Random Happenstance

Maybe the best thing about an old, kinda beat-up Kamandi comic? By god, it looks like a comic! And this one's got the classic Batman and Robin vs. a mummy Twinkies ad! How could you ask for more? From 1975, Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #28, "Enforce the Atlantic Testament!" Edited, written and drawn by Jack Kirby, inks and letters by D. Bruce Berry.

Kamandi and Ben Boxer were currently undercover in the "Horse Marines," serving under Anglophile bulldog Captain Pypar. Humans were dumb animals here, but the gathered military forces seemed to be less amazed that Kamandi could talk than annoyed, they had other things going. Kamandi is sick of chores and marching, but Ben suggests they need to see what was happening: the bulldogs had patterned themselves after British soldiers, and their allies the gorillas were Prussians, with French wolves. Checking out one of their maps, Ben finds they had crossed the Atlantic ocean over a land bridge; that was new. Captain Pypar also had "articles of guardianship," which meant they had the section of America now called "the Dominion of the Devils" as a protectorate, under "Nations of the Atlantic Testament Orders." Kamandi realizes, they mean NATO!

Perhaps understandably, Pypar gets mad at the animals pawing through his stuff, but Kamandi and Ben quit after Pypar takes an unwise swipe at Ben. They explore a bit of the new Canada, a bizarrely lush new forest of huge insects, giant plants...and resources to be exploited. The Sacker's Company, leopards, were abusing the land; possibly in violation of the Atlantic Testament somehow, but they were also well-prepared for a fight. Kamandi and Ben find artillery, and can see a frontal assault would be suicide. Ben tells Kamandi to warn Pygar, while he tries to spike the guns, but his steel body isn't completely invulnerable and he gets knocked out by a high-velocity grenade.

The bulldogs make their charge, down the barrel of the leopards' guns, and are "decimated!" as Kamandi watches. He sneaks behind the leopard gunners, gets a gun, and plays mad dog, barking and threatening to blow up a stack of ammo cases. The leopards break and run, leaving Pygar and his forces to overrun the lines: Pygar is annoyed to see Kamandi there, a dumb animal in the midst of battle? Kamandi gives him a sarcastic salute, then catches up with Ben: their next adventure would be "The Legend!" A fun issue, although I think Kamandi maybe saved the bulldogs from learning a lesson: he has a comment, that the animals had picked up man's worst habits...I think I had just watched a Night Gallery episode ("Hatred Unto Death") that repeated the then-common environmentalist/peacenik creed that animals would get along just fine without humanity, but that slogan seemed to paint them as innocent little lambs and didn't give them credit for having their own desires, and maybe their own grudges. Kirby maybe realizes, even animals can be jerks.