Category: Sword & Sorcery

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Solomon Kane volume 1: The Castle of the Devil


By Scott Allie, Mario Guevara, Dave Stewart & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59582-282-6 (TPB)

Although Marvel have resumed control of Robert E. Howard’s star turns, they haven’t yet re-issued all the prior efforts of the previous licensee yet. That’s a shame as this particular tome has Halloween written all over it. Until they do, why not scour shoppes and online sites for a copy. The exercise will probably do you good and who knows what else you might find?

Following on from their revitalisation – if not actual creation – of the comic book Sword and Sorcery genre in the early 1970s (with their magnificent adaptation of pulp superstar Conan the Barbarian), Marvel Comics quite naturally looked for more of the same. They found ample material in Robert Ervin Howard’s other warrior heroes such as King Kull, Bran Mac Morn and dour Puritan Avenger Solomon Kane.

The fantasy genre had undergone a global prose revival in the paperback marketplace since the release of soft-cover editions of Lord of the Rings (first published in 1954), and the 1960s resurgence of two-fisted action extravaganzas by such pioneer writers as Edgar Rice Burroughs, Otis Adelbert Kline and Fritz Lieber. This led to a generation of modern writers like Michael Moorcock and Lin Carter kick-starting their careers with contemporary interpretations of man, monster and mage. Without doubt, though, nobody did it better than the tragic Texan whose other red-handed stalwarts and tough guys such as El Borak, Steve Costigan, Dark Agnes and Red Sonya of Rogatino excelled in a host of associated genres and like milieus.

Solomon Kane debuted in the August 1928 issue of Weird Tales in a gripping tale of vengeance entitled “Red Shadows”. He made seven more appearances before vanishing in 1932 as his creator concentrated on far more successful Conan. Three further tales, some epic poems and a few unfinished ideas and passages remained unpublished until 1968, when renewed interest in the author’s work prompted publishers to disinter and complete the yarns.

Apart from two noteworthy 4-colour exceptions, during the 1970s and 1980s, Marvel was content to leave Solomon Kane to monochrome adaptations of canonical Howard stories (in Dracula Lives, Savage Sword of Conan, Monsters Unleashed and other older-reader magazines), but with his transfer to the Dark Horse stable the Holy Terror flourished in broader, lavishly-hued interpretations of the unfinished snippets left when the prolific Howard took his life in 1936.

Beginning in 2008 and released as a succession of miniseries, these nearly-new adventures offer modern fans a far darker, more moody glimpse at the driven, doom-laden wanderer.

Kane is a disenfranchised English soldier of fortune in the 17th century on a self-appointed mission to roam the Earth doing God’s Work: punishing the wicked and destroying devils and monsters. With no seeming plan, the devout Puritan lets fate guide his footsteps ever towards trouble…

Expanded upon and scripted by Scott Allie from tantalisingly unfinished fragment The Castle of the Devil, this initial volume collects a 5-issue story-arc from September 2008-February 2009 and also includes a short piece which originally featured online in the digital MySpace Dark Horse Presents site in June 2008.

The drama opens as the surly pilgrim bloodily encounters bandits and an horrific wolf-beast in Germany’s Black Forest, losing his horse in the attack. Proceeding on foot he finds a boy hanging from a gibbet and cuts the near-dead body down. Soon after, he meets mercenary John Silent, another Englishman in search of fortune…

From his new companion, Kane learns local lord, Baron von Staler, has an evil reputation and will not be happy to have his affairs meddled with. The puritan doesn’t care: he wants harsh words with the kind of man who would execute children…

Despite genuine misgivings, the insufferably jolly Silent insists on accompanying his clearly suicidal countryman. Soon the pair are admitted to a bleak and terrifying Schloss built on the remains of an old abbey…

Von Staler is not the mad tyrant they had been warned of. The gracious, pious old warrior with devoted servants and a beautiful young Moorish wife welcomes them in, offering the hospitality of his hearth and charming them with his easy manner. The lord is appalled by the tale of the hanged boy, denying any knowledge of the atrocity and swears to bring the culprits to justice.

Over supper he and his bride Mahasti explain that their ill-repute is unjustly earned. The simple peasants have unfairly conflated him with the manse’s previous accursed inhabitants: a chapter of monks who murdered their own Prior two centuries past.

Vater Stuttman had been a holy man until he sold himself to Satan. His desperate brethren had been forced to entomb and starve him to contain his evil. With the church determinedly ignoring their plight, the chapter faded from the sight of Man and eventually Staler’s family had purchased the lands, building their ancestral seat upon the ruins.

The peasants however, still called it “the Church of the Devil”…

Gratified to find a man as devoted to God as himself, Kane relaxes for the first time in months, thankful to spend a night in a warm bed with people as devout as he. The truth begins to out at ‘The Dead of Night’ as Silent goes prowling within the castle and kills one of the Baron’s retainers, even as Kane’s rest is disturbed by shameless Mahasti offering herself to him…

Spurning her advances, the furious puritan leaves the citadel to wander the forest, and again encounters the colossal wolf thing. Back in his bed Silent, nursing a deep wound, dreams of beleaguered old monks and their apostate Prior…

In ‘Offerings’ the truth slowly begins to dawn on the melancholy wanderer after discourse with the strangely ill-tempered Silent. Something is badly amiss in the household, but when Kane and the Baron ride out that morning, all suspicions are stayed by the discovery of another gibbet and another boy. This one, however, is nothing but ragged scraps for the crows that festoon his corpse, and Kane’s rage is dwarfed by the ghastly uncomprehending shock and disbelief of the Baron…

The servants are not so flustered and something about their muted conversations with the master sits poorly with the morose Englishman. In the castle, Mahasti finds Silent a far more amenable prospect, happy to listen to the secrets she wants to share…

‘Sound Reasons and Evil Dictates’ offer more insights into the incredible truth about von Staler, as Kane takes his countryman into his full confidence before Silent and Mahasti ride out into the wild woods, meeting a ghost who reveals the terrifying truth about Vater Stuttman and the appalling thing the monks uncovered two hundred years past…

The demonic cadaver whispered unknowable secrets to one of that long-gone congregation and has continued for all the days and years since. Now the man who was Father Albrecht is ready to welcome it and its appalling kin back to full, ravening life in these benighted grounds…

Von Staler and Kane are arguing and, as accusations become blows, the secret of ‘The Wolf’ is at last revealed, even as faithful retainers capture Mahasti and Silent, leaving them on the gibbets as fodder for a quartet of horrors returning for their fleshly tribute in ‘His Angels of the Four Winds’. Savagely battling his way free of the castle, Kane is only in time to save one of the monsters’ victims, but more than ready to avenge centuries of slaughter and blasphemy in ‘The Chapel of the Devil’: grimly cleansing the tainted lands in the ‘Epilogue: Wanderers on the Face of the Earth’…

The art is beguiling, emphatically evocative with Mario Guevara’s pencils astonishingly augmented by a painted palette courtesy of colourist Dave Stewart, and the book is packed with artistic extras and behind-the-scenes bonuses. These include a gallery of covers and variants and ‘The Art of Solomon Kane’ with sketches and designs by the penciller, architectural shaper Guy Davis and illustrators John Cassaday, Stewart, Laura Martin & Joe Kubert. The tome terminates with that aforementioned digital vignette wherein Kane applies his own savage wisdom of Solomon to a troubled village of ghost-bedevilled souls in ‘The Nightcomers’…

Powerful, engaging and satisfactorily spooky, this fantasy fear-fest will delight both fans of the original canon and lovers of darkly dreaming, ghost-busting thrillers.
© 2009 Solomon Kane Inc. (SKI). Solomon Kane and all related characters, names and logos are ™ © and ® SKI.

