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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 23, 2024 15:38:53 GMT -5
Conan the barbarian #13 (Jan 1972)  The city of Yezud was mentioned by Robert Howard in The People of the Black Circle. In that story, there was a magical device called “the globe of Yezud”.
Dixit Howard: “It was like a big black jade bead, such as the temple girls of Yezud wear when they dance before the black stone spider which is their god.”
The globe could turn into a venomous spider, which of course happens in the story: ”(…) a spider, like the god at Yezud, only smaller, ran out of his fingers.” All to say that the people in Yezud worship a big spider god. That Yezud would be in Zamora was not made clear by Howard, but it’s not incompatible with the country being associated with “(…) dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery”. L. Sprague deCamp would one day write a (terrible) novel featuring Yezud and its spider god, “ Conan and the Spider God”, but CtB#13 was plotted by a superior writer, John Jakes, who at the time was not yet a best-selling author. In S&S circles, he was known for writing the adventures of Brak the barbarian, which is why Roy invited him to contribute a story. The original cover idea was rejected, but here is a look at it (from the Marvel Epic Collection of Conan 1-13.)  This story was reprinted in the fifth Conan pocketbook reprinting the early issues, which is where I read it first. I remember buying it the same day SSoC#47. That was a good day!
Web of the Spider God Script by Roy Thomas, from a synopsis by John Jakes Art by Barry Smith and Sal Buscema
The story: Conan has left Corinthia after his adventure in Zahhman. He has a sword and a horse, which might have been a gift from Queen Yaila (or even the one given to him by Murilo in issue #11, if we remember that #12 was a fill-in) but we learn later that Conan recently stole his mount. Some time must have passed since the previous issue, then. The splash page informs us that he is “somewhere east of Ophir”. As there is something of a four-corner situation between Corinthia (north), Ophir (west), Zamora (east) and Koth (south), this would place near southwestern Zamora, where we’ll soon learn Yezud lies.
As happened last issue, Conan is attacked by a bunch of desert-dwelling fellows as he nears a water point; in this case, however, they’re brigands and not city guards. Conan himself notices the coincidence: “is there nowhere on this desert that men do not come at you with swords?” The brigands are led by a scarred man named Sarkon, and they want Conan’s horse. A brief one-sided battle occurs, and Conan is left for dead after being clubbed on his thick Cimmerian skull. Sarkon and his band leave in a hurry, for they are too close to the Zamorian border and the thrice-cursed city of Yezud for their liking. (An expository mention that serves to inform the reader, but one must wonder why the bandits would lie in wait near a place they fear, just on the off chance that someone they could rob would happen to ride by). When Conan comes to, now without horse, sword or money, he imprudently leaves the relative safety of the oasis to brave the desert in the direction of Yezud. Thirst eventually makes him delirious, and he has a vision of a giant spider devouring him (because foreshadowing!) before finally stumbling onto another oasis, where a kindly farmer succors him. The man is named Thanix, and he has his own story of woe: his daughter Lea was abducted by the priests of Omm, the spider god of Yezud. Grateful, Conan decides to help Thanix recover the girl. The pair travel to Yezud on nicely-drawn camels.  The Cimmerian’s plan to enter the city is to knock at the door, boldly threaten the high priest’s life, and get thrown in jail. The plan works up to a point as they are not killed on the spot, are indeed thrown in jail, and do find Lea among the many, many prisoners kept to feed the appetite of the spider god. Conan also encounters a Zamorian architect named Tork, who was sent by the king to spy on Yezud. Before being captured, Tork discovered that Yezud is built over a geologic fault, and that the ground under it is honeycombed by emptied mines. Tork even claims that a few shifted stones here and there could send the city crashing, an information that is extremely unlikely to play any role later on. When Yezudian guards come fetch a few prisoners for the spider god’s lunch, Conan initiates a brawl which allows Tork to escape; the Cimmerian tells the Zamorian architect that he has work to do elsewhere! Selected as an appetizer, Conan brags that he’s recently killed a big spider (that was in CtB #4) and that this one can’t be much more of a problem. Well, he’s wrong on that… Once the Cimmerian, Thanix, Lea and a few others are brought to the arena where the god has its lair, they can see that Omm is big as an elephant!  That doesn’t cow the Cimmerian, of course. One wonders how incompetent the Yezudian guards can be, though, because even after seeing Conan fight in the prison block, they still allow him the freedom of movement to grab the high priest by the neck and throw him down on the sand of the arena where Omm begins its meal. The guards wake up and manage to cause Conan to fall after the priest, where a spider rodeo begins! A jew good sword jabs persuade Omm that discretion is the better part of valour, and the monster falls back into the dark pit it came from, very likely wounded unto death. Unlike the quite reasonable citizens of Zahmahn last issue, the Yezud people now scream bloody murder and want to kill the Cimmerian deicide. They start by attacking his friends; Lea falls down in the arena while Thanix is knifed. At that moment the earth starts shaking, and Conan realizes that Tork must have shifted the stones he mentioned earlier. (Boy, he worked fast!) As Yezud proceeds to shake itself apart, Conan carries Lea toward safety, avoiding a few bodies wrapped in spider silk here and there. One mummified dude begs for help, and Conan recognizes Sarkon, the man of many scars who stole his horse at the start of our story! Guess he was indeed too close to Yezud, as he feared! The moral conundrum of whether to free his enemy is quickly resolved for Conan when a flaming block of masonry squashes the brigand like a fly. (Or a spider much smaller than Omm). Conan, still carrying Lea, jumps lie a jackrabbit over falling debris and Yezudians, eventually punching a horse into calming down so that he and Lea can gallop to safety. And you may be cool, but you’ll never be “Conan with a girl clutching his midriff riding a horse that’s on fire escaping the city of a spider god he's just skewered” cool.  