Rorgg, King of the Spider Monsters (Monsterbus p.441)

An interesting one, this. At first I was going to say it's pretty thin on content, but on reflection there are some unique ideas.

This is the first Monsterbus story to feature a boy and his girlfriend as the heroes, and the ending leaves it open for more adventures. The previous story also had a two person team and left the ending open for further stories. We see this so often, Kirby is pushing for continued stories. And I hope it's not sexist to note that the girl is very pretty! People who say Kirby can't draw women either don't have eyes or were brought up on plastic dolls. Kirby draws the best real women of any comic artist I know.

The idea of giant six legged spider-things spinning webs between planets??? Mind blowing! I love it! I haven't even tried to get my head around it, I'm sure there is some way to explain it, but it's just too wonderful!!!

DDT

I also learned something about DDT: I had assumed that, since it only worked on insects, it must be something about their size. E.g. blocking their respiratory spiracles. Obviously that would not work on large creatures (spiracles circulate air using normal diffusion, so it only works if the air has a very short distance to go). But no, apparently DDT "opens sodium ion channels in neurons, causing them to fire spontaneously, which leads to spasms and eventual death" (Wikipedia). Just as we saw in Kirby's stories. So, yes, it would work on larger creatures as long as they were similar to insects. Kirby gets it right again!

Kirby the prophet

Note that the boy had the practical skills to make things, and read a great deal of speculative fiction. Both are extremely useful. Do modern children read as much? Do they have as much experience with making things? If we see the spider creatures as a metaphor for dangers in general, are we as prepared as in the past?

Hey, this is sounding like a Sunday School manual :) Sunday School where we study Kirby? I could support that!