Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1975-08-01 01:03:10 |
| Previous: Daredevil #124-125 | Up: Main 1975 / Box 10 / EiC Upheaval | Next: Skull the Slayer #1-8 |
Ka-Zar #10-11
Issue(s): Ka-Zar #10, Ka-Zar #11
Cover Date: Aug-Oct 75
Title: "Beyond the vale of savage time" / "The devil god of Sylitha"
Credits:
Gerry Conway & Doug Moench / Doug Moench - Writer
John Buscema / Don Heck - Penciler
Fred Kida / Frank Springer - Inker
Review/plot:
Doug Moench's run begins with him scripting over Gerry Conway's plot for issue #10, and then he fully writes issue #11. We lose John Buscema to Don Heck with issue #11, although it's probably more accurate to say that there's no regular penciler on this title until Val Mayerik takes over with issue #15.
Ka-Zar is often more of a Conan copycat book than a "savage in a jungle with dinosaurs" book, and that's especially true of Moench's run. After getting knocked out while fighting a carnivorous ape (awesome!)...
...Ka-Zar and Zabu are discovered by a princess from a hidden city and taken there to recover.
Ka-Zar is introduced to their mostly friendly priest class, although he's not impressed with their fat and bald Buddha-like god statue.
Thanks to the machinations of one conniving priest, the high priest's son (fiance to the woman that brought Ka-Zar here) is sentenced to death as punishment for allowing the outsider Ka-Zar into the city.
No one in the city is happy about this, but they won't go against their god, despite Ka-Zar's exhortations.
So Ka-Zar has to fight his way through snakes...
...and people...
...and eventually shows that their god is, umm, i don't know, a hologram?
It's amazing how many different civilizations, at all different levels of development, manage to fit in the Savage Land. But that is part of the charm, allowing Ka-Zar to get involved in a wide range of stories.
The next issue promises "The dawning of a new era in exciting Jungle Action and Exotic Mystique! Dynamic new characters and stunning visuals... Ka-Zar is on the move!". But i don't know what the Heck they are talking about. The next two issues couldn't be any more like this story even if they just reprinted these issues and changed the dialogue.
Quality Rating: C
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A
References: N/A
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
| Previous: Daredevil #124-125 | Up: Main 1975 / Box 10 / EiC Upheaval | Next: Skull the Slayer #1-8 |
Comments
If Ka-Zar is one part Conan then he's nine parts Tarzan. It's true I've read a lot more Edgar Rice Burroughs than Robert E. Howard, but one could take a bottle of white-out and turn this into a Tarzan story very quickly. Suitable for publication by those lucky dog Marvel competitors who had Tarzan's comic book publication rights sewn up tight.
I think the idea is everyone was drugged into thinking the statue was moving by fumes from the brazier.
