However, I got bogged down in dates and data. Then my ebay account was accessed on this public computer in the afternoon and I had to cancel over £100 of fraudulent purchases. Hopefully today might be a bit more focused and less frantic.
I was hooked by Marvel's Conan after only two or three stories, at a very early age, so in the spring of '72, I was primed for Monsters on the Prowl 16. "The Forbidden Swamp" was reprinted in the one -and -only Savage Sword of Conan Annual (which I read in Portpatrick in July 2013); in Dark Horse's first volume of The Chronicles of Kull and in Savage Sword of Kull.
The stop-start colour Kull comic stuttered back to life with "The Death Dance of Thulsa Doom". The skull-faced necromancer appears in a couple of REH stories but Marvel gave him the grand appearance and cosmic downfall that both Len Wein and Jim Starlin would later employ for their villains Libra and Thanos in '74. It's also a bit like the final moments of Trelane and Charlie Evans in Star Trek.
Doom returned in the Kull the Destroyer phase of the colour comic. Like Thoth Amon in the various Conan series ( for whom he substitutes, in the first Conan movie), it fell to Marvel to depict Thulsa as the chief nemesis of their barbarian king. He's also the prototype for later REH super-villains Thugra Khotan and Xaltotun in the Hyborian Age.
The next story "Teeth of the Dragon" is from Kull and the Barbarians 2. It's by Merry Gerry Conway and Filipino artist,Jesus Jodloman. It writes out boring Brule and resembles Beyond the Black River, one of the best Conan stories, IMO. I first read it in June 1980, reprinted in the b/w UK monthly incarnation of SSoC.
Walt Sinonson's ornate Valusian segment of his amazing Hyborian Age adaptation from the US SSOC 7 is reprinted next, followed by "The Omen in the Skull" from Kull & the Barbarians 3. It's another hallucinatory but tiresome dream-ordeal for Kull, by Doug Moench and Vicente Alcazar. The highlight for me is that the "mad" minstrel Ridondo becomes a foil for Kull. He's much more interesting than Brule the Pict as a contrast, with his satirical songs that are "nails for a king's coffin".
"When a Tiger Returns to Atlantis" is from my very first US SSOC: number 9 from December 1975. This mag was a huge influence on me, colouring my writing at school and propelling me to the Sphere Conan paperbacks. It continues the mystery of the witch Kareesha from the last story and develops the reunion of Kull with his old comrades Om-Ra and Khor-Nah from "Exile of Atlantis".That storyline drove the 1976 relaunch of Kull The Destroyer.
The next five stories are adaptations of REH/Carter stories from the King Kull paperback: The Striking of the Gong; The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune; Kings of the Night ( a two-parter); Riders Beyond the Sunrise; and Wizard and Warrior. They were published in SSOC and Marvel Preview between the autumn of '77 and the summer of '79: concurrent with my passionate immersion in sword-and -sorcery. They are interspersed with a chronology of Kull's adventures in Marvel up to the second and final demise of his colour mag in 1978.
Another extra is a gorgeous J&M Severin portfolio from 1977. Worth mentioning among the adaptations is "Mirrors of Tuzun Thune" by Mike "Frankenstein" Ploog. The Severins had already told this tale as a vignette in the colour Conan mag. Here, it's a grotesque Tolkienesque extravaganza- very Dungeons and Dragons and the most atmospheric b/w story since Chaykin's interpretation of "Black Abyss". Dave "The Hobbit" Wenzel depicts the time-travelling Kull in "Kings":an imaginary Celt-Pict alliance against the Romans,which, although a bit dull, feels very Moravian.
John Bolton, who also drew Claremont's heroic fantasies Marada and the Black Dragon, is the artist for Moench's "Demon In a Silvered Glass". This is a photo-realistic mash-up of "Mirrors" and "The Shadow Kingdom". Seduced by a wizard's daughter, Kull becomes a tyrant but it's all a plot by the Serpent-Men. It's an impressive piece, reminsicent of Starlin's Dreadstar graphic novel but the plot is a stale retread, unfortunately.
The final eight short stories by Chuck Dixon , Geof Isherwood and Val Semeiks (Demon/Lobo) are barely worthy of anyone's attention. They're pasteboard sword-and-sorcery - blandly written and visually unappealing.
If you like the b/w SSOC volumes from Dark Horse, you'll probably like this collection. I think Marvel's Kull is better served by the "King Comes Riding" Chronicles volume, however. There's a freshness and vitality that seems missing by the decade's end. Perhaps Thomas was burned out on REH.
As I've said before, the more fantastic, less-realised setting and the metaphysical ponderings of the stories render Kull a less-accessible and more two-dimensional hero, compared to Conan. That's why I've saved Betrayal in Zamora all this time since last September for Sandhead in the next few weeks.
Coming soon: The Madness of Mysterio
All images presumed copyright of their respective owners
No comments:
Post a Comment