"The End" Week: Kamandi #59!

We checked out Kamandi #50 a couple of months back, but now the conclusion of Kamandi's saga--more or less! From 1978, Kamandi #59, "The Wonderous Western Wall" Written by Jack C. Harris, pencils by Dick Ayers, inks by Danny Bulanadi.

By this point in the series, Sherlock and Watson-types Mylock Bloodstalker and Doile have caught up with and joined Kamandi and his crew, as they quest to find the power source behind the Great Disaster. The alien Pyra hoped to use that power to restore her homeworld; but it's supposed to be some kind of vortex, and it's blocked off by a gigantic wall. And the wall is locked, by a "radiation-powered" lock.

Before Pyra can state her plan for the lock, they are beset by "the Kangarat Murder Society," the locals who maintain and guard the wall. With murder! While the Kangarats have a bolo contest to see who gets to murder them, Kamandi's girl Spirit uses her newfound "fiber-spinning" powers to tie them up, and they escape in the Kangarats' hopping-ship.

To get through the lock, Kamandi plans to use radiation from his mutant friends Ben, Renzi, and Steve; who are expelling a ton of it right now. With Spirit and the Kangarats' equipment, he creates radiation suits so he and Dr. Canus can pick them up in Pyra's ship. Great plan, except the Kangarats seem pretty convinced opening the wall will end the world; and Kamandi is sucked in, to hear a strange voice...

The cancellation was a surprise--again, two issues were already completed but not released--and Kamandi may not have been seen again properly until DC Comics Presents #64 in 1983. I may have to look again for scans of Kamandi #60-61, I'm not sure that link is still good.