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Sporr (Monsterbus p.294)

Superb! Some of the recent stories showed evidence of editing, or of being hurried. But this is Kirby at his best! It has seven of the eight signs of a Kirby story (the missing one, no text before the title, is optional anyway). There is so much in this!

  • The start of Dracula, and its rich location
  • Frankenstein references and movie motifs (the villagers with pitchforks were not in the book IIRC). 
  • Real creativity: not just an alien or conventional monster - it has no brain or desire
  • Real science: amoebas exist, and Kirby even gives them their correct phylum, protozoa.
  • More science: how the amoeba does not have a brain but simply reacts.
  • More science: how experiments must progress slowly, step by step.
  • The name: "sporr" is of course a "spore"
  • Adding the phylum is one of many indications that the dialog is not significantly edited by Lee. Other indications include:
    • the lack of "explain the obvious" text
    • the general sparse efficiency of the text
    • the amount of text fits the art
    • the ending fits the tone of the story
  • A real world solution to the problem: use sugar to attract the creature so where it can do no damage! I will forgive the quicksand ending (real world quicksand is not that deep) because the realistic alternative was just too dull. The other solution was to keep it following, until your colleagues can build strong walls around it. I'm so glad he didn't use a too-convenient reverso-ray.
  • Not one but two morals: both sides learned lessons.
As for how this is Kirby the prophet, I refer readers back to my theory that in the real world, scientists and engineers are indeed expanding a simple life form until it defeats us.

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