Today, we greet Grogg, a Fin Fan Foom-type dude. He almost looks like Kirby came up with him the same day as he did FFF. This is merely a pencil sketch as I figured I could show you the behind the scenes of one of these things. Click him once and then again to get an extreme close-up. It's not completely accurate as I believe I gave him a more human face and torso than he originally had (which makes him look a lot like a later Kirby creation, the Demon).
STRANGE TALES #83--The Great Wall of China, it turns out, was built to repel invading dragon creatures such as the one above named Grogg! How’s that for a quick bit of history?
At some point in time, Grogg crawled beneath the Earth to hibernate and there he remained until he was awakend by secret nuclear bomb testing being done by the Soviet Union. When awoken, Grogg attacked a nearby village until one of the villagers told him he should be angry at the nuclear testers as they’re the ones who woke him up.
Grogg then raged against the testers and downed their airplane, picking them off searching for the one responsible. The remaining two hid in a cave, until the Colonel in charge released the lead scientist to Grogg, claiming that the scientist was the one in charge. The scientist narrowly escaped by using a smoke bomb to hide from Grogg. He then left the Colonel to Grogg’s attention.
STRANGE TALES #87--Grogg went on to menace more of the Soviet Union. Eventually, he was lured by the Scientist who escaped him earlier into boarding a Soviet rocket and launched into space destined for Mars. His hope was that should other Russians reach Mars before America, they would have Grogg to deal with. (And America wouldn’t have to deal with him?)
Notice how they altered Grogg's color from the cover of his first appearance to his second on the cover of STRANGE TALES and in the MONSTERS ON THE PROWL reprint cover? They seem to get loose with the colors quite a bit. Color was rarely of high quality in the old days, but you'd think they'd try to go for some consistency--or maybe not...
Now enjoy this fine card that celebrates the season:
And Kirby's interior pencils for the panels you posted are very Demon-esque, as well. I wonder if Kirby had Grogg in mind when designing the Demon character?
ReplyDeleteIn addition to Phantasm and Alien, I also don't recall seeing John Carpenter's The Thing or Dawn of the Dead in that 100 horror films book. Or Leprachaun 2!!! The inhumanity!
ReplyDeleteOr The Creature from the Black Lagoon or The Fly. I need to stop. I think I'm getting a touch of the vapors.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about Grogg and that film book. There is a copy of that here in my house...lurking, stalking me...
ReplyDelete