Barbarian Heroes II--Updated!

 More Barberian Heroes, since I wasn't nearly the first post, I decided to split it into two.

Arion

Arion, Lord of Atlantis began as a backup feature in Grell's Warlord, and soon graduated to his own magazine. According to the story Atlantis had reigned for a million years, during the Plesticene, and with the coming of the Ice Age, Neanderthal hordes were attacking Atlantis, and it took Arion's magic to repel them, and later a horde of as escaped dinosaurs (creatures from another time, sav the few that survived to populate the zoos of Atlantis). Arion, though he is a wizard rather than a warrior, manages to kill an escaped deinonychus with a sword. He was a bit similar to Roland Green's hero Wandor, according to one letter writer. Arion was drawn by Jan Dursema, who who did several issues of Warlord during the "Grell's wife" run.The  antagonist throughout the series was Arion's evil brother Garn Dunath, also a wizard. A demon lord had turned Arion's mother and Garn to evil  in their youth. Garn was albino, and bore a striking resemblence to Michael Moorcock's Elric. 

 Arak

This was a very innovative title from DC, largely the creation of Conan veteran Roy Thomas. Like Arion, it debuted in an issue of Warlord, though not so much a back-up feature as an insert, in which the hero, an American Indian in a birchbark canoe, saves a golden haired girl from some rogue Saxons, then slays a multi-headed dragon. Obviously, this North American warrior has been displaced!

The first actual issue (above) explained Arak's origin, and Roy Thomas's editorial, "What's an American Idnian doing in Medevial Europe Anyhow?"went into more detail about his creation. The story takes places years before Viking warriors landed on the coast of Newfoundland. Roy's idea was that perhaps a bit of traffic had gone the other way. A native American youth is found drifting in a canoe far out at sea, where is found and rescued by a wandering Viking vessel. He is raised by the Vikings, who name him Arak (a native American form of Eric). 

Arak winds up wandering across Dark Age Europe (and later the Near East and Asia), the way that Conan trod the kingdoms of Hyboria under his sandeled feet. In his editorial, Thomas explains that this is not quite our own earth, but an alternate history where magic really worked, and mythic creatures and beings were real! Another explanation raised later though, was that perhaps our own history was more magical then we have thought. In any event, Arak finds plenty of adventure across Eurasia, as comes under the service of Emperor Charlamane, befriends a Joan of Arc-like warrioress called Valda the Iron Maiden, and encounters all sorts of mythic creatures, including a living satyr and centaur still surviving in Greece from pre-Christian days. Eventually, he makes it back to his Quoantauka tribe on the North American continent. It's revealed that Arak is actually a demi-god, not unlike Hercules. His mother was bitten by posionous Serpent -God, but was rescued by He-No, God of Thunder, who fell in love with her, hence the subtitle of the series. In North America, in Arak's timeline at least, myth and magic are every bit as real as in Europe. 

The Warlord insert, and the first few issues of Arak were drawn by Ernie Colon. Later other artists took over, most notably Alfredo Alcala, one of the most talented of the Old Masters. 

Which leads us right to...

Voltar

Voltar was a creation of Alfedo Alcala, who was one of greatest artist's to work on Conan. Since Alcala was native to the Phillipines where he published this title, I didn't grow up with it, and only found out about it as an adult. But I did manage to buy Alfredo's Voltar portfolio, and find a few of Voltar's adventures in issues of Rook. Voltar's world appears to be very akin to that of Arak, essentially a more fantastic version of our own history. On Voltar's earth, the Roman Empire is under siege by hordes of invading goblins. Other creatures of myth also abound, such as satyrs, centaurs, and dragons. 

Elric

Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone is comlex, brooding monarch, born with albinism. He has a black rune-sword named Stormbringer that feeds on blood. Elric has a appeared a number of times in comics over te decades, including a current series, once teaming with Conan during the Barry Windso-Smith days. 

Imaro

Imaro was a African (Nyumbanian)warrior created by author Charles R. Saunders. I first encountered him in his first true novel printed in 1982. This novel told Imaro's boyhood among the Illyassai, his world's version of our own Masai warriors, who also raise and herd cattle and use lion-killing as a rite of passage into manhood. Imaro's mother is from another tribe, and the way he is treated by both the adults and peers among his tribe is truly horrendous. The book at the time made me think of how terribly spoiled and comfortable my own life was, even while being bullied at school every day. Anyway, during on Imaro's own lion-hunt, a local wizard/shaman casts a spell that makes the other warriors think that Imaro has run from the lion he really killed, thus banishing him as an Illmanok, or "un-man." Imaro finally does get revenge against his main bully, and kills the sorceror who also brings a horde in inhuman beuings (the builders of the "place of stones") to undead life and murder Imaro's love interest. The elders of his tribe realize the truth, and apologize to Imaro. Imaro refuese to accept it and takes up life as a wanderer across the face of Nyumbani, the alternate Africa of his world. 

