Writer – Jack Kirby
Artist – Jack Kirby
Inker – D. Bruce Berry
Letters – D. Bruce Berry

Having fled Ohio and the events that took place there, Kamandi has been on the road for a while when he is stopped by what seem to be gangsters. Even though they take him hostage, he cannot help but be fascinated by these characters and how they seem to have jumped straight from the history books to live and breathe in this strange new world. Jack Kirby brings the fun in this nineteenth issue starring Kamandi as we get a good dose of what appears to be time travel though of course, Kirby is better than that and he gives readers a surprise come the end of the book. So it is that Kamandi is going to be killed for witnessing something he should not have, something the mobsters want kept covered up and yet, Kamandi is not one to go quietly as has been evidenced many times before. Making things a little bit more complicated is the arrival of Ugash and the Apes whom Kamandi had thought he left behind long ago. It seems as if Ugash thinks Kamandi will fetch a high price and after all of his losses of late, he needs to bring in some kind of cash flow. While it does look bad at first, our hero realizes that he can play his enemies off of each other to his benefit and so the past battles the future in a massive clash with that previously mentioned surprise finish. With Ugash’s return, it is starting to look like Kamandi has his first real arch-enemy as the Ape does not know when to give up. He is of a single mind at this point and whether that is of the money he will receive for Kamandi or of the boy himself, he is determined to capture Kamandi for all that has happened to him thus far. The introduction of the mobsters was genius and it shakes the book up a little instead of only focusing on the newly advanced species that currently inhabit this post-apocalyptic world. When the two worlds come together, it is like watching Escape from/Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and it could not be any more enjoyable. A fantastic issue with some truly great action and excitement as only Jack Kirby can deliver.

4.5 out of 5