This Thanksgiving, be thankful you're not Kamandi:

Anyone else feel weird buying a toy of a little boy in jean shorts?

Not only is he a character I never reckoned we'd see a figure of; but I also enjoy the concept of Kamandi. Possibly more than his actual comics, since I've only read a relatively few of them: the occasional random issue of Kirby's run, an appearance in Justice League Unlimited, and his serial in Wednesday Comics. But the idea, of the last boy on earth, facing armies of talking, cranky animals and other weird crap, is a good one. (I want to say Kirby cheats a little: there are other humans still alive, so presumably other boys; but most of them are slaves, on the level of animals, very much not unlike Planet of the Apes...)

I wish DC had reprinted Kamandi and OMAC when I was a kid: I would've been seven when the last issue came out. But, I would've enjoyed both if there had been an end point somewhere; instead of Kamandi endlessly wandering. And it may be just as well if I don't read the actual comics, since like Planet of the Apes, I think I miss the point entirely. I think the authorial intent was to show the carelessness and cruelty of man, and that mankind needs to treat the planet and their animal brothers with more care; yet the message I always get is, animals are dicks and should be killed and eaten at the earliest convenience. (With the exception of dogs, as man's best friend, they'll be eaten last.) I'd love to write a Kamandi story where he goes back to our present...to beat up PETA. "Don't save the apes! Or the tigers! For the good of humanity!"

I also owed Kamandi for mocking him mercilessly, in one of my favorite strips here, "It's the Great Disaster, Charlie Brown." Deadpool and Nightcrawler visit the post-apocalyptic future, and it goes about as well as you'd expect.

That's it for this week: I'm out for Thanksgiving! Hope you all have fun, and have plenty to be thankful for...