Comics I Bought: February 19, 2009

I'm back from the comic shop this week and I got four new comics plus a graphic novel:

The X-Files -4

Rex Mundi Vol 2 - 16

Mysterius The Unfathomable - 2 (First issue for me. I thought I'd give it a try)

Solomon Kane - 5 (Another first issue for me. I thought I'd give it a try)

Chronicles of Some Made (A 2008 Xeric Award Winer. Thought I'd give it a try. That's my theme for the week.)

And now for a review of something I've read recently.

"The Devil Dinosaur Omnibus" By Jack Kirby

I said it before and I'll say it again: 1970's Jack Kirby comics are my favorite Jack Kirby comics. And it's amazing how many of them I've never read. Such as "Devil Dinosaur".

This is a collection of the original nine issue series published by Marvel Comics in 1978. The introduction says it originated as a pitch for an animated series that never happened. This comic sure is fun non the less.

Being that this was my first time reading these I never knew Devil Dinosaur had a little origin story. I always thought he was a regular dinosaur except he was red. But no. As a youngster he was almost killed by some man-apes, driven into a volcano, turned red by the volcano, saved by Moon Boy, and made faster, stronger and smarter than other dinosaurs.

Kirby mixes and matches everything in his telling of tales from long before the dawn of man. Different species of early ape-men, such as Moon Boy's Small-Folk and the fearsome Killer-Folk, exist side by side with all sorts of dinosaurs. And everybody is striving to survive.

Oh, and the people can talk but the dinosaurs can't.

Much like a lot of comics of old there is more story in one issue than in six of most modern comics. Devil (he doesn't have the last name "Dinosaur" anywhere in the book except the title) and Moon Boy try to keep peace in the valley in which they live. They have to take on, Killer-Folk, Dino-Riders, other dinosaurs, space aliens, giant spiders, giant ants, a "Demon Tree" (the aliens left behind computer), and a witch.

Evert issue has a well told story and lots of Jack Kirby action. No gritty reality here but lots of imagination. None of Kirby's 1970's books lasted many issues but writers are still mining concepts he created in them for today's comics. I don't know if his 1970's work was ahead of its time, after its time, beside its time, or kitty corner to its time but I do know that all these years later they are real good.

Not everybody is a 1970's Kirby fan though. Someday I'll write down my thoughts on why a lot of people are left cold by it but not today. Today I'm happy to have gotten to read another good collection of Jack Kirby comics that I had never read before.