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The Michael Moorcock Library Elric volume 4: The Weird of the White Wolf


Adapted by Roy Thomas, Michael T. Gilbert, George Freeman, P. Craig Russell, Tom Orzechowski & various (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78276-290-4 (HB/Digital edition)

As we’re all waving swords about, here’s another splendidly fantastikal romp everyone should have in their personal casque of delights and wonders…

A milestone of the Sword & Sorcery genre Elric is the last ruler of a pre-human civilisation. Domain of a race of cruel, arrogant sorcerers, Melniboné ruled the world in primordial times before its debased lords embraced boredom and decadence. Trapped in gradual decline after millennia of dominance, the end came through its final king. An albino, Elric is physically weak and of a brooding, philosophical temperament. He cared for nothing save his beautiful cousin Cymoril, whom he killed whilst battling her loathsome usurping brother Prince Yrrkoon. After Elric destroyed his own love and race he wandered the world a broken, dissolute wreck…

When some prose tales – The Dreaming City, While the Gods Laugh and The Singing Citadel – were compiled with framing tale The Dream of Earl Aubec into a single novel Elric: Weird of the White Wolf, the tragic revelations were devoured by fans devoted to the epic of inescapable doom, and translation into comics was as inevitable. Ultimately, the epic adaptations alighted in these carefully curated chronicles courtesy of Titan Comics, in both physical and digital formats.

Following a warmly informative Introduction by pioneering comics writer and publisher Mike Friedrich, and creator biographies, the saga resumes.

This stellar graphic adaptation gathers not only the novel but also many of the disparate previous adaptations (partially or in full) to form a logical chronological sequence, based on a 5-issue miniseries and collection which originally saw the light of day from the much-missed innovators First Comics in 1990.

Death and drama manifests in ‘The Dream of Earl Aubec’ – by Roy Thomas, Michael T. Gilbert & George Freeman (spectacularly supported by letterer Ken Bruzenak) – as the greatest warrior champion of his world fights to the very edge of reality, seeking more glory and searching for approval from his queen Eloarde of Klant. Where solid ground meets raw unformed Chaos-stuff, he finds a castle and is seduced by inexplicable, incredible creature Myshella, the Dark Lady. She gleefully shows him visions of the future in the raw material of unformed reality, and particularly the travails of a tragic Emperor, as yet unborn: Elric.

The first vision is an abridged and modified version of Thomas and P. Craig Russell’s ‘The Dreaming City’, taken from the 1982 Marvel Graphic Novel. It’s followed by the pair’s superb adaptation of ‘While the Gods Laugh’ which first appeared in fantasy anthology magazine Epic Illustrated (#14) in 1984.

There and then, the “white wolf” searched for the Dead God’s Book: a magical grimoire that promised to answer any wish or desire. In the quest Elric picked up the first of many disposable paramours in Shaarilla of the Dancing Mist: a woman with an agenda of her own. Most importantly. Elric met his as his truest friend and aide, human wanderer Moonglum.

Interspersed with the unfolding drama of Aubec and Myshella, the collection moves into an all-new interpretation of ‘The Singing Citadel’. Thomas & Gilbert co-adapted the tale for hugely underrated George Freeman to illustrate and colour.

When Elric and Moonglum take ship they are attacked by the magical pirates of Pan Tang, before being drawn into the dire schemes of Queen Yishana. She needs a better magician than her own lover Theleb K’aarna to investigate an incursion of murderous, melodic chaos into her kingdom…

After convincing the newcomers to join her, their search turns up a macabre, manic invader who turns out to be the Balo, malevolent Jester of the Lords of Chaos, intent on establishing his own domain and playpen beyond the interference of his fun-averse superiors…

This is a phenomenal tale of heroism and insanity, and art and colour here fully capture the drama and madness of the original. Gilbert & Freeman are every bit the imaginative, illustrative equals of the magnificent Russell and this book is inarguably one of the most impressive graphic fantasies ever produced.

Michael Moorcock’s irresistible blend of brooding Faustian tragedy and all-out action is never better displayed than in his stories of Elric, and Thomas’ adaptations were another high watermark in the annals of illustrated fantasy. Every home and castle should have one…

Another groundbreaking landmark of fantasy fiction and must-read-item, this resplendently flamboyant tale is a deliciously elegant, sinisterly beautiful masterpiece of the genre, blending blistering action and breathtaking adventure with the deep, darkly melancholic tone of a cynical, nihilistic, Cold-War mentality and the era that spawned the original stories.
Adapted from the works of Michael Moorcock related to the character of Elric of Melniboné © 2016, Michael & Linda Moorcock. All characters, the distinctive likenesses thereof, and all related indicia are TM & © Michael Moorcock and Multiverse Inc. Elric: The Weird of the White Wolf is © 1990 First Publishing, Inc. and Star*Reach Productions. Adapted from the original stories by Michael Moorcock, © 1967, 1970, 1977. All rights reserved.

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Ironwolf: Fires of the Revolution


By Howard Chaykin, John Francis Moore, Michael Mignola & P. Craig Russell (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-063-5 (HB) 978-1-56389-065-9 (TPB)

In the early 1970s, when Howard Chaykin and other luminaries-in-waiting like Bernie Wrightson, Walt Simonson, Al Weiss, Mike Kaluta and others were just starting out in the US comics industry, it was on the back of a global fantasy boom. DC had the comic book rights to Fritz Lieber’s Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser tales (beautifully realised in 5 issues of Swords and Sorcery by Denny O’Neil and many of the above-mentioned gentlemen) as well as the more well-known works of Edgar Rice Burroughs – Tarzan, Korak, John Carter of Mars, Carson of Venus, Pellucidar and even Beyond the Farthest Star. Marvel had some old pulp called Conan and a bunch of others…

Those beautiful fantasy strips began as back-up features in DC’s jungle books but quickly graduated to their own title – Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Weird Worlds – where they enthralled for just 7 magnificent issues before returning to back-up status in Tarzan and Korak. Dropping ERB’s strap line the comic itself ran for three more issues before folding in 1974. Those featured an all-new space opera scenario by O’Neil and Chaykin – The Saga of Ironwolf.

Predating Star Wars by years, and seductively blending hard sci fi and horror tropes, it only just began the story of a star-spanning empire fallen into dissolution and decadence and the rebellion of one honest aristocrat who threw off the seductive chains of privilege to fight for freedom and justice. Artificial vampires, monsters, vast alien armies and his own kin were some of the horrors Ironwolf tackled, leading a loyal band of privateers from his gravity-defying wooden star-galleon the Limerick Rake.

