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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 4, 2014 16:20:09 GMT -5
Savage sword of Conan #33, Sept 1978Cover by Earl Norem, featuring a scene from this issue's main story. Table of contents: The curse of the monolith, a Conan story A gazetteer of the Hyborian age, part III, the encyclopedia of the Hyborian world. The tribe from Time's abyss, an article on Robert Howard's treatment of Picts as an ethnic group, by Fred Blosser. Blades of the brotherhood, a Solomon Kane adventure. Swords and scrolls, the letters page.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 4, 2014 17:00:12 GMT -5
The curse of the monolithScript by Roy Thomas Art by Gene Colan and Pablo Marcos Adapting a story by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter Conan has always generated a lot of fannish interest: already in the 30s, Dr. P. Schuyler Miller had written a letter to Howard in which he had compiled the first "probable outline of Conan's career". In the mid-50s, a Swedish fan (Dr. Björn Nyberg) wrote an entire novel about the Cimmerian, getting him to revisit many familiar locales from his original adventures. This novel, like Howard's work, would be messed with fine-tuned for inclusion in American books by L. Sprague deCamp. When Gnome Press first published Conan adventures in book form, deCamp would turn non-Conan adventures into tales featuring the Cimmerian, a process many refer to as "conanization". This allowed the publication of more Conan books, and to further increase the number of volumes when Conan started being published by Lancer new pastiches were then written by deCamp and Lin Carter. The Lancer books with their stunning Frazetta covers (well, for most of them) contained a mix of deCamp-edited Howard Conan stories, deCamp-edited conanized Howard stories and brand new deCamp and Carter Conan stories (plus one Nyberg, deCamp and Carter Conan novel). I'm very happy that readers now have access to the original Howard material. I won't say the deCamp's editing made the tales bad, but it is at best totally useless and at worst a sign of gross lack of respect for Howard (who most emphatically did not need an editor to make his stories better). As for the conanized and pastiche stories, well... Some conanized material works for me, even if sometimes new supernatural elements seem to be added to straight adventure tales almost as an afterthought. It works better in comics than in prose, but it is often still a bit clunky. The new pastiches, irrespective of their intrinsic values, often hold better as far as internal logic goes... and this is what we observe here, in this tale taken from the Conan the Cimmerian paperback. It is not a very original story, and it borrows elements from other Howard stories (the monolith from the title must be the first cousin of the one from Howard's horror tale "The Black Stone", which was the basis for Conan the barbarian #21). But it's okay. In many of these pastiches, deCamp tried to fill in the blanks in Conan's "biography", a bit like Roy was doing in the comics; that's what he does here, giving Conan an excuse for having travelled to the Far East and showing how Hyrkanians could have taught him to shoot a bow (both things are mentioned in Howard's stories, without too much detail). Many of the pastiche stories would be adapted from here on in SSoC, since there were hardly any Howard stories left. The mag would go for completely original Conan adventures after Roy's departure for DC comics after #60. The setting:Conan is a young soldier in the army of Turan, which he joined in CtB#29. After ingratiating himself to king Yildiz, whose daughter he saved from a fate worse than death in CtB#37, the Cimmerian has been rewarded by a diplomatic mission to the western part of Khitai (modern China). As the tale begins, captain Conan and his Turanian soldiers (with a Khitan nobleman, duke Feng, in tow) are returning to Turan with a commercial agreement. They camp in a deserted hilly spot, knowing that head-hunting savages are found in these parts. The story:Duke Feng approaches Conan as the Cimmerian stands guard during the night; he informs him that he knows of a certain monolith nearby, at the foot of which a great treasure is said to be buried. He, as a dainty nobleman, could not possibly handle a shovel to dig it out, but he is ready to share it if Conan helps him secure it. Naturally, it would be best not to tell the others so as not to have to share the treasure among too many people. Conan dislikes Feng, and we can read between the lines how Howard and deCamp differ in their appreciation of Conan's character: here, Conan is depicted as being slightly jealous of the duke's refined ways and education. I seriously doubt Howard's Conan would have felt jealousy toward a civilized man; he might have been intrigued and curious at what culture is about, but never embarrassed by his own uncouth ways. Anyway. Conan agrees to go dig out the loot. Feng