From afar, Conan and Lea then see the city of Yezud crumble entirely. They are rejoined by Tork, congratulate each other, and go their separate ways. Well, Lea leaves with Tork, and Conan reflects that she may soon realize she’d have been safer with a barbarian than with a Zamorian courtier, or else he doesn’t know Shadizar the Wicked. Comments:While Jakes is a better author than Sprague de Camp and this story is far, far more fun than Conan and the Spider God, it is not without its problems. The cliché of the hero “left for dead” after being conked on the head was already old in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Even when a band of ruffians are in a hurry, how long does it take to stab a guy to make sure he’s really dead? If we want Conan to be left alive (and we do), I’d rather have them say something like “bah, don’t bother… he's out cold and we already got his horse”. Conan’s plan to enter the city is ridiculous, if something we see from time to time in fiction. Banging at Yezud’s door in the hope that he Thanix will not be killed on the spot, that they will be brought to the same place Lea is kept, and that it will then be easy to escape the city is not a sound strategy. In fact, Roy must have realized it since he had Thanix say to his daughter “I’d hoped to bring a deliverer, Lea— but it seems I brought a madman instead”. Tork just happening to be an architect and Yezud just happening to be a few shifted stones away from collapsing on itself are coincidences I could do with more often in my life. I mean, talk about luck! Zoologically speaking... Omm may be spider-shaped, but it is not a real spider. For one, six of its legs are jutting out from its abdomen. Omm doesn’t have a cephalothorax either, but a round head; furthermore, it has two eyes. No big deal... If I saw it, I’d say “GIANT SPIDERRRR!” too, biologist or not. Omm is definitely not a god widely worshipped in Zamora, as the city of Yezud and its abducting priests are seen as a problem by the crown and by nearby citizens. However, since Yezud is located near the Corinthian border, the fearful Zamorians don’t intervene because they say the abductions are a Corinthian problem. That’s a nice touch, that bit of political cowardice. The ending clashes somewhat with our modern sensibility, as Conan and Tork just assume that Lea would like to go with either of them for sex for a mutually meaningful relationship. She willingly goes with Tork, but I’d loved her to say something like “look, fellas, no offense but I don’t know either of you; my dad just got murdered and I’ll just go back home to mind the farm”. Notes:- The three-piece medallion missing from last issue is back! - Thanix swears by Ishtar and by Mitra. Mixed pantheons again, but perhaps excusable considering that we're near the borders of Zamora, Koth, Corinthia and Ophir. The first has "a myriad strange gods" (according to Tower of the Elephant), the second worships Ishtar, the last two worship Mitra. Ecumenism for the win. - This is the first time a clear mention is made of Conan’s (and all barbarians’) fear of the supernatural. It will not be the last. - Mention is made that Omm has “clacking jaws”. Either the word chelicerae was deemed too academic, or Omm is definitely not a spider. - The terrible Conan and the spider god would be adapted in SSoC 207-210. In that story, Yezud has been largely rebuilt and a new spider god, Zath, is still worshiped by its people. Omm does seem to be dead. - The synopsis by John Jakes can be found reproduced in the aforementioned Epic Collection of Conan 1-13.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 27, 2024 13:43:13 GMT -5
Conan the barbarian #14 (Mar 1972) Since sales had been steadily dropping from issues 1 to 7, the mag had been briefly cancelled by Stan Lee before Roy had convinced him to keep it alive a while longer. Stan had however demoted the book to bi-monthly status, and due to the normal delay between an editorial decision and its effect on what could be found on the newsstand, CtB #14 is when readers learned of it. The extra time, however, gave Barry Smith an opportunity to craft an amazing comic, which would be the first two-parter of the series. Barry also coloured it, which is a big bonus for me. Unfortunately, issues 14-15 were also supposed to be Barry's swan song on the title; he felt he had done what he had to do on Conan and was ready to try something else (and don't miss his Dr. Strange stories in Marvel Premiere). Luckily, Barry’d be back for issue #19... more on this later. Last issue had been plotted by fantasy writer John Jakes; this time, Roy invited Michael Moorcock, the famous creator of Elric of Melniboné and a multitude of other remarkable S&S characters, to do the same. Moorcock obliged, with the collaboration of his friend James Cawthorn (and please check out The Jewel in the Skull, Cawthorn’s adaptation of Moorcock’s first Runestaff novel. The man can write, and he can draw!)  Jakes’ character Brak the barbarian was fairly close to Conan; Moorcock’s stuff, however, is very different; he's much more into cosmic concepts like the fight between order and chaos, parallel realities, and lots and lots of magic. For that reason, this issue and the next don’t read like a Howard story at all; they are pure Moorcock (at least in their approach, as they may be pure Cawthorn for all we know). That is in no way a criticism: I am a huge Moorcock fan, and this crossover between Conan and Elric is absolutely thrilling. It’s also a perfect example of how this comic can expand its main character’s range without betraying the original concept.
What makes this journey into dreamier fantasy work when later instances (many years later, under DeMatteis, Jones and Fleisher at the helm) would not, is that Conan's world remains unchanged. There are extremely weird things happening, but every Hyborian Age character present knows they're extremely weird; it's not as if all of a sudden flying horses, cities in the clouds or winged people are just another day at the office.
