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Post by benday-dot on Apr 19, 2015 18:21:43 GMT -5
The line work and composition in that above Kwapisz piece reminds me a bit of the fluid style of Estaban Maroto and the Spanish school, especially as goes the delineation of the slain monster. Although Kwapisz renders his anatomy in rather more natural manner. Very nice!
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Post by berkley on Apr 19, 2015 19:30:55 GMT -5
Wait a second - I just noticed this: you mean all six plates show the same scene? Are they in sequence so that they recount a a brief story or episode? Yes, they do tell a short story, following Conan and the girl's escape and their later travails against jungle beasts. A similar approach was seen with the two recent Pablo Marcos portfolios, although in that case a rhyming text was added to the pictures. Neat idea, I like it. The downside, I suppose, would be that you might wish it was a complete story if you liked the glimpse you got through the portfolio. I wish someone would do collection of all Pablo Marcos's solo B&W REH artwork, if there is enough of it. If not, then a collection of all his solo B&W art, period. |
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Post by berkley on Apr 21, 2015 20:35:44 GMT -5
The line work and composition in that above Kwapisz piece reminds me a bit of the fluid style of Estaban Maroto and the Spanish school, especially as goes the delineation of the slain monster. Although Kwapisz renders his anatomy in rather more natural manner. Very nice! Do you think so? I would have said the opposite - in this illustration Kwapisz's anatomy looks much more stylised and exaggerated to me than, say, Maroto's Dax from Warren's Eerie magazine. (edited to add sample image:) |
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Post by benday-dot on Apr 22, 2015 20:01:19 GMT -5
That's a nice image by Maroto berk, and I guess it all depends how you look at it. To my eye Maroto is often characterized by a beautiful but spare style, taking advantage of the heightened contrast effected in the spotting of his blacks. His figures are exquisitely drawn, are often thin, tall and rather sinuous; its a highly romantic approach, and sense of composition that is very illustrative and stylized. I like it very much. Kwapisz, makes rich use of details in his drawings, with highly rendered backgrounds, and loads of texture in his anatomy. This is what I mean by a very naturalized approach. I think he is very suitable indeed for an adventure strip like Conan, because he brings a devotion to some sort of verisimilitude to historicity. He can really immerse you in the setting, and his line work strives to bring both character, time and place alive. I like this approach very much as well. As I mentioned above in highlighting RR's above featured early Kwapisz portfolio piece, I see that image as not entirely typical of the Kwapisz we would soon come to see.   |
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Post by berkley on Apr 23, 2015 19:31:57 GMT -5
Still not seeing that Maroto's anatomy - the structure and proportions of the human form - is less natural than Kwapisz's but probably I haven't seen enough of Kwapisz's work to judge.
I do agree that Maroto's females were usually very slender, which meant he was never the right artist to depict warriors like Red Sonja, in my eyes. Princesses, sorceresses, fine, but his Sonya looked like she'd never be able to lift a sword.
Looking at the Dax image I posted, I think I'd like to see what Maroto would have come up with on a Barsoom or other ERB story in b&w.
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Post by paulie on Apr 24, 2015 9:49:53 GMT -5
SSoC #90------------ Devourer of souls!Script by Michael Fleisher Art by John Buscema and Nestor Redondo I remembered this as an adventure that stood head and shoulders above the other Fleisher stories, but although it is still among his good ones, it turns out to be fairly formulaic. It does stand out for two reasons, however: the lovely combination of Buscxema's pencils and Redondo's inking, and the introduction of Wrarrl, the devourer of souls. Redondo, in particular, gives this issue a unique look that in itself is worth the price of entry. The tale is set after Conan's return to Cimmeria, following Bêlit's death; it is therefore set at around the same time as the contemporary Conan the barbarian title. His business concluded in the north, Conan returned south to work as a mercenary for a while. I estimate he must be around 27 years old, shortly before Black colossus (SSoC#2). The story's setting is a feud between two principalities in Corinthia. King Savarro's city-state of KP'Har D'Qruhm has been laying siege to king Granak's Qurha'at Lok for the last six months. I prefer to think that Conan has not been involved in the hostilities from the start, because with all these adventures that last from six months to a year, it becomes increasingly difficult to fit them all in a single lifetime. Conan is on the side of the besiegers, commanding their mercenary army. In the opening scene, we are introduced to the main villain: Wrarrl, a giant in black armour with a very Darth Vader-like presence. Wrarrl inquires as to Conan's identity, which agrees with the idea that the Cimmerian is only recently arrived. In the battle, Conan saves king Savarro's life and is rewarded by being given the king's own shield maidens, a pair of warrior women that remind us of the two sword-wielding sisters we met recently in SSoC#88. Here, it is not made clear whether Moira and Melicynth are sisters, even if they do resemble each other greatly. (They prove to be far more honest and loyal than Saroya and Sabrina from issue #88, too). Conan is rather nonplussed, but it is a dangerous thing to refuse a monarch's gifts. Meanwhile, in Qurha'at Lok, we learn