*Kamandi #25 Splash p.5

Offered here is an extraordinary Jack Kirby chapter splash from the psychedelic 70s. It appeared in Kamandi #25 (1975). With it's huge funky "Freak Show!!" title lettering and powerful rendition of Kamandi and three mutant robot-like creatures, this is an offering that not only serves as a fine example of Kirby's Bronze Age output, but also really captures the spirit of the era.

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.