Leahtrah is the only character in the whole story which appears in all the issues from the main continuity, excluding side-stories and the Annuals, but including the epilogue episode, followed by Liska, who appears in all the issues past #4, and also excluding side-stories and Annuals, Loanzah, who appears in most issues past #5 and finally, her father Thorin.
In an interesting subversion, Liska does also "appears" in the epilogue episode, but only as a museum diorama, as she died centuries ago in combat against Rakon's loyalist forces. Also this is the only time in the whole narrative that we see both Liska and Leah physically in the same place and in the same era.
From all the recurrent characters, Kebec, Kayce, their respective children, Willoam, Chief Cor-mac-den, Giles, Chepá, Valora, Patches, Quiet Bird, Bright Dawn and Dancing Star are the only ones without official color designs or descriptions.
Shawntae Howard, the recurrent artist who did the art of the comic from issue 11 to 24, has drawn all the recurrent characters that appears in the comic, excluding Kayce,note Since she was dead by the time Howard took artistic duties in the comic. Bright Dawn, Wind Flower, and Dancing Star. Patches is a partial example, since he only had drawn her head exclusively in the Distant Finale.
Curiously enough, the already mentioned Howard only drew a single story in the Katmandu Annuals: A short story named "Families". Even more oddly, this is also the only Howard-illustrated story which wasn't written by Carole Curtis, the author of the comic, but by Boyce Garald Kline Jr. instead, while Curtis herself only did the lettering. This is also notorious for being the only erotic story from the Annuals outside the XXX Files.
From all the artists who worked in Katmandu, only Terrie Smith, Shawntae Howard, Dann Phillips, Michelle Light, Jose Victor Guerrero, aka "Civasco", Lisa Jennings, Ted Vollmer and Jerry Loomis are the only ones who had collaborated with stories lasting more than one single issue. From the main story, only Smith, Howard, Jennings and Loomis are the only ones who had collaborated with more than one issue.
The comic had also collaborations from artists working outside the U.S.: The already mentioned Civasco (Mexico), David Siegl (France) and Hitoshi Natsume, aka Dr. COMET (Japan). From these three, only Civasco collaborated with more than one single story.
Katmandu was the only comic published by Shanda Fantasy Arts whose main creator, Carole Curtis, didn't draw a single panel of the comic. While Curtis did knew how to draw, she chose to hire professional artists instead because she considered her own art as unfiting for a comic.
Despite being Carole's husband and also a talented artist by his own right. Mike Curtis, who created Katmandu's sister comic Shanda The Panda, drew only a single issue, in this case, one of the issues of the XXX Files starring both Liska and Pyndan. He did worked in the comic doing other roles, mostly related with lettering instead.
Both Shanda The Panda and Katmandu shared artistic teams, being the few exceptions the non-American artists, who never worked on Shanda.
Trivia Tropes
Breakthrough Hit: Katmandu put many of the artists who worked there, mainly Shawntae Howard, Terrie Smith and Michelle Lightnote Through Light was already well-known for her work in Shanda The Panda. in the spotlight of the Furry Fandom. It also put, through briefly, Hitoshi "Dr. COMET" Natsume in the spotlight of many western furry fans. The same goes for Jose Victor Guerrero "Civasco" and Lisa Jennings.
Channel Hop: Of the publisher kind; originally, it was published by Venus Comics from 1993 to 1994, later to Antarctic Press from 1994 to 1996, Vision Comics from 1996 to 1999 and finally from being self-published by Shanda Fantasy Arts from 1999 to 2018.
Creator's Pest: Somewhat: According with Shawntae Howard, Mother Sanna is quite a difficult character to drawn due to her age, as depicting old anthros was quite hard for him without the help of a modelsheet. This is also the reason why she stoppped appearing in the regular continuity and many side-stories not drawn by him starting with the "Runt" sub-arc, as other artists had even bigger problems on drawing her correctly.
Mike Curtis, who is Carole Curtis real-life husband, was the creator of Katmandu's sister comic, Shanda The Panda and the current artist of Dick Tracy.
Joe Staton, another Dick Tracy alumni, did the art of the final #37 issue.
Shawntae Howard, one of the main artists since almost day one and one of the well-known ones, will end up creating Extinctioners a few years later.
Lisa Jennings, one of the artist of the comic, worked as the character designer of Inherit the Earth.
Hitoshi "Dr. COMET" Natsume was a former employee of Koei and worked on some older games, mainly Nobunaga's Ambition and the Japan-only Taikō Risshiden series.
The late Dan DeCarlo was the co-creator of Archie.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: If you want to buy back issues of Katmandu, be prepared to spend a good amount of money, since many of them are very difficult to find nowadays; oddly enough, compared with other comics, finding the latter issues starting with issue 31 is a very difficult task, and finding the final issues, with the sole exception of the epilogue episode, which was published in Shanda The Panda instead, is almost impossible. As a result of this, almost no one, even the many artists who worked on it, knows how the comic ended, even in the internet.
Outside writing some short stories and helping with her husband Mike on Dick Tracy, Katmandu remains as Carole Curtis' sole original work to date.
Mary Hanson-Roberts, who wrote some some side-stories and the Here Comes the Candle crossover, only worked in this comic and her own, as well as doing non-furry illustrations until her death at 2020.
