‘The Kamandi Challenge’: Breaking Down The Cliffhangers (SPOILERS!) With Keith Giffen

This week, DC released the seventh issue of The Kamandi Challenge, by Keith Giffen and Steve Rude, which picked up on the cliffhanger left behind by last month’s creative team, Marguerite Bennett and Dan Jurgens.

The concept of The Kamandi Challenge is that each incoming writer/artist team will leave a cliffhanger to be picked up by the previous team, “challenging” them to get the characters out of the mess they’ve put them in.

At the end of the seventh issue, Kamandi was thrown out into the void high above the ground, an anchor around his neck.

The series was conceived not only as a fun event series and a way to make the Kamandi property something that DC can use again, but as a celebration of the hundredth birthday of Jack Kirby, which will come later this year.

Giffen joined us to discuss three quick questions that we’ve been asking each successive creative team. You can see them below.

You can also check out both of the cliffhangers in question, in the attached image gallery.

What was your reaction to the cliffhanger you received?

My reaction was “thank God,” because it was one that, no offense to the previous team, but it was pretty easy to get out of. So I looked at it and I was like “Thank God. I don’t have to go to any extremes to get out of this; he’s in the air, he’s got a thing on his neck, I’m good. I can run with this.”

What did you pay forward to the next creative team?

The funny thing was, in the script, it was different than the actual finished product. In the finished product, the sea monster jumps out at Kamandi, which is pretty easy to get out of. In the script, the sea monster swallowed him — which is a little more extreme, a little harder to get out of.

In hindsight, I think I was more interested in the actual story that Steve Rude and I were telling, than in trying to slam the guy after me.

How have you been inspired by Kirby?

Everything.

I’m a huge Kirby enthusiast; I can’t think of a way I haven’t been inspired by him in one way or another. Of course, I’ve picked up other influences but if I have to name the number one influence on me, it was Jack Kirby. It was kind of fun to play around with a character that was so uniquely his.

When I first started reading comics, I really liked Gene Colan, but once I discovered Jack, that was it. From then, up until this day.

I don’t own any comic books — I don’t own a single thing I’ve ever done. But I’ve got those Jack Kirby books in my studio, and those are the only books I have: books of Kirby’s art. You could say I’m a huge fan.

Previous The Kamandi Challenge conversations:

• Breaking Down the Issue 1 Cliffhangers With Dan Abnett
• Breaking Down the Issue 2 Cliffhangers With Tomasi & Adams
• Breaking Down the Issue 3 Cliffhangers With Palmiotti & Conner
• Breaking Down the Issue 4 Cliffhangers With Carlos D’Anda
• Breaking Down The Issue 5 Cliffhangers (SPOILERS!) With Bill Willingham
• Breaking Down The Issue 6 Cliffhangers (SPOILERS!) With Orlando and Tan
• Breaking Down The Issue 7 Cliffhangers (SPOILERS!) With Dan Jurgens

The first six issues of The Kamandi Challenge are availble in comic book stores and online at ComiXology today.