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Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth #1-40
Kamandi by Jack Kirby Omnibus
At last, DC presents the adventures of Kamandi, the last boy on Earth, in the popular Jack Kirby Omnibus format!
Kamandi-one of the few survivors of a Great Disaster that has destroyed civilization--must search for a safe haven in a world populated by bizarre mutated animals and other strange wonders! Considered one of Jack Kirby's most creative works, Kamandi features a band of anthropomorphic supporting characters who accompany Kamandi as he searches for answers and adventure across the wastelands of Earth.
From one of comics' legendary creators, Jack Kirby's Kamandi faces danger from a giant, monstrous crab creature and an intelligent killer whale, and is hunted by the Sacker Company as a valuable intelligent human. In what is considered the series' greatest tale, Kamandi is forced to compete with the leader of a gorilla clan for the ultimate prize: Superman's costume!
Collecting: Jack Kirby's Kamandi, The Last Boy On Earth 1-40
Kamandi-one of the few survivors of a Great Disaster that has destroyed civilization--must search for a safe haven in a world populated by bizarre mutated animals and other strange wonders! Considered one of Jack Kirby's most creative works, Kamandi features a band of anthropomorphic supporting characters who accompany Kamandi as he searches for answers and adventure across the wastelands of Earth.
From one of comics' legendary creators, Jack Kirby's Kamandi faces danger from a giant, monstrous crab creature and an intelligent killer whale, and is hunted by the Sacker Company as a valuable intelligent human. In what is considered the series' greatest tale, Kamandi is forced to compete with the leader of a gorilla clan for the ultimate prize: Superman's costume!
Collecting: Jack Kirby's Kamandi, The Last Boy On Earth 1-40
896 pages, Hardcover
First published July 25, 2017
6 people are currently reading
117 people want to read
About the author
Jack Kirby
2,801 books476 followersJack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg) was one of the most influential, recognizable, and prolific artists in American comic books, and the co-creator of such enduring characters and popular culture icons as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, Captain America, and hundreds of others stretching back to the earliest days of the medium. He was also a comic book writer and editor. His most common nickname is "The King."
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 26, 2020
Jack Kirby's Kamandi Omnibus collects issues 1-40 of Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth!
Jack Kirby is the King of Comics yet somehow Kamandi managed to elude me until now. In this mammoth tome, Kirby penciled forty issues and did the cover art for 35 of them. He also wrote all but the last four issues. Mike Royer did the inks on the first 16 issues and D. Bruce Berry handled in the inking on the rest.
The story on Kamandi is much more accessible than the Fourth World material Kirby did at DC prior to it. Kamandi leaves the safety of the bunker in which he was raised and explores a post-apocalyptic landscape. Born out of DC's desire to cash in on Planet of the Apes despite not getting the license, the King crafted Kamandi in short order and took the Last Boy on Earth on a variety of adventures before pulling up stakes and heading back to Marvel.
Over the course of forty issues, Kamandi encounters tiger men, ape men, leopard men, talking dolphins, flying sharks, giant crabs, and all sorts of other crazy creatures. It's basically a post-apocalyptic adventure strip with little to no philosophy or cosmic overtones, much more accessible to the audience DC was aiming at at the time. There were homages to King Kong and Planet of the Apes and a robot amusement part that pre-dated Westworld by a year or so.
Kirby catches heat over his writing at times but this was good stuff. Sure, the dialog was a little rough but the King can craft an adventure story. Kamandi, along with friends Ben Boxer, Doctor Canis, and others, goes from one adventure to the next, foiling the bad guys and escaping with his skin intact. Kamandi #16, the origin of the Kamandi's world, is right up there with This Man, This Monster from Fantastic Four #51 for me as one of the all time greats.
The art is classic Kirby. Hell, it might be Kirby at his best. The story is packed with stunning visuals, from devastated landscapes to Kirby machines to hundreds of humanoid animals to colossal monsters to Kamandi and friends. I've not yet read the Devil Dinosaur or Machine Man issues Kirby did upon returning to Marvel but I can't see them being as great as this.
I've said this about other books but Jack Kirby's Kamandi may have been the Kirbiest of them all. Five out of five stars.
Jack Kirby is the King of Comics yet somehow Kamandi managed to elude me until now. In this mammoth tome, Kirby penciled forty issues and did the cover art for 35 of them. He also wrote all but the last four issues. Mike Royer did the inks on the first 16 issues and D. Bruce Berry handled in the inking on the rest.
