In putting a SMC into comicbook form Kirby successfully amalgamated the flavour of the modern comics industry he co-founded and the coming trends in entertainment- short sharp hits of adrenalin, plots able to be connected by older viewers / readers if they could be bothered- fun first and foremost.

Kamandi has as much or more pathos than Watchmen but it retains the optimism of previous eras in comics. It has the leap into action ethos of the Golden Age, Silver Age art and modern content- violence that would give the Punisher a run for his money, an apocalyptic world without the wordy bloviating of an Alan Moore or a Stan Lee, and many a moral issue- minus the questionable titillation and constant left-leaning politically correct obtrusions.

I love me, my continuity plently, but Kamandi and the Legion (in all incarnations) are set in the FUTURE. A yet to be determined future. Why not play with that idea?

Why not say that Kamandi's future is ONE of many possible futures for the DCU? Keep the continuity within the title itself consistent, but don't get hung up on how it would dovetail into something like the Legion's future.

You wouldn't have to worry anymore how one version of the Legion ties into another either, they are all possible futures, with their own internal continuity intact - don't waste time showing how all of the versions tie together (though I do suspect that Geoff John's upcoming mini will be a treat to read.).

I have to say that this idea, would also lend itself very well, to those instances where DC decides that a future-scape title is no longer working, and needs a reboot. You could simply have a story where in the current DC, an event/incident takes place that alters that timeline.

I'm like...well, almost everyone it seems, and hate Countdown (though like many I gave it a serious chance) but I think it would be a wild and wildly creative idea to have it revealed that the 52 Earths are all divergent timelines of the same earth.

Kind of a merging of the multiverse with the idea of hypertime.

It seems to have been a misguided attempt by DC to, in the process of eliminating the alternate Earths, also eliminate alternate futures. The 30th Century of the LSH, despite having had a few world wars in the interim, was still recognizable as a descendant of 20th Century Earth. This meant one could draw a line between modern DC and the LSH and reasonably pass through other SF futures like the Planeteers, Space Cabby, the Space Museum, etc., but the world of the Great Disaster was probably considered too far out there to be part of the single future timeline. (The Atomic Knights also got retconned around this time.)

As you say, it wasn't a very well-thought out decision (as Wikipedia dryly puts it: "Tommy Tomorrow and the Planeteers have not been seen since"). (Ironically, it also caused some minor LSH continuity issues--Karate Kid visited Kamandi's world in one issue--but those would pale before the massive continuity issues that would hit the LSH a bit later.) This wasn't the only example from that era of DC shooting themselves in the foot in attempting to introduce consistent rules to the post-Crisis DCU--the limitation on time travel (only being able to travel in time once by any given method) come to mind.

When I saw those pages I finally realized the artists were different and that he was the same guy who'd done all those Marvel books I'd read in grade school. That was aprt of the problem, it seemed like every book I picked up as a kid was drawn by the same guy, and guess what, they were! I remember buying Forever People #2 off the spinner rack because of the art. I remember a bunch of Black Magic's because of the art. I remembered tons of Fantastic Fours. But til I was12 and I saw that Kamandi #13 a friend was reading and fell in love with the title did I pay enough attention to realize Jack Kirby had drawn them all.

I bought every issue of Kamandi as it came out from about #17 on, not to mention everything else by Jack I could afford, and I still have every one of them dog eared and well worn as they are, as well as NM copies of every issue that are my pride and joy.

I've got everything Jack did from the Fourth World on, but Kamandi will always be my favorite. Someday I'll take all those dog-eared issues and get them bound in a hard cover...

Isn't the pretty much true of everything that Kirby wrote?

Well, that waste of time gave us a cheap reprint one shot, so I'm happy with it, especially because I've been able to happily ignore Countdown for its entire run.

Every issue of Countdown is a waste.

That's a strange thing for a Marvel zombie like yourself to say. I mean, it's not like you'd be any more likely to read the books if they were done differently.

That said, a Countdown 80-Page Giant containing 3 issues came out a couple weeks ago. That's a nice sampler (I would imagine. I haven't read the series myself) for just three bucks.

I'd love to check Kamandi out, but I think archives are usually a little more than I like to spend.

And Kamandi only borrowed circumstantially from Planet of the Apes. Here is the original Kirby Kamandi work
http://cartoonsnap.blogspot.com/search/label/Jack%20Kirby

Long before Heston and Co., did their thing in the late 60's and early 70's, tell me if this work would n't easily fit in with Kirby's much later DC series...

Also, ignore everything DC does with Kamandi today, all the Tommy Tomorrow/Countdown ect. ect. nonsense

And T., I'd be careful about calling that kid a sissy. He might go through an entire Tiger Legion and a seaful of talking orcas just to get at you.

Hopefully that link works. It's a great analysis of Kamandi's development from The Jack Kirby Collector.

Read it and draw your own conclusions on who ripped off who and what.

I vote that Kirby came up with the initial concept, but was able to tap into ideas from POTA to make it stronger.

Kirby had a proposed series from the 50's that used the name "kamandi", but the series that actually became the KAMANDI we know was inspired by, and the result of, POTA popularity.

It's hard to deny the similarities, in premise and in imagery, and I'm not sure why one would want to. The fact that Kirby's erstwhile lift of POTA was far, far better than the inspiration speaks volume about his talent and charisma.

If DC said "give us a thinly veiled version of this popular property", Kirby came back with something obviously "inspired by", but much richer and a hell of a lit more fun.

Kamandi might be awesome, but that still doesn’t make it alright that Countdown wasted two of its final issues on telling an origin for a new version of him.

Every issue of Countdown is a waste.