With impressive elan Ironwolf mixed post-Vietnam, current-Watergate cynicism with youthful rebellion, all flavoured by Celtic mythology, Greek tragedy, the legend of Robin Hood and pulp trappings to create a rollicking, barnstorming unforgettable romp. It was cancelled after three issues.

In 1986, those episodes were collected as a special one shot which obviously had some editorial impact, as soon after, this slim but classy all-star conclusion was released in both hardcover and paperback.

In the Empire Galaktika no resource is more prized than the miraculous anti-gravity trees of Illium – ancestral home of the Lords Ironwolf. These incredible plants take a thousand years to mature, can grow on no other world, and are the basis of all starships and extraplanetary travel in the Empire.

After untold years of comfortable co-existence, the latest Empress, Erika Morelle D’Klein Hernandez – steeped in her own debaucheries – declares that she is giving the latest crop of mature trees to monstrous aliens she had welcomed into her realm. Disgusted at this betrayal, nauseated by D’Klein’s blood-sucking allies and afraid for the Empire’s survival, Lord Brian of Illium destroys the much-coveted trees and joins the revolution.

With a burgeoning republican movement, he almost overthrows the corrupt regime in a series of spectacular battles, but was ultimately betrayed by one of his closest allies. Ambushed, the Limerick Rake died in a ball of flame…

Ironwolf awakes confused and crippled in a shabby hovel. Horrified he learns he has been unconscious for eight years, and although the Empire has been replaced with a Commonwealth, things have actually grown worse for humanity. The Empress still holds power and men are no more than playthings and sustenance – not only for the vampiric Blood Legion but also the increasingly debased aristocrats he once called his fellows.

Clearly he has a job to finish…

After decades away, much of the raw fire of the young creators who originated Ironwolf has mellowed with age, but Chaykin has always been a savvy, cynical and politically worldly-wise story-teller and still had enough indignant venom remaining to make this tale of betrayal and righteous revenge a gloriously fulfilling read, especially with the superbly beguiling art of Mike Mignola & P. Craig Russell, illustrating his final campaign to liberate the masses.

Since the tale (which links into Chaykin & Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez’s DC future-verse Twilight epic – and no, that one has nothing to do with fey vampires in love: stayed tuned for our review of the sci fi classic) is not available digitally and physical copies are a bit pricy, I think the time has never been better for reissuing the entire vast panoramic saga in one complete graphic novel.

Let’s see if somebody at DC is reading this review…
© 1992 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Beowulf – First Comics Graphic Novel #1


By Jerry Bingham, with Ken Bruzenak (First Comics)
ISBN: 978-0-915419-00-5 (Album PB)

The mid-1980s were a great time for comics creators. It was as if an entire new industry had opened up with the proliferation of the Direct Sales market and dedicated specialist retail outlets; new companies were experimenting with format and content, and punters had a bit of spare cash to play with. Moreover, much of the “kid’s stuff” stigma had finally abated and the US was catching up to the rest of the world in acknowledging that sequential narrative might just be an actual art-form…

Many new companies began competing for the attention and cash of punters who had grown accustomed – or resigned – to getting their four-colour kicks from DC, Marvel Archie and/or Harvey Comics. European and Japanese styled material had been creeping in but by 1983 a host of young companies such as WaRP Graphics, Pacific, Eclipse, Capital, Now, Comico, Dark Horse, First and many others had established themselves and were making impressive inroads.

New talent, established stars and fresh ideas all found a thriving forum to try something a little different both in terms of content and format. Chicago based First Comics was an early frontrunner, with Frank Brunner’s Warp, Mike Grell’s Starslayer and Jon Sable, Freelance and Howard Chaykin’s landmark American Flagg!, as well as an impressive line of titles targeting a more sophisticated audience.

In 1984 they followed Marvel and DC’s lead with a line of impressive, European-styled over-sized graphic albums featuring new and out-of-the-ordinary comics sagas (see Time Beavers, Mazinger and two volumes of Time2 to see just how bold, broad and innovative the material could be). The premier release was a stunning – subsequently award-winning (1985 Kirby Award for Best Graphic Album) – fantasy epic by Jerry Bingham.

Beowulf is a thrilling, compulsive and intensely visceral visualisation of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem committed to parchment sometime between the 8th and 11th century AD, and recently the subject of numerous screen iterations and re-interpretations.

Need a plot summary? Long ago in the far North, noble King Hrothgar built a mighty mead-hall for heroes, thereby incurring the malignant enmity of the monster Grendel. This beast ruthlessly and relentlessly raided the citadel, slaughtering many noble warriors every night. After a dozen years of horror, a valiant band of heroes led by Beowulf, Prince of the Geats, came to their aid, seeking glory and fame through battle…

The clash of Beowulf and Grendel is spectacularly handled as is the succeeding exploit wherein the stalking horror’s demonic mother comes seeking revenge and drags the warrior prince to her hideous lair beneath an icy lake, but the most effective and moving chapter is the very human-scaled Twilight of the Gods as, after 50 years ruling his Geatish kingdom, worn and elderly Beowulf goes to his final glorious battle, dying heroically whilst destroying a ravening firedrake which threatens to eradicate his people: the only proper end for a Northman Hero…

Bingham’s raw, fiercely realistic art-style perfectly captures the implacable sense of doom and by employing Prince Valiant’s text block-&-picture format he endows the tale with a grandeur frequently as mythic as Hal Foster’s strip masterpiece, whilst leaving the art gloriously free of distracting word-balloons.

Letterer/calligrapher Ken Bruzenak’s particular facility perfectly enhances the artistic mood by carefully integrating captions filled with Bingham’s free-verse transliterations of the original 3182-lines-long poem into a classic interpretation of the epic. This is a wonderful and worthy piece of work that will delight any fan of the medium. Let’s bring it back pretty please?

And for a perfect all-ages prose telling of the timeless tale I also heartily recommend Rosemary Sutcliff’s magnificent Beowulf: Dragonslayer: first released in 1961 and captivatingly illustrated by Charles Keeping. It is still readily available and one of the books that changed my life.
© 1984 First Comics, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Mercenary – The Definitive Editions volume 1 & 2



By Vicente Segrelles, translated by Mary McKee (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-124-6 (HB/Digital edition vol 1) ISBN: 978-1-68112-124-6 (HB/Digital edition vol 2)

Born in Barcelona in 1940, Vicente Segrelles Sacristán is a renowned illustrator of magazines and book covers on three continents and the creator of one of the world’s most popular graphic novel series. His first comics album El Mercenario (The Mercenary) was released in 1982: introducing an itinerant knight-for-hire fighting his way through a fantastic world of science and sorcery, usually on the back of a flying dragon.

