Random Happenstance

I thought I might have this reprinted or collected somewhere, but no, I maybe have just bought it multiple times. And it's a grabber, for sure. From 1975, Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #35, "The Soyuz Survivor!" Written and drawn by Jack Kirby, inks by D. Bruce Berry. Joe Kubert cover!

The last boy on earth, is not on earth today; as Kamandi and Dr. Canus are in orbit with their new friend, "that alien fireball, pretty Pyra." Canus is freaking out a little bit: Pyra was an energy being, who could "wear" a humanoid shape, but it wasn't comfortable, hence the little trip in her ship. But, they soon see something more interesting: an ancient spaceship--well, from before the Great Disaster, at least. A Soviet Soyuz, to be precise. Canus forgets his fears and wants to explore it, and after airing the Soyuz back up, they board it, and find a dead cosmonaut, strangely in the lotus position. Dead? No, Pyra notes, he was still alive...Pyra introduces a bit of energy to the cosmonaut, then the trio step away to explore the rest of the ship, so they don't see this bit of nightmare fuel:

The mutated cosmonaut attacks Canus and Kamandi, seemingly now boneless, and secreting acid for defense. Canus is injured, before Pyra flames on to drive the creature away; and Kamandi realizes while he might sometimes resent Canus for not being the last of his kind, he still cares deeply for him. Pyra plays a flight recorder--noting she "unscrambled" it so Kamandi could understand it, which probably means translating it from Russian! The Soyuz crew could see whatever the Great Disaster was hit, and assumed it was nuclear war; then debated what to do next: Vassilov, the cosmonaut that was mutated, argues they have to obey their final order; but their ship was hit by shock waves, and probably radiation, from the Disaster.

Vassilov attacks again, and Pyra simply melts a hole for them to get back to her ship. Alone again, Vassilov pulls himself into a vaguely more human shape, then starts work on his final order: arming a doomsday weapon. But, the radiation and age had "long since rotted the parts to harmless junk" yet he would remain in orbit fiddling with it, probably forever...

This was only an 18-page story, which might've been the standard for the book, but feels a bit short. Kamandi could maybe have had something to do in his own book, too; but I don't think he often had a lot of control of where he was going. But, the imagery in this one...creepy stuff, a tool I don't think Kirby used often, but could. I wasn't quite getting comics off the spinner rack when this came out, but I'm also kind of glad I waited!