Adding to the plot, Roy brings back Zukala and his daughter Zephra from issue #5. I must be getting sentimental in my old age, because I am really moved by Zephra as a character, even if she has very little screen time. Her love for Conan is something pure and selfless, and also pretty tragic (as she’s said to know when and how she will die); the Cimmerian himself doesn’t seem to know how to handle that kind of love, being used to shallower relationships. Zephra was written as a truly beautiful person, one that we instantly feel like meeting in real life, and that takes real skill as a writer. A Sword Called Stormbringer Script by Roy Thomas, from a plot by Michael Moorcock and James Cawthorn Art by Barry Smith (pencils, colours) and Sal Buscema The story : Conan is now in the grasslands of Koth. Last issue he was somewhere southwest of Zamora, and so he is vaguely making his way towards Argos as he had planned to a few issues ago. Next issue, he’ll reflect that it is the promise of easy loot that distracted him from making a beeline toward the sea. The Kothian grassland itself is interesting, because we’ve seen a lot of desert in the Corinthia-Zamora-Koth border region; that would mean Conan has traveled quite a distance toward the west since we last saw him. We open as the Cimmerian witnesses a girl being chased on horseback by a band of hooded dudes. He intervenes for no other reason than his innate sense of chivalry, even if he pretends otherwise. The fight is a hard one, though, as the hooded ones aren’t human: they don’t have faces! Even their horses have beaks, like those of great birds! The fight quickly starts going badly for our hero, who gets a face scar he will wear for two issues, until the band of hooded foes is scattered by the arrival of a flight of great white eagles. If it’s good for Tolkien, it’s good for us! Always count on the eagles to pull your fat out of the fire! The girl turns out to be Zephra, whose voice is the first thing Conan recognizes. That in itself is pretty sweet… for any other woman, I’m pretty sure that it’s her figure he would have noticed.
Zephra leads Conan to her father Zukala, now reformed and serving the Lords of Law. Without his magical mask, Zukala has lost much of his power and is due to die of old age pretty soon. (He still could send magical eagles to help his daughter, though. Good fathering, there, especially since Zephra can’t turn into a tiger anymore). After an awkward reunion, Zukala explains that there is great danger in the land. A wizard named Kulan-Gath means to awaken Terhali, the ancient sorceress queen of an other-dimensional realm called Melniboné. When her foes managed to overcome her and put her in a trance, eons ago, they sealed her in a coffin and exiled her and her city of Yagala to another world (ours), hoping to be rid of her for good. Yagala has since then resided in Koth, at the bottom of the Sighing Lake; only a few of its towers emerge, and they are of solid gold. Now that is really Moorcock-style fantasy. It’s poetic and colourful, very dreamlike in its nature. (Note that the rainbow up there is physically impossible; the colours are jumbled. Is it because the laws of nature are altered in Yagala?) By awakening Terhali, Kulan-Gath means to obtain her power somehow, so he can gain outcompete his rival, the wizard Thoth-Amon (remember him from issue #7?)
Behind Kulan-Gath is an even greater power: that of Xiombarg, queen of the Swords of Chaos, a character from Moorcock’s series Corum (and from later works). Should they succeed, it would bode very ill for the world -and very likely for the multiverse. Zukala enchants Conan’s sword without his consent, which will prove useful later on. He then sends him, led by Zephra, towards Yagala so he can stop Kulan-Gath. There’s yet another character making his way to the Sighing Lake: the current ruler of Melniboné, the albino wizard and swordsman Elric, probably the most famous of Moorcock’s characters. Since he appears in a flash of light right behind the traveling Conan and Zephra, the unavoidable misunderstanding-driven fight occurs and the two heroes go at each other until it becomes clear that both of them are enemies of Xiombarg’s.
No sooner have they stopped hacking at each other that a new flash of light signals the arrival of the chaos pack, a band of mounted hellish warriors led by Prince Gaynor the Damned, yet another Moorcock creation. And boy, does he look cool! A big battle ensues, and the only reason Conan and Elric aren’t quickly overwhelmed is that the former’s sword has been enchanted by Zukala, and the latter’s is naturally Stormbringer, a soul-drinking demon in sword form. Despite this advantage, things would end badly for our heroes but for the intervention of Zephra, who seems to have a few magical tricks of her own. She invokes the goddess Serusha, who sends down a torrential downpour. The pure rain water dissolves the hellish horde, except for Gaynor, whose sins are too many to be so easily washed away. Gaynor does vanish in a bolt of lightning, however, doubtless planning on resuming his attack later. As the sun rises, Elric, Conan and Zephra agree to join forces until Kulan-Gath is defeated. Comments :As I said earlier, this is pure Moorcock territory, but I love it. Writing good fantasy is more than just incorporating bizarre characters and creatures; it’s also about rich concepts interwoven into a fascinating tapestry. Here we have Lords of Law and Chaos fighting over creation through mortal agents; multiple worlds existing in parallel; characters doomed to live and hoping for nothing more than eternal rest; conflicting agendas even among allies (for example, Conan and Elric are united against Xiombarg, but not simply because they’re on the “good” side: Elric’s own patron is also a Duke of Chaos, called Arioch, who just happens to be an enemy of Xiombarg). And ideas like a golden city barely emerging from a quiet lake are so visually appealing! My dreams are never that colourful! I enjoyed the uneasy relationship between Conan and Elric, between whom a rough respect is quickly established. Conan isn’t a fan of someone who uses magic to supplement his natural abilities, but he can’t argue with the result. And Elric doesn't dismiss Conan as "just the muscle" either; Elric has seen enough to know you don't judge someone at first glance. And we have the Conan-Zephra relationship, which is very much like that of a guy who meets his High School flame after a few years and can’t remember why they drifted apart. I may be overreacting, but I find it truly touching. There's a great, great but understated scene coming up next issue... It's worth mentuioning that this story, continuity-wise, fits both in the Marvel Conan canon and in Moorcock’s multiverse. As a fan of both, it pleases me greatly! Back to the art: Barry is getting better and better. Things like the face of Kulan-Gath appearing in a scrying pool are pretty sweet. Zukala's change from a domineering tyrant to a dignified wizard wanting to do good before he dies was a welcome evolution, which will lead to a heart-wrenching scene next issue. Unfortunately, Roy would turn him into a villain again in CtB #115, for no particularly good reason (he basically changed his mind about being a good guy). Then Zukala would be revealed to be a nasty minor god after all in CtB #242, another bad idea. Sometimes it's good to let a character go when a story arc concludes in a satisfactory (even admirable) manner. (I do not consider SSoC #189 to be in continuity, although its Zukala is pretty much the same as the one we have here). Notes : - Elric looks just as he does on the cover of the Lancer paperback Stormbringer from 1965, complete with a tall pointy hat.