persuades him to wear his armor, because of the risk of meeting the head hunters. The two men leave the camp silently, on foot, and reach the monolith. There, a surprise awaits Conan: the monolith apparently attracts all things metal, including his digging implements and his own armor! It is some kind of giant magnet! Conan is swept off his feet and ends up stuck on the side of the high rising stone, his steel wristbands even immobilizing his hands. Feng reveals that this was all a ploy, and that his intention is to murder the members of the embassy to keep his kingdom from dealing with the barbarians from the west, whom he deeply despises. He then starts playing a flute, and his music seemingly calls forth the presence of a supernatural creature that appears atop the monolith: a slimy mass of corrosive ooze with two eyes. Conan notices that there are half-digested bones at the foot of the monolith, and as he witnesses the monster slowly crawling down the stone he struggles to get free. Dragging his arms along the stone's surface, he manages to reach a half-broken dagger that is pinned there and uses it to cut the straps holding the plates of his armor together. Falling free, he throws Feng at the monster and sets it afire (it is apparently flammable). Conan then returns to his camp to rouse his men and get the hell away. As I said earlier, the story holds together better than the ones where supernatural elements are tacked on adventure stories. Here we might reproach the fact that Feng seems to have come up with particularly convoluted plan just to kill a handful of foreigners. I might also have had problems with duke Fend claiming that the stone was a natural phenomenon and nothing supernatural, just prior to summoning a demon; but let's be fair: even Lovecraft's arch-demons were often simply extra-terrestrials, as were many of Howard's creatures such as Yag-Kosha. So that's fine. There's no real contradiction here. The artwork by Colan and Marcos is okay if you like Colan (which I do). I am not sure Conan is the right character for him, but here his skills with moody and spooky atmospheres are put to very good use. Notes: - Conan is still in the Turanian army; he must be around 21. - We are treated to a cameo by Juma the black, who was introduced in CtB #37 and would not return until SSoC 41-43, and then the 1990s.
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Post by benday-dot on Oct 4, 2014 19:25:29 GMT -5
Someone sometime needs to do a study on the connection of the humble flute, with its plaintive or spirited notes, and the unspeakable things from beyond. We saw earlier in the review of the Pool of the Black One the power of the flute in the hands of the the enigmatic giants. Here we see again how the flute can summon awesome forces of the supernatural. In Lovecraft we see in such tales as Nyarlathotep how the flute is employed a in "blasphemous" manner to penetrate into certain inconceivable lands outside of space and time. The flute in less eldritch writings is shown to exert its control over rats and vermin. Maybe the world of the snake charmer with its scenes of the writhing cobra dancing to the tune of the charmers hypnotic flute spawned some of this mythology. Who knows, but i do find it fascinating.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 4, 2014 21:44:23 GMT -5
A gazetteer of the Hyborian age, part III by Lee Falconer
From Galparan (a town in western Aquilonia on the southern bank of the river Shirki above Tanasul, situated at a river crossing) to the Hyrkanian steppe, the great treeless part of Hyrkania.
Illustrated by Jeff Easley, John Buscema and others.
The tribes from time's abyss by Fred Blosser
An essay on the Picts: not the historical inhabitants of old Caledonia per se, but the ones we find in Howard's prose at different times: during Kull's pre-cataclysmic era, during the Hyborian age, and during the Roman occupation of the British Islands. Good research work, well analyzed and presented. Illustrated by a few unrelated pieces.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 4, 2014 21:45:09 GMT -5
Someone sometime needs to do a study on the connection of the humble flute, with its plaintive or spirited notes, and the unspeakable things from beyond. We saw earlier in the review of the Pool of the Black One the power of the flute in the hands of the the enigmatic giants. Here we see again how the flute can summon awesome forces of the supernatural. In Lovecraft we see in such tales as Nyarlathotep how the flute is employed a in "blasphemous" manner to penetrate into certain inconceivable lands outside of space and time. The flute in less eldritch writings is shown to exert its control over rats and vermin. Maybe the world of the snake charmer with its scenes of the writhing cobra dancing to the tune of the charmers hypnotic flute spawned some of this mythology. Who knows, but i do find it fascinating. That would explain why a friend of mine once referred to "Jethro Tull and his damned flute"!
