Remember: it has to say Double Double and there's no spikey balloon bottom right!
And not without reason; yesterday, during my marking, I caught most of the lamentable Red Sonja. However, setting Arnie and Brigitte's "acting" aside-which is a considerable feat- I am able to say something positive about the look of the film: the primeval landscapes and the towering skeletons of giant beasts created a consistent fantasy world. It's just not Robert E.Howard's world.You're probably aware that a new Conan movie is about to be released in Britain just when I've retreated to the pop culture "comfort food" of my adolescence.I hope it doesn't sound too flippant but given the recent riots, it feels very much like those times have come around again.
While REH's original stories vary in quality and are rife with the racial anxieties of his period, they blend both exuberance and dread. But the Conan comics from Marvel in the 70s (at least and in the main,those written by Roy "The Boy" Thomas) are rich in characterisation and irony. In tandem with his artists (England's Barry Smith who matured from Jack Kirby clone to Art Nouveau innovator on the title; and consummate action artist and draughtsman John Buscema) Thomas was trying to perfect the Mature Readers comic that Marvel's college readership was anticipating and he was doing that nearly a dozen years earlier than the celebrated Alan Moore.
However, after two award-winning years and in the wake of The War of the Tarim, his ambitious retelling of the fall of Troy, Thomas seems to be coasting. Like Stan and Jack's Fantastic Four in the late Sixties, the Conan plots feel like retreads but unlike the FF, the writing just gets better. The first story in Volume Six is, coincidentally, the very last issue I read in its original form before the series completely disappeared from newsagents (although the launch of the UK b/w reprint didn't happen 'til the following year so the explanation that distribution ended in case kids bought the US version instead doesn't make sense.)
The Hell-Spawn of Kara-Shehr (wow!) is another cautionary tale of an accursed gem in a lost city but the presence of the dwarf-thief Bourtai (modelled on J. Carroll Naish, IIRC) allows for subversive humour. Conan declares wearily: "Touch that jewel and that skeleton thing will come to life- and we'll have to fight it off. I've been through all this before". Of course, his Oriental sidekick's greed fatally gets the better of him- unfortunately, since a fawning coward makes a good foil. However, he has a resurrection of sorts as the character Subotai in the 1982 Conan movie.
I don't always care for modern recolouring but it works remarkably well here- the deep pinks of the desert dusk, the intense blue of the Azure Eye and the sickly green mist at the climax.
The following tale returns to court intrigue and introduces King Yildiz of Turan, an initally comical character (It is, of course, his "pantaloons" that Conan boasts of "scorching" in the REH story Iron Shadows of the Moon) When accused of nearly trampling the Danny De Vito-lookalike, Conan growls "(He's) Your king-not mine, I just work here." This seemingly-pedestrian story of a stone golem is strong on characterisation as Yildiz realises he's almost been the victm of an assasination attempt by his own son.
The Curse of the Golden Skull is drawn by Neal Adams. It was intended for inclusion in Marvel's first B/W magazine Savage Tales as an adaptation of Carter and deCamp's City of Skulls, in which Conan visits the Hyborian version of Cambodia. Carter then decided he wasn't giving his permission for an adaptation, Thomas wanted the story for the colour comic and Golden Skull veers off as a tie-in with Marvel's relaunched Kull the Destroyer.Despite the striking visuals, it's a ludicrous mish-mash of Burroughsian elements: baboons, dinosaurs, undead wizards, sci-fi technology and a giant slug.
The Warrior and the Were-Woman is the conclusion of the subplot about the affair between Conan and his captain's mistress. There was some black comedy in the last few issues, concerning the string of potentially fatal missions Conan has been deliberately sent on; sexual jealousy and infidelity is a very adult theme for a Marvel comic.The night-spirit Lilitu is obviously Lilith the vampire of Hebew legend- and a Marvel anti-heroine in 1974, as we'll discuss in a blog or two from now. But visually, she anticipates the heroine Tigra.
The Dragon From the Inland Sea was apparently an homage to the late 30s comic strip Prince Valiant. It was reprinted in colour in the 1977 UK Avengers annual (same cover as Essential Avengers 6!). I can appreciate the pacing and invention of this Harryhausen-esque story of a giant crocodile but it's never grabbed me.
The next issue was pencilled by Rich Buckler and gives an impression of what a Kirby Conan comic might have looked like.In fact, the lost city of Ababenzzar recalls images from The New Gods. And the goddess Ishtar even appears at the end but otherwise, it's dreary filler.