He encounters many other dangers during his travels, incudling a hippo-headed demon called ishikukumadivu (I still remember that name!) pictured above, and the Azuth, a monster created by Atlantean sorcerers who sought to enslave all of Nyumbani. 

The picture on the first volume of the Imaro series, K W. Kelly, did an excellent job on the demon, but did not get Imaro himself right. The following book shows Imaro as the book describes him, flanked by his mate Tanisha, whom he saved from the Atlanteans, and Pomphous, a pygmy warrior who was educated as a scholar in the land of Kush. The third book Trail of Bohu, begins with the near-certainty that both Tanisha, who Imaro had rescued from numerous dangers, and his young son Kilowo, have been slaughtered by an evil sorcerer named Bohu, and the rest of the novel has Imaro seeking his revenge pursuing the wizard. He crosses Nyumbani's great inland sea, battling an attack by amphibious beings called Hibi, and at last locates his mother's tribe where he is last able to rconcile with her. Unfortuantely, Daw somehow couldn't publish the rest of the series. But eventually Saunders found a way to get them into print. 

In the final two volumes, Imaro faces more terrors as he hones in on his foe. I'll just say here (spoiler wanring if you don't want to know the end)---Bohu never killed Imaro's family, merely kidnapped them. He tells Imaro as much, but Imaro refuses to believe. In the end Tanisha and Kilawo are revealed to be alive, but Tanisha beomes angry and leaver Imaro. What a way to end a series!

Nyumbani is an incredibly rich world, filled with odd cultures, sorcerers, and strange monsters, some of them drawn from African myth, such as lion-demons called irimu, and some beasts that are left-over from prehistorric times. These latter include surviving arsinotheriums called gunkwu, huge mammals with two horns side by side, that are used as war-beasts. There are bidpedal reptiles that appear to be surviving dinosaurs, and one especially voracious lizard-like beast (I forget its name) that nearly kills Imaro during a battle. Then there is what is called a "red panther" or kisanjini, as Pomphous calls it, a feline like a leopard, but with a erythistic or red-colored coat. This beast, though smaller and leaner than a conventional saber-tooth cat, possesses dagger-like fangs that extend below its tufted chin. 

Gath of Baal

Gath of Baal was a character created by Frank Frazetta and author James Silke, based on the former's Deathdealer paintings. Gath's world was similar to Howard's Hyborian Age, in that Europe and North Africa were joined togather. In this "age before Atlantis" the Medeteranian sea is a vast, forested valley filled with human tribes. Gath is a warrior-hermit who dwells deep in the forest, and the one chosen to wear the Horned Helmet, which turns him into a killing machine, in order to repel the invading, Mongol-like Kitzakks. The love interest is Robin Lakehair, an innocent young maid with the power to remove the horned helmet from Gath. 

Inciidently, Robin of Lakehair is not described by Silke to sound much like a "Frazetta babe". In the second volume, he even has someone state that Lakehair's lack of curves and voluptuousness would provoke laughter. Really? That's very opposite of Cobra, the villainous sorcerous the books. 

The Gath novles went on for four books, introducing other characters and foes. By then, the barbbarian boom was over, and that fact was blamed on the series demise. 

Gath wasn't the only interpretation of Frazetta's character, though. There was a comic book series by Simon Beisley and Liam Sharpe, and later Arthur Suydum, that Frazetta didn't seem much to care for. It was also about a warrior and cursed helmet, but this warrior was clearly not Gath of Baal. 

Later, another comic series appeared, by a publisher that also did other books based on Frazetta's paintings. In this, the Deathdealer was not a human, but an entity summoned forth from the "Grandmother Oak," during times of great battle. The Deathdealer would appear on the battlefield and between armies slay members of both sides indesciminately. 

Frazetta was asked to do a picture of the Deathdealer without his helmet, however, during the James Silke run of books. Since this was lcearly meant ot tie in with the series, the warrior depicted is clearly Gath of Baal. 

Kane

Karl Edward Wagner's Kane is a barbarian with a difference. He's more of an anti-hero, and some might even declare him to be a villain. He's the hero, or at least the protagonnist, of most of his stories, but other times even serves as an antagonist of sorts, though the protagonist does not win. He's mostly known as an anti-hero, and that's accurate enough. 

I'd actually read very little of Kane for years, even thogh had copies of Wagner's Bloodstone, Dark Crusade, and one omnibus volume of Kane stories. I remember picking up Bloodstone at the Griffin Bookstore as a kid, and I was taken in by Wagner's vivid descriptions, and of course, the awesome Frazetta cover. Finally, after all these years, I took the summer of Covid to read every Kane book in my possession. That means I've read every Kane novel save one. 

It's difficult to say what world or age Kane hails fiom, but apparently, as Kane is an ageless warrior who continues to live on into modern times. So Kane's world must be something akin the the Hyborian age--a time before recorded history where magic and monsters proliferate. Kane himself somewhat resembles a Vanir. Kane has never been adapted in comics form as far as I can tell. 

