Kin

(Image, 1999-2000)
™ and ©2000 Gary Frank

It begins with a curious puzzle in the history of mankind. While it was the Neanderthal that first took up a club to hunt, it was the cro-magnon that became modern man’s true ancestor. But happened to the stronger, more powerful neanderthal?

In Kin, it is revealed that they never went away, but were instead forced to take refuge away from their increasingly populous cousins the cro-magnon. The neanderthal fled to remote parts of the world such as Alaska, where they continued to evolve. Today, a secret organization called the S.I.A. has discovered this forgotten branch of man’s family tree, as well as revealing that the latter-day neanderthals seem to possess technology so advanced that it seems almost alien. The S.I.A. then makes a fateful decision: the neanderthals must be controlled, lest their technology fall into “the wrong hands.” Before long, over sixty agents of the S.I.A. were found dead—and a war had begun between modern man and his distant kin.

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