This version of Elric was spoofed by Dave Sim in Cerebus, as Elrod of Melvinbone.
In Barbarian Life, Roy reports that he doesn’t know why he and Barry went for that rather unusual look, an apparent faux-pas for which Moorcock “forgave him” long ago… but according to what I can find on the Moorcography website, that cover was painted by James Cawthorn himself! So there's nothing to forgive, really. Besides, I like that look for Elric. I agree that Frank Brunner's version looks really good; but I do not dislike this version at all. The dunce cap looks really unusual, adding to the “otherness” aspect of the character.
- This issue and the next will be reprinted in Giant-Sized Conan #5, with a cover by Jack Kirby. It will be the only time Jack drew Conan for Marvel (along with Elric!) and it is a pity that John Romita redrew Conan's face on it.
- Zephra says that the scent of sorcery affrights Conan as much as ever, but the only other time they met he wasn’t particularly magic-shy… he even accepted a job as a wizard-killer! From this point on, though, it will be often mentioned that Conan isn't comfortable around the supernatural.
- Elric' hat is red on the cover (as on the cover of the next issue) but green inside.
-Gaynor’s shield carries the symbol of chaos: a star made of eight arrows pointing outward. That is from Moorcock's writing. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 3, 2024 10:54:33 GMT -5
Conan the barbarian #15 (May 1972)  This cover holds special significance for me, since it adorned the first issue of the French version of the series published by Éditions Héritage, Conan le barbare, which introduced me to the Cimmerian and his fantastic world. Héritage published double-sized comics in its early days; issue #1 contained the stories from CtB #14-15. Issues 1-13 would remain nigh-legendary material until Conan le barbare #7 (translating issue #22, itself being a reprint of issue #1) and a bit later until I’d have access to the digest-sized French comics published by Artima, Eclipso and L’inattendu, where early Conan adventures could be found. Artima eventually had a proper Conan digest, but it started with stories I already had in other formats.
Note the P/S logo on the top left; that stands for Payette & Simms, the printers where the comics were made. I don't know if Héritage split off from P/S or simply changed the name.
Ah, the thrill of the hunt in those days… Back when English-language comics weren’t available to me, and reprints were a very rare thing! We're spoiled, nowadays. Conan the barbarian #15 was supposed to be the last issue drawn by Smith, who wanted to explore greener pastures. And indeed, the end of this issue does feel like a page is being turned, with a splash page of Conan saying farewell and riding toward the horizon (with a prominent Barry Smith signature). The following issue would be a reprint of The Frost Giant’s Daughter, also drawn by Smith and published in the B&W magazine Savage Tales #1. After that we’d get two issues by Gil Kane, but Smith would be back for issue #19 and a handful of absolutely classic issues! The Green Empress of MelnibonéScript by Roy Thomas, from a plot by Michael Moorcock and James Cawthorn Art by Barry Smith (pencils and colours) and Sal Buscema (inks) If this had truly been Barry’s swan song, I don’t think anyone would have felt cheated. It is another beautiful book, with a truly gripping ending (but one that had escaped me when I was younger, because I didn’t know a lot about regret yet). The Story :Conan, Elric and Zephra continue their journey toward the city of Yagala and the tomb of Terhali, the green empress of Melniboné. A few minor demons need to be disposed of, which is an opportunity for us readers to learn about Elric’s sword, Stormbringer, and its vampiric tendency to drink the souls of its victims (a theme recycled in Jim Starlin’s Warlock). Our trio reaches the city, now partly emerging from the waters of the Sighing Lake, and make use of a gorgeous boat made of bones to reach it. As it happens, Gaynor and his Chaos Pack arrive at the same time.  In Yagala, our heroes find the wizard Kulan-Gath, already at work resuscitating the witch-queen Terhali. He fearfully believes Conan, Zephra and Elric to be agents of his sorcerous rival, Thoth-Amon, who’s already been mentioned in earlier issues as a very powerful magician. Gaynor and his crew show up as well, and the fight ended by rain last issue resumes. As Gaynor, Elric and Conan trade sword strokes, Kulan-Gath finishes his invocations and wakes Terhali! Her tomb explodes, and she treads our world once more!  Time to quote Hawkeye, because nothing can’t be made better by a quote from Hawkeye:  Gaynor kneels and proposes an alliance between the erstwhile empress of Melniboné and his own mistress, Xiombarg, but Elric (the current emperor of Melniboné) takes it personal and strikes Gaynor down. The fallen Gaynor elatedly believes that his end has finally come, but no… Struck by Stormbringer, he neither dies nor sees his soul captured; he vanishes away (to fight again another day in some other Eternal Champion series by Moorcock). Next upon the scene comes Kulan-Gath, who imprudently demands that Terhali obey him since he’s the one who waked her from her long sleep. Stupid, stupid man… Terhali blasts him to atoms for merely suggesting that she might serve anyone. Conan and Elric strike at the empress, but their efforts are vain; they are cast down by the empress’s protective aura, and it looks as if nothing will prevent Terhali from taking over the world until a heavenly light shines down on Zephra. She hears the voice of Arkyn, a Lord of Law, eternal foe of both Xiombarg and Arioch (the latter being Elric’s patron). Arkyn asks if Zephra is ready to sacrifice herself to help destroy Terhali and the forces of Chaos. She accepts, and is transformed into a being of blue fire. I love the way Barry renders Zephra’s new form. Now made of fire, she has basically no weight; her human-shaped form appears not to be affected by gravity.