that king Granak is being treated with less than the appropriate respect by his wizard Meldark and by the sorcerer's accomplice Wrarrl, the ebon-clad giant. We also learn than Wrarrl is not human: he is some kind of extra-dimensional being who managed to bridge the gap between worlds a decade prior to this story, thanks to Meldark's use of a certain magical jewel. Such a door between worlds can only be opened every ten years. Last time it stayed open for a few brief moments but now, as the fateful day nears anew, Meldark plans on opening it for much longer. To king Granak, he claims that it is to provide him with a veritable army if Wrarrls; but being privy to his exchanges with the devourer of souls, we know that Meldark actually plans on starting an otherworldy invasion of Earth. Returning to Conan, we witness him doing the kind of plot-mandated idiocy that make the '80s SSoC stories irritating at times. The Cimmerian wakes up in the middle of the night and decides to enter the besieged city on his own to look for any valuables that he might steal. Climbing the walls undetected, he knocks out a sentry and proceeds unmolested to the very core of king Granbak's castle, and even into the wizard Meldark's sanctum. There, opening just he right cupboard, he finds the magical jewel that can open transdimensional portals. Happy with his loot, he returns to king Savarro's camp. However, unknown to him, he has been seen by his shield maidens, who believe him to be spying for the enemy! O.K., I get the point: we needed an excuse for Conan to be arrested and out of the loop for a while. But come on, wasn't there a more plausible way to do that? Since he can enter the enemy city at will like that, why in Crom's name didn't he already do it to open the city's gates, Iliad-like, and let king Savarro's forces in? Or why didn't go get rid of king Granak himself? Or set fire to the castle? And by what preposterous coincidence did he manage to find the magical jewel, which we'd assume would be safely secured by the wizard? Anyway. Conan is arrested and thrown in jail. I remember this image of a despondent Cimmerian being used in The Comics Journal in an article that called John Buscema a hack. (I always resented the Comics Journal's generally snobbish attitude; for all the great work it did in promoting comics as a genuine art form with very serious possibilities, it always veered too far in the direction of comics being called "Graphique novèlles using sequential storytelling" instead of, you know, "comics"). The Devourer of Souls was a great villain. He should have been yet he was. The character design helped as did his pure single-mindedness. He was no Thoth-Amon, complicated and elusive. I wonder how much Jim Owsley had to do with his creation as Warrl became the focall point of Conan the Barbarian for a couple of years. He was also a solid enough creation that Roy Thomas used him as well. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 25, 2015 21:09:48 GMT -5
Savage sword of Conan #91, August 1983 Cover by the one and only Mike Kaluta, and a beautiful one it is!!! I especially like the Cossack look that Michael gave Conan in this piece, even if the story doesn't deal with the Hyborian age Kozaki. But that's how I would have liked Conan to look like in stories like The devil in iron!  The frontispiece by Armando Gil runs over both inside front and back covers (you'd have to tear the cover out to see it all); it has something of the quirky aesthetics that would be typical of Kelley Jones a few years later. Table of contents:Forest of fiends! The beastand The chainThree Conan stories, one long and two short ones.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 25, 2015 21:12:03 GMT -5
SSoC#91----------- Forest of fiends!Script by Michael Fleisher Art by John Buscema and Pablo Marcos. The most striking aspect of this story is the remarkably good inking by Pablo Marcos. It's crisp, it's clean, it's detailed, it's really Marcos at his best. Artwise, this is one very satisfying tale. And the script? Well the script's not half bad either! One of Fleisher's best on the title, in my opinion. The title, "forest of fiends", doesn't have much to do with the plot; it just reflects a minor episode in it (just like issue #76 had featured a story titled "Dominion of the bat", wherein said dominion played no role apart from that of a few pages' worth of distraction from the story). As in recent issues, Conan is commanding mercenary troops somewhere in Corinthia. The story is set right after "Demons in the firelight" (SSoC#78-79), which was also set in Corinthia. The Cimmerian is about 34, shortly before the mercenary force he belongs to is beaten in Koth and makes its way south in time for "The slithering shadow" (adapted in SSoC#20). Once again, two overly apostrophe-riddled cities are feuding: Lapis L'Harr, ruled by King Ronal, and Rozalah B'qen, ruled by Queen Rhalina. Ronal and Rhalina used to be married, but she ran away with Rozalah B'qen's dashing young king (taking her daughter with her), prompting her spurned husband to declare war on his rival's city. Rhalina's new lover having died in the ensuing conflict, she remains sole ruler of Rozalah B'qen, continuing the war against her ex. Conan is fighting on Ronal's side when the story begins, and his innovative strategies (cute cheating on the battlefield in the opening scene, by the way) are quickly giving Lapis L'Harr the upper hand in the war. This is good news to king Ronal, who really wants to get even with his unfaithful wife, even as he relaxes under his masseuse's expert hands. The poor girl mistakes her boss's praise for actual affection, and is convinced that the king will one day marry her, leading to a funny scene in the kitchens. "Even the king knows better than to buy the cow when he can get the milk for free!"  But let's leave the scullery for the battlefield. 
