The first character called "Ka-Zar" came from the pulps, but when Martin Goodman decided to publish comic books, he moved that character over to his very first, Marvel Comics #1. The first Ka-zar was a boy whose parents' plane crashed in the African jungle when the boy, David Rand, was only three years old. His mother, Constance, died shortly after of the fever, but his father, John, lived until he was killed by hostile natives when David was about 12 or 13. He learned to communicate with the animals and blah, blah, blah... When Lee and Kirby revived the character in 1965 it was a complete reboot, but it was the pulp adventures of Ka-Zar which inspired young Kevin Plunder to... but wait. I'm getting ahead of myself.
There has been talk on this board, from time to time, of someone starting a Ka-Zar discussion for as long as I have been a member. The 80th anniversary of the first appearance of the comic book version of the first Ka-Zar seems as good of a time as any to finally do so. Some of the earliest comics I acquired as backissues were the "King-Size" Ka-Zar reprint series and the issues of Marvel Tales reprinting the issues of Spider-Man in which Spidey met Ka-zar. when I was in high school I read Ka-Zar the Savage, and when I was in college I began collecting his early appearances, previous series and reprints via backissues. One of the latest of the early appearances I acquired was his very first from X-Men #10. Up until that time I had been pronouncing his name as I had since I was a child: Kuh-ZAR.
X-MEN #10 - p1
DAREDEVIL #12, 13-14, 24 - p2
TALES TO ASTONISH #95-98 - p3
SPIDER-MAN #57 - p4
HULK #109-111 - p4
MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #19 - p4
X-MEN #62-63 - p4
SPIDER-MAN #103-104 - p5
SAVAGE TALES #1 - p5
ASTONISHING TALES #1-18 - p5
ASTONISHING TALES #19-20 - p6
MARVEL TEAM-UP #19 - p6
SHANNA THE SHE-DEVIL #1-2 - p6
SHANNA THE SHE-DEVIL #3-5 - p7
KA-ZAR #1-2 - p7
DAREDEVIL #110-112 - p8
KA-ZAR #3-5 - p8
SAVAGE TALES #5-11 - p16
KA-ZAR #6-20 -
X-MEN #115-116 - p9
MARVEL SUPER-ACTION #1 - p8
MARVEL TEAM-UP #95 - p8
MARVEL TEAM-UP #104 - p11
MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE ANNUAL #6 - p11
MARVEL FANFARE #56-59 - p9
MARVEL FANFARE #2, 4 - p10
KA-ZAR THE SAVAGE #1 - p11
KA-ZAR THE SAVAGE #2-6 - p12
KA-ZAR THE SAVAGE #7-16 - p13
KA-ZAR THE SAVAGE #17-23 - p14
KA-ZAR THE SAVAGE #24-31 - p15
KA-ZAR THE SAVAGE #32-34 - p16,
AVENGERS #256-257 - p10
IRON MAN #202 - p10
X-MEN ANNUAL #12 - p10
Replies
KA-ZAR THE SAVAGE #32:
This issue strikes me as much more of a "Plunderer" story than a "Ka-Zar" story. Parnival Plunder arrives in search of his share of his "inheritance" (the "anti-metal" discovered by their father) and charms the pants off Shanna (not literally). The story is punctuated by little vignettes drawn by Marie severin based on old sit-coms (I Love Lucy, Leave It To Beaver, The Honeymooners, The Flintstones) decades before WandaVision.
KA-ZAR THE SAVAGE #33:
Parnival Plunder's hired native hands unearth the "Motyla bone," one grasps it and disappears. Just before Parnival is ready to abscond with his stolen booty, he decides to kidnap Shanna as well. He makes his way ouot of the Savage Land by raft through a tunnel, but Ka-Zar heads him off by going overland. The men on Parnival's ship shoot at Ka-Zar and Shanna. Parnival tries to save her, but loses his footing and disppears beneath the ice and drowns. In a scene that still sticks with me, Ka-Zar discovers his brother's body floating against the underside of the ice.
#33 also includes a TV Guide parody which would have been more fitting last issue. TV shows include: Ka-zar Knows Best, I Love Shanna, Leave It To Ka-Zar, The Honeysavages, Tree's Company and The Savage Zone. No doubt this is one of those "special features" Fingeroth touted a couple of months back when Ka-Zar went bi-monthly. Speaking of Fingeroth, he announces the series impending cancellation and spins it that it's "not fair... to keep our magazines from being distributed as widely as possible." Supposedly all three were to "re-emerge in several months in all comic outlets," but more on that next time.
