Since we’ve had some fun at the great Jack Kirby’s expense at this site, it’s only fair to show why he was justly revered. You can guess the plot from the copy - if she’s the freak, then beauty is abnormal. See also, that Twilight Zone episode with the SHOCKING TWIST AT THE END. Without the copy, this would be an example of the Purity of Absolute Beauty, Kirby style, horrifying the awful things with her implacable perfection. Take that, ye whose ugliness speaks of an inner paucity of moral standards!

That wouldn’t be a theme in the comics, though; they knew their audiences too well. Really hideous people were usually good. They might be misunderstood, but they were usually good souls. Witches were ugly - duh. Mobsters might be ugly, but were more likely suave. Grasping miserly people were always ugly. Ugly henpcked husbands might have been good once, before they married that scheming dame who does nothing but sit around and eat bonbons and throw her lovers in his face - not literally, thank the stars for that - but now they’re ugly inside. And so on.

In any case, Kirby’s assembled some interesting misshapen horrors. The only one who seems like he might be found in a circus is the fellow without legs; otherwise, they’re all off the charts. Armless Cyclops. Pile of Quickly Digested Dog Crap Man. That awful screaming troll with two heads. My favorite: The Man With One Leg, leaving the scene with sad, stately dignity.

You know, it’s possible the guy led her out there to test whether her new “perfume” was as awful as he’d told her it was.