The story on Kamandi is much more accessible than the Fourth World material Kirby did at DC prior to it. Kamandi leaves the safety of the bunker in which he was raised and explores a post-apocalyptic landscape. Born out of DC's desire to cash in on Planet of the Apes despite not getting the license, the King crafted Kamandi in short order and took the Last Boy on Earth on a variety of adventures before pulling up stakes and heading back to Marvel.
Over the course of forty issues, Kamandi encounters tiger men, ape men, leopard men, talking dolphins, flying sharks, giant crabs, and all sorts of other crazy creatures. It's basically a post-apocalyptic adventure strip with little to no philosophy or cosmic overtones, much more accessible to the audience DC was aiming at at the time. There were homages to King Kong and Planet of the Apes and a robot amusement part that pre-dated Westworld by a year or so.
Kirby catches heat over his writing at times but this was good stuff. Sure, the dialog was a little rough but the King can craft an adventure story. Kamandi, along with friends Ben Boxer, Doctor Canis, and others, goes from one adventure to the next, foiling the bad guys and escaping with his skin intact. Kamandi #16, the origin of the Kamandi's world, is right up there with This Man, This Monster from Fantastic Four #51 for me as one of the all time greats.
The art is classic Kirby. Hell, it might be Kirby at his best. The story is packed with stunning visuals, from devastated landscapes to Kirby machines to hundreds of humanoid animals to colossal monsters to Kamandi and friends. I've not yet read the Devil Dinosaur or Machine Man issues Kirby did upon returning to Marvel but I can't see them being as great as this.
I've said this about other books but Jack Kirby's Kamandi may have been the Kirbiest of them all. Five out of five stars.
February 23, 2020
At this point, Kamandi is my top favorite Jack Kirby comic book and one of the best series that I've read from the 1970s.
New Gods and Fantastic Four issues often collapse underneath needless exposition (though both have good issues and innovative designs and Stan Lee's humor comes out nicely with the Thing/team bickering/trash talk), whereas Kamandi is a creative action adventure in a post-apocalyptic landscape that feels well realized and consistent with itself. Contrarily, I just read early FF issues where Johnny Storm made lights appear in the ocean, created lifelike holograms with fire, and flew fast enough to cause a tornado that flings the Thing miles into the air. The stultifying amount of needless text justifying this superpower "rule breaking" and/or pseudo science as well as the redundant exposition telling you what is happening in the panel while it's happening make many of those early FF books a bit of of a chore to read. Not so with Kamandi, an adventure experience with far, far, far less exposition and lots of giant art and crazy concepts and heart and plenty of attitude. A dolphin in a metal backpack carried by his human slave? Morticoccus, the killer germ? Mutant men who can turn to steel? A long forgotten cosmonaut? Dune buggy gorillas? Grasshopper steeds? Yep all this times one thousand.
The stories are simple, which gives The King plenty of room on each page for his kinetic, explosive, and uniquely rectilinear visual surprises, which are often stunning. Double splash pages leap from the book (the one in issue 6 made me dizzy and exclaim aloud, and the one in issue 25 feels like an actual home invasion), and I enjoyed all 40 issues without exception.
I am a big fan of Kirby's OMAC series and his frantic Captain America and The Falcon: Madbomb story (which feels like a paranoiac Frederick C. Davis Operator #5 pulp), Devil Dinosaur, The Demon, some FF issues (especially #45-5o), issues 1,2, and 6 of New Gods, but didn't like his 40s Captain America all that much, nor his X-Men and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, and wasn't into the early Thor issues that I read (though I hear those get better). I am exploring the entire Kirbyverse these days and will update this review if Kamandi is dethroned, but this one seems like the story that best supports his art and springboards his imagination without getting derailed by arbitrarily defined magical superpowers and/or obvious exposition.
Dig Kamandi, by an Unfettered Atomic Kirby--it's a rousing and vibrant illustrated journey.
New Gods and Fantastic Four issues often collapse underneath needless exposition (though both have good issues and innovative designs and Stan Lee's humor comes out nicely with the Thing/team bickering/trash talk), whereas Kamandi is a creative action adventure in a post-apocalyptic landscape that feels well realized and consistent with itself. Contrarily, I just read early FF issues where Johnny Storm made lights appear in the ocean, created lifelike holograms with fire, and flew fast enough to cause a tornado that flings the Thing miles into the air. The stultifying amount of needless text justifying this superpower "rule breaking" and/or pseudo science as well as the redundant exposition telling you what is happening in the panel while it's happening make many of those early FF books a bit of of a chore to read. Not so with Kamandi, an adventure experience with far, far, far less exposition and lots of giant art and crazy concepts and heart and plenty of attitude. A dolphin in a metal backpack carried by his human slave? Morticoccus, the killer germ? Mutant men who can turn to steel? A long forgotten cosmonaut? Dune buggy gorillas? Grasshopper steeds? Yep all this times one thousand.