Zukala, from afar, has been following these events in his scrying pool. He begs the Lords of Law not to sacrifice his daughter, but to no avail; what do gods care what mortals wish? The fight between Zephra and Terhali is brutal; how often do we see characters shoving a thumb in an opponent’s mouth while tearing at their face in a comic-book fight?  Ultimately, Terhali’s power is no match for Arkyn’s champion, and the Green Empress is disintegrated. Alas, Zephra also falls dead, reverting to her mortal form; the strain of channeling a god's power would be too much for anyone. Elric gives Conan his cloak to drape Zephra’s body and bids the Cimmerian farewell, crossing dimensions to return to his own world. (A few captions tell us about his quest to awaken his lover, Cymoril, from her own sorcerous sleep, as explained in Moorcock's short story The Dreaming City; this makes Elric sound a little less ruthless in his quest for magical power, since he was doing it all for a good reason). In our tale's’s epilogue, Conan returns Zephra’s body to her father Zukala. Conan has very harsh words for the bereaved father, making cruel remarks like “the cloak that covers her is magic. You’ll like it” and basically accusing Zukala of having cause his daughter’s death. Zukala accepts the barbs. However, he tearfully reflects that things might have turned out otherwise. “Conan, Conan… If we’d not fought long months ago, I would have faced Terhali. And then, perhaps… Could we not be friends, at last… for I sense we share… a certain grief?” The Cimmerian will have none of it. Wizard and warrior friends? Nevah! Conan berates Zukala some more, with extremely telling words: “I’ve gore enough on my tail to damn me to a thousand hells, if hells there be. Still, if Zephra had been mine, she’d never have died… While I had an eye to see it.” He then casts away the sword that Zukala ensorcelled in issue #14, not wanting anything to do with it, and rides away toward Argos.  Comments :That epilogue is simply heart-wrenching. Zukala has sacrificed what he loved most in the world, his daughter, to save us all. He has lost Zephra, and he is even ready to carry the weight of the blame for it; all he asks is for Conan to at least acknowledge that loss and, perhaps, to allow this tragedy to mend the rift between them. They don’t have to like each other, but can’t the Cimmerian see that the two men share a bond, that of the love Zephra bore them both? Can't he see that it would bring a grieving father a small measure of comfort? But Conan won’t even give him that.
Why? No, no matter what Conan claims, it has nothing to do with the idea that wizards and warriors can’t be friends (an explanation I accepted when I was 12, but can't anymore). No… I am convinced that Conan, all macho and stiff-lipped, is emotionally devastated. He didn’t know how to handle Zephra’s pure and absolute love for him when she was still alive, although he was clearly touched by it; and now that she's gone there’s nothing he can do about it. He probably never has had to face genuine regrets before, or ask himself that terrinble question: "what if..?" Zephra is dead. She did die on Conan’s watch and he can’t deal with that guilt, preferring to transfer it onto Zukala. “If Zephra had been mine, she’d never have died”, he says. Oh, really? What else would you have done, Conan? Prevented her from doing what she wanted (and saving the world in the process)? Zephra’s love for you was like none you’ve ever known before; she *would* have been yours if you’d just taken her hand, and it would have changed nothing. But it’s too late, too late, and blaming her father for her death will not absolve you of a terrible, terrible regret. You may lie to yourself, and tell yourself that it’s all sorcery’s fault, even throwing away your sword to symbolically distance yourself from what caused her death, but deep down you know you’re wrong and you’ll have to carry that guilt with you. Man, what a powerful ending. Absolutely neautiful writing on Roy's part, and far deeper than I realized as a kid. Notes :- Kulan-Gath is presented as a powerful wizard, but he was supposed to be a one-shot deal. However, when Chris Claremont teamed up Spider-Man and Red Sonja in MtU#79, it was a resurrected Kulan-Gath who was the villain. In between the millenia, his appearance had changed; from a normal-looking Stgyian with a ponytail, he turned into a "living mummy" sort of dude.   In that MtU issue, Kulan-Gath hints at a past history with Sonja, even saying that it is she who had killed him during the Hyborian Age. The two never met in a Marvel comic, but I believe Kulan-Gath was used much later in the Dynamite Red Sonja series. In the meantime, Kulan-Gath (with his MtU look) would make another appearance in Uncanny X-Men #190-191, in which a spell turned New York into a Hyborian Age city. Kulan-Gath would return to the Conan mag proper several years later, during Roy’s second tenure; there, he would also look as he did in MtU and in Uncanny X-Men. In CtB#253, when Conan faces him again (for the first time since CtB#15) Kulan-Gath waves away the problem of his having died. “Died? yes, I suppose I did. Still… I am back”.  Boy, how I hated that. Especially since Kulan-Gath would return again and again in those latter days, including in one of the underwhelming miniseries that followed the cancellation of Conan the barbarian. I never found the resurrected kulan-Gath particularly interesting, and I hate characters who die and simply come back again as a matter of course. They kill the wiling suspension of disbelief and rarely bring anything new to a story. It would have been much better, I think, to simply create a new wizard; after all, there’s nothing to distinguish this one from all his colleagues. And unlike Elric’s I hate his tall pointy hat!
- As stated aboive, this two-parter felt a lot more like an Elric than a Conan story, but it was still thrilling. I believe it could quite honourably have been included in the Elric book The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, which precedes the events chronicled in The Dreaming City.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 3, 2024 11:27:09 GMT -5
I really hated that look for Elric, though I was probably influenced by the Michael Whelan covers of the DAW Books editions of the stories, where I first read them. It just looks dumb, on the page. Whelan gave him a helmet, with a stylized dragon that looked way cooler.
It's kind of funny teaming the pair up, since Moorcock deliberately designed Elric to be the antithesis of Conan and his ilk, sickly where they are musclebound, a cultured effete where they are savage barbarians, a king where they were commoners from northern tribes. Plus, Stormbringer. I actually was introduced to Ulrik Skarsol first, via The Silver Warriors (aka Phoneix in Obsidian). We had a copy in my school library and the Frazetta cover, with the hero on a sled, drawn by polar bears, pulled me in. A cousin had much of the other material (and a bunch of other fantasy novels) and that led me to seek them out. I believe I read Weird of the White Wolf first, before tracking down others, mostly in the DAW editions. Whelan also made Elric more muscular, which was wrong, but I didn't really pay attention to that until new editions were published, with a more delicate Elric.
Over the years, I collected some of the others, including some of the White Wolf omnibus volumes. I kind of preferred the Von Bek material, as it ties into history, and the John Daker cycle, though I had trouble getting through "The Eternal Champion". Never read Hawkmoon and never got far with Corum. I did enjoy the crossovers, like in Sailor on the Seas of Fate. As I grew older, I found that I preferred some of Moorcock's other stuff better. I've read the first Jerry Cornelius (and have seen the movie adaptation, Last Days of Man on Earth, as it was on the video I watched, rather than The Final Programme) but it was a bit too "hippy" for my tastes. I kind of preferred Bryan Talbot's Luther Arkwright, which is a bit of a pastiche.
I adored the Oswald Bastable trilogy, when I got the White Wolf collection, though Christopher Moeller's cover and spot illustrations were a big draw to it...that and the use of airships. The other favorite turned out to be The Metatemporal Detective, featuring Seaton Begg, Moorcock's dimensional hopping detective pastiche of Sexton Blake, his old boss when he edited the Sexton Blake Library. I first encountered it in McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, edited by Michael Chabon. It was a collection of modern writers, doing pulp stories and Moorcock contributed "The Case of the Nazi Canary," Where Sir Seaton Begg is called in to investigate the murder of Adolf Hitler's niece, who was alleged to be his mistress. The ending has a great twist, which also suggests an interesting alternate history. Within those stories he used Monsieur Zenith, a master criminal introduced by Anthony Skene, in the Sexton Blake series, who is an albino and was an inspiration for Elric. If memory serves, Begg encounters Elric, in one of the stories, believing, at first, that he is Zenith.
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Oct 3, 2024 11:30:08 GMT -5
Kulan Gath is currently one of the adversaries of Red Sonja in the run by Torunn Gronbekk and Walter Geovani, once again resurrected, this time as a part of a war between some of the Hyborian Age gods.
-M
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 3, 2024 13:12:12 GMT -5
Torunn Gronbekk is a pretty awesome name!!!
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 5, 2024 11:50:30 GMT -5
Conan the barbarian #16 (July 1972)  Since the production of the book was running late, Roy decided to run a reprint in this issue. That choice gave him the opportunity to present the Barry Smith-drawn story that had been published in Savage Tales #1, a B&W magazine that hadn’t been as widely distributed as the colour comic and been cancelled right after its first issue. Barry’s work on that story had been amazing, and it was a pity that so few people had potentially seen it; furthermore, it would be cool to see it in colour. Barry himself, who had quit the Conan book with issue #15, was quite happy with the idea; not only did he colour the story himself, but he also provided a new splash page (the original story beginning with a double-page spread, unsuitable for an odd-and-even page presentation). The story not being long enough to fill a regular comic, another earlier Smith-drawn story was added: a mystery tale published in Chamber of Darkness #4, featuring a Conan-like character called Starr the slayer. That way, all the Conan-related material drawn by Barry up to that point would have been published in Conan the barbarian. Not that Smith was done with the character, as we now know. In fact, due to the time in takes to produce a comic, by the time CtB#16 was published it was already known that Barry would return for issue #19. The letters page gives readers the good news, in a “special surprise note” that must have been overwhelmingly well-received! The book was back on a monthly schedule, too; its popularity was increasing (although it would be issue #18 that would show a big bump in sales). The Frost Giant’s DaughterScript by Roy Thomas Art by Barry Smith Adapted from the story by Robert E. Howard Originally published (minus the spash page) in Savage Tales #1.
 Lovely opening, and the title was lettered by Smith himself. That being said, I am partial to the black and white version of that scene; I find the blue mountains to be a bit too colourful, too present.  The story :The Frost Giant’s Daughter is Howard’s most supernatural-feeling Conan tale, since in it the Cimmerian faces the actual children of the god Ymir. It’s also very much not suited to modern sensibilities, as Conan tries to force himself onto the goddess Atali! Being cruelly taunted into it by the lady herself is no excuse to sexually assault a woman, whether one is a barbarian or not. Somehow the comics code didn’t object; all it insisted on was that the art show a lot less nudity than in the Savage Tales version (as had happened with The Dweller in the Dark in issue #12). Conan is up north in Aesgaard, fighting alongside a band of Aesir against their Vanir foes (kind of like at the start of CtB#1). After killing the last Vanirman, the Cimmerian finds himself the sole survivor. He collapses from weariness, but is brought out of his dizziness by the laughter of a young woman, naked in the snow but for a light and translucent veil. She playfully mocks Conan, flaunting her charms and daring him to pursue her, or else die there like a helpless dog. Incensed, the Cimmerian chases her, shouting lines that were reused in the most recent Conan film (but in different and embarrassing circumstances when you know where they come from): ” Lead me into a trap— and I’ll pile the heads of your kinsmen at your feet! Hide from me— and I’ll tear apart the mountains to find you! I’ll follow you to Hell!” Conan wasn’t wrong about the trap part (whooo! unexpected palindrome, here!) as the girl leads him to her two giant and ill-tempered brothers!  The much smaller Conan is so angry that he makes short work of the two men, and resumes his chase of the girl. He catches her but she escapes his grasp, leaving behind part of her veil (it was the whole thing in the Savage Tales version). She then calls to the sky and to none other than the god Ymir, calling him “father”! “Oh, Cr**”, must think Conan, and I don't mean “Oh, Crom”. At least he has the decency of realizing that he’s been bad; “ And now, for the first time, Conan begins to sense the awesome forces he has offended— and fear claws its way up his spine”. Heavenly Ymir removes the girl from the scene in a flash of light, and the god goes all “Now, you, sirrah, what are your precise intentions regarding my daughtah???” The Earth shakes, the sky goes mad, and Conan is knocked unconscious by the apocalyptic upheaval.  When he comes to, he’s found by more members of his Aesir band. He tells them his tale, and most think he’s just been dreaming -all but old Gorm, to whom the exact same thing happened in his youth- except that he was too badly wounded to follow the girl, whom he names Atali, the Frost Giant’s Daughter. At that point the band sees that Conan is still grasping a veil so fine that it was never spun by human distaff, thus confirming the veracity of his otherworldly encounter. By Crom, despite the unsavory attitude of our hero, this was an amazing tale! The fact we never see Ymir himself adds to his mystique, and this brush with the supernatural may teach Conan a lesson! (Teach him some manners, too). Notes :The placement of this story in the saga was messed up by L. Sprague de Camp, who decided that it was set during one of Conan’s occasional return trips to his home country. What complicates the issue is that Howard himself mentions such a trip in his letter to P. Schuyler Miller : Since the adaptation of Rogues in the House was recently featured in CtB #10-11, it would make perfect sense for a story located north to happen in today's issue, be it a reprint or not. Nevertheless, most people prefer to place The Frost giant’s Daughter very early in Conan’s life, often making it his first chronicled adventure. His immaturity and his being in Asgard (or Aesgaard, at Marvel) instead of Cimmeria agree with that placement. What’s more, adventures published later (including ones written by deCamp himself!) but set earlier in Conan’s life feature the same band of Aesir; it is far more parsimonious to have Conan meet Gorm and Co. only once, when he was young and first left Cimmeria for Asgard (as per Howard’s own words) than to have him share an adventure, leave them, and rejoin them a few years later for a second stint as a mercenary. Furthermore, since next issue is set on the Vilayet sea, Conan would have had to leave Koth after issue# 15, travel all the way north to Aesgaard for issue #16, and travel all the way back (and further east!) in time for issue #17. Unsurprisingly, Roy decided that the reprint in this issue is not shown in proper continuity, as shown by the map of Conan’s travels published in Marvel Treasury Edition #4; we see Conan going straight from Koth to the Vilayet sea in between issues 15 and 17.  - The letters page has readers making much of Conan cold-bloodedly killing Queen Fatima in issue #12. Roy himself regretted that move in later years, but personally I’m fine with it. Those were less civilized times, and it could be argued that Conan had little choice; Fatima was about to have him seized and executed, and only by removing her from power did he have any chance of surviving. The Sword and the SorcerersScript by Roy Thomas Art by Barry Smith Originally published in Chamber of Darkness #4.
A Conan-like barbarian king named Starr the Slayer is the hero of stories written by novelist Len Carson, whose dreams provide him with his material. Alas, he finds the dreams harder and harder to endure, as they cause him a lot of strain and health problems. He calls his publisher to inform him that he intends to kill off Starr in his next story. Everybody (publisher and fans) are sorry, but Carson is adamant. However, when he goes out one evening to mail his final Starr story, he meets the barbarian himself in a New York alleyway! Starr kills Carson, knowing that he somehow means to cause his demise, and the story is never mailed. Carson dead, Starr wakes up in his own realm, and explains to his minstrel friend Morro that he has just fought the greatest enemy he's ever faced. A nice short story, in which Barry seems to be much more comfortable with the Conan material than he would be in the later-produced Conan #1-2. 
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 13, 2024 12:48:29 GMT -5
Conan the barbarian #17 (Aug 1972) qnd #18 (Sept 1972) This being a two-parter, I’ll review both issues at once. Well, actually I'll mostly link to a previous review because these two issues were reprinted in Savage Sword of Conan #13! The cover to issue #17 is by Gil Kane and Frank Brunner.  The cover to issue #18 is by Kane and John Romita, and Roy Thomas credits Romita’s work here for CtB#18 being the best-selling issue in the run so far.  I personally don’t think the cover is any better than many we had seen preciously… Did the comic sell better because this cover looks more like a standard comic-book cover than, say, that of issue #16? It certainly looks nice, but I don’t think someone who hadn’t been interested in the previous issues would have purchased the book just because of its cover. But anyway. The Gods of Bal-SagothScript by Roy Thomas Art by Gil Kane and Ralph Reese (issue #17); Gil Kane and Dan dkins (#18) Adapted from the story of the same name by Robert E. Howard In Barbarian Life, Roy credits Gil for the idea of adapting this story, originally starring an Irish warrior named Turlogh Dubh O’Brien, which Gil himself had previously optioned for an adaptation. Turlogh was in a sense no stranger at this point, as he had also appeared in another Howard story, The Grey God Passes, which was the basis for CtB#3. Kane was supposed to be the new regular artist on the title, a position he had been considered for initially but for which he was deemed to cost too much ( Conan the barbarian being an untested book at the time). Kane was a logical choice, as he was a long-time Conan fan who had considered doing his own Conan book years before; plus, he drew lovely sword & sorcery. (I would really enjoy his John Carter work a few years later). Kane quickly realized that this comic would require way more effort (and thus time) than he was economically comfortable with; doing multiple covers for Marvel earned him more money per hour spent at the drawing board. When Barry Smith manifested his interest in resuming his work on the title, Roy wouldn’t have bumped Kane; but since Gil himself wanted out, everything worked out beautifully. And we got two classic Conan comics out of the deal, comics that were top sellers to boot. The art for issue #17 is inked by Ralph Reese, and the Kane-Reese combo was one of my 12 favourite penciller-inker teams in the 12 Days of Christmas contest a few years ago. Reese softened Kane’s harsh line work slightly, but without drowning it in noodling; the result was lovely. For issue #18, Dan Adkins replaced Reese; Adkins, too, did a bang-up job., Because I don’t have the original issues and that the Dark Horse reprints I own are recoloured in a less than satisfactory, I’ll be using images from Savage Sword of Conan #13 (which reprinted the story, with added grey tones) and from the French translation from Héritage’s Conan le barbare #2 and 3). The story :Conan has traveled east from Koth to the waters of the Vilayet sea (where the Caspian sea lies today). At this time in the Hyborian Age, the empire of Turan occupies the southwest of the sea and is expanding east of it, in a region known as Hyrkania. (Hyrkania is not a country).
Why Conan decided not to pursue his journey westward toward Argos is not clear; in previous issues, he had mentioned that promise of easy loot had distractyed him, but now he went straight in the other direction. That’s not an error: Conan probably just changed his mind, although he just put his Argos travel plans on a shelf and didn’t abandon them. Besides, he wanted to see Argos and the sea… maybe he just realized that there was another sea much closer than the western ocean, just a few weeks' travel to the east! So on to the Vilayet we go, me hearties! For the adventure itself, I’ll refer you to my review of SS0C #13. I still get a chuckle of Conan fighting an animated armor at one point, a magical thing that keeps going after Conan cuts its head and an arm off. I can’t help hearing it say “we’ll call it a draw” at the end of the fight!  These two issues conclude with Conan and his new comrade-in-arms Fafnir being rescued by the fleet of Prince Yexdigerd of Turan, on his way to lead a holy crusade against the Hyrkanian city of Makkalet.  Makkalet will be the theatre of our next big story arc, where a grand story inspired by the Iliad.
Notes : - Fafnir was previously seen in the opening scene of issue #6, as a parody of Fritz Leiber's bearded character Fafhrd. On that occasion, Fafnir had been stabbed by his partner-in-crime Blackrat (himself a parody of the Grey Mouser). Fafnir obviously survived the injury, and here he assumes the role played by Athelstane the Saxon in the original tale. - Issue #18 is the first one for which Roy acts as writer/editor, a position he would hold all the way through issue #115.
- The evil priest has a Stygian-looking snake headset, which is a bit odd but isn't that far-fetched. Turan's imperial borders extend to those of Stygia (and the city of Zamboula, in between the two, was taken from Stygia by Turan). Stygian cultural influence extending to parts of the Vilayet could make sense. Alternatively, Bal-Sagoth may have some link to the empire of Acheron, which thousands of years earlier had also worshipped the serpent god Set.
- Having Kyrie (or Aala, the fake goddess of Bal-Sagoth) be the daughter of a Vanir sea raider who decided to leave the western sea and ply his trade on the Vilayet is quite a stretch. In Howard's tale, everything occurs on the Atlantic ocean where the presence of Viking raiders make sense; a Viking on the Caspian sea would be more of an oddity. Kyrie need not have been a Vanir.
- Conan leaves Bal-Sagoth holding the emblems of royalty, making him -technically- the king of the sunken kingdom. It's not the first time Conan would briefly be king of one place or another, leaving readers who weren't familiar with Howard's work to wonder whether the oracle from issue #1, the one about our hero becoming king, had been realized or not.
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Post by lordyam on Nov 15, 2024 8:18:54 GMT -5
Makkalet is a great story in general
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