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 25, 2015 21:14:47 GMT -5
SSoC#91----------- Conan's seconds-in-command are an amiable blond-haired guy named Henrak, and a surly black-haired one named W'Karrl.  In Rozalah B'qen, queen Rhalina learns of a new setback caused by the Cimmerian commander who leads her ex-husband's forces. She wishes she could have such a commander on her side, and we learn that the queen's temperamental teenage daughter, Nadine, has a conflictual relationship with her mom. Unknown to the queen, the Cimmerian is leading his troops through the "forest of fiends" from the title in order to reach a certain important fortress; nobody bothers to guard that side of the position because only a madman would cross that monster-infested track of woodland. Meh--- It turns out that the worst the invaders encounter is a saucy wood sylph who will suck the life out of your body if you get off the road but will leave you quite alone if you don't. Not much of a haunted forest, if you ask me. Accordingly, Conan leads his men through and takes the fortress, which basically means that the war is over but for the shouting. This turn of events doesn't suit king Ronal's wazir (when did we last meet a honest wazir in these stories), who is in cahoots with a cabal of merchants to profit from the war's effect on the price of commodities. They all want the war to continue, and so decide that Conan must die before he wins it. They charge their "secret agent" in Conan's ranks to murder his commander, and lo and behold, the traitor turns out to be the blond Henrak instead of the dark W'Karrl! Before dying (because naturally Conan has little trouble foiling the murder attempt), Henrak reveals that he acted under the king's orders. Quite upset, Conan promptly delivers his résumé to queen Rhalina, offering his services.  King Ronal can't understand why the Cimmerian would so suddenly turn on him, when his masseuse reveals what the wazir has done! The faithful girl has overheard the plot and spills the beans to the king. When the wazir makes threatening noises toward Ronal, the girl kills him with a variation of the Vulcan nerve pinch, because every masseuse knows how to kill a man with a pinch. (I didn't know that. Now I do). 
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 25, 2015 21:17:07 GMT -5
With Conan in charge, queen Rhalina's side regains the lost ground and quickly brings Ronal's city to its knees. This makes the Cimmerian very popular, and both Nadine and her mother attempt to get to bed with him; luckily for public morality, Conan is not into teenage girls (even if he has an indelicate way of explaining it).  Queen Rhalina, though, that's something else entirely. All work and no play makes Conan a dull barbarian.  Forced to admit defeat, Ronal meets Rhalina to discuss terms. The two erstwhile spouses don't need five minutes together to discover they still love each other! They agree to reconcile and jointly rule their two cities.  All's well that ends well? Not quite, for we have a few Shakespearean twists to make this story a bit bloodier! The king can't forgive Conan for his betrayal, and Rhalina would much rather not have to reveal that she slept with the barbarian, so the new royal couple agrees to pay W'Karrl a pretty hefty sum if he agrees to kill his commander (half paid in advance). W'Karrl agrees. This matter settled, the king announces to his masseuse that he and Rhalina are getting back together, and the spurned girl uses her death pinch once again, spitefully dispatching the love of her life.  Meanwhile, when princess Nadine learns that her mother has ordered the execution of her barbarian prospect, she flies into a rage and stabs her mom to death! Running to Conan's appartment, she finds the man gone.  And no wonder... W'Karrl figured that it was much easier to warn Conan of his bosses' duplicity and ride away with him and one thousand gold coins than try to fight the barbarian to gain two thousand. Less risky, and still a good profit. Besides, if people keep paying him to kill Conan, he just might have found an easy way to make money! This no-nonsense attitude is very much to Conan's taste, and even his horse seems to find the situation funny as the two warriors ride off into the sunset.  Notes: - This is still action/comedy and not horror/adventure, but it was a pretty pleasant story. Some dialogue is downright funny. - Gods' names are once again used willy-nilly. Corinthia is a Hyborian land, where we know about the cult of Mitra and Anu. I suppose neighbouring Koth could have allowed some worship of Ishtar to seep into the land, but not a whole lot. But that doesn't matter: Corinthians in these story swear by all of them. Mitra and Ishtar, Turanian Tarim, Morrigan and Macha from Cimmeria, |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 25, 2015 21:29:40 GMT -5
