This one was a whopper, but one I was willing to hurt myself doing;-) Damon sent me his 60th commission which included all the retro Jungle Action villains from the “Panther’s Prey” saga by Don McGregor with artists Rich Buckler, Gil Kane, and most-notably Billy Graham, with various inkers but most-notably Klaus Janson. The rogues included: (clockwise from top left) Lord Karnaj, Salamander K’Ruel, Baron Macabre, Sombre, King Kadaver, Madame Slay with Killmonger’s leopard Preyy, and Erik Killmonger himself in the center. If I wanted to be a stickler I’d say that we’re also missing Mute who served Ms. Slay to avenge the death of her lover KM, aka N’Jadaka. Or the original Malice who disappeared and was later replaced by Nakia of the Dora Milaje. Or Venomm who gave up on KM’s quest of Wakanda conquest and reformed.
And there were other minor guys involved as well like Kazibe, Tayete, and Tanzika but now I’m simply showing off His lieutenants were legion, indeed. From this group, King Kadaver died by being stepped on by a dinosaur (don’t ask) and KM died, and came, back, and died, etc….these are comics after all. Other than Venomm, Madame Slay, and KM, the rest have not appeared to date AFAIK, save for an alternate future story. My 7th time inking Val, I used my usual inking back of tricks, and tried to keep all the contrast I needed so that everything would read ok as well as the spatial elements. And I even added some rub-on dot Instantex on Kadaver’s head like original Jungle Action artist Billy Graham did as a tribute. After an eon in ink, I completed this 11X17 image on 2-ply board on 2-ply DC board on 2/17/10.

http://www.valsemeiks.com/

Pencil art by Val Semeiks

Ink art by Bob Almond