Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, dc, entertainment, idw, jack kirby, Kamandi, The Last Boy On Earth

Is Kamandi Jack Kirby's Most Beloved Creation?

Published Sun, 21 Jun 2015 17:00:53 -0500

With the recent release of IDW's Jack Kirby's Kamandi, The Last Boy On Earth Artist Edition Vol 1… besides it being a really long title, it puts a spotlight on a character that some people love while others don't seem to know that well. In the description for the book, Kamandi is called: "Jack Kirby's most beloved creation." Which is saying something when the guy created or co-created so many of the popular characters in the Marvel Universe and a few over at DC as well.

So who is Kamandi? Well, first he was created from a few different pieces of work Kirby had previously done. DC Editor Carmine Infantino asked Jack to come up with a series similar to the Planet of the Apes, a license that DC tried and failed to obtain. Jack knew the plot of the movie and had created something similar called The Last Enemy for Harvey years prior. He combined that with an unused comic idea called Kamandi of the Caves.

The series started in 1972 after the cancellation of the Forever People. Kirby wrote and drew the first 37 issues and drawing #38 through #40 from scripts by Gerry Conway. After that Jack left DC to go back to Marvel. Kamandi continued on until issue #59 ended the series in 1978.

As for the story… the short version is that there was a scientist, Dr. Michael Grant, who created a drug called Cortexin that stimulated the reasoning abilities in animals. Then there was a Great Disaster that wiped out humanity. It was never specifically stated what the disaster was, but we knew it was radiation based and wasn't a nuclear war. As the disaster was happening, Grant decided to release the animals that he had been experimenting on and dump all the cortexin into a stream created by a broken water pipe. The water fed down towards a zoo where the animals were escaping and drank from the tainted water. The Cortexin mixed with the radiation caused the animals to mutate into bi-pedal and sentient. Hence a Planet of the Apes type world but with more than just apes.

Kamandi is one of the last surviving humans, raised by his elderly grandfather in a hidden bunker just outside of the ruins of New York. He knows the previous world through microfilm and videos but knows nothing of the new world until a wolf kills his grandfather and Kamandi must venture out. His name is derived from the bunker he was raised in… Command D. No other name was ever revealed.

Kirby did exactly what Infantino asked. He created a Planet of the Apes type world with a young human protagonist. Whether this is Kirby's most beloved creation is a bit subjective, but there is no doubt love for the character out there… Just one example is a comic book store in Dracut, Massachusetts. The store is called Command D and it has a giant Kamandi mural pained on the side. You got to love a character to want to see him that large every day.