Adult Swim almost did a television program based on the most underestimated characters of DC

Few comics readers could know “Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth” by Jack Kirby. The “Kamandi” property was created by Kirby (the legend of comics behind “Eternals”) in 1972 and fell online with the upward trend of post-apocalyptic stories like “Planet of the Apes”, “I am Legend” and the 1978 cinematographic version of “The Time Machine”. The apocalypse was imminent, and pop culture impatiently exploited these impulses to imagine distant science fiction worlds where everything could happen.

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Kirby’s entry into this genre quickly advanced to a distant future point after the earth was devastated by an unknown cataclysm. The planet has since been renamed Earth Ad (after disaster), and most of humanity had become a violent savagery. Some people kept civilization alive in underground bunkers, although they had to hide from several new species of anthropomorphic animal monsters. Indeed, animals quickly evolved thanks to a combination of post-nuclear bomb radiation and an experimental medication cultivating the brain called cortexin.

Kamandi – A young blonde muscle stallion and long hair – was a squap of one of the underground bunkers, specifically “command d”, which is there that he obtained his name. He had to flee his bunker when a wolf intervened and ate his grandmother (yes, seriously), forcing him to wander on wild post-apocalyptic land, looking for a new bunker to call at home. He became friends with improved mutants and animals in soft manners during his adventures, including Dr Canis and Caesar in the shape of a dog, the king of Tigers.

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The original comic strip series of “Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth” made its debut in October 1972 and lasted 59 issues. It had to be adapted in a small -budget animated series in the 1970s, but this project failed. Then, decades later, in 2018, the comic book writer (and the genius of versatile comics) Evan Dorkin revealed that he was working on a animated series “Kamandi” for Adult Swim seven years earlier. The show had died of a tragic death, but Dorkin was still willing to share the details.

Dorkin is known in the community of comics as the creator of the underground titles “Milk & Cheese” and “The Eltingville Club”. He and his wife Sarah Dyer also contributed to “Space Ghost Coast to Coast”, while Dyer is the author of the series of comics “Action Girl”. Together, they presented a “Kamandi” television program which was to take the famous melodramatic of Kirby sur-Surnom and transform them into something wild and comic, all in adult swimming mode. Dorkin ran all the details of his field on Twitter (now known as X) and was happy to share, declaring that the whole experience had been positive despite the defect of the series.

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It seems that Dorkin was very attentive and had incorporated the famous Kamandi card (printed in the original comics) in the show, writing stories in which Kamandi visited each of the post-apocalyptic animal tribes. Dorkin even incorporated the events of “Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth” number # 29, in which the Blonde song ran against a tribe of smart gorillas who loved a Superman for a long time. He added that DC Comics also allowed him to include the OMAC, a kind of cyborgs scheduled to kill superheroes, as well as Brother Eye, a supercaluler created by Batman who had become thug. In addition, the pair reworked the mythology of the animal tribe and did its best to distinguish it from the traditions of the films “Planet of the Apes”.

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In the end, Dorkin and Dyer had what Dorkin described as “a long and long match plan” for the cartoon “Kamandi”. Their pitch can be read as follows:

“‘Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth’ is a post-apocalyptic action comedy that follows the adventures and misadventures of a teenager forced to survive in a strange world of animals, mutants and monsters, he and his itinerant companions (animals that speak and a psychotic robot) undergo an exceptional trip, from Kirby, Kirby, Kirby, Kirby, Kirby, Kirby, Kirby, Kirby, Kirby, Kirby, Kirby, Kirby, Kirby, Kirby Kirby, from Kirby.

It looks pretty good.

It was not an inactive idea. Dorkin wrote how much him and Dyer have been in the project. They wanted to update what he called “Kirby’s’ 30s WB Backlot Movie Tropes” and make the kingdoms of animal kingdoms appear and feel more modern for an audience of the 21st century. For example: Dyer’s idea was to see the Tiger tribes based on their society after what they had found in a disused Times Médieval theater arena.

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More importantly, Dorkin wanted to add the fact that Kamandi is constantly excited. He is a teenager, after all, and one of his main motivations is to be fucked (who echoes “a boy and his dog”). Brother Eye was going to send information to Kamandi, promising him hot ride women at the end of his quest, but that would be a lie. In addition, Kamandi’s sexual frustration was a global theme in the series. As Dorkin wrote:

“Kamandi never gets fucked. Never. The last entirely human boy on earth is universally c *** – blocked by fate or design. His frustration leads to a bad decision. His chronic masturbation … Well, you have the idea. He is a miserable wreck throughout the series.”

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The only woman who shows sexual interest in Kamandi is Flower, a woman from a tribe of cannibals who eat their comrades after sex. Kamandi sometimes met with other humans – like Kommando and Kommanda – and had a company dog ​​named Scruffy. Dorkin also included similar history ideas for animated series, providing mini-lines for each. “Kamandi” had to be something special.

Why was the series rejected by Adult Swim? Who can say. He was just not picked up. Maybe it would have been too expensive. Or maybe the adult swim thought it was too high. Anyway, the “Kamandi” television show has never arrived. Dorkin went to other projects and the world has continued to turn. It’s a shame, however, because the series seems quite incredible. It could have been one of the best shows of all adult times.