The Kamandi Challenge!

[HsssH]

i hope someone uses Morrison's version of Ben Boxer. the one who can turn into bioMAC. it was a cool combination of two Kirby characters.

I think Ben Boxer is fine as he was in Kirby's run. At first I was very interested in this KirbyVerse thing that some writers have pushed for, but now I think that turning Kamandi or Ben Boxer into some kinda of OMAC variation and adding New Gods to the mix is rather restrictive and limited. Sure, nothing wrong in saying that Kamandi, OMAC and New Gods are happening in same "continuity", but they can (and I think should) represent different corners of this universe without interacting much with each other.

Wouldn't mind him doing a mini after this thing wraps up.

On the other hand it is likely that Pope has used up most of his Kamandi's ideas for his Battling Boy.

My thoughts reading this were, besides that the story was on point, that I want Eaglesham to get the Kamandi series ... and I wonder every next artist that comes along will make me rethink the last one.

I somewhat doubt that Eagleshman could do such high quality for whole series. Now I can't say for sure, but I feel that this story had some of the best pages he had ever done.

[Kirby101]

I left the DC Universe a few years ago, but I came back for this. Did not disappoint. Like others I loved the Giffen/Didio OMAC series (ended too soon). Can't await for some of the upcoming creators to take their turn.
If I am not mistaken, the symbol Kamandi sees on the arch at the War Museum in the second chapter is Brother Eye, so i expect OMAC in some form along the way, (if another writer picks up that bit). Didio did say they will travel all over the world of Kamandi, so i guess there is an editorial dictate to use certain characters and places along the way.
Looking forward to see what Neal Adams can do.

[jeanvaljean]

I liked the art a lot in the first issue.

Being an old fart, I did not really need a new origin, but I guess the market demands it.

[PyroTwilight]

What I've seen looks fun for this. Though I won't be really delving into it until it's in trades.

[Kirbyfan]

Absolutely loved the first issue!

I'm so excited for this, as you can see by my username! I'm a cartoonist and Kirby is my ultimate #1 influence!

I think Jack Kirby is one of the absolute greatest artist ever (in comics and cartooning) in the world!

I can't believe that DC hasn't devoted any kind of movie to their Kirby characters? I'm not talking about some quest appearance, I'm talking movies that star and are entirely devoted to Kirby's characters! Imagine Kamandi done by Pixar the way they did The Incredibles.

How is there not a New Gods movie?

Anyway I've gathered some local cartoonist in my area and we are taking on the Kamandi challenge!

I'm starting it off, and we are following the same rules as the DC teams except we will be working alone. So I will write and draw the first story, then hand it off to the next artist in line. The difference with our challenge is we each are only doing six pages, two for the beginning, two for the middle and two for the cliffhanger. Of course the artist can use the six any way he wants as long as he or she reaches the goal. The last artist will have the option to end the story or leave yet another cliffhanger!

We think it will be fun!

[jtd]

Issue #2 continues the fun, adventurous tale that is the Kamandi Challenge. Love the Neal Adams art. Still such fun, and absolutely loving that so many good writers & artists are involved in this challenge. And I enjoy greatly the reveal of the prior writer in how they would have gotten Kamndi out of their prior cliffhanger.

So...we have to talk about that splash page! Full of actual DC comic covers, from Legion of Superheroes, OMAC, Green Lantern/Green Arrow, etc. etc.(Neal Adams).

[K. Jones]

Neal Adams did great here. He's the kind of legendary artist who definitely still works best when he's forced to work 'in the box' of somebody else's process, whether it's a strong writer's tight script or a more collaborative 50/50 bullpen style process - on his own obviously he gets pretty out there, not just with the weird storytelling but the weird layouts. So yeah - having him reined in here actually allowed him to have more really impressive "blowout" style moments. Great fit.

Did not see "Trojan Nuke with Gorilla in it" coming! And well played having the Human Reserve incorporate the Convention Center. That's just great comics.

[Hatut Zeraze]

Absolutely loved the first issue!

I'm so excited for this, as you can see by my username! I'm a cartoonist and Kirby is my ultimate #1 influence!

I think Jack Kirby is one of the absolute greatest artist ever (in comics and cartooning) in the world!

I can't believe that DC hasn't devoted any kind of movie to their Kirby characters? I'm not talking about some quest appearance, I'm talking movies that star and are entirely devoted to Kirby's characters! Imagine Kamandi done by Pixar the way they did The Incredibles.

