrative language that he created.

The creative control that he was given over his own later titles was nearly absolute, legend that he was, and he took advantage of every iota of that power. For DC Comics, he created the Fourth World, an entirely diverse and self-contained universe that ended up playing an integral role throughout all of DC continuity. As he moved from publisher to publisher, he trailed memorable stories behind him, and one of the very last stories that he told was that of Devil Dinosaur and Moon-boy, before he left comics (due to lack of benefits) to work in animation until his death - with a few odd comic projects in-between.

Unchanged throughout his entire career was the bombastic, dramatic voice that narrated all of his stories, and a dramatic, action-filled scenario for every single panel. While this method of storytelling went over amazingly in his early career, it stopped resonating with a changing audience as the 1970s passed. Kirby was clearly a man in love with the art, and he continued with this flair until the end. It makes for some campy, but ultimately entertaining, reading.

The 9-issue series of Devil Dinosaur was originally published in 1978 by Marvel, and lasted for only nine issues before it was canceled. It follows the adventures of a monkey-like human, who is verbal, and who befriends a powerful and violent (but ultimately faithful) nonverbal dinosaur, named Devil for the red skin that he acquires as he’s cast into a volcanic eruption and survives! The 173-page collection retains the original letters pages and Kirby’s reflections upon his stories that finished out every issue (plus, ads for old comics!) - which are details that many collections omit as extraneous, but I always find that they contextualize the story more faithfully. Kirby’s ruminations reveal what a unique thinker he was, closing out at least three issues with the idea that ‘no one can ever really know what happened - maybe this is a true story!’ He states this convincingly enough that it remains ambiguous whether or not HE really believes it to be true, or he’s just attempting to engulf the reader in this mythology. He’s a man that’s clearly up on his science, but also prescribing to the idea that he knows just how much we DON’T know about the dinosaurs. This idea remains relevant even today, when dinosaurs are being completely rethought with each paleontological find. (Thanks to Dinocollector for pointing out the difference between this and ‘archaeology’ down below!)
As if having a cherry-red dinosaur rampaging through a humanoid-populated vista weren’t enough, Kirby makes almost all of the humanoids talk with Shakespearean grace and import - even ending the 9-issue series with a singular panel in biblical script, spelling out ‘…and thus endeth the Chronicle…’ We can assume that these florid speech bubbles are a rough translation from caveman-to-Kirby and that Jack never REALLY thought that Moon-boy wrote The Tempest, but it adds a great flair to the tales as they progress.

At this point in Kirby’s artistic career, his illustrations became more impressionistic and broad than ever before. Things seem to change proportions between panels often, but always to the benefit of the action involved. None of it was done out of laziness or a lack of attention to detail - it’s all done to affect ACTION. With multiple exclamation points. Cavemen with decidedly 1970s haircuts notwithstanding.

Devil Dinosaur and Moon-boy fight dinosaurs, giant bugs, giant humans, and crazy space-machines before the series ends and they make other appearances throughout the Marvel Universe, unfortunately not written by Kirby. This means that, in some stories, Devil turns into a terrorist who can now talk, and has eaten Moon-Boy, or that they die together on the moon, or are briefly brought into present day as criminals. While Jack Kirby envisioned that the duo existed within the main Marvel Universe, later writers who were more concerned with the continuity of acceptable science and history, moved Devil and Moon-boy into other parallel universes. It’s not certain which universe the duo exist in today, but they have appeared in comics as recently as 2007 - not bad for a team that lasted only 9 issues.

Devil Dinosaur is an essential part of any Jack Kirby library - and if you don’t have one at least started, you can’t consider yourself a serious comic reader - and that’s probably a good thing, given the attendance I’ve seen at the conventions. I loves me some Jack Kirby, though, and $20 - $30 bucks for a beautifully restored hardcover collection is a great deal.

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Article Tags: , DC, Devil Dinosaur, Jack Kirby, Marvel, Moon Boy

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This entry was posted on Sunday, December 16th, 2007 at 1:00 am and is filed under collecting fyi, reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.