Carole Curtis has reduced her public appearances since the mid-2010s, as she has cancer, causing as a result on not answering questions about the comic anymore. Likewise, Mike Curtis, her husband, has also stopped answering questions from the either Katmandu and Shanda The Panda since 2019, and, while the latter is still working on Dick Tracy, his relationship with either fandoms, and also with the Furry Fandom as whole has become null since then.
Terrie Smith, the very first artist who did the art of the comic until issue 10, has also disappeared from the public eye since the 2010s, and her last comic book work was her Liska's pin-up in the Distant Finale issue coupled with Shanda The Panda.
Shawntae Howard downplays this: While he rarely gives interviews and and he rarely shows his real face, he is quite communicative with his fans, and he doesn't mind to answer questions about both Katmandu and his own work.
On the other hand, this is played brutally straight with the many of the remaining artists who worked in the comic. Some of them, like Civasco and Dr. COMET, their current whereabouts are completely unknown.note Through Civasco still does artwork in his native Mexico, but he is unable to work in the U.S. anymore, partly due to the closure of Shanda Fantasy Arts and the much stricter inmigration laws set by the then-president Donald Trump that prevent him to travel to the U.S. to find another job. Dr. COMET, on the other hand, has basically disappeared from the internet since 2017. and others, like Ashryn, has took extreme measures to prevent their identity, up to their gender, from being revealed.
Oddly averted with Dann Phillips: Despite the controversial nature of his artwork, he is still accessible for his fans, but he had moved away from the Furry Fandom years ago, and now he only exclusively draws human characters.
Swan Song: This comic, together with Shanda The Panda, were Shanda Fantasy Arts' final titles being published under their label before closing door at 2018. Sadly enough, both comic books were also their debut titles at 1993.
Troubled Production: Oh boy, where to begin first: Since its very conception, Katmandu was plagued with many kind of problems, partly due to, even for its time, unusual premise, and even when the comic managed to make a name by itself, the whole production was hit by many situations that, at the very end, ended up dooming it for good at the later 2000s:
To starters, the comic was originally conceived as a novel, and the very first three issues of the "Velites and Hoplites" sub-arc were originally based in the original draft. The part about Liska and her life wasn't originally planned and it were added when Carole Curtis needed to add more material on the narrative.
Terrie Smith, the very first artist which did the art of the first ten issues, despite being the original choice for doing the art, wasn't choosed at first since Curtis thought her services would be too costly. She quickly changed her mind when the other artist she used in the prototype issue wasn't of her liking.
During the whole run, both Carole and her husband Mike were victims of many health problems that affected the comic in many ways, including many bouts of cancer and diabetes. The same goes with many members of the artistic staff
After Shawntae Howard left the comic at issue 24 for health reasons, he was originally being planned to be replaced with Lisa Jennings, but she only did two half-issues, as she also left the team due to suffering of Carpal tunnel syndrome, forcing Shanda Fantasy Arts to replace her with many other artists, none of them as well-regarded or with the same quality as either Smith, Howard or the mentioned Jennings.
According with Curtis in the Katmandu Handbook, the original story was devised at first as a novel, rather than a comic book, but after she and her husband Mike managed to sign a contract with Venus Comics, they changed the format. This is the reason why the first three issues of the "Velites and Hoplites" arc felt so different from the rest of the comic and barely held any relation with the rest of the plot at large scale.
There was a plan in earlier 2000s by Shanda Fantasy Arts, the previous publishers of the comic, about doing a crossover with Albedo: Erma Felna EDF, who was also planned as a Grand Finale of sorts for both comics, without Steve Gallacci, the author of Albedo's, permission. Needless to say, Gallacci was pissed off of this, since the whole idea clashed with many aspects from the established canon of his own work, but rather than sue them, he decided to continuing Albedo after a long hiatus, not before he included a short rant comic as a big Take That! against both SFA and also against anybody who tries to mess with the canon of the comic by other means.
According with Shawntae Howard, the previous artist of the comic until issue 24, had he could have continued drawing the comic until the very end, the final battle between Liska and Rakon would had being different: Rather than using her son Quiet Bird, she could had fought against Rakon in a personal, more epic duel rather than the base-breaking ending used at the very ending of the comic. Granted, Liska still would had died in this version as well, but at least the final battle would had been felt more satisfactory rather than the Diabolus ex Machina situation used instead.
Word of Saint Paul: As a result of both Carole and Mike Curtis being unable (or unwilling) to answer any further questions on regard of the comic, all the questions about the Katmandu's canon are answered by the artists who worked on it. To note, Shawntae Howard is the most accesible source, since he did the art for the second half to the story, as well to be the well-known and better regarded artist of the whole artistic team, together with Terrie Smith, not to mention he is the only artist of the main team that is still active in the furry comic book industry at this date.note It should be noted, however, that Howard doesn't answer questions about plot points or characters that he didn't draw, like Quiet Bird, Patches or anything past issue 24, the last issue he did. Also, he doesn't know anything about the whole details about the ending of the comic, as he only received a brief resume from Carole Curtis herself, since the last issue is considered lost, and very few people, outside the Curtises, know the complete plot of the final issue, outside Liska dying for good.
