“K” Is For …
… Kamandi, The Last Boy On Earth! (1972)
I was late to the party on Kamandi, and didn’t really dig into this series until I bought a whole whack of issues on digital a couple year ago. If I try to read too many of them in a row, my brain melts, but for a run here and a run there, Jack Kirby’s berserk animal post-apocalypse is a good read.
It is a boys’ adventure series, to be sure, and not so thought-provoking as the New Gods work Kirby did during this same period at DC, but not everything has to be cosmic stum-und-drang. And there’s still plenty to chew on in the subtext of Kamandi’s adventures, as we contemplate how men brought ruin to their world. Ugh, that virus!
Chime in with your favorite “K” books, below!
Honorable Mentions:
- Kingdom Come (1996)
- Karnak (2015)
Read more about Kamandi at Longbox Graveyard:
Check out the complete Longbox Graveyard Comics A-To-Z HERE!
Posted on February 12, 2018, in Comics A-To-Z and tagged Kamandi. Bookmark the permalink. 8 Comments.
dangvozden
Paul O'Connor
Kris (not Chris)
markginocchio
miloapama
Dean Compton
Moya
ryanmcswain
Longbox Graveyard 
A couple years ago, I found a mini called Killer of Demons. I probably bought it because it was by Christopher Yost, who cowrote one of the best 21st century X-Men runs in New X-Men.
Killer of Demons synopsis reads as:
“Dave is an average office worker that can see demons, and a cigar-smoking baby with wings is telling him to kill them all.”
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Sounds like a Steve Gerber subplot.
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A good choice even though Kingdom Come did get me back into reading comics after taking several years off. I sold all the comics off years ago but I did spring for the first Artist’s Edition IDW put out.
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I have Kingdom Come in print and digital and really remember nothing about it except a vague sense of approval. Good enough to rate an honorable mention, at least.
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I am voting today as teen-John, so my favorite “K” comic was “Kobra”! Published for only 7 issues in 1976 with issue #1 drawn by Jack Kirby himself. Other artists included Keith Giffen and Mike Nasser both of whom were favorites as well.
As grownup-John I think I would lean toward Kamandi as you did. It was just not something I really read until a few years ago in collected form. But it is Kirby at a high point and so it is magnificent.
“K” is mighty slim pickins. The only other contender that come to mind was the 1970s “Karate Kid” which sucked even though I wanted it to be good
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I vaguely remember Kobra. Wasn’t it some kind of super villain book?
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Yeah he was the head of a secretive international bad guy army like Hydra or AIM. He had a empathic connection to his twin brother (who was a good guy) so if one felt pain the other did as well. If one died so did the other.
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It’s a tossup for me between Kamandi and Karate Kid. They’re both very good, though I’m a LOSH nut so that probably clouds my opinion on Karate Kid.
I have some issues of Ka-zar, which is pretty good, as well as couple of issues of King Conan, which are similarly pretty good, and also some issues of Kull the Conqueror and one issue of Korak son of Tarzan (wow, K is a popular letter for barbarian titles!). And yes, I do have the Kitty Pride and Wolverine miniseries which I enjoyed back in the day.
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