BLUE DEVIL, Issue 20 (1985) - Part 2
This post covers Blue Devil, issue 20, “Old Haunts”. Published in 1985 by DC Comics. Written by Gary Cohn & Dan Mishkin. penciled by Alan Kupperberg, inked by Bill Collins, lettered by Bob Lappan, color by Michele Wolfman, and edited by Alan Gold.
When last we left off…it’s literally half of a comic and I’m already realizing how much backstory and exposition is needed due to the convoluted nature of Blue Devil’s premise, not to mention the weird inclusion of DC Comics’ E.C. Comics rip-off House Of Mystery characters/settings, but let’s do our best:
It’s Halloween, Blue Devil (stuntman in suit looks like pirate demon) is trying to find a furry creature that eats everything who is currently trick-or-treating with B.D.’s kid sidekick, Kid Devil (yes really), and somehow this is all tied in to the concert Sharon (Blue Devil’s girlfriend) is attending which is being headlined by a dead musician who has been stuck journeying across variations of Hells for the past twelve years (which seems incredibly grim for a comic who has a character named “Kid Devil” paired with a sentient pom-pom as the main threat).
Blue Devil is out with Cain looking for the Hairy Devourer. Yeah it sounds like either the worst wrestling gimmick or the best pornstar, but apparently it’s truly a figure worthy of awe and fear.
But even Blue Devil recognizes this plot thread’s inability to stoke fright OR interest and is headed to join back where the action is…at the Windows concert underway at the Thrillmore! Sharon has been beckoned on stage by the lead singer, Blackjack—the very same “dead for twelve years” singer to whom Blue Devil is referring.
Why an undead folk rocker dresses like Jon Mikl Thor is never explained, but maybe he was just Sabbath before Sabbath? The ancestry of heavy metal is truly a long and winding musical road. While no one would ever throw money at an adaptation of Blue Devil issue 20 (not even in a THE PRODUCERS-style grift), but if they were to bring this piece of literary brilliance to the cinemas? #JMTforBlackjack
Drink it in.
Blackjack is confused because he’s used the throngs of people’s….attention? not quite certain…to conjure up the energy to beckon forth the arcane creature from beyond time and comprehension. He even brought up Sharon as a sacrifice, but I guess that’s more of a worm-on-a-bait/KING KONG situation. And yet here he stands with nothing to show for it.
The fun part of this is remember that the two advanced aged hippie bandmates are not in on Blackjack’s plan. So are they just noodling and riffing on “Nightwind” and waiting for some sign of a key change or something?
Which reminds me: I *begged* you people for some recordings of “Nightwind” last time. I got nothing. Step it up! You have my contact information. You have the rudimentary lyrics of “Nightwind”. You have free music recording software. Bring me me a Halloween miracle this Festival of Samhain, won’t you?
…PLEASE!!!
Oh but wait, ye Blackjack of little faith—for a vision has strode its way amongst the crowd. Death stalks the Thrillmore on two legs in the form of…The Hairy Devourer.
At least the writers are in on the joke, but none of it lands quite right. It’s kind of like when the titular monster in 1987’s MUNCHIES go from cute Mogwai-types dressed like Yoda into mean rat monsters in bathrobes; add failed comedy to failed horror is just doubling down on the bad.
I’m not sure why, but the Hairy Devourer (in this form, he wrote, failing to whip some semblance of suspense) reminds me of these alien creatures that were part of Reese’s ad campaigns in comic books in the ‘80s. Just that weird mix of fuzzy and awkward and cartoony.
Also—if you got that MUNCHIES reference without Googling? I have some bad news: we are now best friends and soul sworn to defend each other until the dying of the light. I don’t make the rules, I simply abide by them.
But Blackjack is greatly displeased with this cute little moppet who just wants to get his snack on, as husky child sidekick Kid Devil (still packing that Bubble Shooter, btw) tells the crowd. So he pushes forward with his plain to rile the eldritch horror and become alive again…while continuing his career in music? I mean, times have changed, dude. Your last record was the late ‘60s and it’s 1985 and you think you got what it takes to churn out more hits? Blackjack—you’re a session player AT BEST.
I cannot iterate enough that Blackjack’s plan is amorphous at best. He has the ability to transform the club (or at least make it appear transformed into the all new, all different Thrillmore) and to maintain his illusory appearance so people aren’t constantly pointing out that he looks like the love child between Prince Adam and Skeletor.
Bangs aren’t for everyone.
But he needs more magic to stay out of the other hells and rejoin the living and then….Step 3, Profit? Still his burnout bandmates are simpatico as the follow along with Blackjack’s instructions to “keep playing, bros”. And keep playing they shall so they may bring forth the awesome evil of the Hairy Devourer’s true form.
It’s clear that writers Cohn and Mishkin wanted it all to be a silly Halloween yarn with a monster that’s more Cousin Itt or E.T. than Gozer The Destructor or even Trumpy, but still have those macabre touches like a skull-faced Hell songbird magician and the appearance of a being of immeasurable evil. Again, invoking that E.C. Comics feeling not just with Cain and the House Of Mystery, but also a playful comedy with some real elements of horror.
But Kupperberg’s “final form” of the Hairy Devourer is…not great! It could kind of work in Kirby-esque land of Deviants with those botched attempts at Hieronymus Bosch monsters he used to draw.
