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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 6, 2014 11:34:32 GMT -5
The Bullpen's Robert E. HowardMore pin-ups! Solomon Kane by John Byrne and fellow Canadian Duffy Volhand; Esau Cairn by Tim Conrad, heradling the eventual publication of Almuric; Red Sonja by Rudy Nebres and an Richard Corben image left out from the Corben portfolio published in an earlier issue.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 6, 2014 11:40:50 GMT -5
Presenting: The Hyborian Players!Red Sonja artist Frank Thorne and friends, at one point, created an amusing play featuring the she-devil with a sword. The cast included himself as a wizard, artist and Elfquest co-creaor Wendy Pini as Red Sonja, Linda Behrle as another Red Sonja, Angelique Trouvere as another Red Sonja, Wendy Snow as yet another Red Sonja with her belly button covered, and Dianne DeKelb as Red Sonya of Rogatino. Photos shown here make clear that the adventure must have been zany and a lot of fun, and that it's actually possible to make a Red Sonja outfit work in the real world. (It might not be practical for fighting, but it sure looks pretty). The wizard and Red SonjaStory and art by Fran Thorne The play is adapted in comics form, with Thorne managing a good resemblance of the actresses involved! Note: "Samoht Yor" is Roy Thomas spelled backwards. I summon the Zatanna spell!
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Post by benday-dot on Sept 6, 2014 17:37:21 GMT -5
I can only say thank Crom Thorne cast himself as the old wizard man, and not as one of the the five Sonjas.
And I'm with you RR, that Ralph Reese drawing of Salome is a gem. One of the great lamentations of comics, IMO, is that the world was not blessed with more pages of Ralph Reese art over the years. It makes what he did do more precious I suppose.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 6, 2014 18:00:07 GMT -5
I can only say thank Crom Thorne cast himself as the old wizard man, and not as one of the the five Sonjas. And I'm with you RR, that Ralph Reese drawing of Salome is a gem. One of the great lamentations of comics, IMO, is that the world was not blessed with more pages of Ralph Reese art over the years. It makes what he did do more precious I suppose. I've seen very little of his work, but each time I was very much impressed. I think the first time I came across his name is in a Solomon Kane story that saw print in one of Marvel's horror magazines; it adapted "the skull in the stars". Absolutely beautiful stuff! I was also much impressed by his inking on Valiant's Magnus, robot fighter book. The chain-mail he drew on the hero was exquisitely detailed: instead of a standard fish scale motif, he drew small individual hexagons on the tunic. The result spoke of a heavy time inestment on his part!
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Post by foxley on Sept 6, 2014 18:15:36 GMT -5
Conan's ladiesA portfolio of six great dames of the Hyborian Age, pencilled by Bruce Patterson and inked by several colleagues. Nice job. I suppose it could be said that Bruce is not giving us his version of the characters, but picturing them all in their "official" Marvel look. It's true, but the pictures are fine; I especially like the inking by Ralph Reese on the Salomé piece and the ever-great Neal Adams on Sonja. Hmmm... It must have been cold in that hall where Valeria was posing!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2014 18:49:22 GMT -5
Well I have been a long time fan of Conan , I have all the marvel comics Complete set volume 1 and 2 all mini series and one shots . Just started collecting Savage sword last summer and am down to 11 issues left . Need the savage tales stuff yet . Also picked up a few marvel Graphic novels . I need 5 more of those . They are pretty scarce . Haven't collect and of Dark Horse Yet . I need issue 2 4 5 7 8 10 12 13 14 19 24 .
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Post by thwhtguardian on Sept 11, 2014 18:58:46 GMT -5
Well I have been a long time fan of Conan , I have all the marvel comics Complete set volume 1 and 2 all mini series and one shots . Just started collecting Savage sword last summer and am down to 11 issues left . Need the savage tales stuff yet . Also picked up a few marvel Graphic novels . I need 5 more of those . They are pretty scarce . Haven't collect and of Dark Horse Yet . I need issue 2 4 5 7 8 10 12 13 14 19 24 . I'm a huge fan of the Dark Horse run, especially Kurt Busiek's stories, so you should definitely check those out.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2014 21:45:28 GMT -5
Thanks I been seriously thinking about it . I picked up issue # 0 and 1 not to long ago enjoyed them . Got issue 0 signed by Cary Nord and also got a print from him to .
