Devil Dinosaur #1

History

Kirby created Devil Dinosaur during his third and final stint at Marvel (1975–1978), after his relationship with DC Comics had soured. Having learned that DC was developing an animated series based on Kirby's own Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth, Marvel instructed Kirby to devise a comparable concept — one built around a dinosaur co-star, since dinosaurs were a proven draw with young audiences — that Marvel could similarly pitch for animation. Kirby served as writer, penciler, and editor on the resulting series, with Mike Royer inking the interior pages and Archie Goodwin listed as consulting editor; the cover of issue #1 was inked by Frank Giacoia. The proposed cartoon never materialized, and Kirby left Marvel for the animation industry after completing the nine-issue run, but in the issue's own letters column he noted that his original intent was for Devil and Moon-Boy to represent a real dinosaur and an early human from Earth's actual prehistoric past — a cosmology later revised by subsequent writers who placed the duo in an alternate-universe Dinosaur World.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearances of Devil Dinosaur (a mutated, crimson Tyrannosaurus-like dinosaur) and Moon-Boy (a member of the Small-Folk tribe), both of whom would go on to anchor two separate ongoing Marvel series decades later.
• First appearances of supporting/antagonist characters: the Small-Folk tribe, the Killer-Folk tribe, and specific Killer-Folk members Seven-Scars and Stone-Hand, as well as the rival dinosaur Thunder-Horn (a Triceratops).
• Written, penciled, and edited entirely by Jack Kirby, with inks by Mike Royer (interior) and Frank Giacoia (cover) — Kirby exercised unusually comprehensive creative control over the full nine-issue series.
• The issue establishes Devil's origin: the Killer-Folk slaughtered his family and their torches burned his skin from green to red, triggering a mutation that enhanced his strength and durability; Moon-Boy nursed him back to health, forging their bond.
• The series ran for only nine issues (April–December 1978) before Kirby departed for animation work; a planned tie-in cartoon never went into production.
• Devil Dinosaur #1 was reprinted in: the Devil Dinosaur by Jack Kirby Omnibus (Marvel, July 2007), Marvel Visionaries: Jack Kirby Vol. 2 (2006), Marvel Firsts: The 1970s Vol. 3 (2012), Devil Dinosaur by Jack Kirby: The Complete Collection trade paperback (2014), and the True Believers: Kirby 100th – Devil Dinosaur one-shot (October 2017).
• The characters were revived in the 2015 ongoing series Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, which paired Devil with genius inventor Lunella Lafayette (Moon Girl); that comic in turn inspired the Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur animated series on Disney Channel and Disney+, which premiered February 10, 2023, won five Children's and Family Emmy Awards, and ran through March 2025.
• Devil and Moon-Boy were first integrated into mainstream Marvel continuity through Godzilla, King of the Monsters #21–22 (1979), just four months after the original series ended.

Cast · 15 characters

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