1st Issue Special #6: The Dingbats of Danger Street
By Jack freaking Kirby and Mike Royer
Jack Kirby spent a chunk of his long and brilliant career on comics featuring gangs of kids running wild, and the Dingbats was one last roll of the dice in 1975. And as Kirby got older, he looked farther into his own youth, and the Dingbats weren't out on the western plains, or fighting Nazis behind enemy lines, they were on the kind of streets that the King grew up on.
There is still a weirdo in a mask gassing the joint up, and the Dingbats themselves all have their own quirks. And it's still got the powerful energy of 70s Kirby, with characters flying across the panel and bashing into immovable objects, or leaping out windows while cackling at the cops.
It was just one of thousands of ideas that Kirby threw at the DC wall during this period, and despite a plea to write in and ask for more about the Dingbats' 'tragic stories', they were always going to be a footnote in the DC universe. Despite the small amount of depth that Kirby is able to give Good Looks, Non-Fat, Krunch and Bananas (truly unfortunate racial stereotyping and all), no serious comic book reader is ever going to ask for something called 'Dingbats', and all comic readers were starting to get very serious indeed in the mid seventies.
They are lucky to be in-jokes in crowd scenes these days. I am aware that Tom King has done something with the Dingbats and the rest of the 1st Issue Special crew in recent months, and I do not have any interest in looking at that.
Besides, one issue of the Dingbats could be enough. It's still a lot of fun in a tight little package, barely containing the enthusiasm of the Dingbats, who don't stand up for anybody except each other, especially all those crummy adults.
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