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One of DC’s odder projects for 2017  is The Kamandi Challenge, a 12 issue limited series that pairs randomly selected writers and artists for each issue in an exquisite corpse style storytelling challenge. All the stories center on Jack Kirby’s Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, a be-loinclothed post apocalyptic survivor who roams a changed worldscape, and the stories are inspired by the above map of Kamandi’s world by Kirby.

Every team ends their issue on a cliffhanger and the next team must solve it and set up their own poser. The first and last issues are double sized with a prologue and epilogue by the team of Dan DiDio and Keith Giffen and the whole thng kicks off with a Special Edition that reprints Kamandi’s origin story in Kamandi #32 from 1975, by Jack Kirby, Mike Royer and D. Bruce Berry.

It’s  just been announced that this Special Edition will include two never before published stories, intended for Kamandi #60 and #61 in 1978, written by Jack C. Harris with art by Dick Ayers and Danny Bulanadi. The issue will be 96 pages long, retailing for $7.99 and goes on sales January 18th.

The two issues were victims of the “DC Implosion” a massive cutback of the publishing line that resulted from plunging newsstand sales. The stories have never been seen outside of a rare “Cancelled Comic Cavalcade” that was printed in 1978 in a few copies to maintain copyright on the material.

The 12 regular issue of the challenge have the following creative teams:

Issue #1 by Dan Abnett/Dale Eaglesham
Issue #2 by Peter J. Tomasi/Neal Adams
Issue #3 by Jimmy Palmiotti/Amanda Conner
Issue #4 by James Tynion/Carlos D’Anda
Issue #5 by Bill Willingham/Ivan Reis
Issue #6 by Steve Orlando/Philip Tan
Issue #7 by Marguerite Bennett/Dan Jurgens
Issue #8 by Keith Giffen/Steve Rude
Issue #9 by Tom King/Kevin Eastman
Issue #10 by Greg Pak/Joe Prado
Issue #11 by Rob Williams/Walter Simonson
Issue #12 by Gail Simone/Ryan Sook

 

4 COMMENTS

  1. Aw, yeah! Kamandi 59 was actually the first issue of the book I ever picked up, off the stands in 1978. I’ve been waiting almost 40 years to read the end of that cliffhanger!

  2. Kamandi never wore a loincloth. He wore cutoff jeans, or jean shorts, but never a loincloth. You’re thinking of the Warlord.

  3. >> the whole thng kicks off with a Special Edition that reprints Kamandi’s origin story in Kamandi #32 from 1975 >>

    The “origin story in KAMANDI #32” was a reprint of #1.

    Sounds like they’ll be reprinting all of #32, including the other story, the map and the article about Jack.

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