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 4, 2014 21:52:09 GMT -5
Blades of the brotherhoodscript by Don Glut Art by David Wenzel and Duffy Volhand A Solomon Kane adventure adapted from the REH original. This story is set in England, with Kane opposing pirates and a crooked nobleman who is in league with them. This was but the first of several Wenzel-Volhand efforts on Kane, which I grew to like quite a lot. Wenzel's work on the adaptation of "the one black stain", a few issues later, was simply beautiful. And finally, a few interesting house ads: I never saw a copy of that issue, naturally, since it was never distributed in the US and even the artist never saw it...but the combination of the Beatles, Perez and Janson is intriguing, to say the least. And then there's an ad for two of the portfolios that were sometimes advertised in SSoC, and to this day I kick myself for not having bought any but the Byrne-Fastner-Larson X-Men portfolio. The Kull and Kull II ones by Marie and John Severin must really have been something, and who doesn't like some Frazetta art?
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Post by berkley on Oct 5, 2014 22:09:52 GMT -5
I used to have that Beatles comic with art by George Perez and Klaus Jansen. It wasn't all that great, as I recall, but kind of a nice little collector's item if you're a Beatles fan like me. No idea what happened to it.
I liked the Colan + Marcos artwork, though I don't think Colan's heart was really in it. Still, an interesting experiment. It's definitely true that Colan's forté was depicting modern urban settings and characters, not barbarian musclemen.
OTOH, I remember an image from Doctor Strange 13, I think it was - the one where Eternity re-creates the planet earth from the beginning after it's been destroyed by some devious scheme of Nightmare's, and in a full-page image Colan shows or suggests the entire history of the earth, including the evolution of man with one of those motifs you often see of modern homo sapiens emerging from a line of more ape-like ancestors. Anyway, I remember he drew the modern man in a very realistic but still impressive way, and it strikes me that it would have been very interesting if Colan had chosen to drawn his Conan story in his usual realistic manner rather than the more exaggerated style he went with, perhaps thinking it more suitable for an action character like Conan.
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Post by foxley on Oct 5, 2014 23:38:45 GMT -5
A much better take on Kane than some of the others. I'm not sure he has quite nailed the look exactly here, but I definitely agree that "One Black Stain" is beautiful. (It helps that I'm a sucker for Howard's poetry, especially the SK poems.)
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Post by berkley on Oct 8, 2014 11:54:34 GMT -5
OTOH, I remember an image from Doctor Strange 13, I think it was - the one where Eternity re-creates the planet earth from the beginning after it's been destroyed by some devious scheme of Nightmare's, and in a full-page image Colan shows or suggests the entire history of the earth, including the evolution of man with one of those motifs you often see of modern homo sapiens emerging from a line of more ape-like ancestors. Anyway, I remember he drew the modern man in a very realistic but still impressive way, and it strikes me that it would have been very interesting if Colan had chosen to drawn his Conan story in his usual realistic manner rather than the more exaggerated style he went with, perhaps thinking it more suitable for an action character like Conan. Found the page from Doctor Strange 13 I was thinking of online and while some of the details weren't quite as I had been recalling them - no progression from primate ancestors to homo sapiens - my memory of the general style held true and and, seeing it again, my wish Colan and Palmer had done a sword and sorcery comic in that style is reinforced.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 18, 2014 10:27:47 GMT -5
Savage sword of Conan #34, October 1978Cover by Ernie Chan. Ernie's painted work is not as assured as that of, say, Boris or Norem, but it certainly is colorful and eye-catching... and that girl shivering in the snow is quite pretty. (But damn, why don't people in the Hyborian age learn to dress for the winter???) Table of contents:Lair of the ice worm, a Conan story The moon of skulls, a Solomon Kane adventure Conan of Des Moines, an article on the Conan newspaper strip The mirror of Tuzun Thune, a King Kull tale Conan, Solomon Kane and Kull in the same issue? Sold!!! Ron Wilson (inked by Joe Rubinstein) provides the frontispiece; it's good, solid art. Wilson didn't do much Conan, but I liked his work on the Conan/Thor team-up in What if..? # 39.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 18, 2014 11:20:25 GMT -5
