Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter #3 - Claws of the Dragon

Another of the books Kirby just penciled in the last days of his DC contract. At this point the comic Denny O'Neil was still adapting the RICHARD DRAGON novel written by O'Neil and Jim Berry under the name "Jim Dennis". The series apparently couldn't hold an artist, with five pencilers in the first four issues (the last, Ric Estrada, did stick with the book).

As you'd expect in a martial arts book, this is pretty much just a series of fights. First Dragon fights a mob to rescue Carolyn from men of the Swiss, who wants some information from her. Carolyn manages to get captured again while Dragon is distracted fighting three guys who think they have martial arts training. We get a flashback to Dragon's teacher, the O-Sensei, who gave him the Dragon's Claw pendant for Finally the Swiss lures him into a trap, where he fights various hired weapon-masters.



I suspect that a few pages were cut here, as there are a few hired hands show up in the initial scene that Dragon doesn't actually fight. Anyway, Dragon is able to defeat them all, but the Swiss still manages to blow up the place and escape with Carolyn.

Obviously a bit of a trivial entry in the Kirby career, but he has a pretty funny way of drawing martial arts, very kinetic. D. Bruce Berry inks the 18-page story.

Published 1975