Rendered initially in lush oil-paints (before graduating to creating art digitally from 1998 onwards), these epic tales blend visual realism and accuracy with fable, myth, historical weaponry, contemporary technology and classical science fiction themes. These fantastic scenes are screened through the visual lens of a trained architect and engineer. Fourteen albums were released between 1982-2003, most of them seen by English-language readers through the auspices of publisher NBM.

Hugely in demand for his painted covers since the 1970s, Segrelles has created book covers for the works of H. Rider Haggard, Poul Anderson, Roger Zelazny, Alistair McLean, G. F. Unger, Desmond Bagley, Andre Norton, Joel Rosenberg, Charles DeLint, C.H. Guenter, Jason Dark, Terry Pratchett and a host of others. European prose readers may also know him as the cover artist of Italian science fiction magazine Urania.

Volume 1 – The Cult of the Sacred Fire

Segrelles came to comics relatively late in his career and the reasons for that can be learned in a prodigious “behind-the-scenes” section at the back of this stunning remastered reissue.

Originally serialised in Spanish magazine Cimoc in 1980, El Mercenario was one of the earliest European series NBM published in English and to celebrate 40 years in business the company rereleased the series in fabulous oversized (314 x 236 mm) remastered hardcover albums to once more set the world alight. If you prefer, you could instead pick up a thoroughly modern digital edition.

What’s it about?: in the mediaeval world, a region of Central Asia lies all but undiscovered. The Land of Eternal Clouds is an isolate region where life has taken a different turn at the highest mountain levels. Here bat-like reptilian fliers – “dragons” – abound and humans have made them beasts of burden. This setting is the backdrop to introduce a nameless action hero and problem-solver who is engaged in this premier tome by the puissant potentate of one super-cumulus city-state to rescue his queen from vile abductors…

Riding a gigantic bat-winged lizard, the nameless Mercenary plucks the unfortunate lady from peril and defeats the dragon-riding guards who give chase… but only at great personal and financial cost.

Happily, the wary warrior has made contingency plans and – even after they go awry following a clash with a predatory beast – is smart enough to build a mechanical flyer to replace the ones he has lost to this ill-fated mission…

This initial yarn is actually a triptych of three interrelated vignettes, and the second begins once the hero-for-hire returns the comely bride to her rich but old and flabby husband. Safely re-ensconced in the lap of luxury, she repays her dutiful saviour for spurning her amorous attentions by accusing him of assaulting her…

Despite escaping to his hastily-constructed contraption, it is not enough to keep him airborne and slowly the sell-sword plunges into the swirling cloud mass from which no man has ever returned…

Crashing to earth, he finds a wholly undiscovered world, where an old sage with a handy potion soothes his wounds and allows him to breathe better in air that cloys and clogs his lungs like soup. The Mercenary soon returns the favour after the oldster shares his woes, revealing that the family have also suffered a recent kidnapping. This time a young woman has been taken by a mystery group demanding a strange  ransom: all the alcohol the village contains…

Soon, the tireless adventurer has broached the cage in which the latest abductee hangs above certain death, only to find himself also a captive. This time it’s inside a colossal and all-but-invisible floating city ruled by mysterious cloaked figures claiming to be the Cult of the Sacred Fire…

Before long the doughty champion has discerned the incredible – but rational – secret behind all the seemingly supernatural phenomena and set the city on a course of appalling destruction and personal vengeance using all the strength, training and raw ingenuity he’s blessed with…

Fascinating background and behind-the-scenes delights abound in ‘Meet Vicente Segrelles’, relating his life and career and breaking down his working methodology. That includes how this volume and The Mercenary series came into being, liberally augmented with a wealth of illustrations from the artist’s early days, discarded paintings and drawings and a wealth of detail-shots taken from the story that precedes it.

Volume 2: The Formula

The second volume of The Mercenary’s majestic exploits begins to build an internal continuity with the introduction of a recurring villain. Requiring an aerial escort to The Great Plain, Claust the alchemist hires our soldier of fortune as bodyguard. The savant is petty and obnoxious and utter discretion is expected and enforced…

The reason becomes clear after the perilous journey leads to a hidden monastery where the Great Master shames the celebrated sage in front of his hireling. Apparently, all Claust’s great scientific discoveries were actually purchased from the hidden citadel and his glittering reputation is an unearned sham. Moreover, the cult leader now knows what kind of tyrant the alchemist is and cuts him off from any new wonders…

Shamed and enraged, Claust attacks the Great Master, steals the sage society’s most prized formula and flees for his life…

Clearly an honourable man and complete patsy, The Mercenary is then hired by the aggrieved wise men and despatched to retrieve the formula, accompanied by the enclave’s top lawkeeper: mysterious metal-shod knight Nan-Tay…

Instantly and instinctively over-competitive, the pursuers slowly bond as they stalk the fugitive carrying the most dangerous and deadly weapon in the world. Edging ever closer, they learn with horror why no one has ever exposed Claust before, and what fate the manic mage intended for his latest bodyguard…

Ambushed and overwhelmed, the hunters are eventually imprisoned in Claust’s keep whilst he rashly and too-rapidly combines the elements of the weapon he has stolen. He is unaware that Nan-Tay’s all-encompassing armour encloses an incredible secret and is utterly unprepared when the hunters break free. It’s only by sheerest chance that the alchemist escapes the cataclysm his theft and their liberation triggers…

Epic and enthralling, the adventure is augmented by a hefty, fact-&-picture-packed ‘Making of…’ feature, which opens with ‘Meet Vicente Segrelles’ before ‘Beginning the Hard Work’ shares character profiles and sumptuous preparatory paintings and story studies.

The creator’s thinking in devising distanced weaponry to be used by dragon-riders and its connections to WWI ordnance also features, as do sections on crossbow and armour designs, ancient artillery and the the role of gunpowder in The Mercenary’s world.

Although sometimes considered a little static, Segrelles’ vibrant, classical realism set a benchmark for illustrative narrative that has inspired generations of artists and millions of readers. This landmark series is a long overdue and welcome returnee to our bookshelves and seems certain to garner a whole new legion of fans and admirers.
© 2015 Vicente Segrelles. English Translation © 2017 NBM for the English Translation.

For more information and other great reads see http://www.nbmpub.com/

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Viking Glory: The Viking Prince


By Lee Marrs & Bo Hampton, lettered by Tracey Hampton-Munsey (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-001-7 (HB) 978-1-56389-007-9 (TPB)

During the intentionally anodyne mid-1950s, when superheroes languished in a seemingly inescapable trough, comic book companies looked to different forms of leading men for their action heroes. Following movie trends, in 1955 writer/editor Robert Kanigher devised an adventure comic entitled The Brave and the Bold featuring historical action strips.

Illustrated by Russ Heath, The Golden Gladiator was set in the declining days of Imperial Rome. Courtesy of veteran draughtsman Irv Novick, Silent Knight fought injustice in post-Norman Invasion Britain and the already-legendary Joe Kubert limned the increasingly astounding and uncanny exploits of a valiant young Norseman dubbed the Viking Prince.

This last strip appeared in all but one issue (#6), before eventually taking over the entire comic, until the burgeoning superhero resurgence of the Silver Age saw B&B metamorphose into a try-out title from its 25th issue.

