Forgotten Comics: Firehair

Firehair (Source: Showcase #85 - #87, Sept - Dec, 1969; and Son of Tomahawk #131-132, 134, 136, March - November 1971)
Writer and Illustrator: Joe Kubert (Series co-created with Carmine Infantino)

For roughly a decade--from the mid-Sixties to the mid-Seventies--one of the greatest talents to ever work in the comic book field was at the height of his creative powers. During this period, Joe Kubert illustrated "Enemy Ace" and "Sgt. Rock of Easy Company", two of the best war series every published; and he drew some of the very best "Tarzan" comics, producing adaptations of Burroughs' novels that equal and exceed the more well-known efforts by Russ Manning and Burne Hogarth. Kubert also created and illustrated some very excellent, lesser-known series, such as "Firehair", the subject of this Forgotten Comics review.

"Firehair" was a short-lived western series that appeared in three issues of "Showcase" and as a backup in a handful of issues of "Son of Tomahawk". It was set in the early 19th century, and it focused on a teenaged white boy with red hair who had been raised by Native Americans after a chieftan adopted him as an infant. It chronicles his wanderings--and details the racism he experiences from both Indians and Whites, as he is a man with truly no place to belong--and it was a surprisingly well-done and heartfelt series for when it was published.

All of the "Firehair" stories are superior examples of what may be created when someone with great talent treats comic books like an artistic story-telling medium on par with movies and novels.

Not only did Kubert produce stories of such depth that they can stand as equals in this day and age when critics and readers heap praise on even the most feeble attempts at producing comics that are "literature", but the look of the characters and the world they exist in have an authentic look that I don't think any other artist has captured, save Jean Giraud in the celebrated "Blueberry" graphic novels. Even the coloring on "Firehair" is far beyond what was typical in the 1960s--the use of shading and highlights is of a nature that didn't come fully into vogue until computer aided coloring was pioneered at Malibu Graphics in the 1990s.

If DC Comics ever decides to release a "Best of Showcase" or maybe "A Best of Joe Kubert" book in their hardcover "Archives" format--or even as part of the "DC Showcase Presents" black-and-white reprint series--"Firehair" should most definately be included. It's a shame that run-of-the-mill comics like "Uncanny X-Men" is kept before the public in a variety of book formats while true masterpieces like "Firehair" fade from public view and memory.

Forgotten Comics: Destroyer Duck

One of the greatest writers to ever work in comic books was Steve Gerber. I will eventually be posting reviews of the bulk of his output for Marvel Comics here at companion blog Shades of Gray, but I will be covering some of his more recent contributions to the artform in this space.

I was torn between making the first Gerber review on this page one of his grossly underappreciated "Nevada" mini-series (arguably his last great comics work), his obscure (yet important) "Omega: The Unknown", or the wildly rebellious and anti-establishment and anti-corporate greed "Destroyer Duck." All three are Vintage Gerber, with strong doses of social commentary, rampant and hilarious absurdity and bone-chilling moments of terror (the latter being perhaps the most remarkable part about Gerber's output, because he has stated he didn't like doing horror and monster stories, yet his superhero tales often contain more horrific elements that those written by others who are expressly trying to scare their readers.

I settled on leading with "Destroyer Duck," because not only is it one of Gerber's greatest, darkest satirical series, but it was pencilled by the equally brilliant artist Jack Kirby and inked primarly by the monstrously talented Alfredo Alcala, but the series also featured a back-up strip, "The Star Child", a horror-tinged superhero tale that ranks among some of the best work from Jerry Seigel and Val Mayerik. Finally, it certainly it firmly belongs in my "Forgotten Comics" series, as it's one of Gerber's works that are unlikely to be reprinted, because the original films were destroyed during a flood of publisher Eclipse's offices and the original art pages are either likewise destroyed and/or scattered among who-knows how many collectors.


However, as I did a little fact-checking, I came upon a webpage that contains a article that was pretty much what I had already planned on writing... and which did it better than I probably would have. Click here to visit the article about Gerber's "Destroyer Duck" at Comics Should Be Good.


As you will read on that page, "Destroyer Duck" had its origins in an effort to raise funds to help Gerber in a creator's rights dispute against Marvel Comics involving Gerber's most famous creation, Howard the Duck. To say the references to the real-world players are thinly veiled is an understatement. However, like most of Gerber's work--and all good literature--"Destroyer Duck" is both a product of its time and relevant to this very day, because the roughly three decades that have gone by between the publication of "Destroyer Duck" and now have not seen the targets of Gerber's ire become any weaker, nor has the big picture in regards to the problems he was calling attention to gotten any smaller. With the exception of some Pacman-based humor, the bad actors of "Destroyer Duck" and the reasons for its hero's rampage against the corporate power structure could just as easily been written today. (Heck, the same excuse that one of the villains use is even still being used by Middle Eastern terrorists and their apologists/supporters to justify their monstrous actions. Like all of Gerber's best work, "Destroyer Duck" highlights more than anything the depressing fact that the more things change, the more they stay exactly as crappy as they've always been.

The eight issues of "Destroyer Duck" may not be easy to find, but they are worth tracking down, if you are interested in reading some of the best work Steve Gerber had to offer, as well as seeing some of the greatest late-career artwork by the legendary Jack Kirby.