The lair of the ice wormScript by Roy Thomas Art by Carmine Infantino and Alfredo Alcala Adapting the short story by Lin Carter and L. Sprague de Camp The story: just as with issue #33, this is the adaptation of a Conan pastiche written to pad the paperbacks published in the 60s (this one is also found in Conan of Cimmeria). According to this source, this is a 1969 re-write (by deCamp) of an unpublished (at the time) Thongor story written by Carter that would eventually see print in its original form in the 1980 book the year's best fantasy stories #6. It is set in the north, as Conan returns south from the adventure told in "The frost giant's daughter". When I first read the issue, I was initially very happy... for some reason, Conan stories set in snowy lands always appealed to me. (Since there aren't that many, one could wonder why... I think it's because the aforementioned frost giant's daughter, as adapted by Thomas and Smith, made a great impression on me, and because one of the first Howard tales I read in prose was "The dark man", also set in the north and featuring Vikings). Unfortunately, this is a pretty silly Conan story. Even through the indulgent eyes of a young fan, I realized that back in 78. The plot goes like this. Conan is riding south through snow-covered mountains, and for once he bothered to put on a fur coat over his loincloth and chainmail. Still no pants, though, nor gloves or mittens of any kind. As a denizen of a fairly snowy country, I find my willing suspension of disbelief challenged... but let's let that slip for now. Conan thinks of a certain legend involving a snow devil, and OF COURSE we know he's going to meet it later on... Is that a case of Chekhov's gun? Or just lazy storytelling? Anyway. A scream suddenly echoes amid the ice-covered peaks and as Conan investigates he finds a lone girl being cornered by a bunch of naked primitives (hairy, but not ape-like) who have clearly killed the lady's companions and are about to either eat or ravish her (or both). Conan charges the creatures and sends them fleeing, but not before his precious horse is slain. The girl, Ilga by name, is a Hyperborean whose family had settled south in the Border Kingdom and whose uncle had been taking back north to find a good husband. Grateful for the save, she still appears very skittish, mentioning the name "Yakhmar" again and again. (There is some communication problem as Conan is unfamiliar with her language, something that doesn't happen often in these stories. He had no problem conversing with Hyperboreans in a few other instances, as in CtB #3 or later in SSoC #39. "Yakhmar" is the name of the snow devil, but even if that's pretty obvious it's not confirmed yet). Panicking at the idea of spending the night in a nearby cavern, Ilga is knocked out by a Cimmerian cross to the jaw. Take THAT, Henry Pym! Conan was the original woman beater!!! As night sets in, Conan lights a small fire and cooks some of his horse; Ilga has quieted a little (afraid of another clout?) but still mutters "Yakhmar" under her breath. To calm her (of course!) Conan decides to have sex with her, and then falls asleep like a dead man. For crying out loud! Yeah, I know it does say "barbarian" on the cover, but this is about as unchivalrous a behaviour as one could expect! During the night, as the uncouth lout snores, a strange piping music draws the attention of Ilga, who then follows two fiery orbs that can be seen in a nearby ice tunnel... the eyes of a monster! When Conan wakes, he finds Ilsa gone; looking for her, he discovers two things: first, that his horse has been devoured by something, leaving only frozen bones behind; second, that Ilsa has also been devoured by something, leaving only frozen bones behind. He then thinks again of the snow demon from the story's start, but with more details: this would be some kind of ice worm that radiates cold and that can encase a corpse in ice within minutes. This beast is called the remora; not a reference to the fish that sticks to sharks, but to the mythical small sea serpent originally known as the Echeneis that had the ability to stop a boat when it attached to its hull and that could freeze the air with its breath. That's because de Camp likes to drop names. Conan realizes that he's been an ineffectual dick and swears revenge for Ilga. Following