The stories are simple, which gives The King plenty of room on each page for his kinetic, explosive, and uniquely rectilinear visual surprises, which are often stunning. Double splash pages leap from the book (the one in issue 6 made me dizzy and exclaim aloud, and the one in issue 25 feels like an actual home invasion), and I enjoyed all 40 issues without exception.
I am a big fan of Kirby's OMAC series and his frantic Captain America and The Falcon: Madbomb story (which feels like a paranoiac Frederick C. Davis Operator #5 pulp), Devil Dinosaur, The Demon, some FF issues (especially #45-5o), issues 1,2, and 6 of New Gods, but didn't like his 40s Captain America all that much, nor his X-Men and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, and wasn't into the early Thor issues that I read (though I hear those get better). I am exploring the entire Kirbyverse these days and will update this review if Kamandi is dethroned, but this one seems like the story that best supports his art and springboards his imagination without getting derailed by arbitrarily defined magical superpowers and/or obvious exposition.
Dig Kamandi, by an Unfettered Atomic Kirby--it's a rousing and vibrant illustrated journey.
June 10, 2025
Para mi gusto, aquí comienzan los mejores años de Kirby. Es una obra menos ambiciosa que El Cuarto Mundo pero esto le salva de caer en los defectos de esta (sobre todo en que el Rey era capaz de planteamientos grandiosos, pero luego no los desarrollaba muy bien) Esta serie de aventura pura en escenarios alucinantes favorece lo mejor de su talento y nos permite disfrutar de su arte en sus mejores momentos.
October 19, 2023
Kamandi is the Coolest and Craziest Kirby Comic!
November 25, 2020
4.5 stars. Post-apocalyptic Jack Kirby nuttiness completely untethered from any company's continuity, marred slightly by lackluster work in the last ten issues reprinted here.
January 23, 2024
Kamandi
was one of my favorite comic book series from my childhood, and (yes, I am biased) it still holds up as wonderful escapist fiction. I revisit the dystopian-hierarchical-reversal world of Kamandi every couple of years and am always delighted at it's blend of action, adventure, mystery and excitement. While Kamandi does not always sit well with all comic book fans, or even with fans of Jack Kirby, it should delight anyone who craves adventure, has a strong suspension of disbelief and is young at heart. If you are a fan of either the original Jonny Quest or Planet of the Apes, you should check out Kamandi - and if, like me, you are a fan of both - you will love Kamandi. This particular behemoth of a collection includes all 40 issues that Jack Kirby worked on before he eventually left DC and returned to Marvel.
For many years, while Kamandi was being published, when school let out and summer rolled around, I would start re-reading all my issues of Kamandi and Fantastic Four (and usually lots of other titles as well, but always these two favorites). Now it’s summer again and I’ve got a whole new hankering for more adventures with Kamandi. So, here we go … again ...
Update: I just wanted to add that the last 3 issues included in this volume, while drawn by Kirby, were not written by him and they are the harbinger a drastic, fundamental, and tonal change in the nature of this series. After Kirby left the series continued for another 19 issues, but those issues become increasingly chaotic and unfocused. The 37 issues that Kirby wrote had a clear adventurous flavor that is almost unparalleled in comic books, but the last 3 issues in this volume provide a taste of the loss of the flavor of that pure unadulterated adventure. And unfortunately it is the last 22 issues of the Kamandi series upon which the recent The Kamandi Challenge draws its inspiration, not the first 37 issues written by Kirby.
Update: When this series was first coming out this volume contains both the five issues (#1, 3, 4, 8, 9) that made me fall in loving obsession with this series, and the five issues (#2, 5, 6, 7, 10) that I missed which resulted in massive frustration and caused me to make Kamandi the first series to which I got a subscription. So half of the first ten issues I’ve read so many times that I can almost recall them from memory and half that still feel like new when I reread them now. But in either case, Kamandi represents a series that I cannot imagine ever getting tired of. Kamandi is a series that illustrates Kirby’s boundless imagination as well as his ability to get distracted, head off on tangents, and refocused over and over again.
