Robert Greenberger

by Robert Greenberger

Ka-Zar has always suffered as a poor man’s Tarzan, ever since he followed the Jungle King by 24 years in the pages of the Martin Goodman pulps. He briefly transitioned to comics during the Timely Comics days then vanished until Stan Lee and Jack Kirby improbably revived him in the pages of X-Men of all places.

Since then, he has been a popular guest-star and has headlined numerous solo series, none of them lasting terribly long. As a result, there have been few memorable runs with one exception. For three years, Kevin Plunder was something other than an imitation Ape Man, but was a smart, sophisticated and downright funny adventurer, protecting the Savage Land and falling in love with Shanna, the blonde she-devil, herself possessing roots dating back to Will Einser’s Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.

Ka-Zar: Savage Dawn

Ka-Zar and Shanna, accompanied by Zabu the sabretooth tiger, headlined the severely underrated Ka-Zar the Savage. Written by Bruce Jones with art by Brent Anderson, it was an attempt at doing something different with the milieu and it somewhat succeeded. Finally, those stories are getting collected with the first five issues arriving as Ka-Zar: Savage Dawn.

Louise Jones was a newly arrived editor at Marvel and was handed Ka-Zar as a character in need of a series to protect its trademark. Coming from Warren Publishing, she had a different rolodex than most of the Marvel editors and reached out to newcomer Brent Anderson to illustrate the series then turned to her former colleague, Bruce Jones, to pen the series. Al Williamson’s assistant, Carlos Garzon, received the inking duties and made Anderson look really good.

Jones told Ka-Zar expert Mike Aragona in Back Issue!, “Basically what I was given on the Ka-Zar assignment was that his and Shanna’s environment was ‘lost,’ primitive, and had remnants of prehistoric times. I picked Pangea because it was a real place, a supercontinent that existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras about 25 million years ago. All this was from Alfred Wegener’s theory of continental drift. What Marvel wanted was dinosaurs and sabretooths, even if the two species didn’t co-exist in real history. They didn’t really care what I wrote and Brent drew so long as it was exciting and visually romantic. Neither Louise Jones nor I had much interest in producing a second-rate Tarzan, so that’s how this so-called urbane élan in Ka-Zar’s character came about. In other words, a smart, even intellectual guy who simply chose to go about in loincloth and hunting knife and live (illegally, I might add) in the jungle with a curvaceous blonde.”

Ka-Zar the Savage #2

Aragona wrote, “After three years of silence, readers were introduced to a new, more ‘mature’ Ka-Zar. Brooding, introspective, at times a little defeatist, this was definitely a character reborn. He now had a depth heretofore unseen and the fans loved it! Ka-Zar the Savage #1 ends with an incredible bang as Ka-Zar comes face to face with the ‘rules’ of a civilization where he won’t ever fit in, and he realizes it’s best to live “savagely” and be true to yourself than to live in a world of rules and conformity that only ends up strangling you.

“The series seemed to be more about sharing an insight, or growing a character, than simply ‘telling a story.’ There was a social commentary or a reflection/contemplation of life going on in between the panels of those magical pages.”

Jones tends to give all the credit for the series’ modest success to Anderson but really, the two of them fed off one another and Louise Jones (best known today as Louise Simonson) knew to stay out of their way and shield them from Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter’s notorious interference.

“I was all about dialogue and relationships then, the rest was pretty much window dressing. And when you’ve got a window dresser like Brent, well, you can’t lose,” Jones said in the interview. He also revealed that after the first issue he co-wrote it with uncredited April Campbell, who was his wife and partner on their projects. (After this run, all three went on to create the wonderful Somerset Holmes for Pacific Comics.)

Ka-Zar the Savage #3

Campbell told Aragona, “Since Ka-Zar had not been a hit character for some time, Weezie told Bruce he could do whatever he wanted, so we sort of settled on a [Spencer] Tracy and [Katharine] Hepburn relationship for the two of them and threw in a lot of humor. It was a blast to write! And, of course, Brent interpreted the characters perfectly!”

Anderson enjoyed his run on the book and it showed on every lush page. He noted that at the time of release, it was one of the rare instances where guys could share a comic with their girlfriends and they got hooked. On the other hand, that romcom byplay between the heroes never lasted beyond their collaboration. He told Aragona, “Bruce’s intemperate view of the character was of terrific interest. Ka-Zar finally had a personality, questioning as he was his very existence and meaning in the greater world. It was no longer enough for Kevin Plunder to be the top of the food chain and express his superiority through the wanton betterment of the local wildlife.

“My recollection is that our take on Ka-Zar was pretty much not well-received by the Bullpen. Once we left the series, as I recall, other writers subsequently destroyed the place and as much of the continuity as they could! Maybe that’s the reason no Ka-Zar collection has ever been forthcoming. Marvel would just as soon forget the whole thing ever happened!”

Thankfully, it’s been remembered and modern day readers can find a gem of a series where character trumped plot but the action quotient was never overlooked.

Purchase

Ka-Zar: Savage Dawn SC

Classic covers from the Grand Comics Database.