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Post by Roquefort Raider on Aug 23, 2014 9:35:58 GMT -5
Retribution in bloodScript by Don Glut Art by David Wenzel and Marilitz Who is Marilitz? I find references to an artist named Don Marilitz thanks to Google, but the inking of this story is clearly a team effort: some pages seem to be pure DeZuniga, some are very Alcalaesque, and there are other styles present that I can't quite identify. It still looks good, mind you, but it reminds me of the days I'd try to find out who that "M. Hands" fellow was, the one who had such an uneven inking style!!! I prefer Wenzel's pencils inked by himself or by Duffy Volhand, something we'll soon have the opportunity to see, but the finished art here is suitably dark and contrasted, quite in line with the look of Marvel's horror magazines. This story presents a rematch between Solomon Kane and Dracula, after an initial meeting in Dracula lives #3. Good action story, where both antagonists are treated with respect; I also like how nobody pretends that Dracula's death at the end is going to last. Let's note that we deal with a fairly young Dracula here, since Kane's adventures are set somewhere at the end of the 1500s and that Vlad Tepes died in 1477... He's barely more than a century old! That might explain his rakish beard.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2014 13:57:03 GMT -5
Savage sword of Conan #26, Jan 1978The frontispiece is drawn by David Wenzel, who would in the coming months illustrate many Solomon Kane stories -starting in this very issue. I like Wenzel's art, and his art on Kingdom of the dwarfs as well as Eclipse comics' adaptation of The Hobbit were absolutely beautiful. If you like Wenzel's fantasy art, check out A Wizard's Tale he did with Kurt Busiek. It's an OGN that came out late 90s/early 2000s if I recall correctly. Great stuff by both creators. -M
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Aug 23, 2014 14:11:23 GMT -5
Sounds good, mrp! Thanks!
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Post by berkley on Aug 23, 2014 15:38:30 GMT -5
Wenzel he was never a top favourite of mine, but I rated him as a dependable guy who never turned in a really bad job on anything I saw. I think his style was pretty well-suited to Solomon Kane - that was a good match of character and creator.
I forgot to mention earlier - I never heard of that team-up between Solomon Kane and Conan. Not a great fan of that kind of thing - the team-up between Conan and Kull in the pages of CtB was pretty weak, IMO, though I was probably just annoyed that my favourite REH character Kull was downgraded a little in order to make the series star look better, just like they always do in the superhero books.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Aug 23, 2014 16:55:40 GMT -5
I forgot to mention earlier - I never heard of that team-up between Solomon Kane and Conan. Not a great fan of that kind of thing - the team-up between Conan and Kull in the pages of CtB was pretty weak, IMO, though I was probably just annoyed that my favourite REH character Kull was downgraded a little in order to make the series star look better, just like they always do in the superhero books. Good point, and that was the case for all the team-ups between Conan and Kull, in CtB 67 and in the graphic novel "the ravagers out of time". (Did they meet in the Conan the barbarian follow-up in the last few SSoC issues? I only remember that Conan played the part of Kull for a while after the king had been abducted). That's the only time Kull almost beat Conan in the comics, as the Cimmerian and Red Sonja travelled back in time to Valusia... and Red almost fell for Kull. That would have been a good match, even if a slightly iconoclastic one; after all, who's to say what happened to either Kull or Sonja in their later days? (Conan the King #28, showing Sonja still acting as a thief and sell-sword well into her sixties, is a bit of a downer... I'd rather have her be queen of Valusia, thousands of years before her own birth!) But nah, I jest... that's the kind of fan service I usually don't like at all. I wouldn't have minded a bit of a fling between the two, though.
