AFTER AN APOCALYPSE, IN COMIC BOOKS

POST APOCALYPSE COMICS
By Alex Ness
November 4, 2022

INTRO

“He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it.” Cormac McCarthy: The Road

However human civilization is destroyed, broken or harmed, the world of comic books has a story to share, a darkness to express in that event. In this article we will look briefly upon different end times books. One features a Zombie apocalypse where there seems no hope, and only raw survival. One book examines a global Great Disaster involving mutation and the rise of animals, and the deevolution of humans into beasts. One comic features the journey in a Climate or Sea level changed world that led America to be turned into desert and wasteland. One offering is certainly cataclysmic in nature, but offers a more mythical and holistic take upon the world and the context of the story being told. As perhaps fitting for me, living in the lost frozen lands of Minnesota, a different kind of apocalypse happened, turning earth back to the ice ages.  This look at comic book apocalypses (plural?) with more attention to briefly discuss the kind of apocalypse faced, or world that now exists.

AFTER THE APOCALYPSE IN COMIC BOOKS

THE WALKING DEAD
Written by Robert Kirkman  Art by Tony Moore &  Charlie Adlard
From Image Comics

Zombies appear, cause unknown to begin with... Reading The Walking Dead as it came out, I wrote in reviews, and told people who asked, that it was a seriously good series, but not for the zombies and the killing. It is about a human drama following an inexplicable disaster, one with no clear genesis, and all that can be done during the stories, is respond to the threat. Humans are the most important part of the story, but this isn't about heroes, rather it is about the fact that disaster doesn't happen where humans live, it happens, and heroes rise to the occasion (or fail to do so). The AMC series on television made the series more popular, but I can guarantee that the comics are better, the stories deeper, and the details available make the work better, in comics form.

KAMANDI AND THE GREAT DISASTER
By Jack Kirby and many more.
From DC Comics

Scene one, Kamandi discovers his grandfather has been slain, and now, whatever he faces, he will face it alone. Kamandi has become one of the last verbal and intelligent humans to survive the Great Disaster. Intriguingly, he is named for the bunker he was born in, Command D. Kept from knowing the effects of vast event known as the Great Disaster. Scene two and more, he is a survivor, but, one who has lost almost all he knew, and he is now wandering the world, a world turned upside down. Mutated animals speak, walk on 2 legs, gather into clans according to their species, and humans, the former keepers of the zoo, are now mute, unable to speak or think, beyond savage violence and needs like hunger. This was a comic I quite enjoyed, whatever the flaws it might have had. Jack Kirby was a creative genius, prolific and thoughtful. I acknowledge that Planet of the Apes might be where Jack Kirby's concept found inspiration, but he made it way bigger, and it was never disappointing for me while reading it. It should be noted, his The Eternals, which I also love, seems to have been inspired by Erich von Däniken's Chariot of the Gods theories. He had a way, of seeing what people were fascinated by, and creating work that seemed current, despite his being a talent in comics since 1941 or before.

WASTELAND
By Antony Johnston and Christopher Mitten
From ONI Press

This is a world changed by an event one hundred years ago called the Big Wet. The term wasteland, however is apt, as Earth now barren to crops, fallow fields are radioactive or lifeless, and humans are not able to provide for their needs. Scavenging and salvage are a way to survive, but the humans struggle and clash violently, for for survival. With the world gone mad, this might seem a scenario for humans living bestially, fighting over a can of cat food found beneath the ruins of a grocery store. But this has supernatural or fantasy elements, including mystical gift bearers and dictators, prophets and bullies.  The quality of story is there, and there is a mystery that each issues seems to build towards.  The work extended 70 or so issues and had an ending. Few works have such scope, such patience and publishers willing to tell the story to the end.

THE LAST GENERATION
By Dave Bennett, Bill Byer, Mitch Foust and David Porch.
From BLACK TIE STUDIO

Five beings travel through time, and shift realities. The story is one featuring an epic stretching from ancient memories to the future, with a mythology ancient Egyptian in nature. It offers a different sort of story, it isn't an action tale, despite their being action, it isn't a work of easy to digest ideas and histories. It tells a mythic story, where the world seems to be in the hands of five mutants, anthropomorphic creatures, humans, and more, each with changes, mutations and histories. The work went unfinished, and promised an enormous sort of story, known today as a metawork. Sadly it was never finished and those few issues that came out did so over the course of years, not 5 months or 10 months. By the time new issues arrived, people had often forgotten what was going on. Now, having said that, I really enjoyed it. I should also say, it is worth pursuing as a back issue only if you are fascinated by how stories can develop, and have concepts worth considering, rather than finding an epic story written and illustrated into final form, and final note.

WINTERWORLD
By Chuck Dixon, Jorge Zaffino, Butch Guice
Eclipse Comics, IDW Publishing
 
The world presented in Winterworld has experienced the return of the ice age, whether influenced by human hands or by natural cycles.  The humans presented struggle daily for survival, nothing more, nothing less. Human tribes take slaves, and some try to find a mythical area no longer encased in sheets of ice and snow.  It is a welcome change from hand wringing over the consequences of human behavior, in that, these humans have no choice but to experience it, regardless of the source. Dixon is well able to thrive here, showing violent people, and those who simply wish to survive avoiding the roving bands of cannibals and bandits. Jorge Zaffino was a great artist, and is missed. His style and ability to impart details and tone, are perfect for this sort of work.

ASSORTED APOCALYPTIC Comics

There are many comics that have a setting or a visit to a post apocalyptic world. Hex from DC comics was a way to explore a character who was born for such a setting or experience. Fist of the North Star, both in comic book, anime and video game, came from Japan and utilized the apocalypse as an engine for the creation of heroes and villains, cities of rust and radiation, and dangers beyond calculation. It is written broadly, it has drama and action, violence and compassion. But it isn't, however much I enjoy it, a work that could be mistaken for nuanced or possessing of emotive content. And After Apocalypse and Post Apocalypse are works that I've not seen but people told me to seek them out.

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