Whoops. I failed to mention that Shanna picked up the Motyla bone at the end of #33 and disappeared to "heaven" (according to the natives), followed quickly by Ka-Zar and Zabu. Also, that TVG parody did appear in #32, not #33.
KA-ZAR THE SAVAGE #34:
Ka-Zar, Shanna and Zabu have all been transported to the "Nuwali planet of Tomriv in the Lenra Galaxy," but this issue has reamined a true Mopee for 37 years now and I'm reluctant to break that streak by discussing it further here. I will say that the issue's one big development is the revelation that Shanna is pregnant. At the end of the main story, Ka-Zar is swept off to the "Land of Cancelled Heroes" (already dealt with in depth on page eight of this discussion). Last issue Danny Fingeroth assured readers that all three recently-cancelled "direct distribution" titles would return in new newsstand series in a few moths. Whereas that proved to be true for both Moon Knight and Micronauts, despite Ka-Zar's own assertion "I WILL BE BACK!", it would be another 13 years before Ka-Zar was again awarded his own series, by which point I had pretty much stopped caring. From this point, Ka-Zar bopped around as a guest-star in other Marvel series, such as Avengers #256-257, Iron Man #202 and X-Men Annual #12 (all dealt with on page nine of this discussion).
POST-MORTEM: Where to pinpoint the decline of Ka-Zar the Savage? Was it the new editor (#25)? Bimonthly status (#26)? the departure of the series original writer (#28)? The final departure of the series artists (#29)? Was it the new artist (#31)? Market forces? Or was it a combination of these factors? When I think of Ka-Zar the Savage, the issues that come to mind are #1 all the way through #27. #28-30 floundered around trying to find a new direction. #31-34 were okay, but #31 is skippable ans I will probably never read #34 again (at least not the main story).
FUTURE OF THIS THREAD: There is still a volume's worth of material to be slotted in between Marvel Masterworks v2 and the omnibus, and that volume hasn't even been solicited yet. I may decide (at some point in the future) to read the 1997 series without waiting for it to be collected. Who knows? I may even return for that Ka-Zar, Lord of the Savage Land series in September. (Nah!)
Jeff of Earth-J said:
It looks as if that time will be soon. Cap just posted this Marvel solicitation:
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: KA-ZAR VOL. 3 HC
Written by GERRY CONWAY with CARLA CONWAY, ARCHIE GOODWIN, STAN LEE & DOUG MOENCH
Penciled by JOHN BUSCEMA, STEVE GAN & RUSS HEATH with ROSS ANDRU & TONY DEZUNGIA
Cover by JOHN BUSCEMA
The Marvel Masterworks series unveils more gems from the Hidden Jungle with a third volume devoted to Ka-Zar and that lovable little furball, Zabu! The creative team of Gerry Conway and John Buscema turn out top-notch jungle action with a run of stories in their run from the full-color Ka-Zar comic: Zabu is taken captive by the evil priest Sandratha to be used as a sacrifice for an ancient ritual! Ka-Zar also takes on the beast-god of the lost river and a dinosaur hunter! Plus: You haven’t seen Ka-Zar until you’ve seen him in John Buscema’s lushly illustrated—never before reprinted—adventures from Savage Tales! Also featuring team-up tales co-starring Shanna the She-Devil and two Shanna solo stories! Collecting Ka-Zar (1974) #6-9 and material from Savage Tales (1971) #5-11.
Hm. Still nowhere near #20. Looks as if yet another volume is in our future. One more oughta do it.
This thread is a mess. I admit that. That's because I was in the mood to read only HC reprints, not the original comics. The discussion is quite complete (except for a couple of gaps), but it is somewhat out of order. I have just gone through the entire thread, restoring the artwork and fixing the index (to conform to Ning 3.0 formatting). Note that the index in the initial post is chronological, but the posts aren't, necessarily. The page numbers, however, are correct. Now that not only MMW v3 but v4 has been released, it's time to return to this discussion. I thought long and hard about continuing this thread, starting a new one from the "gap" I mentioned above, or just starting over from scratch. I decided to continue with the existing thread. Now that we are on Ning 3.0 and have the ability to insert posts, I thought about it, but doing so would screw up my index.