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Post by benday-dot on Aug 23, 2014 17:56:31 GMT -5
Tony DeZuniga joins series regular John Buscema; DeZuniga would eventually replace Alfredo Alcala as SSoC's most frequent inker over the following years. His arrival here is fortuitous, since his work on DC's western series Jonah Hex showed how well he handled frontier tales. I wasn't always the greatest fan of Tony's inking, but I often appreciated the grittiness he brought to the art. It is very well-suited to this issue. You hit on why I really do like DeZuniga's inking. It has a grim and chiseled look to it, "raw" as you well put it, that is very appropriate the harsh visual forays into the ancient world of Conan's universe. There is something very old timey, reminiscent of classic adventure illustration, to be seen in the Buscema DeZuniga combination. Almost the other side of the coin of the much more polished, but equally classic engraved look of the Buscema/Alcala pairing.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Aug 23, 2014 19:24:24 GMT -5
Tony DeZuniga joins series regular John Buscema; DeZuniga would eventually replace Alfredo Alcala as SSoC's most frequent inker over the following years. His arrival here is fortuitous, since his work on DC's western series Jonah Hex showed how well he handled frontier tales. I wasn't always the greatest fan of Tony's inking, but I often appreciated the grittiness he brought to the art. It is very well-suited to this issue. You hit on why I really do like DeZuniga's inking. It has a grim and chiseled look to it, "raw" as you well put it, that is very appropriate the harsh visual forays into the ancient world of Conan's universe. There is something very old timey, reminiscent of classic adventure illustration, to be seen in the Buscema DeZuniga combination. Almost the other side of the coin of the much more polished, but equally classic engraved look of the Buscema/Alcala pairing. Quite so, b-d, and As reader one of the things I most enjoyed in the old SSoC was the variety of styles adopted for succeeding stories. Alcala one issue, DeZuniga the next, some Young Montano, with a Frank Brunner issue thrown in from time to time... It was an exciting time! Even during the bad days of the 80s, we'd still get many different styles, what with Gary Kwapisz, Rudy Nebres, Dale Eaglesham or that fantastic issue by Jorge Zaffino
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Post by berkley on Aug 23, 2014 20:01:27 GMT -5
I forgot to mention earlier - I never heard of that team-up between Solomon Kane and Conan. Not a great fan of that kind of thing - the team-up between Conan and Kull in the pages of CtB was pretty weak, IMO, though I was probably just annoyed that my favourite REH character Kull was downgraded a little in order to make the series star look better, just like they always do in the superhero books. Good point, and that was the case for all the team-ups between Conan and Kull, in CtB 67 and in the graphic novel "the ravagers out of time". (Did they meet in the Conan the barbarian follow-up in the last few SSoC issues? I only remember that Conan played the part of Kull for a while after the king had been abducted). That's the only time Kull almost beat Conan in the comics, as the Cimmerian and Red Sonja travelled back in time to Valusia... and Red almost fell for Kull. That would have been a good match, even if a slightly iconoclastic one; after all, who's to say what happened to either Kull or Sonja in their later days? (Conan the King #28, showing Sonja still acting as a thief and sell-sword well into her sixties, is a bit of a downer... I'd rather have her be queen of Valusia, thousands of years before her own birth!) But nah, I jest... that's the kind of fan service I usually don't like at all. I wouldn't have minded a bit of a fling between the two, though. I only know the one from CtB 67, and the others don't sound too appetising. I realise that this kind of encounter between heroes or characters of different eras or fictional universes is very appealing - what would happen if X met Y? - but I think it's very difficult to make it work. Almost always, in comics at least, one character is weakened, in every sense, to make the other more impressive. I think of it as something like trying to bring two particles of the same electric charge into direct contact with one another: you can't do it without altering one of them to be something it isn't, changing it from +ve to -ve or vica versa; otherwise, to stretch the analogy perhaps farther than it can bear, the best that can be achieved is to make one of them a mere satellite orbiting the other.
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Post by foxley on Aug 24, 2014 3:05:16 GMT -5
In his book Crossovers, Win Scott Eckert places this particular encounter between Kane and Dracula as taking place in 1587 (and about 10 years after their first clash). Eckert's proposed Solomon Kane chronology is pretty solid, especially as we have a couple of historical events we can tie Kane directly to.
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Post by paulie on Aug 24, 2014 9:11:42 GMT -5
I don't really care for the Buscema-DeZungia pairing. I think that I might have mentioned it once or twice before. But it seems like Roy really liked Tony's art as he used him whenever possible on whatever title he was working on from say 1977 or 1978 onwards.
What really disappoints me is that the SSOC tales in this era... are some of the best. One that must be on the docket for review is Conan the Buccaneer. That's a great adaptation.
The DeZungia as High Adventure Illustrator is pretty spot on. I can appreciate it more now then but his work leaves me pining for Alcala, Nebres and Chan.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Aug 24, 2014 16:50:02 GMT -5
What really disappoints me is that the SSOC tales in this era... are some of the best. One that must be on the docket for review is Conan the Buccaneer. That's a great adaptation. I liked it a lot too, even if it is hated by a great number of Conan fans (and by the late Frank Frazetta, who said about it that the only good thing about the book had been its cover).