the worm-like tracks in the snow, he finds the beast's hiding place, a cavern so incredibly cold that the air itself seems ready to freeze. The remora tries to hypnotize the Cimmerian with its weird music, but Conan then reveals his secret weapon! Against a monster that can generate waves of cold nearing the absolute zero, he has the ultimate defence: a helmet full of embers from his small bonfire, in which he placed his axe head. Whirling the helmet around, Conan gets the embers to glow before throwing them into the monster's maw. And guess what happens when a handful of reddish embers meets a giant creature colder than outer space? KABLOOIE, that's what! The monster writhes in agony, the glacier explodes, the whole mountainside collapses!!! (Experiment report: I once threw red embers on ordinary snow. They go * pshhhh* and go out). Conan survives the snowy apocalypse and limps toward civilization and a jug of mulled wine. The art: I don't think there is another Conan story drawn by Carmine Infantino. This would make this issue an interesting item just for that reason, but apart from some clearly Infantino-esque postures, this is far more Alcala than Infantino. Not that I mind, because Alcala is a damn fine artist. Some panels are very good indeed; witness the last one on this page: Notes: - Conan would be around 20-21, according to the chronology that places Frost Giant's daughter after the Cimmerian's initial foray into the Hyborian lands. Personally I prefer that tale as the very first Conan adventure, in which case the lad would be 17 or so. - Conan's behaviour here is pretty awful, and de Camp's justification is weak: Conan only had sex with Ilga because he wanted her to calm herself so she could have a good night's sleep? Really? Even after punching her out and clearly bering in a position of authority over her? Barbarian indeed. - The remora was not seen again. Good.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 18, 2014 11:35:51 GMT -5
Moon of skulls, part 1Script by Don Glut Art by David Wenzel and Bill Wray adapting the Solomon Kane adventure by Robert E. Howard. The story is introduced by this absolutely gorgeous picture by Robert Gould and Duffy Volhand: man, that's Solomon Kane!!! In this exotic story, Kane is following the track of an English girl who was abducted by pirates and sold as a slave in Africa. Unknown to him, she has now come into the hands of the people of Negari, survivors of ancient Atlantis, and ruled by their bewitching queen (very evocative of Haggard's She who must be obeyed). Much to 1978 teenage me's delight, queen Nakari of Negari went topless. Poor Solomon... will he have to take out his own eyes? I think this is a case where nudity is justified by the story: the queen is both highly seductive and highly dangerous. This is one of the great Solomon Kane stories, and was the basis for the Kane/Conan team-up that would see print decades later, in SSoC 219-220.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 18, 2014 11:38:58 GMT -5
Conan of Des Moinesor, son of Conan the syndicatedOn Monday, September 4, 1978, Conan the Cimmerian would begin a career as a syndicated comic character. Written by Roy Thomas, the first strips would feature complete art by John Buscema. These strips have begun to be collected by Dark Horse, as previously mentioned.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 18, 2014 11:46:42 GMT -5
Mirrors of Tuzun ThuneScript by Roy Thomas Art by Mike Ploog Adapting the original Kull story written by Robert E. Howard This is one of the two Kull stories published during Howard's lifetime. It saw print in the September 1929 issue of Weird Tales. A haunting, action-less story, it did much to make Kull the thinking man's barbarian he's often presented as. The adaptation is, simply put, magnificent. Ploog's artwork is gorgeous. Ploog had also drawn the game-changing Kull the destroyer #11, and even if his later efforts on that mag were marred by inappropriate inking, I think it's fair to say that he's had a huge impact on the comics career of the king of Valusia. It is unfortunate that two pages of this splendid adaptation were mixed up for this printing! Pages 54 and 55 were mixed up!
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Post by benday-dot on Oct 18, 2014 19:01:52 GMT -5
I always thought that John Buscema did the best "slouching on throne" panels, but that splash from Mirrors of Tuzun Thune shows that Ploog was, um...no slouch either! Every time I see those pages I bow down again before the throne of Ploog!
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