Those fanciful, “Hollywood-styled” Viking sagas are some of the finest fantasy comics of all time and long overdue for a definitive archival collection of their own. Star character Jon has long been a fan-favourite, regularly returning in DC’s war titles and guest-starring in such varied venues as Sgt. Rock and Justice League of America.

This beautiful, vital and enchanting tale was released to very little fanfare or editorial support in 1991, yet remains a worthy sequel to those early strips and is also long overdue for revival and re-issue…

Scripter Lee Marrs (Pudge: Girl Blimp, Wimmen’s Comix, Wonder Woman, Zatanna, Pre-teen, Dirty-Gene Kung Fu Kangaroos, Indiana Jones) took all the advances in our historical knowledge since the 1950s and blended them with the timeless basics of a Classical Edda to entrancing effect. Amidst a culture vibrantly brought to full life by her words and hyper-realist Bo Hampton’s awesome skill with a paintbrush, Marrs took a passionate but reserved traditional archetype and remade him as a fiery young hero of devastating charm, brimming with the boisterous vigour of his mythic breed, before confronting him with his worst nightmare.

In 10th century Scandinavia, Jon Rolloson – heir to Jarl Rollo of Gallund – is an ideal Northman’s son: fast, tough, fearless and irresistible to all the village maidens. However, the greatest horror of his 16 years has finally come for him: an arranged marriage for political advantage. He must leave his home and the Viking life to wed a “Civilised” princess. His joyous days are all done…

Princess Asa of Hedeby is a young beauty every inch his match in vigour and vitality, but also as composed and smart as he is coarse and oafish. Sadly, someone is stealthily seeking to thwart the match, even though Jon’s boorishness is enough to give both fathers cause to reconsider. Following the first meeting, only the Viking Prince’s rash vow to recover a lost rune treasure and slay a fearsome dragon preserves the bargain. The wedding will proceed… once he has found and killed Ansgar, the vilest of all Fire-Wyrms, and not perished in the process…

As well as being a superb scripter of comics, Marrs is an underground cartoonist legend, animator and computer artist who assisted Hal Foster on that other sword-wielding epic Prince Valiant. Her grasp of human character – especially comedically – elevates this classic tale of romantic endeavour into a multi-faceted gem of captivating quality. Hampton has created some of the best drawn or painted comics in the medium (like Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Verdilak, Swamp Thing, Moon Knight, Greylore, Demons of Sherwood, Batman: Castle of the Bat, The Once and Future Tarzan) and this book is probably still the very best of them.

One of the most accomplished and enjoyable historical romances ever produced in comic form, Viking Glory deserves to be on every fan’s bookshelf. Let’s hope that it’s on DC’s shortlist for a swift re-release in both printed parchment and aetheric electrons…
© 1991 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Showcase Presents Warlord


By Mike Grell, with Vince Colletta & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-4012-2473-8 (TPB)

Geez! Once you start thinking about what books you’d like to see on sale again, your brain just won’t let go…

During the troubled 1970s the American comics industry suffered one of the worst of its periodic downturns and publishers desperately cast about for anything to bolster the flagging sales of superhero comics.

By revising their self-imposed industry code of practice (administered by the Comics Code Authority) to allow supernatural and horror comics, publishers tapped into a global revival of interest in spiritualism and the supernatural, and – as a by-product – opened their doors to Sword-&-Sorcery as a viable genre, thanks primarily to Roy Thomas & Barry Windsor-Smith’s adaptation of R. E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian.

DC launched a host of such titles into that budding market but, although individually interesting, nothing seemed to catch the public’s eye until issue #8 of the company’s latest try-out title First Issue Special.

In that issue popular new Legion of Super-Heroes, Aquaman and Green Lantern artist Mike Grell launched his pastiche, homage and tribute to Edgar Rice Burroughs’s works (particularly Pellucidar – At the Earth’s Core) which, after a rather shaky start (like Conan, the series was cancelled early in the run but rapidly reinstated) went on to become for a time DC’s most popular book.

Blending swords, sorcery and super-science with spectacular, visceral derring-do, the lost land of Skartaris was a venue expertly designed for adventure: stuffed with warriors, mythical creatures, dinosaurs and scantily-clad hotties. How could it possibly fail?

This stupendous monochrome compendium, gathers 1st Issue Special #8 (from November 1975) and Warlord #1-28 (January-February 1976 – December 1979), delivering wild wonder and breathtaking thrills from the outset.

The magic commences with ‘Land of Fear!’ as in 1969, U2 spy-pilot Colonel Travis Morgan is shot down whilst filming a secret Soviet base. The embattled aviator manages to fly his plane over the North Pole before ditching, expecting to land on frozen Tundra or pack-ice on the right side of the Iron Curtain.

Instead he finds himself inside the Earth, marooned in a vast, tropical jungle where the sun never sets. The incredible land is populated by creatures from every era of history and many that never made it into the science books. There are also cavemen, savages, lost races, mythical beasts, barbaric kingdoms and fabulous warrior-women.

Plunging head-on into the madness, the baffled airman saves an embattled princess from a hungry saurian before both are captured by soldiers. Taken to the city of Thera, Morgan is taught the language by his fellow captive Tara and makes an implacable enemy of the court wizard Deimos. After surviving an assassination  attempt the pair escape into the eternal noon of the land beneath the Earth.

Within months Morgan won his own-bimonthly title written, pencilled and inked by Grell. ‘This Savage World’ saw the lost airman and the Princess of Shamballah fall deeply in love, only to be separated by slavers who leave Morgan to die in #2’s ‘Arena of Death.’ Surviving a timeless period as a galley slave, Morgan, with Nubian warrior Machiste, lead an insurrection of Gladiators that escalates into full-scale revolution, earning him the title of The Warlord in the process.

However, after this issue the series vanished for months until the end of the year. Cover-dated October-November 1976, Warlord #3 debuted ‘War Gods of Skartaris’, as Morgan returned in all his gory glory, leading his army of liberation and hunting for Tara until he stumbles across his downed aircraft – now worshipped as a god by lizard-men but still packed with lots of 20th century ordnance…

Moreover, it had crashed into a temple that gave the first clues to the incredible secret of the lost land…

‘Duel of the Titans’ sees the Warlord’s army lay siege to Thera, where Deimos has seized power and holds Tara hostage. The mage’s sorcery is no match for high explosives and inevitably he loses his life to Morgan’s flashing blade.

Warlord #5 finds the reunited lovers heading for Tara’s home city Shamballah, discovering en route ‘The Secret of Skartaris!’ in a lost temple that hides millennia-old computer records revealing the entire land to be a lost colony of Atlantis, with much of the magic of the timeless region nothing more than advanced technology. When one such dormant device rockets Morgan away, Tara thinks her man is gone forever…

‘Home is a Four-Letter Word!’ sees the displaced aviator returned to the surface-world with eight years gone by since his crash: emerging from a lost outpost in the Andes where a multi-national excavation is being conducted in the ruins of Machu Pichu.

