I was driven to read this by a comment on another board which had this to say:



I beg to differ.

It begins with Ka-Zar going through some kind of existential angst as he watches a Rhino being devoured by a wolf pack. He has an encounter with Shanna where they end up doing the sex thang, but before which he meditates on their status as savages. At one point, he opines "Maybe this jungle heroics stuff is just a ready made excuse because neither of us has the courage to make it in a civilzed world."

Later, he encounters a new world hidden behind a waterfall(!) in which the denizens either worship or sacrifice sabre tooth tigers, depending on their being goodies or baddies, I suppose. The new world is called Lemura, and Ka Zar first rescues, then gets turned down by, its queen. And that ends the first issue.

What is most noticeable to me is how totally out of character Ka Zar is throughout the issue. His dialogue - some of which I have quoted above - reads like a late-teenage American, rather than any kind of noble savage. IT is Peter Parker, not Lord Kevin Plunder.

Did anyone here ever read this? Did it seem better at the time?

I read it as it came out, and my impression was about the same as yours. I bought the first few issues because I had fond memories of Bruce Jones' work for the Warren mags, and I liked Brent Anderson's art, but I really didn't think Jones got Kazar's character, and I dropped it after six issues.

I liked it at the time, but haven't read it since.

It doesn't seem to get any better in the few more (up to #5) available on Marvel Unlimited. The dialogue is definitely reminiscent of a sort of late Stan Lee Spidey. Weird.

Bruce Jones, it says on here, went on to write The Hulk. Was that better/the same?

His very next things were two books for Pacific -- Twisted Tales and Alien Worlds. They were EC-style anthology books, and they were awesome. He can write. But I think he's better at lurid character stuff.

I think his Hulk work was way, way later. Different era.

I like the art on this, though. Brett Anderson is not someone I'm very familiar with - I think I may have seen one or two things he drew back in the day. I'd post some examples but imgur won't play ball with me today, for reasons I'm sure will turn out to be causd by my laughable computer 'skills'

Anderson is good -- I was beginning to think of him as one of "my guys" in those days.

He followed Bruce Jones to some Pacific work, doing Somerset Holmes (with Jones writing). I had wanted to get those issues for reading today.

Brent Anderson was the main artist on Kurt Busiek's Astro City, and it is an excellent series. I think it's the best way to see his art.
Jones's Hulk was not very good. Again, as in Kazar, he did not really seem interested in actually using the character as he had previously been written. I don't think he liked writing company owned franchise characters. His best work is in an E.C. short story format, as he did for Warren and his Pacific/Eclipse books.

I remember the art being good, but I have no memories of any of the stories. A jungle hero in a land of dinosaurs and hidden civilizations should have been my favourite comic, but I didn’t take to it for some reason.

I remember liking the series well enough, but it wasn't the Ka-Zar that I remembered, and "Savage"
wasn't really a part of it. I liked the general idea of pairing up Shanna and Ka-Zar. The later part of
the series featured some X-Men stuff, I think, characters or crossovers.

I bought the Anderson Ka-Zar art portfolio, so I still have that and one signed print.

The Hulk stuff was highly acclaimed as it came out, but all the build up didn’t go anywhere, so now it’s looked down upon. It’s fine. Nothing to go out of your way for, but I’d only read it as part of a series re-read or some such.

Let’s not overlook the fact that Evans wrote “thang”.

I liked Ka-Zar. We named an orange cat Zabu. I really liked Brent Anderson's art and bought a couple of anatomy and drawing books based on his recommendation at a con when I was a kid.

And I am frequently seeing some of the younger posters on the Marvel Masterworks boards posting their
desires for the Ka-Zar the Savage material to get Masterwork volumes after the earlier Ka-Zar material is
completed, so there is some interest still in the title. I don't think the earlier Ka-Zar books sold that well,
though (I picked them up), so I think an Omnibus might be more likely. But maybe not.

I think we all noticed it.

I have to agree that this comic wasn't what I'd expected it to be, either. I read it years after it came out but remember liking the art and not liking the story.

It's fucking awful, although the first eight issues have JR Jr. art, which is pretty cool.

It is indeed much later than the Ka-Zar stuff, though. Bruce Jones Hulk went from 2001 to 2005. It was bad even at the time, though Hanzo is right that the critics were fooled. It got good reviews, which was inexplicable.

Bruce Jones wrote spectacular horror comics for Pacific and Eclipse.

I remember the Jones Hulk as having entire issues without the Hulk.

It was a trial run for the Hulk as a horror / suspense comic that just didn’t work out. I enjoyed the Romita issues but I’m there for the art with comics, so...

Bruce Jones Hulk was like JMS Spider-Man. Excellent when JR Jr. was drawing it.

Yeah but Romita only did like the first seven or eight of a five year, 60-issue run.

And, as Garp intimated, the Hulk only appeared in three of those eight issues.

I remain bitter over the whole episode in Hulk history. Yep, I do.

Let the past be the past, and tell us where you are on the Savage Dragon reading. I was shocked that you revealed you were putting together a Dragon reading order.