So back in the summer of 2006 I had a Kamandi pitch that I had shared with several folks in the industry. I should make it crystal clear, make no bones about it, Jack Kirby’s Kamandi is one of my all time favorite comic book series ever. I had shared my pitch with Jeph Loeb who had shared it with Joe Quesada who had responded enthusiastically to the concept. As fate would find it that summer, I found myself seated across from Joe, Jeph and Robert Kirkman in the lobby of the Hyatt Hotel during Comic-Con. Joe Q casually mentions that he loves my Kamandi pitch and wanted to know if I would re-construct it as a Killraven story and do it with Kirkman. Talk about a no-brainer. Kirkman was in, I was in, the project was a go.
The original pitch was that Kamandi fought his way into a bunker that had a transporter device and after successfully activating it, he and his allies were transported successfully on board the JLA satellite which was still in orbit above earth. They were able to arm themselves with an arsenal of iconic JLA weaponry as well as pursue an object that was mapped out on the JLA computer before the great disaster occurred. This was easily re-formatted with Killraven and the Avengers mansion in place of their DC counterparts.
I started drawing Killraven later that fall in-between issues of Onslaught Reborn. Kirkman was feeding me scripts at a regular clip and we were banking issue after issue until the fall of 2008 when I handed in the last issue. Over the course of the last decade or so, the practice of most comic book companies is to solicit a new series with a minimum of 2 issues or less in the can. We continued to complete issue after issue and I kept waiting to hear when Killraven would be solicited, but all I heard was more delays and reasons that it could not get put on the schedule. We couldn’t get it solicited with 2 issues completed, and by completed I mean written, drawn and colored, and 3 issues penciled. I thought we’d make the schedule for sure in 2009, then again in 2010 but by 2011 to present I have no reason to believe that it will see the light of day.
Let me state very purposefully that this is in no way a gripe or a complaint. Robert and I were paid for our contributions in full. The color work was paid for, we have no reason to complain. We did a job, it hasn’t been published, big deal. But the fun in is analyzing the potential reasons behind this series not seeing the light of day. I’ll leave that for the next article. In the meantime I hope you have enjoyed these un-published pages from Killraven #2.