However, the dig scientists use Morgan’s dog-tags to contact his CIA superiors and rapidly-arriving, extremely suspicious spooks assume he defected all these years ago: especially since one of the archaeologists is soviet researcher Mariah Romanova. When the intransigent spies rouse a demonic watchdog Morgan’s only chance is to head back to Skartaris – with Mariah in tow…

Back in the temple, the day spent on Earth has somehow translated into an interminable time within it. Tara is long gone and Morgan elects to follow her trail to Shamballah. Stopping in the city of Kiro, Morgan and Mariah save his old comrade Machiste from the insidious horror of ‘The Iron Devil’, after which the trio voyage together: attacked by cyborg vampires from ‘The City in the Sky’ and braving ‘The Lair of the Snowbeast’ – wherein Morgan discovers a unique benefactor and a tragically brief love…

Warlord #10 offers the opening sally in a long-running saga as the ‘Tower of Fear’ has the trio aiding a maiden in distress and inadvertently restoring the underland’s greatest monster to life. ‘Trilogy’ in #11 features a triptych of vignettes to display conflicting aspects of the Warlord’s complex character, after which ‘The Hunter’ pits the wandering warriors against a manic, vengeful CIA agent who followed Morgan to Skartaris before ‘All Men Are Mine’ depicts the gravely wounded Warlord’s battle against the very personification of Death.

Issue #15,‘Holocaust’ (inked by Joe Rubinstein) marks the series’  advancement to a monthly schedule whilst finally reuniting Morgan and Tara in Shamballah. The obtuse warrior is stunned to see Mariah heartbroken by the couple’s joy, resulting in hers and Machiste’s incensed departure. The biggest shock, though, is Morgan’s  introduction to his son, Joshua… He doesn’t have much time to dwell, though, as the city starts to explosively self-destruct. …And while Morgan and Tara combat the crisis, undead Deimos strikes, abducting the baby…

Vince Colletta came aboard as regular inker with the beginning of ‘The Quest’ as Morgan and Tara hunt the revenant sorcerer, starting with ‘Visions in a Crimson Eye’; battling Deimos’ minions and rival magicians; encountering and surviving the desert-locked ‘Citadel of Death’ (which reveals some intriguing Skartaran history from the Age of the Wizard Kings) before being briefly distracted by alien invaders in ‘Bloodmoon’.

Scouring Skartaris, Tara and Morgan reunite with Mariah and Machiste in ‘Wolves of the Steppes’ after which the quartet brave Deimos’ fortress in ‘Battlecry’, just as the unliving savant begins experimenting on little Joshua, marrying recovered Atlantean science with his sinister sorceries…

The epic quest concluded in Warlord #21 with Morgan compelled to battle an enslaved adult Joshua in ‘Terminator’. When he kills his own son, the Warlord’s heart breaks and his love abandons him… but as ever, nothing is quite as it seems…

Shell-shocked, Morgan loses himself in drink and bloodletting, battling werewolves and worse in ‘The Beast in the Tower’; subterraneans and cannibals in ‘The Children of Ba’al’ and tragically trysting with a love that cannot last in ‘Song of Ligia’ before becoming a mercenary in ‘This Sword For Hire’ and making a new friend in unscrupulous but flamboyant thief Ashir.

Together they accept ‘The Challenge’ of winning ultimate knowledge and, as Deimos begins his next deadly assault, Morgan relives all his past lives (which include Lancelot, Jim Bowie and Crazy Horse) whilst experiencing first-hand the true story of ‘Atlantis Dying’…

The last inclusion in this compilation comprises two linked tales. In the first, Morgan crushes alien horrors in ‘The Curse of the Cobra Queen’ whilst long absent Tara, Mariah and Machiste are drawn into a time-warping encounter with the lost masters of ‘Wizard World’ – the opening salvo in another extended epic that you’ll have to wait for a second volume to enjoy…

The tricky concept of relativistic time and how it does or doesn’t seem to function in this Savage Paradise increasingly grated with many readers, but as Grell’s stated goal was to produce a perfect environment for yarn-spinning, not a science project, the picky pedant would be best advised to suck it up or stay away.

For we simple, thrill-seeking fantasy lovers, however, these are pure escapist tales of action and adventure, light on plot and angst but aggressively and enthusiastically jam-packed with action and wonder. These are timeless tales that will enthral, beguile and enchant. As the man himself constantly says “in Skartaris, always expect the unexpected”… even a long overdue revival of these reprint compendia…
© 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Conan the Barbarian Epic Collection volume 3 1973-1974: The Curse of the Golden Skull


By Roy Thomas, John Buscema, Neal Adams, Rich Buckler, Ernie Chan & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-2655-7 (TPB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Savagely Sensational Sagas for All Seasons… 8/10

During the 1970’s the American comic book industry opened up after more than 15 years of calcified publishing practises in response to the censorious, self-inflicted Comics Code Authority: created to police product after the industry suffered its very own McCarthy-style 1950s Witch-hunt.

One of the first genres revisited was Horror/Mystery comics and from that sprang translated pulp star Conan the Cimmerian; initially crafted by Roy Thomas & Barry Windsor-Smith. Despite some early teething problems – including being cancelled and reinstated in the same month – the comic adventures of Robert E. Howard’s wandering warrior quickly became as big a success as the revived prose paperbacks which had heralded a world resurgence in tales of fantasy and the supernatural.

After decades away, the brawny brute recently returned to the Aegis of Marvel, who’s first bite of the cherry was retroactively subtitled “the Original Marvel Years” due to the character’s sojourn with other publishers and intellectual properties rights holders.

This third compendium of action fantasy reprints Conan the Barbarian #27-42 plus material from the first Annual and spans June1973 to May 1973 – a period when he was becoming the darling of the Comics world and when artist John Buscema made the hero his very own.

Story content was evermore redolent of pulp-oriented episodic action – much of it based on Thomas’ adaptations of Howard’s (and sometimes, other writers) “heroic” rather than fantasy fiction. Also on show is the inking of long-time Conan illustrator Ernie Chan, using at this time for reasons unimportant now the pen-name “Ernie Chua”.

First up is ‘Blood of Bel-Hissar’: a tight, taut tale of banditry, treacherous hill-chieftains and jinxed gems set in the aftermath of the recently ended War of the Tarim, followed by a gripping jungle-set horror story. ‘Moon of Zembabwei’sees the Cimmerian battling rival thief Thutmekri, witch-dancers and a golden monster ape before ‘Two Against Turan’has the sell-sword joining the army of Howard’s analogue of an Arabic super-state (and how prescient was that?).

