Support NeoGAF

[LordOfLore]

Comicosity link.

Happy 100th Birthday to the King! DC is launching a 12-issue miniseries to kick off a run of celebratory activities — leading up to August 28, 2017, the birthday of comics icon Jack “The King” Kirby.

”Over two dozen of the comic industry’s best and brightest talent have been selected to participate in one of the greatest comic book adventures of this, or any other decade, the Kamandi Challenge. Over two years in the making, we expect this series to reach heights of excitement and adventure worthy of ‘The King’ himself,” said DC Publisher Dan DiDio.

The KAMANDI Challenge consists of 12 teams, where one writer and artist are paired randomly and assigned one of 12 sections of Earth A.D., the post apocalyptic world inhabited by Kirby’s young hero, Kamandi. The first team begins the story in one section, while the last team ends the story in the same location. Each issue will take readers to a different portion of Earth A.D., and all teams are working completely independently of each other, so they have no idea what stories are being written. Some parts of Earth A.D. were fully developed by Kirby, while others weren’t, and it’s up to the talent teams to create fantastic stories worthy of Kirby’s character and the world he created.

Issue #1 by Dan Abnett/Dale Eaglesham
Issue #2 by Peter J. Tomasi/Neal Adams
Issue #3 by Jimmy Palmiotti/Amanda Conner
Issue #4 by James Tynion/Carlos D’Anda
Issue #5 by Bill Willingham/Ivan Reis
Issue #6 by Steve Orlando/Philip Tan
Issue #7 by Marguerite Bennett/Dan Jurgens
Issue #8 by Keith Giffen/Steve Rude
Issue #9 by Tom King/Kevin Eastman
Issue #10 by Greg Pak/Joe Prado
Issue #11 by Rob Williams/Walter Simonson
Issue #12 by Gail Simone/Ryan Sook

The first and final issues will be oversized, with the first issue including a prologue written by Dan DiDio with art by Keith Giffen, while the final issue will include an epilogue written by Len Wein with art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez.

Cover art for issue #1 will be provided by Bruce Timm (BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES), and a host of fan-favorite artists will provide the standard covers for future issues, with each issue’s interior artist provding the variant cover.

”Through the power of his imagination and seemingly endless energy and creativity, Jack Kirby made not just an indelible Kirby-Crackled mark on the world of comic books, but he ended up shaping the entirety of pop culture as it exists today,” said DC Publisher Jim Lee. “The vastness of Jack’s imagination and his powers as an artist and storyteller remain unmatched to this day. I sincerely doubt we will ever see the likes of Jack ‘the King’ Kirby ever again.”

Pretty cool thing for the 100th birthday of The King.

 

[Bear Force One]

I'm already in love with this. Kamandi is one of my favorite characters.

 

[VanWinkle]

I can't wait for this!

 

[Duress]

Ohhhh meeeehhhhhh gawwwwd! Walt Simonson and Neal Adams.

 

[Wag]

Nice!

I'm still hoping an episode of LoT travels to Komandi's time.

 

[Makonero]

Some awesome creators lined up. This sounds like something that might get me back into buying comics digitally.

 

[Slayven]

Don't know how they can top

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

So glad DC is still giving Walt Simonson spotlight work. Not only is he a legend, he's been a super nice guy in my online interactions with him.