A few things spurred on this post, and it all sorta fell together like some odd string of coincidences within a few minutes...1.) This weekend, the talk of fandom was the 40th annual San Diego ComicCon
2.) I'm a HUGE Jack Kirby fan, especially of the character being presented here: Etrigan the Demon.
3.) I'm a fan of the country and western music (not so much the contemporary stuff, but the music that tends to fall into the current category of "classic country"...basically anything recorded circa late 1940s to the late 1980s...
Out of boredom, I pulled out an old issue of the publication THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR I had laying around...issue #44, from 2005, to be exact. Thumbing through it, I came across an article entitled, "Witchboy, All Grown Up" by John Morrow which was an interview he conducted with Barry Alfonso, the guy who served as the visual inspiration for the character Klarion the Witch-Boy, a villain from Etrigan's rogues gallery...
Pictured Above: Klarion as he appeared the recent Grant Morrison-helmed Seven Soldiers mini-series, the Witch-Boy from an episode of Justice League Unlimited (if I remember correctly) and a circa 1970s pic of Alfonso (center) with Carmine Infantino and Jack Kirby...It seems, according to this interview, that Alfonso was good friends in 1968 with comic book dealer Shel Dorf, and that Barry led to the eventual meeting of Dorf and another California comics deaer (and mutual friend) Richard Alf. As Alfonso recalls:
"I recall putting Richard and Shel in contact with one another, and that led to the first meeting of what became the founding group of the San Diego Comic Con (Others attending were, I believe, Bob Sourk, Dan Stewart, and Mike Towry)."
What did the Witch-Boy do when he grew up? Well, he's credited as the co-writer of the Pam Tillis (the daughter of stuttering Mel Tellis, a man best known by film fans for performing "I'm Just a Coca Cola Cowboy" in the Clint Eastwood film, EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE) 1995 country hit, "In Between Dances" and he's a Grammy winner, for his liner notes to a collection of Peter, Paul, and Mary tunes...
It's a small world, after all...especially when playing "Six Degrees of Jack Kirby"....
Download Links:
THE DEMON #7 CBR file
Bonus: Witchboy Extras! The aforementioned interview from The Jack Kirby Collector #44, and an mp3 copy of "In Between Dances" by Pam Tillis
EXTRAS