How is there not a New Gods movie?

Anyway I've gathered some local cartoonist in my area and we are taking on the Kamandi challenge!

I'm starting it off, and we are following the same rules as the DC teams except we will be working alone. So I will write and draw the first story, then hand it off to the next artist in line. The difference with our challenge is we each are only doing six pages, two for the beginning, two for the middle and two for the cliffhanger. Of course the artist can use the six any way he wants as long as he or she reaches the goal. The last artist will have the option to end the story or leave yet another cliffhanger!

We think it will be fun!

You guys are awesome. Let us know how it turns out.

[Powertool]

I must say that the "cliffhanger left to be resolved by a completely different writer" is one of the most interesting gimmicks I've ever seen in a comic book! I can see this series being regarded as a modern classic a few years down the line, at the very least because this comic book somehow reads in many ways like a title from the Seventies without being weighed down by that decade's idiosyncrasies (would you believe there was a Jack Kirby's Kamandi story where the friggin' Watergate scandal prominently featured?).

Now, if only sales were higher...

[Elegant Dreamer]

I must say that the "cliffhanger left to be resolved by a completely different writer" is one of the most interesting gimmicks I've ever seen in a comic book! I can see this series being regarded as a modern classic a few years down the line, at the very least because this comic book somehow reads in many ways like a title from the Seventies without being weighed down by that decade's idiosyncrasies (would you believe there was a Jack Kirby's Kamandi story where the friggin' Watergate scandal prominently featured?).

Now, if only sales were higher...

Maybe they can boost sales by having Kamandi appearing on Legends of Tomorrow; it is a time-traveling show, but that's me and my small weird opinion.

[Kirby101]

Issue #3 folks. Palmiotti and Conner. A fun, if brutal romp. The deaths of some characters were a bit over the top, but the story dealing with religious groups in Earth AD (or whatever Kirby called it) was good.

[scribbleMind]

I've been enjoying this very much. Not at all surprised about the sells tho. Kamandi had hardly ever been pushed in my lifetime. Hell, I know plenty of people that consider themselves comic book fans that don't know a thing about Kamandi. The kid barely has guest spots in other shows. If Multiversity didn't do such a good job on selling me on it, I probably wouldn't be picking this up now.

Which is a shame. What little I've personally gleamed from the franchise has really led me to believe it's something special. I mean, this is a DC movie I would kill for.

[Kirby101]

It was such a singularly Kirby creation, that never fit well with the DCU. But Kamandi has it's fan base.

[Kevin Street]

I've always loved Kamandi! It was the first comic book series to debut after I became a regular reader. I didn't buy issue #1 when it was on the rack (BIG mistake!), but collected every other issue over the years, and finally got #1 at a convention more than three decades later. Back then it wasn't easy to buy every consecutive issue, because the spinner racks didn't always stock them, so I had to read it non-consecutively over time, and it was mind blowing! In one issue Kamandi would be a slave of the tigers, then in another he'd be fighting apes and investigating the mysteries of Washington DC, then in another he'd have a whole new supporting cast and they'd be flying around in a UFO! It all made some kind of sense to my fevered pre-teenage imagination, and then later I'd reread the whole series after collecting them all and it actually did make sense. Good times!

Kamandi Challenge #3 is great! Probably the best issue of the series so far. Palmiotti and Conner pack a lot of story into twenty-four pages, and it's just the kind of heedless, headlong action that suits Kamandi best. This issue probably has the largest number of animals so far, and Conner's designs are really fun. Some of them look a little cuter than we're used to for creatures in the world of The Great Disaster, but that just makes the cognitive dissonance all the weirder when they savagely fight each other to the death. And they add a new supporting cast member with Vila! A sentient plant girl... And then there's the cliffhanger! Good luck indeed.

[Powertool]

To be honest, I thought that the cliffhanger being a super-sized leopard was quite unoriginal since Dan DiDio had already written a similar one featuring a mutant giant gorilla. On the other hand, the fact that the mega-leopard appears to be intelligent and wears a necklace of tanks and fighter jets already makes it much cooler than the gorilla of issue #1.

P.S. The copy of this issue that I found seems to lack the post-faction piece where the writer of the previous issue explains how he would have solved the cliffhanger he set up for the next author. Is it missing on every copy or is it just mine? And if it's the latter, what did Tomasi write?