It looks like he has a boat on his head. Never heard of him but he is trippy looking.

WHAT THE.. I thought I would be super-duper original by having Nebulos on my list!

Needless to say, great choice, Kurt!!!

We'll see the Lord of the Planet Perilous again, but on the third day of Christmas Jack Kirby gave to me...

#10 - Surtur



This specific design is a masterpiece. By that I mean that it looks very simple (he's a big red fire dude with horns) but is actually very difficult to render properly, as is often the case with a Kirby design. Look at the shape of the demon... Eschewing the bodybuilding look he'd later acquire, he's got rather narrow shoulders and a big furry belly, evoking an ancient satyr or a Medieval Satan. His hands and feet end in claws, but not simply because there are long nails on his fingers and toes... those things are huge, dragon-like. The fur is ambiguous... is it hair? Is it fire? It looks like both, and the ambiguity is perfectly suited to this creature. (After all, we don't want just another Human Torch with horns, do we?) This association of a classic demonic look and Kirbyesque power makes for a unique figure of doom.

The face is where Kirby's approach is the most obvious, and the hardest to imitate. Surtur's features are partly in shadow and look as if they're made of smouldering coals. And those horns, extending upward... black against the burning red of Surtur's head, they look flat rather than round and are unique in the Book of Four-Colour Demons.

When I see that image, I am transported to the world of the Norse legends, to the Ragnarok of the Gylfaginning. Such is the power of a good design, and of Jack Kirby's imagination.

This 3rd day of Christmas choice:

M.O.D.O.K.: Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing. Who doesn't like a giant head in a hovering chair made to mobilize him because his tiny body can't support his now giant size ego? And all clothed in purple and orange armor capable of out-thinking you or frying your brain with his own over-sized cerebellum? And it is okay if you prefer him as the Mobile Organism Designed Only for Kissing

First showing Tales of Suspense #93 1967 and created by Aim via Kirby/Lee.

The Hate-Monger, Marvel Collectors' Item Classics (reprinted from Fantastic Four 21)

  

Just about fifty years ago, in the first heady months of the Marvel expansion and the concurrent loosening of distribution policies, I bought my first MCIC, primarily because of the dramatic cover, with the frightening title character looming over the FF.

Can't remember if it hit me right then that the villain's costume was essentially a KKK outfit, but whenever it clicked, I was struck by how fearsome those hooded, cloaked figures must have been to all those whom they terrorized. With those hate-filled eyes, the ragged edges to the sleeves and tunic, the heavy jackboots, the chain-mail undergarment, the H "dripping" (so like the logos of horror comics), or flming (either one works) and the purple and indigo (The sleeves are green only on the cover) color combination, Kirby added extra touches of brutality and darkness to the Hate-Monger.

Wisely, Kirby toned down the typically graceful depiction of the KKK, with their flowing capes, robes covering even their feet, beautiful horses, glowing torches, and pure-white outfits. There is nothing remotely attractive about the Hate-Monger. He is shorter, squatter, a hulking brute of a character, more befitting his nihilism. His torch burns harshly; it doesn't glow softly.

Listen, I was 13 when I first read this story, and it exploded my head, one more explosion in an extremely volatile time... It wasn't just the stunning ending, which I won't reveal here just in case, but because of the swill the Hate-Monger was spewing to enraptured crowds, a swill we heard then and continue to hear today. This was relevance in comics before there was such a thing. Don't know how much credit for this villain and/or the story goes to Jack or Stan, but the two of them hit it out of the park with this American Id-creature. Maybe older readers at the time knew what was coming, but even if they did, they had to be at the very least, unsettled by the Hate-Monger.

The original story came out in September 1963, a month or so after Dr. King's March on Washington and the famous "I have a dream..." speech, the same summer that George Wallace blocked the entrance to the University of Alabama to the first two black students brave enough to enroll there, and a few days before four black girls were murdered by KKK members in the Birmingham church bombing.

Mad props, as the kids used to say, to Jack and Stan for having the nerve to incorporate social commentary into their funny book for kids. 

I was wondering if he would last till I had a chance to use him in the top 5. Great choice. Guess I need to go to the bench and call up one of my other favorites.

A variation on this costume will be arriving very late on my own list. Great pick!

I know but want to challenge myself and my memory. Plus works slow and this is a fun way to killtime