Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #1

History

The book's origin lies in a failed business negotiation: DC editor Carmine Infantino attempted to acquire the comics license for the Planet of the Apes film franchise, and when Marvel Comics secured those rights instead, Infantino commissioned Kirby to produce something with equivalent appeal. What Infantino didn't fully appreciate was that Kirby was not working from scratch — he had already drafted a conceptually similar story, 'The Last Enemy,' for Harvey Comics' Alarming Tales #1 in 1957, predating Pierre Boulle's source novel entirely, and he held an unpublished 1956 newspaper strip pitch titled 'Kamandi of the Caves.' The final series was a hybrid of those older ideas grafted onto Infantino's Planet of the Apes brief, with Kirby himself serving as writer, penciler, and editor. One telling behind-the-scenes detail: the ruined Statue of Liberty on the debut cover was Infantino's insistence — Kirby reportedly chafed at it precisely because it so nakedly echoed the Apes film's climax.

Trivia · 9 facts

• First appearances in this issue: Kamandi (the protagonist), Great Caesar (Tiger-Men leader), Doctor Canus (dog-scientist ally), and Ben Boxer (mutated human who can transform into living metal).
• Written, penciled, and edited by Jack Kirby; inked by Mike Royer; the issue also contains a text piece titled 'The Time Capsule' written by Kirby's assistants Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman.
• The issue includes an in-world map of post-Great Disaster North and South America, detailing the territorial domains of Tigers (East Coast), Gorillas (Southwest), Lions (West Coast), Leopard pirates (Caribbean), Rats (New York), and other animal factions — establishing the series' geography from the very first issue.
• The cover, featuring a ruined Statue of Liberty visible in the background, was an intentional homage to the 1968 Planet of the Apes film and was included at Carmine Infantino's editorial insistence over Kirby's objections.
• Kamandi's name is derived from 'Command D,' the underground bunker complex where he was raised by his grandfather following the unspecified catastrophe known as the Great Disaster.
• Kirby wrote and drew the series through issue #37; the series ran to #59 before being cancelled as part of the DC Implosion of 1978, making it Kirby's longest-running DC title.
• Issue #1 has been reprinted multiple times: within the series itself in Kamandi #32; in the DC Archives hardcover (Kamandi Archives Vol. 1, 2005); in the Countdown Special: Kamandi 80-Page Giant (2008); in the Jack Kirby Omnibus edition (2011); in The Kamandi Challenge Special (2017); and in an IDW Artist's Edition (May 2015) presenting Kirby's original art.
• The character has been adapted into animation in Batman: The Brave and the Bold (voiced by Mikey Kelly) and the DC Showcase short Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth! (2021, voiced by Cameron Monaghan), bundled with the Justice Society: World War II Blu-ray release.
• In January 2017, DC published The Kamandi Challenge, a round-robin miniseries produced to celebrate the centennial of Kirby's birth, with each issue featuring a different writer and artist continuing a cliffhanger set by the previous team.

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