Not Brand Echh #10

I'd love to see a straight FF story where Doc Doom just suddenly attacks with that pose. That goes on my list of funniest Kirby panels ever.

NOT BRAND ECHH #10 reprints some of the highlights from the first few issues of the series, including three 8-page Kirby stories from 1967. The first two are inked by Frank Giacoia and the third is by Tom Sutton.

"The Silver Burper", from the debut issue of NOT BRAND ECHH, is the strongest of the three stories, primarily a parody of the Doom/Surfer story that run in FF not long before it's initial publication. Kirby's art is pretty out-there and absurd in self-parody, in particular anything with "Doctor Bloom", such as the scenes where he's trying to convince the Burper that he's a good guy. And of course the face-off between Weed and Bloom, with the classic "I own a hundred pair of stretch socks".

Both this story and the one it parodies are going to be in the upcoming VISIONARIES JACK KIRBY v2 collection.



"The Origin of Sore, Son of Shmodin" is from ECHH #3, which I covered before. Still funny stuff, this time around I was most amused by Shmodin, in particular the last scene of him coming to Earth and dancing.

Finally, from ECHH #5, "The Origin of Forbush-Man the Way-Out Wonder". I'm not as fond of this one. Looks like either Kirby's contribution is a lot looser, or Tom Sutton takes a lot more liberties with it, but either way the styles don't really compliment each other. And the jokes still come a mile-a-minute but the laughs at a much slower pace. I'm not sure why anyone ever thought the name "Forbush" was inherently interesting, but then I never quite got Kurtzman's fascination with the name "Melvin".

Published 1968