Post #666 - Disney Princess & Prince Edition

Welcome to the 13th hour (locally) as we celebrate the 666th post with a quick look at Disney's under-celebrated Princess & Prince. Brother and sister - the children of Satan, the King of Hell - Damien Helstrom and Santana - Prince & Princess of Hell. When Disney bought Marvel, they ascended to Disney Princess & Prince status (just like Thor and Loki).

Though the Son Of Satan was teased the month before, both really first appeared in July of 1973 (Sell dates, not cover dates), Satana in Vampire Tales #2 and Damien in Ghost Rider #2. Damien also got his first cover that month, taking over Ghost Rider's old slot in Marvel Spotlight -

Satana didn't get her own first cover until over a year later, but finally she got a painted cover for one of Marvel's b&w newsstand magazines - Haunt Of Horror #5, where she had been appearing since, once again, issue #2.

Not that the Son Of Satan didn't get some nice covers of his own along the way...

 

...but though far fewer, Satana did covers better, either with old masters like Gil Kane (as above)...

...or with those painted covers...

Of course, like most brothers and sisters, they didn't always get along...

Both of them were known to get together with the other heroes in the Marvel universe, too...

More recently, the Marvel universe has gone 'dark' and they have seen a resurgence in the 90s and this century. So the Disney Princess & Prince are still active players, even Avengers(!), ready for their toy line. Not surprisingly, we're not going there. We're just looking at some older appearances here.

Also not surprisingly, there was fun imagery in the Son Of Satan's comics at times...

...and long before Spider-Man, Damien did...

Personally, i was always more fond of Satana's appearances in the old b&w mags...

Here's the original model sheet from Esteban Maroto that accompanied the article on her creation appearing in Vampire Tales #3 - Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Satana* (*But were too awestruck to ask)...

Let's close out for today with Satana's original short introduction from Vampire Tales #2 -

art by various for the titles shown (what?! it's the devil's post. Did you expect actual credits?)

Sunday Morning Funnies (King Kirby 048)

The worst thing* about no newspaper these days is no Sunday morning funnies! It's Sunday morning (here), so let's have some Jack Kirby related funnies! Wow! I really seem to be excited about that.
Way back in the first issue of FOOM, Marvel's members only fanzine, they ran a star studded parody of the Fantastic Four:

The following month, the quartet returned to play with another familiar Kirby character:

That was the last we saw from the Frantic Four on the parody front. But soon, another would step up. You may remember Charley Parker from The Origin Of King Kirby which we pulled from FOOM #11. In FOOM #4, this ominously appeared:

It wasn't until issue #8 that the Doctor made his true debut:

Dr. FOOM returned in #9...

...and in #10, we got not only Dr. FOOM And Captain Applepie, but the Eggsmen, too:

The following issue was the big Kirby Returns celebration with the Origin story we already looked at. After that, i never saw Charley Parker again that i recall. I wonder where he went? A mystery for another day...

Meanwhile, here's the grooviest parody of a Kirby character that i remember coming out of FOOM:

My favorite Kirby comedy comics, however, are of a decidedly different vein. And both come from the same person, Roger Langridge -

I wonder if he's done more?

To wrap up our Sunday Morning Funnies, let's go back to Marvel.  After Not Brand Echh went under, Marvel eventually realized that they were competing against black & white newstand magazines, so maybe they should try that instead - and so Crazy was born. (Crazy was the next synonym on the list after Mad and Cracked, you see) In #82 in '82, Jack Kirby parodied by Jack Kirby, with poor Mark Bilgrey begging the man not to take revenge upon him:

various comics by Roy Thomas, Len Brown, Gil Kane, Wally Wood, Charley Parker, Roger Langridge, Marc Bilgrey, and Jack Kirby with Steve Ditko(sweet!) from FOOM #s 1,2,4,8,9, & 10, Internet, and Crazy #82 (1973-5,????,1982)

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*(Y'know - aside from that whole collapse of local news and absorption into conglomerate structures undermining basic functions needed for the survival of a healthy republic, leading to the diminishment and eventual destruction of a free society thing.)