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 13, 2014 10:32:58 GMT -5
Savage sword of Conan #30, June 1978Cover by Frank Brunner Table of contents: The scarlet citadel, a Conan story A gazeteer of the Hyborian age, the first part of a Hyborian age encyclopedia The Brunner Bran mak Morn, an art portfolio This issue is a Frank Brunner festival with a cover, a long story (full art!) and even a portfolio. I first heard of SSoC #30 in a later issue, in the letters section, where a reader commented that Frank Brunner showed himself to be one of the best Conan artists ever; it will amuse our esteemed Dan Bailey to know that at the time, being a young comic fan still, I mistook Frank Brunner for Frank Robbins and vehemently thought NO WAY!!! (At the time, I was still smarting from seeing Sal Buscema replaced by Robbins on Captain America. I didn't and still do not like most of Robbins' superhero work). Needless to say, by the time I got my hands on SSoC #30, I had realized my mistake. Brunner, whose work would also delight me on Howard the duck and Dr. Strange, was indeed a very, very good Conan artist! In hindsight, this issue might be seen as the last of the truly essential Savage sword of Conan run. Not that the series would cease to be good, but after this landmark there would be more and more adaptations of pastiche Conan stories, the Howard material having basically run out. Roy Thomas would still do a great job at the tiller, maintaining a coherent Hyborian age universe, but I must admit that from here on there would be more average issues in between the excellent ones. Hey, thirty issues of greatness is still quite an achievement, isn't it?
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 13, 2014 10:47:24 GMT -5
The scarlet citadelScript by Roy Thomas Art by Frank Brunner adapting the Conan story written by Robert E. Howard The scarlet citadel is a first in many senses. It is the first true Conan story published, in the sense that the actual first Conan tale ( the phoenix on the sword) was a rewrite of a Kull story that had been rejected. It is also the first Conan story I read in prose, translated in the anthology " Les meilleurs récits de Weird Tales, t. 2" in the late '70s. I remember reading it in the early hours of a summer morning, when everyone was still sleeping, and being transported to the fantastic world of the Hyborian age as only a kid can truly be. The story inspired a famous painting (and book cover) by Frank Frazetta: The scarlet citadel was published in the January 1933 issue of Weird Tales, and like the phoenix on the sword it is a tale of King Conan. As in every King Conan story, the Cimmerian faces an attempted coup; this time, he is targeted by the united kings of Ophir and Koth who, aided by the wizard Tsotha-Lanti, mean to replace him by a puppet ruler of noble Aquilonian extraction. The first step in their campaign is to draw the king's army into a trap, where the flower of Aquilonian chivalry is crushed by superior forces. Only the king remains at the end, still slaying enemies after all his men are dead.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 13, 2014 11:46:34 GMT -5
Is that a splash page or is that a splash page? Brunner didn't produce that many comic-books, but we can see here why his name still resonates with old-time fans. Conan is finally captured and brought in chains to the capital of the country of Koth (it's on the other side of Ophir, which the king was led to believe he was assisting against a Kothian invasion). The king of Koth is Strabonus, a figure we have heard of before; he was already at his post for the events of Black Colossus (adapted back in SSoC #2). More on Strabonus later. He and the king of Ophir, Amalrus, are clearly in awe of their sorcerous ally, Tsotha-Lanti. The three of them offer terms to the Cimmerian: he will abdicate in favour of one Arpello of Pellia* and in return will be given arms, a horse, a heavy purse and his freedom. Arpello will, of course, act as a mere puppet for the eastern kings. Conan spits in Amalrus' face and is brought to the deep dungeons of the fortress that serves as Tsotha-Lanti's home: the infamous scarlet citadel. There he is chained to a wall in an underground cell and left to die some undefined and gruesome death. It is soon apparent what is to be the king's fate: a giant snake slithers in (see the above Frazetta painting), but it fails to eat the Cimmerian who cleverly stays absolutely still in front of the monster. The reptile wanders off after a short while, as another actor comes upon the scene: a man from the Black Coast, who has calls Conan "Amra". The newcomer wants revenge on the erstwhile leader of the Black Corsairs who, many years earlier, sacked the city of Abombi with his lover Bêlit; the man lost his brother in the event and had to flee his position of power and privilege. (That story was adapted in Conan the barbarian #94-97, but was apparently forgotten in Dark Horse's recently concluded comic series dealing with Conan's days on the Black Coast). The man taunts Conan with the keys to his chains but with no intention of freeing him, until he is attacked from behind by the giant snake. As the ophidian goes away once again to digest its meal, the Cimmerian recovers the keys from where they fell, frees himself and is halted in his escape by a closed portcullis. The gaoler laughs at the king from the other side, not realizing that Conan also recovered the sword of his visitor, and is struck down through the bars by an angry Cimmerian. The door being too heavy to lift, Conan returns to the depths of the dungeons looking for some other means of escape. The place turns out to be a hellish maze