*Kamandi (and Mr. Saker) unpublished cover PURE KIRBY PENCILS!!!!

This unused Jack Kirby cover was created for his most successful post-1970 title, Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth. It features the title character, first introduced in Kamandi #1, as well as a fine depiction of the snake creature known as Mr. Sacker and two tiger men, from the post-apocalyptic setting. Mr. Sacker was introduced in Kamandi #12 and was a shrewd business man whose main trade is human slavery. Note that someone, likely Kirby himself, indicated on the back of the art in pencil that the character is "The Original Mister Sacker".

This is a wonderful opportunity to own a Kamandi piece that is Kirby's pure pencil work and a fine example of why Kirby is considered by many to be the greatest creator in the history of comic books. Hellboy film director Guillermo del Toro referred to Kirby as follows: "Jack Kirby, American. Zeus. Two-fisted titan of epic imagination and boundless power." Pieces like this one demonstrate why Kirby is so respected by so many.

When Jack Kirby left Marvel in 1970 to join DC he was still as the peak of his creative genius. Free to control his own destiny, Kirby created a vast tapestry known at the 4th World, an interrelated series of books including New Gods, Forever People and Mister Miracle. Typical of Kirby, the characters were ahead of their time and were not an initial success with readers who were lacking the sophistication in large enough numbers to appreciate what Kirby had created. Not to be stopped, Kirby quickly came up with new titles including The Demon and, what turned out to be his biggest hit at DC, Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth.

Kamandi combined elements of Kirby's past work including an unused 50s comic strip called "Kamandi of the Caves" with elements of the hit movie Planet of the Apes to tell the story of a boy on a post-Apocalyptic Earth. Kirby stayed on the book for 40 issues, making it his longest-lasting success in the Bronze Age.

Jack Kirby is the most well-known and respected artist in the history of comic books. He's the co-creator of Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Thor, the Avengers, the X-Men, the New Gods, and, of course, Kamandi, not to mention dozens of other characters that he created for Marvel during the 1960s that have gone on to form the single greatest shared universe of characters ever assembled. As shown here, his work for DC in the 1970s was just as brilliant.