Effete and ineffectual King Yildiz – father of Conan’s greatest human enemy, Yezdigerd – features in a tale displaying all of the barbarian’s most compelling qualities as he rescues agitator and new drinking buddy Ormraxes from the city’s torturers: a mistake that almost costs him his life…

Closely following is ‘Hand of Nergal’: another mystic adventure and one not taken directly from a Howard original, although it is derived from a Lin Carter novelette based on Howard’s notes. When Yildiz’s legions clash with the armies of a rebel satrap, sole survivor Conan is eventually pitted against the sorcery-possessed revolutionary and trapped at ground-zero of a clash between elder gods/demons…

Sporting a stunning Windsor-Smith cover, Conan the Barbarian Annual #1 was a reprint vehicle. It’s represented here by the aforementioned pic and text feature ‘The Hyborian Page’ before we head back to the monthly mag where #31 sees Thomas, Buscema & Chan at their brutal best. ‘Shadow in the Tomb’ has become an iconic Conan scenario due to the movies, but it’s a fairly standard monster and mayhem yarn where the allure of sudden wealth awakens something old, arcane and angry…

Further deviating from the prose canon, what follows is a 3-chapter epic based on the novel Flame Winds by Norvell W. Page – author of most of the 1930s pulp adventures of The Spider – with Thomas substituting Conan for wandering crusader Prester John, and setting the tale in Howard’s fabulous and fabled analogue of ancient China: ‘Khitai’.

Beginning in ‘Flame Winds of Lost Khitai’ with the unwelcome Barbarian caught in a war between the seven ruling sorcerers of the city of Wan Tengri, expanding ferociously into urban unrest and eldritch carnage in ‘Death and 7 Wizards’ and cataclysmically concluding with Conan confronting ‘The Temptress in the Tower of Flame!’ and overturning millennia of oppressive civilisation, this roaring romp deals out politics, magic and greed for Conan to overcome before he decides the Orient is not for him…

Heading towards the middle east with aggravating new flunky Bortai, he is driven by desert raiders into trackless wastes to discover a shattered abandoned city. A skeleton grasping an azure gem should be warning enough, but greed overwhelms common sense and before long ‘The Hell-Spawn of Kara-Shehr’ is loosed on the Barbarian and those who still pursue him. That yarn was freely adapted from Howard’s The Fires of Assurbanipal, but ‘Beware the Hykranians Bearing Gifts…’ is all-original: finding Conan finally back in Aghraphur and reporting to King Yildiz, just in time to save the impotentate from mystic assassination, after which Neal Adams steps in to spectacularly limn ‘The Curse of the Golden Skull’ with Conan and new comrade Juma captured by a mad wizard keen on creating a dynasty with the princess they’re bodyguarding.

His Lemurian arts and monsters eventually prove no match for brawny thews and determination after which Buscema and Chan return for Thomas’ spin on Howard’s The House of Arabu. ‘The Warrior and the Were-Woman’, sees the barbarian involved in petty palace politics and targeted by the mate of a monster he recently despatched, and is followed by epic all-original yarn ‘Dragon from the Inland Sea’ wherein Conan sets out to rescue a sacrificial maid from a very determined, very big lizard: a tale with mythological antecedents graced with Buscema inking his own pencils …

Chan is back in in #40 inking Rich Buckler’s pinch-hitter pencilling on ‘The Fiend from the Forgotten City’. Plotted by Michael Resnick, it sadly suffers a notable lack of panache and verve but still provides a solid tale of treachery and tomb-raiders, after which Buscema, Chan & Thomas reunite for new tale ‘The Garden of Death and Life’, as the nomadic mercenary lands in a nameless desert village sustained by a monstrous predatory tree…

We close for now on the ‘Night of the Gargoyle’ – adapted from Howard’s The Purple Heart of Erlik – bringing the action to a halt to a close on a spooky note as Conan returns to thieving and attracts the extremely unwanted attention of mystic adept Lun-Faar and his menagerie of horrors…

These classic tales are burnished by more behind the scenes extras such as a picture feature on the 1974 Conan commemorative coin and Marvel Value Stamp, plus contemporary house ads, 4 Buscema pencil pages and a previous Omnibus Collection cover by Dale Keown & Jason Keith.

Stirring, evocative, and deeply satisfying on a primal level, this is one of the best volumes in a superb series of a paragon of adventurers. What more does any red-blooded, action-starved fan need to know?
© 2021 Conan Properties International, LLC (“CPI”)

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Conan the Barbarian Epic Collection: volume 2: Hawks from the Sea 1972-1973


By Roy Thomas & Barry Windsor-Smith, with Michael Moorcock, James Cawthorn, Gil Kane, John Buscema, Sal Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-2655-7 (TPB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Sensational Sagas for All Seasons… 9/10

During the 1970’s the American comic book industry opened up after more than 15 years of cautiously calcified publishing practises in response to the censorious oversight of the self- inflicted Comics Code Authority: created to police the publishers’ product after the industry suffered its very own McCarthy-style 1950s Witch-hunt.

One of the first genres revisited was Horror/Mystery comics and from that sprang adapted pulp legend Conan the Cimmerian, via an anthological yarn in Chamber of Darkness #4, whose hero bore deliberate thematic resemblance to the Barbarian. It was written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Barry (now Windsor-) Smith, a recent Marvel find, and one who was gradually breaking out of the company’s all-encompassing Jack Kirby house-style.

Despite some early teething problems – including being cancelled and reinstated in the same month – the comic book adventures of Robert E. Howard’s brawny warrior soon became as big a success as the revived prose paperbacks which had heralded a world resurgence in tales of fantasy and the supernatural.

After decades away, the brawny brute recently returned to the Aegis of Marvel, subtitled “the Original Marvel Years” due to the character’s sojourn with other publishers and intellectual properties rights holders. This second selection of groundbreaking action fantasy yarns features the contents of Conan the Barbarian #14-26 spanning March 1972-May 1973 – a period when the character was swiftly becoming the darling of the Comics world – and features two creators riding the crest of that creative wave. Digitally remastered and available in trade paperback or digital formats, these absorbing arcane adventures sparked a revolution in comics and a franchising empire in my youth, and are certainly good enough to do so once again.

As we hurtle back in time approximately 12,000 years into a forgotten age of wonders, the dramas open with a classic map of ‘The Hyborean Age of Conan’ plus an accompanying quote I’m sure every devoted acolyte already knows by heart…

The fabulous pictorial fantasy resumes with a tempestuous transatlantic team-up as Conan meets Michael Moorcock’s groundbreaking icon Elric of Melniboné in a 2-part tale freely adapted by Thomas, Windsor-Smith & Sal Buscema from a treatment by the British cult author and his frequent collaborator James Cawthorn.

Elric was a landmark of the Sword & Sorcery genre: last ruler of a pre-human civilization. The denizens of Melniboné were a race of cruel, arrogant sorcerers: dissolute creatures in a slow, decadent decline after millennia of dominance over the Earth.

An albino, Elric VIII, 428th Emperor of his line, is physically weak and possessed of a brooding, philosophical temperament, caring for nothing save his beautiful cousin Cymoril, even though her brother Prince Yrrkoon openly lusts for her and his throne.

Elric doesn’t even really want to rule, but will execute his duty. He is the only one of his race to see the newly evolved race of Man as a threat to the Empire and owns – or is possessed by – black sword Stormbringer: a magical blade which drinks the souls of its victims to feed their vitality to the albino.

