Appearing in "Toward Shadowed Places"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Griffin (First appearance; dies)
Other Characters:
Races and Species:
- Humans
- Androids
- Unicorns
- Minotaurs
- Griffins
- Smilodon
- Mammoths (Corpse, skeleton or other remains)
- Aerians
- Skites (Mentioned)
Locations:
- Pangea
- Atlantea
- Atlantean outpost
- Shalan
- Aerie Shalan
- Mount Flavius (First appearance) (Erupts)
- Atlantea
Items:
- Glass containers which housed a tiny unicorn, a tiny griffin, and a tiny minotaur.
- Flying equipment (artificial wings)
Synopsis for "Toward Shadowed Places"
Ka-Zar and Shanna are helping Dherk, the ancient Atlantean in his new android body, rebuild his outpost when a steam vent explodes, blasting an opening in a wall. Investigating, they find a room where several hemispherical glass cases mounted on pedestals contain tiny versions of various mythological creatures, including a unicorn, a minotaur, and a griffin, The trio assumes that the creatures are intricate little mechanical toys that were probably meant for a diorama display for the amusement park that was never completed. Hours later, after the repairs have been completed, Ka-Zar and Shanna leave the outpost and, after soon reuniting with Zabu, they all descend the slopes of the snow-covered Pangean steppes to the jungle below where they settle down for the night.
Later, just before dawn, Ka-Zar and Shanna are woken up by a frenzied Dherk shouting, "Where is it?" Things get a bit physical before Shanna reveals that "it" is in her knapsack, but they find that the sack had been ripped to shreds while they slept. It turns out that the creatures were real and had just been just shrunken down to a tiny size by the ancient Atlanteans, and that magnetic fields within their glass cages had kept them small and virtually immortal. Believing it to be a toy, Shanna had been unable to resist stealing the tiny griffin which has now escaped and is growing in size. Seconds later, they spot the griffin flying above them carrying a small dinosaur it has just caught to eat. Knowing that it will continue to grow and, after having been hungry for centuries, will continue to hunt and kill more and larger prey, they start to track it and find that it keeps getting bigger. After three days, the griffin has grown large enough to kill and feed on a mammoth. That night, as they sleep, Dherk leaves them because he doesn't need to rest anymore.
Later, Ka-Zar and Shanna are awoken when Zabu is attacked by the griffin. Despite the fact that the griffin is now much larger than him, Zabu manages to damage its wings enough to force the griffin to drop him and flee. After noticing that Dherk is gone, the trio resume tracking the griffin through the night and by the next day they come within sight of Aerie Shalan which is being attacked by the now-huge griffin. The Aerians manage to drive the griffin off with their thrown spears, but not before Buth's girlfriend Dephine is badly injured.
After Ka-Zar and Shanna explain how the griffin came to be loose, Buth organizes a hunting party to stop the monster, and Ka-Zar and Shanna are given newly-invented flying devices so that they can participate. Tracking the griffin to Mt. Flavius, Pangea's only active volcano, Shanna spots Dherk at the base of the volcano and flies down to him. Dherk reveals that that area was where the griffin was captured and he figured it would head back there. When the griffin descends towards them, Dherk keeps Shanna from moving because he had secretly set a trap by digging a pit and covering it. However, although the trap works, the griffin easily tears free from the net and escapes back into the air. While the Aerians surround the beast, Ka-Zar uses his sling to hurl a rock at the griffin which penetrates through its right eye and into its brain, causing it to fall into the mouth of the volcano over which it had been hovering. This blockage by the griffin's body causes the volcano to erupt and rip open an enormous gash in its base.
Later, while investigating the aftermath, Buth, Dherk, Shanna and Ka-Zar discover that the fissure in the volcano's base appears to be man-made and, once they're close enough, they see an inscription over it that reads "Abandon hope all ye who enter here." As they consider this unbelievable development, laughter is heard coming from the darkness behind the opening.
Notes
- The inscription above the just-revealed entrance reads, "Abandon hope all ye who enter here." This is similar to, but not quite the same as, the ending of the inscription that was above the gate to Hell as described in the poem Inferno that was written in the early 14th century by Dante Alighieri. In the next issue, Shanna, who is familiar with that poem, will mention that the inscription is supposed to read, "All hope abandon ye who entered here." According to Wikipedia, the phrase is most frequently translated as "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." Another translation reads, "Ye who make entrance, every hope resign!"
- The fact that the inscription is written in English seems anomalous, but a possible explanation will soon be provided. An editorial response in the letters page in Ka-Zar the Savage #13 will reveal that the words that were seemingly written in English in Ka-Zar the Savage #8 were actually written in Ancient Atlantean which is similar to Thallic, the language spoken by the upper classes in Pangea, the Aerians, and some of the inhabitants of the original Savage Land (including both Ka-Zar and Shanna), and that the creators of that issue had taken the liberty of translating those words into English for those readers who never took Thallic in school. Presumably, a similar situation exists with this inscription.
Trivia
- A fourth miniaturized creature is seen alongside the unicorn, minotaur and griffin. Although it's not named, what can be seen of it resembles a dragon.