The last reprint, Night of the Gargoyle is another beautifully illustrated story that reminds me of The Maltese Falcon and has an interesting heroine, in the form of the savvy Arlinna whom, of course, we never see again.
The next volume was largely devoted to a faintly perverse Red Sonja team-up and Thomas's adaptation of Kothar and the Conjurer's Curse, by DC's prolific Silver Age scripter Gardner Fox (whom Thomas, the Justice Society fan, greatly admired). Kothar was a barabarian character in a magical distant future so the demon-gods and sorcerors of his world were an uneasy fit in the Hyborian Age.
With Volume 8, Thomas is more successful, I think, in the subsequent story-arc set in the Hyborian version of Renaissance Italy. Buscema's pencils gain a moody quality when embellished here, as in the Avengers in the mid-to-late 80s, by inker Tom Palmer.An artefact from Kull's era unleashes a voracious rampaging shadow-being ( a monstrous version of another Thomas creation for DC: Green Lantern's son Obsidian). Althoug the pencilled world of the story is a far cry from the gorgeous, alien Art Nouveau of Barry Smith or the barbaric monoliths of Gil Kane , it has a gritty medieval feel that helps ground this End-of-the-World story. The Oracle of Ophir even pits the barbarian against his ultimate opponent- his own mirror image.
Conan also regains a supporting cast: Murilo, a nobleman turned mercenary commander and an REH creation from Rogues in the House; and the charming Tara, a tomboy acrobat. She starts off as Viola from Twelfth Night, disguised as a boy and skilled at bull-jumping, like a Minoan votary; as his squire, she develops a crush on Conan but, like Leela in Doctor Who, she's packed off in short order with a wimpish soldier boy. Too bad. There's still a sly strain of humour from Thomas- Tara is bullied by a man named Gezpacho at one point- and the eponymous Brothers of the Blade are a trio of laughable villains in the style of Thomas's Triumvirate of Terror in the Sixties.
Hammerhead, Piledriver and Thunderboot; or Steel-Skull, Slicer and Clawfoot?
After oracles resembling Norman Bates' mother, Evil Twins and giant scorpions, The Strange High Tower in the Mist is a thoroughly inconsequential filler, inspired by "Brigadoon" of all things and featuring one of Seventies Marvel's ubiqitous deformed grotesques, wincingly named Mad Jakk.( cf. The Orb in Ghost Rider and Atlas in Werewolf by Night). The following issue Incident in Argos is also low-key and all set-up for the next story-arc, writing out Conan's teenage sidekicks.But it's beautifully drawn by Mike Ploog; his faces are full of character and his cityscapes are atmospheric.
The last two stories begin the Queen of the Black Coast saga which is where I recommenced buying the colour comic in secondary school in 1975. New embellisher Steve Gan contributes to the airy seascapes and brooding jungles. Thomas's origin for Belit, with its repulsive Mound-Dwellers, gives motivation for the imperious and ruthless pirate, who, in the original, is only really a symbol for a passion that survives into the afterlife. Belit's quest for revenge and her attempt to recapture her father's kingdom would take almost forty issues of the comic- around three years, culminating in her grisly demise in issue 100. This, was by Seventies standards, an unheard-of duration for a comic book plotline.
Also unusually, Thomas used the Conan annuals of the late 70s to tell the continued story of the Cimmerian's marriage to Zenobia. You may remember I read The Return of the Conqueror for the first time last month while I was visiting Port William in the Machars (to fully recreate that 70s holiday vibe!).
Lurid cover copy
1979's Bride of the Conqueror is a Burroughsian tale of kidnapping and intrigue in which Thomas shows off his English teacher's credentals with a Noel Cowerd reference- Zenobia is a "blithe spirit". Tsotha-Lanti, the villian from The Scarlet Citadel is resurrected (and of course, Marvel's Conan fans had previously met his brother and his "hellish sire" in The Last Ballad of Laza-Lanti); but the wizard ends up in his own crocodile pit. It's another classily illustrated adventure with Buscema's epic sweep but Thomas's story is a bit of a potboiler. That said, it's still better than 1980's King of the Forgotten People, which we've looked at previously.Coming soon: Vampire Tales redux; The Tides of Time; and Carson of Venus
The Legal Bit: all images are presume copyright of their respective owners.
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