by Dick Ayers
from Weird Worlds No. 3, April 1971
I remember reading this story in Weird Worlds back in 1971 and thinking it was.....fantastic !
By the standards of the time, it was. The sf comics on the newsstands back then all adhered to the Comics Code, and many - particularly DC's anthology titles like Strange Adventures - were comprised of reprinted stories originally published in the 50s and 60s. These older comics were well-illustrated, but bland.
With 'The Demon Star', stalwart Eerie Publications artist - and comics veteran - Dick Ayers starts off on a downbeat note, with a spaceship crew shown dying in horrible fashion...... literally melting to death ! The story then segues into a series of flashbacks featuring bloody battles with a variety of aliens. True to form, Ayers concludes the tale with some of his trademark detached heads, eyeballs (and even - I think - a severed limb !).
The fatalistic, existential atmosphere of 'The Demon Star' made it stand out from all of the Code-restricted sf comics of its era.......and even today, makes it compare favorably with a lot of the shorter entries in anthologies like Dark Horse's rebooted Creepy Comics and Eerie.
It just didn't get any better back in '71......posted below is 'The Demon Star' in its entirety........
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