SSoC#91---------- The beastScript by Jim Owsley Art by Gary Kwapisz A humorous tale in which Conan and two friends scam the superstitious people of a village. This is the first Kwapisz story in the mag, and we already have some idea of how well he draws the natural world. (Great backgrounds, always).  The chainScript by Jim Owsley Art by Val Mayerik That one doesn't get a good mark, much as I usually like Owsley's Conan. The art is nice, but the continuity is all screwed up.  Conan is a prisoner in Aghrapur, Turan's capital, after being captured in company of the rebel Abinar, who had hired him away from his Zuagirs to help train his men and try to topple king Yildiz. This is in fact a plot within a plot: Abinar is in cahoots with the gaoler and means Conan to escape, so that the barbarian can go kill the king in revenge for his mistreatment. Conan understands the plot and finally saves the king, who clearly doesn't know him. Oh, dear. Never mind that the Turanian gaoler who enjoys torturing Conan claims he's been to Gunderland and hates Cimmerians, even if that seems rather unlikely. But King Yildiz? Yildiz was already dead when Conan joined the Zuagirs; the Turanian king was Yezdigerd by then. And besides, Conan acted as bodyguard to king Yildiz, so the monarch would have immediately recognized him.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 26, 2015 10:06:00 GMT -5
Savage sword of Conan #92, September 1983 Cover by Bob Larkin, illustrating this issue's main story.  Frontispiece (a double-page spread over the inside front and back covers) by Kerry Gammill Table of contentsThe jeweled bird, wherein Conan faces captain Bor'Aqh Sharaq once more. Ernie Chan strikes again, a new portfolio by the prolific artist.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 26, 2015 10:11:29 GMT -5
SSoC#92----------- The jeweled birdScript by Michael Fleisher Art by John Buscema and Bob Camp, with help by Armando Gil and Dave Simons. First observation: Bob Camp does a very good job with the finished art over Big John's breakdowns. Whenever he did full art in those years, I found Camp's art a bit crude; here, though, it provides an earthy quality that is quite fitting in an adventure story. I like the earnest Camp brings to his work. The script is lively and entertaining, but for long-time readers it feels a bit warmed over. It also features a plethora of the things I dislike in Michael Fleisher's Conan stories. And did we need to see Bor'Aqh Sharaq again? (Whether you answer yea or nay, he'd be back for two more adventures after this one). Before getting into the tale itself, let's answer the obvious question: Bor'Aqh Sharaq? Wasn't he crushed to a pulp by a demon in SSoC#83? Well, yes he was... we even saw pirate juice dripping from the closed fist of the devil who had seized the man's body. However, thanks to a little continuity correction, we learn here that the demon hadn't actually crushed Bor'Aqh Sharaq but had brought him to its otherdimensional world. Readers didn't try to get a no-prize by explaining that the demon may have repaired the pirate's body after regretting squishing him, but that would also be a possible explanation for his survival. In any case, Bor'Aqh Sharaq is now seen serving the demon in exchange for his continued life, bringing him his food and drink and emptying his chamber pot or something.  Naturally, the wily pirate intends to escape his prison, a feat he plans to accomplish by stealing the demon's latest invention: a magical rod that can open a door between worlds (among other things). This is accomplished rather easily, and the pirate walks our Earth once more, still carrying the magical rod which has a few zaps left in it... and which Bor'Aqh Sharaq intends to use against his hated foe, Conan the Cimmerian. Said Cimmerian has meanwhile been hired to join yet another treasure quest. A merchant and his beautiful daughter, Jessica, have come into possession of what appears to be a bird carved out of a gigantic jewel; but the animal is so lifelike that it might as well have been a real bird turned to stone. The merchant knows where that type of bird is to be found, and he wants to travel to the place in the hope of finding more jewels of the same type. In an early scene where the merchant explains things to Conan, we see how a musician using a tuning fork causes a crystal glass to explode. Physics work in a strange way in the Hyborian Age, but this little demonstration is required by the plot.  Like Chekhov's gun, the tuning fork will play a role later on. (Yes, it is quite possible to shatter glass with vibrations... but you need way more energy than what can be provided by a tuning fork to do so!!!)