His life is all blood and tragedy, exacerbated by his despised dependence on the black sword and his sworn allegiance to the chimerical Lord of Chaos Arioch…

Heady stuff for those simpler comic book times: the “White Wolf “was the complete antithesis of roistering lusty, impetuous Conan, who was drawn into a trans-dimensional conflict after rescuing old associate Zephra from marauding Chaos Warriors in ‘A Sword Called Stormbringer!’

She was the daughter of Zukala: a wizard who strangely bore no animosity towards the barbarian youth who had shattered his power and maimed his face the last time they clashed. In fact, the mage wanted to hire Conan to stop rival wizard Kulan Gath from rousing a sleeping demon queen from another realm…

The promise of much gold convinces the normally magic-averse warrior to accept the commission and soon he and Zephra are riding hard for the lake beneath which lies Terhali of Melniboné. They are unaware that Xiombarg, Queen of Swords (and rival Lord of Chaos) has despatched her own warriors to intercept them. As they near the haunted mere, the humans meet a gaunt, eerie albino with his own reasons for seeking out Terhali.

After a violent misunderstanding, Conan and Elric call a suspicious truce, intent on stopping Kulan Gath, his patron Xiombarg and a small army of Chaos killers. However, once the unlikely trio of world savers reach submerged city Yagala, they find ‘The Green Empress of Melniboné!’ is wide awake and intends making her apocalyptic mark on the Hyborian Age…

It takes the callous intervention of Arkyn, Lord of Order and Zephra’s willing sacrifice to end the emerald menace before the heartsick heroes part: each riding towards his own foredoomed destiny…

Conan #16 featured a sort-of reprint in ‘The Frost Giant’s Daughter’: a haunting, racy tale written by Howard and originally adapted in black-&-white for Savage Tales #1. It was slotted into the monthly schedule here after Windsor-Smith first resigned – citing punishing deadlines and poor reproduction values of the now monthly title.

The original monochrome magazine was an early attempt to enter the more adult market, so when it was reprinted, Smith’s art had to be judiciously censored to obscure some female body parts youngsters might be corrupted by. Even so, it remains a beautiful piece of work job by Smith and comes with another map of ‘The Hyborian Age of Conan’.

The artist’s resignation triggered a frantic scrabble for a replacement, which happily brought forth avid R.E. Howard fan Gil Kane, who lent his galvanic dynamism to a stunning 2-part adaptation of a prose short story originally starring Celtic hero Black Turlogh O’Brien…

Inked by Ralph Reese, ‘The Gods of Bal-Sagoth’ opens as Conan clashes once again with former foe and current pirate chief Fafnir, before the ship they ride in founders in a storm. As the only survivors, Cimmerian and Vanirman wash ashore on a mist-enshrouded island and fall into a savage power struggle between ambitious castaway Kyrie – who claims to be the incarnation of goddess Aala – and High Priest Gothan who rules the oldest kingdom in the world through sorcery and his puppet King Ska…

Now, the faux deity employs an ancient prophecy concerning two warriors from the sea to make her play, but only slaughter and cataclysm result after the insurgency releases ‘The Thing in the Temple’ (inked by Dan Adkins)…

Clearly refreshed and re-inspired, Windsor-Smith returned with #19 for a defining magnum opus, wherein the Cimmerian and Fafnir – last survivors of drowned Bal-Sagoth – are picked up and pressed into service with the invasion fleet of a power-hungry prince…

Developed and adapted from Howard’s lost historical classic The Shadow of the Vulture, the War of the Tarim was a bold epic embroiling the still-young wanderer in a Holy War between city-state Makkalet and expansionist the Empire of Turan, led by ambitious Prince Yezdigerd. He would become a bitter, life-long enemy of our sword-wielding swashbuckler.

‘Hawks of the Sea’ opens slowly as the outlanders learn the ostensible reason for the conflict – the abduction of the current fleshly receptacle of Living God Tarim – but soon kicks into high gear when Yezdigerd’s initial beachhead in Makkalet is repulsed by sorcery. Only Conan’s inimitable prowess and ingenuity allows any survivors to escape back to the relative safety of their ships…

The Cimmerian later joins a commando raid to steal back the man-god and meets a “temple-wench” who turns out to be the city-state’s embattled queen. The mission goes bloodily awry when Machiavellian high priest Kharam-Akkadunleashes the citadel’s ‘Black Hound of Vengeance!’ Barely surviving the beast’s fury, Conan returns to Yezdigerd’s flagship where – upon discovering what the invaders have done with their own burdensome wounded – he maims the Turanian prince and jumps ship…

Grandeur and terror spike with ‘The Monster of the Monoliths!’ (inked by Adkins, P. Craig Russell, Val Mayerik & Sal Buscema) as Conan – at risk of his life – defects to besieged Makkalet and is promptly commissioned by ineffectual King Eannatum to ride through the lines with a small company of men and seek allies and assistance amongst the Queen’s noble but distant family.

Little does he realise he’s been judged expendable but a worthwhile sacrifice for an arcane antediluvian horror from beyond the mortal realms… but then again, little does the loathsome travesty of nature understand the nature of the man it’s been offered…

Conan the Barbarian #22 was a reprint, represented here by the cover and a ‘Special Hyborian Page Pin-up! before inkers Adkins & Chic Stone and the dream-team restart hostilities in ‘The Shadow of the Vulture!’: setting the scene and introducing trend-setting warrior Red Sonja, a female mercenary who would take fantasy fans by storm, especially since the next chapter, ‘The Song of Red Sonja’ – drawn, inked & coloured by Windsor-Smith – became one of the most popular and reprinted stories of the decade. It went on to win the 1973 Academy of Comic Book Arts Awards in the Best Individual Story (Dramatic) category, but was also the restless illustrator’s colour comic swansong…

On his departure, Thomas commenced a long and fruitful partnership with John Buscema, who, in fact, had been Thomas’s first choice to draw Conan, but was deemed by then-publisher Martin Goodman too valuable to waste on a mere licensed property…

Issue #25 introduced Big John via ‘The Mirrors of Kharam Akkad’ (inked by brother Sal and the legendary John Severin): incorporating a loose adaptation of Howard’s King Kull tale The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune while setting the pieces in play for a spectacular conclusion…

The war ended in raw, grimly ironic fashion in ‘The Hour of the Griffin!’ – inked by Ernie Chua (nee Chan) – and swiftly silenced all the nay-sayers who claimed that Conan would die without its original artist…

Even greater heights would be scaled in the months and years to come…

Also included in this grand grimoire of graphic thrills are another map; 16 pages of original art and covers by Windsor-Smith and Kane plus fascinating documents from the Comics Code Authority, listing art changes needed before they allowed ‘The Frost Giant’ Daughter’ to be published, as well as “before-&-after” changes demanded for ‘The Song of Red Sonja’.

This treasure trove then closes with a selection of past collection covers  by John Buscema & Marie Javins and John Cassaday & Laura Martin.

Stirring, evocative, deeply satisfying, this is one of the best collections in a superb series of a paragon of adventurers. What more does any red-blooded, action-starved fan need to know?
© 2020 Conan Properties International, LLC (“CPI”)