They were men cursed to share their existences with monsters.
Jack Kirby’s The Demon, a supernatural variation on the Incredible Hulk theme, deserved a longer run than the mere 16 issues it got, 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 might be seen to represent the awesome, 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.
In fact, as a caped, weirdly colored, otherworldly hero-monster, Etrigan is reminiscent of one of the first characters Kirby and Joe Simon created for the company that would become Marvel — the original Vision, who traveled in smoke and debuted in Marvel Mystery Comics 13 (Nov. 1940).
“Etrigan maintained a double identity,” observed 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 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.”
The absolutely fearless Etrigan, who speaks in rhymes, can project hellfire from his mouth and hands. He has superhuman strength, agility, and durability, as well as magical abilities and a regenerative healing power.
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 a goose skin.
“My adulation of Kirby is primarily confined to the decade of the 1960s and his co-creation of the Marvel Universe,” Mark Engblom wrote. “Sadly, I found the vast majority of his ’70s and ’80s 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 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 do think Kirby meant it as an homage. He was perfectly capable of coming up with his own independent design, even in his sleep.
“Horror was making a bit of a comeback of sorts,” recalled Kirby’s inker Mike Royer. “Jack was pressured to come up with something inside that genre. Not really wanting to, he was inspired by Prince Valiant being a ‘demon’ but actually ostensibly being a good guy, or at least ending up on the side of the forces of good over evil.”
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