To celebrate Jack Kirby’s 100th birthday in 2017, DC published The Kamandi Challenge, a 12 issue maxi-series starring Kirby’s character Kamandi, where tag-teams of creators would produce one issue before handing off to another. Not that I’m much of a Kirby or Kamandi fan, but I am a Tom King fan which is the reason why I’m reading issue #9 only, the one he wrote (I’m not prepared to pick up the complete book and wade through the other 11 issues considering they’re written by the likes of Dan Abnett, Keith Giffen, Marguerite Bennett, Steve Orlando and Dan Didio – there’s not enough barf in the world to express how I feel about reading those writers’ comics!). And I guess it’s appropriate that Tom King got to write an issue given Kirby’s nickname was “King”!
Kamandi, the last man on a post-apocalyptic Earth populated by talking humanoid animals, regains consciousness in a cell with other prisoners. He doesn’t know where he is or why he’s there and he can’t escape. Every day a robot/alien thing opens the door and takes away one of the prisoners – Kamandi tries to fight it and each day he fails. This goes on for months.
I’ve never read a Kamandi comic before but I’ve seen him appear in several events like the numerous Crises and Multiversity and I got the impression that his stories weren’t quite so nightmarishly Kafka-esque! Which might bother true blue fans of Kirby’s Kamandi – not least because the monotone retelling of Kamandi’s adventures almost feel like King is highlighting the absurdity and corniness of Kirby’s comics - but I really don’t have any truck with Silver Age comics so I’m glad King’s giving Kamandi the modern-day treatment.
Still, I’m kinda in the middle on this one. On the one hand I like the strange, bleak tone of the story which nevertheless has this undercurrent message of hopeful resistance and creation in the face of total powerlessness and imminent destruction – a very Stoic worldview and possibly a metaphor for making comics or any art. On the other hand, the story’s a little too flat and repetitive with an unsatisfying resolution. Which is perhaps a fault of the format – King only had the one issue – and I’d have liked to read what King could do with a full six or even twelve issues, but other writers can still produce great single issues in the same space (ie. Grant Morrison’s Batman #666).
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman draws the comic with Freddie Williams II, which might be a selling point if you’re an Eastman/TMNT fan, but I’m not and I wasn’t that impressed by the art. There’s nothing technically wrong with it, it’s just not to my taste.
The Kamandi Challenge #9 is an enigma of a comic that I might’ve gotten more out of if I was more au fait with Kirby’s oeuvre though it’s also not one I disliked either.
Kamandi, the last man on a post-apocalyptic Earth populated by talking humanoid animals, regains consciousness in a cell with other prisoners. He doesn’t know where he is or why he’s there and he can’t escape. Every day a robot/alien thing opens the door and takes away one of the prisoners – Kamandi tries to fight it and each day he fails. This goes on for months.
I’ve never read a Kamandi comic before but I’ve seen him appear in several events like the numerous Crises and Multiversity and I got the impression that his stories weren’t quite so nightmarishly Kafka-esque! Which might bother true blue fans of Kirby’s Kamandi – not least because the monotone retelling of Kamandi’s adventures almost feel like King is highlighting the absurdity and corniness of Kirby’s comics - but I really don’t have any truck with Silver Age comics so I’m glad King’s giving Kamandi the modern-day treatment.
Still, I’m kinda in the middle on this one. On the one hand I like the strange, bleak tone of the story which nevertheless has this undercurrent message of hopeful resistance and creation in the face of total powerlessness and imminent destruction – a very Stoic worldview and possibly a metaphor for making comics or any art. On the other hand, the story’s a little too flat and repetitive with an unsatisfying resolution. Which is perhaps a fault of the format – King only had the one issue – and I’d have liked to read what King could do with a full six or even twelve issues, but other writers can still produce great single issues in the same space (ie. Grant Morrison’s Batman #666).
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman draws the comic with Freddie Williams II, which might be a selling point if you’re an Eastman/TMNT fan, but I’m not and I wasn’t that impressed by the art. There’s nothing technically wrong with it, it’s just not to my taste.
The Kamandi Challenge #9 is an enigma of a comic that I might’ve gotten more out of if I was more au fait with Kirby’s oeuvre though it’s also not one I disliked either.
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