Another update: I’ve just reread this and I find myself thinking back to my first encounter with these issues. This volume opens up with what became the first issue of my unbroken run of issues. After having missed half of the issues from the first ten, I knew I needed to ensure I wouldn’t miss anymore, so I purchased my first subscription to a comic book, that began with issue #13. The issues with Kamandi dealing with the Sacker’s Department Store were among my favorites and while I didn’t quite grasp of the significances imbedded in the Watergate and Washington DC stories, I still found them fascinating. I can’t help but feel the Chicago Gangsters arc might have been inspired, at least in part, by the “A Piece of the Action” episode of the original Star Trek series and Westworld/Futureworld films.
For many years, while Kamandi was being published, when school let out and summer rolled around, I would start re-reading all my issues of Kamandi and Fantastic Four (and usually lots of other titles as well, but always these two favorites). Now it’s summer again and I’ve got a whole new hankering for more adventures with Kamandi. So, here we go … again ...
Update: I just wanted to add that the last 3 issues included in this volume, while drawn by Kirby, were not written by him and they are the harbinger a drastic, fundamental, and tonal change in the nature of this series. After Kirby left the series continued for another 19 issues, but those issues become increasingly chaotic and unfocused. The 37 issues that Kirby wrote had a clear adventurous flavor that is almost unparalleled in comic books, but the last 3 issues in this volume provide a taste of the loss of the flavor of that pure unadulterated adventure. And unfortunately it is the last 22 issues of the Kamandi series upon which the recent The Kamandi Challenge draws its inspiration, not the first 37 issues written by Kirby.
Update: When this series was first coming out this volume contains both the five issues (#1, 3, 4, 8, 9) that made me fall in loving obsession with this series, and the five issues (#2, 5, 6, 7, 10) that I missed which resulted in massive frustration and caused me to make Kamandi the first series to which I got a subscription. So half of the first ten issues I’ve read so many times that I can almost recall them from memory and half that still feel like new when I reread them now. But in either case, Kamandi represents a series that I cannot imagine ever getting tired of. Kamandi is a series that illustrates Kirby’s boundless imagination as well as his ability to get distracted, head off on tangents, and refocused over and over again.
Another update: I’ve just reread this and I find myself thinking back to my first encounter with these issues. This volume opens up with what became the first issue of my unbroken run of issues. After having missed half of the issues from the first ten, I knew I needed to ensure I wouldn’t miss anymore, so I purchased my first subscription to a comic book, that began with issue #13. The issues with Kamandi dealing with the Sacker’s Department Store were among my favorites and while I didn’t quite grasp of the significances imbedded in the Watergate and Washington DC stories, I still found them fascinating. I can’t help but feel the Chicago Gangsters arc might have been inspired, at least in part, by the “A Piece of the Action” episode of the original Star Trek series and Westworld/Futureworld films.
April 10, 2019
I can remember going and buying the issues off the newstand, always difficult in the UK with variable distribution. It was a joy to read Kirby's run from issue 1. Started as an request to do a Planet of the Apes, Jack wove a tale that not only wove DC history but gave it the Great Disastet future direction and inspiration for future writers. Kirby is King, no doubts.
October 14, 2018
Jack Kirby's Kamandi stories are a wild ride. Structurally, they're a mixed bag. Kamandi is barely a protagonist, since the poor kid keeps getting knocked unconscious and dragged from adventure to adventure, usually escaping due to luck or the intervention of passing friends. His adventures are full of gonzo charm, though. If loyal giant grasshopper steeds and gorillas fighting tigers on the high seas is your bag, you'll find plenty to love here.
May 13, 2020
It’s not bad. I tried to appreciate in the context of its time and place. In that way, it’s a fun read. I wish I’d been a little younger when Kamandi was first run so I could’ve enjoyed it then.
August 16, 2020
Massive, enjoyable.
November 1, 2023
Sheer brilliance in comics!
December 31, 2024
This is like uncut Kirby gold, and I loved it!
February 11, 2024
Jack Kirby's "Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth" was one of my favorite childhood comics, and this collection is close to perfect. All of the forty issues that Kirby created are here. Kirby had lots of fun with the “Planet of the Apes on steroids” story, and this is some of his best work. Between Kamandi and his Fourth World stories that he did at DC Comics, Kirby put to rest the pernicious myth that dogged him at Marvel that he “only drew comics” and could not write stories without Stan Lee.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews