#Jack Kirby

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Comics We're Thankful For:
Harris Smith is thankful for Kamandi: The Last Boy On Earth

It’s almost impossible not to recognize Jack Kirby’s contribution to comics, and to pop culture in general.  As co-creator of Captain America, the X-Men, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four and numerous others, his vision has reverberated throughout the popular collective unconscious for decades.  What’s easy to overlook, however, is that while Kirby was adept not only at creating icons but also at tapping into the zeitgeist of the times in a way that resonated with readers, he was much more than a keen-eyed populist.  Jack Kirby was an artist with seemingly boundless imagination.  He was a risk-taker with a unique individual style.  While it’s always entertaining, much of Kirby’s work is also challenging and complex, rich with the obsessive detail of the true visionary, one who creates not just to appeal to a wide audience, but to fulfill something within themselves, to explore and express something fundamental to the core of their being.

This is nowhere more evident than in Kirby’s less popular work from the 1970s.  After his success with the aforementioned Marvel characters, he moved to DC in 1970 and created some of the most beautifully imaginative, boundary-pushing, medium-elevating work in the history of comics.  Witness Kamandi, a 1972 series initially conceived as a knock-off of Planet of the Apes, but which built a vast rich mythology around the last boy on earth’s journeys around a post-apocalyptic world where humans have been supplanted by various species of intelligent animals.

Far from a simple adventure story, Kamandi is loaded with intriguing ideas and striking creative flourishes.  Visually, it’s Kirby as his most brilliant.  Each panel is loaded with so much dynamism, they threaten to explode off the page.  The work seems to pulsate with vibrancy.  Kirby’s rubble-strewn landscapes of our fallen civilization are at once breathtaking and heartbreaking.  His signature double splash pages are incomparable, whether they depict the New York City skyline submerged in water or a colony of sentient apes maintaing a monstrous pastiche of techno-primitive machinery. 

Kamandi is the kind of narrative that passionate readers dream of, the kind of fictional universe that vibrates with such robust vitality that it takes on a life of its own.  Do yourself a favor this holiday season and take some time out of the hustle and bustle of last-minute shopping and family gatherings to let yourself be engulfed in the phantasmagorical wonderland Jack Kirby’s imagination.  You’ll be thankful you did.

[Read Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth on comiXology]

Harris Smith is a Brooklyn-based comics and media professional. In addition to his role as a Senior Production Coordinator at comiXology, he edits several comics anthologies, including Jeans and Felony Comics, under the banner of Negative Pleasure Publications. He’s also the host of the weekly radio show Negative Pleasure on Newtown Radio.

negativepleasure

i wrote some words about Jack Kirby for my job

negativepleasure:

comixology:

Comics We're Thankful For:
Harris Smith is thankful for Kamandi: The Last Boy On Earth

It’s almost impossible not to recognize Jack Kirby’s contribution to comics, and to pop culture in general.  As co-creator of Captain America, the X-Men, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four and numerous others, his vision has reverberated throughout the popular collective unconscious for decades.  What’s easy to overlook, however, is that while Kirby was adept not only at creating icons but also at tapping into the zeitgeist of the times in a way that resonated with readers, he was much more than a keen-eyed populist.  Jack Kirby was an artist with seemingly boundless imagination.  He was a risk-taker with a unique individual style.  While it’s always entertaining, much of Kirby’s work is also challenging and complex, rich with the obsessive detail of the true visionary, one who creates not just to appeal to a wide audience, but to fulfill something within themselves, to explore and express something fundamental to the core of their being.

This is nowhere more evident than in Kirby’s less popular work from the 1970s.  After his success with the aforementioned Marvel characters, he moved to DC in 1970 and created some of the most beautifully imaginative, boundary-pushing, medium-elevating work in the history of comics.  Witness Kamandi, a 1972 series initially conceived as a knock-off of Planet of the Apes, but which built a vast rich mythology around the last boy on earth’s journeys around a post-apocalyptic world where humans have been supplanted by various species of intelligent animals.

Far from a simple adventure story, Kamandi is loaded with intriguing ideas and striking creative flourishes.  Visually, it’s Kirby as his most brilliant.  Each panel is loaded with so much dynamism, they threaten to explode off the page.  The work seems to pulsate with vibrancy.  Kirby’s rubble-strewn landscapes of our fallen civilization are at once breathtaking and heartbreaking.  His signature double splash pages are incomparable, whether they depict the New York City skyline submerged in water or a colony of sentient apes maintaing a monstrous pastiche of techno-primitive machinery. 

Kamandi is the kind of narrative that passionate readers dream of, the kind of fictional universe that vibrates with such robust vitality that it takes on a life of its own.  Do yourself a favor this holiday season and take some time out of the hustle and bustle of last-minute shopping and family gatherings to let yourself be engulfed in the phantasmagorical wonderland Jack Kirby’s imagination.  You’ll be thankful you did.

[Read Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth on comiXology]

Harris Smith is a Brooklyn-based comics and media professional. In addition to his role as a Senior Production Coordinator at comiXology, he edits several comics anthologies, including Jeans and Felony Comics, under the banner of Negative Pleasure Publications. He’s also the host of the weekly radio show Negative Pleasure on Newtown Radio.

i wrote some words about Jack Kirby for my job

jack kirbykamandireference