of caverns, bottomless wells and rooms full of spooky stuff, nasty-looking creatures and unnatural abominations. In a cell he eventually encounters a man in the grip of some big plant that appears to be draining him of his very life force. Cutting down the animated plant, Conan sees the prisoner regain his senses and reveal that he is the wizard Pellias, who used to be a competitor of Tsotha-Lanti. Pellias explains some of the tale's back-story. (I transcribe it here, because it's a really cool piece: Pretty neat, eh? Roy had previously shown that this unholy union had brought two hybrids into the world: Conan met Tsotha-Lanti's brother, Laza-Lanti, in CtB #45. Dagoth Hill would be visited again in CtB 271-273. Now that Pellias is free from his vegetal nemesis, he turns out to be an impressive magician: he scares the giant snake away, reanimates the dead gaoler who opens the portcullis from the outside, brings Conan out of the dungeons and shows him in a crystal ball how the armies of Strabonus are besieging the Aquilonian city of Shamar. Pellias also summons a sky creature to carry Conan back to his kingdom, telling him not to worry about him; "at dawn, the people of Khorshemish will know they have a new master". (Pellias will be seen again in the novel "Conan the avenger", adapted in King Conan #5-8). *When Roy Thomas will write Dark Horse's Conan: the road of kings comic many decades later, he will introduce Arpello as a supporting character much earlier in Conan's career, as well as other people who would play a role in his kingly days, such as countess Albiona, councilor Publius and the Poitainian soldier Prospero.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 13, 2014 12:02:44 GMT -5
Conan flies to shamar on the back of the creature seen on the cover; he is dropped atop a tower in which the usurper Arpello is trying to force himself on a member of the king's harem. Conan throws him off the building, and the crowd rushes to the support of their rightful king. (Apparently, the popular discontent mentioned in the phoenix on the sword has abated)! Conan next joins the ever-faithful knights of Poitain and his old friend Prospero, and they attack the Kothian and Ophirean forces on the plain by the besieged city of Shamar. King Amalrus is slain by an arrow; as for Strabonus, is is killed by Conan himself. This creates a bit of a continuity problem. That's because Strabonus was a supporting character used from time to time by Jim Owsley in Conan the barbarian and Conan the king. However, here we see him curt in two in a story set between those two periods; by the time of the Conan the king days, Strabonus had been a corpse for a very long time. We can't even suppose that there were many different kings with the same name, unless we also accept that they looked like twins; because the old Strabonus from Conan the king looks exactly like his younger counterpart. One possibility, for continuity-obsessed fans, would be to say that this old king Strabonus was deposed by another man with the same name, and that he got his throne back after the latter was killed as Conan in this tale. What would make this particular float is that the Strabonus from CtB and from CtK does not look like the one from SS0C#30. Anyway... the allied kings being dead, their troops scatter and Conan rides up to a fleeing Tsotha-Lanti. Conan beheads the wizard, whose body still tries to recover its missing part! But a great eagle (pellias in disguise, apparently), picks up the yelling head and carries it off, laughing in Pellias's voice. Conan is grateful for the help but doesn't care to ever see Pellias again! This was a great adaptation, one I find superior to the more recent one by Truman and Giorello at Dark Horse. The art is obviously splendid, the pacing is great, and it really does the tale justice. One point that some fans didn't like is that "oliphants" mentioned in the prose tale here translate visually as war elephants; I must admit I don't mind, since war elephants are probably a good thing to have even north of Carthage's latitudes. Notes: - Conan has been king for a while in this story; he must be in his early 40s. - Conan is still unmarried and has a harem of girls from many countries. - Pellias is presented as an interesting character: although a wizard, he confesses to liking the good life; the reason Tsotha-Lanti managed to capture him is because he was drunk. - Tsotha-Lanti will be back for Conan the barbarian annual #5, where he will meet his final demise.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 13, 2014 12:06:59 GMT -5
A gazeteer of the Hyborian ageAn ethnographical dictionary of the principle peoples of the era by Lee N. Falconer. This was (and still is!) a great resource in the pre-internet days. It will be published over several issues of SSoC, with unrelated illustrations by several artists (here Val Mayerik in a Roy Krenkel sort of mood). I've seen this gazeteer announced as a stand-alone book (along with a map) in some comics, but never saw an actual copy. It must be a great thing to have in one's library.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 13, 2014 12:09:49 GMT -5
The Brunner Bran Mak MornA portfolio of Robert E. Howard's Pictish warrior-king by Frank Brunner, esq. Seven plates by Brunner. Good stuff, but this version will not replace the Smith/Conrad one in my heart!
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 13, 2014 12:12:17 GMT -5
Something else interesting in this issue is a page of publicity for portfolios sold by Pacific Comics. I regret not having picked up things like the Kull II portfolio by the Severin siblings!
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