Though, I would like to challenge Grant Morrison to write a powerful (either terrifying or simply emotional moving) story built around Hairy Devourer. Your move, Morrison! If you can make Prez work, I think this can still happen. So now Blackjack spells out his plan—the Devourer will eat Sharon’s soul, which will thus take the place of the singer’s damned spirit, and allow him to live again. Seems like there’ll be a lot of clean-up and questions to answer, also the whole point of the Hairy Devourer is that it eats and eats and eats. So why would fridging one comic book hero’s love interest sate its bottomless appetite? Apparently the big clump of fur is also unclear about his marching orders because he remains unmoved by Blackjack’s commands.
And we get a nice moment to say some catchphrase and face the camera as Kid Devil informs Blackjack and the readers that Hairy Devourer did eat a lot of candy. I like to think this incident has accidentally revealed the ancient entity’s one weakness: diabetes! But no time to question or need to fear because Blue Devil has arrived to jump around and…kind of just get swatted at by the monster (who, again, seems to have zero interest in actually eating Sharon or really being associated with this Blackjack prick at all).
Credit where credit is due, this is a solid exchange that would work in comics and films if it showed up today:
“Quick synopsis, Marla — in words of one syllable!”
“The monster wants to eat her, Dan!”
And yes, monster isn’t one syllable. But I ask you, pedants, who is the real monster in this situation? The fluffy little guy that wanted to see what all the fuss is about, or the Technical Police who are robbing a moment of genuine fun from Blue Devil issue 20? WHO IS THE REAL MONSTER AMONGST US!?!?
Blue Devil shows up and thanks to Cain’s keen insight, knows to throw the Hairy Devourer into the pentagram. So something called “the hairy devourer” went into a symbol often used to denote a butthole. Comics, everyone.
And what prevented Blackjack from stopping the Hairy Devourer being launched into another realm? Yup, you guessed it: Muthafuckin’ Bubble Shooter for the win.
But Blackjack ain’t having it, see! He’s still got time! He’s got until midnight to get the Devourer back, and have a soul ready to swap.
And since the audience has not left at all during this entire series of events (I like to think a tiny Timmy Gwar, Jr. was in the stands that fateful night and had an idea for a new type of rock show…), Blackjack does have his pickings from which to choose. But the hippies flee, so there goes that sweet riffing on the same power chords of all good stone rock. And Cain is already tired of his involvement in all of this which leads to this great cheat:
Yeah, Cain comes through on some real CLOCKSTOPPERS stuff here and essentially fast forwards to the end of story. He makes it suddenly midnight, which means Blackjack is screwed and has to go back to roaming multiple Hells (again, very ambiguous existence/punishment). I kind of feel like if this had been more PSYCHOMANIA-like, with specific spells and goals (just keep performing), that might have ironed it out a tad. But if you just have deus ex pocketwatch, then no need to add any more time or energy on heavy lifting of plot.
So the clock strikes twelve, people are no longer in the seats (I guess they left during the timeshift?). Also I bet L.A. actually has a surprisingly early ordinance for when shows need to end.
In any case, shit goes sideways fast. Blackjack figures out the guy with the timepiece is involved with the weird events surrounding time. But the folk rocker’s undying cry that “Blackjack is back” is consumed by dark magic as he is transformed from the lead singer of The Tritonz into a pretty dope skeleton with nice coloring by Michele Wolfman to make it look chrome and kind of melancholic in its own way.
But, with Blackjack gone, the Thrillmore is come undone. Blue Devil grabs his girlfriend and leaves the rest (including a child) to fend for themselves. (The hippies of Windows have already split, so they’re safe and blazed somewhere.) I appreciate some more dialogue here: “Whatever weirdness made the Thrillmore rise out of the rubble is gone, along with Blackjack!”
Just using “weirdness” as a good catch-all noun for the strange goings-on that Blue Devil and his entourage encounter. It could mean supernatural, but also since Dan is in a suit and not actually transformed into a devil, it allows for random cosmic shit or other superhero happenings as well.
The issue limps to an ending, with jokes that the smarmy manager of Windows is back because there’s no such thing as bad publicity and soon those stoned roses will be rocking out venues all over the place on their 1985 “Wait, how are we not liable for a class action lawsuit?” Tour!
Cain again points out that Blue Devil should take over the empty room in the House Of Weirdness (which he kind of does in later issues). And then an odd teaser that the garage will be the next great battleground for this DC Comics superhero.
Blue Devil is probably C-list (and that may be charitable). But he is undeniably goofy in a fun way. Adding the West Coast showbiz angle makes for some bad jokes but also occasions for less than great people to constantly run afoul of Dan and the rest. It’s also great to see an issue just end—not be a part of a larger arc or be concluded (somewhat) in the next episode. Comics were a lot more episodic in the ‘80s, even when they were tied in to larger story threads or cross-title initiatives, there usually was a sense of “well that’s over for now”. Honestly, DC would probably do well to use Blue Devil more (reinstating his convoluted man-in-suit/not actually devil origins), and it would be an instance for RKSS, Jason Eisener, Gigi Saul Guerrero, or some other gonzo horror types to approach it with a smaller budget but much more freedom.