Review: The First Kingdom Volume I: The Birth of Tundran

As most of you know, in addition to writing my own posts and reviews here at Daddy Rolled a 1, I also write comic reviews for ComicAttack.net. About a week ago they published my review of an old underground comic from the mid 1970s called The First Kingdom, which has recently been released in a really well-done hard-cover trade format by Titan Comics (who also very kindly provided me with a free review copy).

This comic will be of interest to any of my readers who like the post-apocalyptic genre, as that's the setting for the story. We get a small glimpse of pre-cataclysm Earth in the first few pages with fighter jets and bombs, and then are whisked away on a centuries-spanning history as civilization descends into prehistoric levels, and bringing us up to the time period in which the story takes place. It's a world of barbarians fighting for survival against gigantic mutant beasts, constant fear of starvation, and marauding neighboring tribes. There's also a really interesting element of godlike characters living in palaces up in the sky and who observe but rarely interact with the tribes of Earth, not unlike the legends of the Greek gods of old.

If you're interested in post-apocalyptic settings, the history of underground comics, or the philosophical ideas of the human imperative of migration, then you'll want to check out The First Kingdom. The first part of my review is below.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Jack Katz’s The First Kingdom is an intense work that deserves, or really demands, concentration and devotion from the reader. This isn’t a book to be read as a quick break from the stresses of daily life, nor one that can be skimmed, set down, and come back to over the course of several readings.

Those are meant to be positives for Katz’s work, but make no mistake: Katz’s story is dense, in more ways than one. The pages are absolutely jam-packed with art and story, and every single panel contains levels of artistic detail...

Read the entire review over at ComicAttack.net, here.