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Post by paulie on Aug 28, 2014 10:12:32 GMT -5
What really disappoints me is that the SSOC tales in this era... are some of the best. One that must be on the docket for review is Conan the Buccaneer. That's a great adaptation. I liked it a lot too, even if it is hated by a great number pf Conan fans (and by the late Frank Frazetta, who said about it that the only good thing about the book had been its cover). What is the word on the street regarding Conan the Buccaneer? I don't recall the SSOC letters pages, erm, savaging it in any way.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Aug 28, 2014 18:25:34 GMT -5
No, I think you're right: people seemed to have liked it fine. I seem to recall some objected to all the nudity, but that's about it. I'll look it up when these issues are reviewed (which shouldn't be that long, now!)
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Aug 31, 2014 11:33:46 GMT -5
Savage sword of Conan #27, March 1978
Cover by Bob Larkin, whose work could later be seen on several other SSoC covers and on Conan paperbacks (such as Poul Anderson's Conan the rebel). In the swords and scrolls letters page section, Roy apologizes for the scene not describing an exact scene from the story Beyond the Black River. There are torture poles and sabretooth tigers in the tale, but Conan never fights the cat in question: as you'll recall from last issue, the predator had attacked a bound Aquilonian and dragged him, unhindered, back in the woods. There's also no woman bound to a pole in the scene. Close enough, though, as far as I'm concerned! (Besides, the previous issue had a Jim Starlin cover cast from the same mold: it showed Conan bound to a stake and facing a giant snake. There was such a snake in the story, but Conan wasn't bound at the time). Such attention to details is what made Roy the best editor the Conan mags ever had. Table of contents: The children of Jhebbal Sag, part 2 of the Conan adventure "Beyond the Black River". Conan the syndicated, an article on the then-upcoming Conan newspaper strip. Shadow of the white wolf, a review of a new El Borak hardcover. A fandom portfolio of Conan, artwork by readers and fans (but good enough that you couldn't tell they're not pros!)
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Aug 31, 2014 11:38:21 GMT -5
The children of Jhebbal SagScript by Roy Thomas Art by John Buscema and Tony DeZuniga Concluding the adaptation of the Conan story Beyond the Black River by Robert E. Howard. The issue starts with a recap from part one (with a cool splash page, seen above): the Cimmerian is currently working as a scout for the Aquilonians on their western border, which was recently extended into the Pictish wilderness into the region known as Conajohara, between the Thunder and Black rivers. The tone of the story evokes the American frontier, with the Picts playing the roles of the American natives. A Pictish shaman, Zogar Sag, feels he has been wronged by a few Aquilonians and has been wreaking magical revenge on them. This leads to unrest among the settlers, especially as the Picts are growing more daring in their raids on isolated homesteads. Conan is charged by his superior, governor Galannus of Fort Tuscelan, to go into the bush and murder Zogar Sag. With him go a dozen Aquilonian scouts and young Balthus, a newly-arrived recruit. The expedition ends in disaster with most men killed and two of them (Balthus and another) bound to torture poles, with the prospect of their end serving as entertainment for the Picts. A great sabretooth tiger, called from the forest by Zogar Sag, kills Balthus' companion; as for the young man, he would serve as a meal for a giant snake if not for Conan's timely intervention: the Cimmerian throws a spear at the ophidian, whose death throes throws the Pictish village into confusion. Conan frees Balthus and the two men vanish into the woods, having observed that the Pictish village was host to many warriors from usually mutually hostile tribes. Knowing that the Picts will be hot on their trail, the fugitives run in the least-expected direction: west, further into Pictish territory. Their plan is to swing back toward the river later in a big circle, avoiding the hunting parties. It is soon obvious that the hunters will not all be human: Conan fells that they are being followed. Their tracker turns out to be a leopard, whom the Cimmerian dispatches with a thrown ax (a traditional skill to have on the frontier!) Conan reiterates to a doubtful Balthus his conviction that many animals obey the will of the Pictish wizard Zogar Sag, as do some forest devils, apparently. He explains that the shaman does not command all beasts: only those who remember Jhebbal Sag.
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