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 26, 2015 10:26:05 GMT -5
SSoC#92----------- The trip to the valley where the jeweled bird supposedly comes from is fraught with fantasy-world perils that grate my nerves. A giant moth attacks Jessica, for example. I do not mind giant moths in fantasy stories; there was even one used to good effect in Conan the barbarian #61. However, when such a monster is used, it should be made clear that it is a monster, a zoological aberration or a thing of magic. The Hyborian Age is not a fantasy world where anything goes; it is our world, but our world with a few fantastic elements that show up from time to time. Here the giant moth is not seen as a wondrous thing; Conan casually refers to it as a "Zingaran great moth" and it seems to be quite commonplace. He even gives us readers a quick lesson in the moth's natural history. A bit later, the trio is attacked by the "Burundi": a black-skinned people riding "Bossonian ospreys" who prey on travelers. And in Zingara, no less. Oh, for crying out loud. Giant birds of prey had been seen previously in the Conan stories, most notably in CtB #75; but there again, they had clearly been oddities of nature, mutated monsters. Here they are treated as something quite normal, quite ordinary. We are not told how come there's a black-skinned people in Zingara (although I would personally try to explain that they're an offshoot of the Pics living north of Zingara) nor how birds from Bossonia could have ended up in Zingara. Nor why Aquilonia doesn't have an air cavalry, considering the giant ospreys come from Bossonia and are clearly easy to tame. As the trio uses stolen birds to fly all the way to their destination, the merchant tells Conan (and the reader!) about tales that his own mother entertained him with when he was a child, tales in which a race of otherworldly giants trod the world. And what a coincidence, when Conan, the merchant and Jessica find the valley they seek, they also find an ancient ruined city of cyclopean proportions; a city built for beings dozens of feet tall. Lest we think I forgot about Bor'Aqh Sharaq, let me tell you what he's been up to. The writer delights in making the pirate as despicable as possible, and if you like gallows humour the scenes in which he abuses innocent people can be very funny indeed. The bastard has no redeeming quality whatsoever! Here he is seen sexually abusing a mother and her daughter while he forces their husband and father to serve him his dinner. We really want that thug to lose another limb! Back to Conan and company: in the giant city, they discover more jeweled creatures, and wonder why space gods would bother turning tiny animals to crystal. It looks like something a playful house cat might do on a whim, not the well-thought activity of space being. Bor'Aqh Sharaq then shows up in the valley, having successfully tracked Conan and his partners (never mind that they flew in on the back of giant ospreys, mind you). He kills the merchant with his throwing iron and tries to use his magic rod on Conan (say, that sentence sounded naughty!); but his quest for revenge is interrupted by a giant crystal cat! The newly-arrived feline's eyes can shoot rays that turn whatever they strike to crystal. Why is that cat made of crystal? Were the space gods made of crystal too? We don't know. Bor'Aqh Sharaq is zapped and turned to stone, and Conan leads the cat on a wild chase through the giant city. Eventually he reaches a bedroom where a giant baby crib sports metal posts that kind of look like a giant tuning fork. The Cimmerian strikes the posts with a metal rod, and the resulting vibrations causes the crystal cat to shatter.  The end. Notes: - Come on... diamonds don't shatter when you hit a tuning fork! - Despite my reservations regarding the plot, Fleisher's dialogue is often smile-inducing. It's light-hearted and fun. - Conan says he's currently in the seafaring business, even if a year has elapsed since SSoC#82-83. According to the traditional chronology, Conan has since gone south to Stygia ( Red Nails, Savage Tales #2-3), Keshan ( The teeth of Gwahlur, SSoC#25) and Punt ( The Ivory goddess, SSoC#60) and is on his way to join the Aquilonian army in the Westermarck. He must be around 38. - Gods, gods, gods... Once again we have Zingaran swearing by Ishtar. I guess I should just get used to it. - A bit of fun that went wrong: at some point in the production of this story, someone drew Conan smoking a cigar. And then forgot to erase it!!! That would be mentioned in the letters page a few months later, with the editor assuring us that Conan would never, ever smoke again. 
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 26, 2015 10:28:30 GMT -5
SSoC#92----------- Ernie Chan strikes againFive full-page drawings by Ernie. I like this one:  (and while we're on the subject, here's a vintage cover: that of Avon Fantasy Reader # (December 1948), reprinting Queen of the Black Coast). 
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