[NOTE: If you decide to reread all or part of this discussion and are moved to comment, PLEASE DON"T INSERT or it will likewise screw up my index.]
SAVAGE TALES #5-11:
The b&w Savage Tales magazine and the color Ka-Zar comic book were being published simultaneously, but I'm going to resume this discussion with Savage Tales. That seems like a good place to (re-)start. The Ka-Zar story from Savage Tales #5 was originally commissioned for Savage Tales #2, but the title was cancelled after its May 1971 debut issue. The story was reworked and printed in the color comic Astonishing Tales #9 (December 1971). After Savage Tales was revived in 1973, the original version of the story was featured in #5. After that, Ka-Zar's origin is recapped as the "Damnation Plague" sweeps the Savage Land. Kevin Plunder gives up his inheritance to Chauncewell, a distant cousin. Then Ka-Zar runs afoul of "The Dream-Temple of Kandu Ra!"
#8 is interesting in that it features Bobbi Morse, Ka-Zar's former girlfriend (later Mockingbird, later Hawkeye's wife) and Shanna O'Hara, Ka-zar's future wife, in the same adventure together. Bobbi is on a mission for SHIELD and brought Shanna along as a jungle expert in case Ka-Zar was unavailable. Interestingly, Ka-Zar and Shanna barely interract, yet Bobbi notices a certain attraction between them. It's almost as if their future relationship had been planned in advance.
Ka-Zar's next adventure takes him to the Island of Palandor, which means "Timeless Land." Then he travels northwest to the village of the Durammi, where he encounters Edward Culhaney, an Irishman who fled from the IRA. He helps Ka-Zar against the barbarian horsemen from the center of the hidden jungle who have been raiding the villages of the Durammi and the Cliff-Forest People alike. After that he returns to the village of the Fall People for an adventure with Tongah and two intruders in the Savage Land: Bernard Kloss (a peleontologist), and Gordon Grieg (a mercenary soldier).
Back on page nine of this discussion, Luke Blanchard clued me in to the fact that issues #9-10 feature solo tales of Shanna. I replied, "I don’t think I’ll be investing in backissues of Savage Tales anytime soon," but I didn't explain why. the reason is that I found them to be cost prohibitive. My hope was that one day they wold be included in a future MMW Ka-Zar, and that are in v3. #11 ends with "Tales of the Savage Land," the only story I know of set in the Savage Land which doesn't feature Ka-Zar (or the X-Men). After Savage Tales #11, there was an all-reprint Super Annual Issue. Just as Ka-Zar's future wife's stories from #9-10 as included in MMW Ka-Zar, v3 ends eith the solo story of Ka-Zar's girlfriend introduction as the Huntress from Marvel Super Action #1, previously mentioned in p.8 of this discussion.
I wasn't aware of Savage Tales when Ka-Zar went off to "The Land of Cancelled Heroes" in 1984. If I had been, I certainly would have sought out the backissues.
A slight digression. The cover pictured is from 1974, showing a man-sized bipedal dinosaur battling Ka-Zar. The novel Jurassic Park was first published in 1990; the first movie, in 1993. In it, the man-sized bipedal dinosaur featured was the velociraptor, which had two fatality-inducing toe claws. There were several related similar dinos outside of fiction.
“D” is for disembowel, which would have happened to Ka-Zar in the cover scene before he could use his knife. The movie avoided showing this, but it was in the book. The velociraptor opening a door that had a door lever instead of a knob is not a stretch. Its future relative the parrot could do it, as could any ape. I once had a cat (similar to a Maine Coon) who tried to turn a doorknob. It didn’t work because he couldn’t grip it. If it had been a door lever, he would have succeeded.
The cover of Ka-Zar the Savage #32 might be a homage. It reminds me Shazam! #34, but there might be something closer. Isn't there one where the hero's about to deliver rough justice and the background character is saying "No, x! He's innocent!"
Isn't there one where the hero's about to deliver rough justice and the background character is saying "No, x! He's innocent!"
That motif has a Silver Age DC vibe to me, now that you mention it. Is this the one you're thinking of?
“D” is for disembowel, which would have happened to Ka-Zar in the cover scene before he could use his knife.
Neal Adams had just renewed his artistic license.
Bears some similarity to this one, too...
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