Kamandi Challenge Letter

Griffin Mauser

908 Stoneoak ln

78745

Kamandi-ers:

So here I am at the end of the Kamandi Challenge; one issue left, and by the time you read this, I will have read it. What do I love so far? Kamandi’s pride, independence, perseverance, sense of justice and fairness; animal men with their own naïve societies; monsters, ruins and ruined human survivors.

Each issue is a treat, a fun sort of game, and that is great, but, soon, there will be no more Kamandi. There is so much to explore here in an ongoing title!

The challenge strikes Kamandi on the nose in much of its content.  I like Kamandi’s naivete and childishness; he is, after all, a child that has, in a way, been indulged then released into a nonsensical world.  He will have learned and inculcated human values but will have the pride and patience of a youth. But Kamandi needs more consistency than was available in the challenge as well. I want Kamandi to have noble values and to struggle to maintain those standards in the face of almost universal prejudice.

And how topical is the blue-eyed blond-haired white male suddenly upended into the bottom of society with all of his sense of entitlement, but stripped of even the hope of being treated specially. The tough question is, who can write so that Kamandi retains both its absurdity and humor while using it as a commentary on our own societies? I don’t know, but I do know who I would most like to see on the series: Steve Rude! While the other teams had so much going for ‘em that I won’t even go into it, Rude’s art was the most fun! His simplicity points up the four-color feel of Kamandi’s high adventure.

Here’s the plan: Pick teams like for SuperBatman, explore the societies of the animal men and meet new ones, any cargo-cults based on human artefacts, and keep all the craziness of the challenge, but let’s see Kamandi with a clear set of values and beliefs, have them continuously challenged by this new world, see him humbled again and again while refusing to compromise. When and arc ends, send in a new team.

We have the rest of the world, Ben Boxer and company, mutations, ruins, the whole cataclysm to explain, come on, for ol’ Jack, can we get an ongoing Kamandi?

    Still reading,  

Griffin Mauser