The stories were engrossing. Among the finest are one where Kane encounters a female vampire in ruins of a vast desert. Or the one in which he makes friends with a survivor of a race of giants, and they discover an underground world, where they encounter a mammoth, albino saber-tooth while attempting to rob a treasure. It's the giant who actually battles ad slays the giant feline. My favorite is most likely the one in which Kane finds himself the guest of a rich nobleman, who invites him on a hunt, and the party is attacked by wolves. Kane slays several, but they are believed to be controlled by something. In this story, one of the noble's daughters refers to Kane as "gentle" which surprises him. And it makes me think, IS there a gently side to Kane? It is soon discovered that a werewolf is among them, and others in the castle keep disappearing. The werewolf is indeed controlling the pack, and  is shown to be white furred and scarlet-eyed. Suspicion soon centers around Kane, the obvious outsider. What struck me here is that although Wagner seems to be trying to conceal the identitiy of the werewolf, it's really easy to identify who the culprit is, since there is only one man in the castle who shares the werewolf's hair and eye color!

In one of the short stories, Kane also teams with Mookcock's Elric to defeat a menace from beyond the stars. 

Kane himself is an enigma. He is out only for himself, but if so long as he's teated well, he is kind to them in return. On the other hand, Kane is utterly ruthless in battle. In Bloodstone, Kane recovers an green gemstone from a crashed alien spaceship in the heart of a vast swamp infested with humanoid batrachians, much AD&D's race of bullywugs. The red-veined bloodstone allows him to command the batrachians as his army, and he uses them to invade and plunder numerous cities. When this happens, the monsters slaughter everyone, including women and children. To be fair, the amphibian horde isn't following Kane's orders in this. But they aren't disobeying him either. Kane takes whatever he wants, uses who he has too, and just doesn't care what his minions do so long as they continue to serve him. 

Another story features Kane and a girl hiding out from a vigilante and his men who are seeking to bring the brigand to justice. Here is where things really start to get morally ambiguous. The vigilante leader has a very strong sense of moral justice, and grew up listening to tales of heroism, and seems to sincerely want to right wrongs, his whole purpose of pursuing Kane. It soon becomes obvious, though, that though he may have started out a genuinely good man, he has become corrupted over the years. When he tells the people in a bar of Kane's atrocities, they just tell him Kane is none of their business, and they don't want to be involved. He then takes the attitude that they are part of the problem, and soon begins to cross moral lines. A young idealist who joined the band out of his own sense of justice, questions the leaders decision to allow his men to rape a woman who was uncoroperative. The leader's reply is basically that the ends justify the means, so long as one has the overall best interests in mind. Finally, the vigilante proves himself willing to burn the entire village in order to capture Kane. Kane does manage to outwit his pursuers, and defeat the vigilante, but the worldview of the young idealist is shattered beyond repair. Has actual good triumphed, then? Or not? The vigilante leader reminded me a good deal of the Antifa fanatics we have today. They certainly hold high ideals of justice, but are willing to cross moral and ethical borders to achieve their goals, much like the vigilante of the Kane tale. Still, Kane is no angel. Reading through these stories, one begins to wonder if actual moral Good and Evil even exist in Kane's universe. And if not, what does that imply about our world? Virutally anyone who behaves badly considers themselves justified, or even morally righteous. Kane, at least, never denies that he is only out for himself. What is Wagner trying to say here?

    Kane is a series that provides no easy answers. 

Red Morden

Red Morden is a character based on Frank Frazetta's painting of the same name. The painting actually depicts Karl Wagner's Kane, for his novel, Dark Crusade, about Kane's involvement in a murderous cult. However, the writers for the "Frazettaverse" comics series, decided to give new interpretations to Frazetta's paintings. Frazetta himself may have been somewhat leniant on his interpretations, wanting readers to appreciate them as works of art first, rather than scenes from the respective novels on which they are based. 

Other fans, though, took different postion. For the cover above, notice that they used the same Fraz cover to Pirates of Venus, but with one difference of changes to color of the protagonist's from blond to red. Carson of Venus is blond; Morden is a redhead. According to one comentator, the pilot of the boat IS Carson of Venus, and objected at the tampering of Frazetta's artwork. That sea is also on  Brroughs' Venus, and that is a "small" rotic breaching out of the waves (adult rotiks grow to the size of ocean liners). Before the comic was released, the creators took these objections seriously, and Carson's hair was changed back to blonde. 

As for Morden, he is Vanir-like warrior from Viking like culture, on the same world as their version of the Deathdealer. In the first issue, he slays a female dragon and her brood, in a story very similar to that of the 80s flick Dragonslayer. The second ish had him crossing the Northern ocean, where he had to contend with a seamonster that had more human-like arms than a Venusian rotik. If memory serves, this was the isuee that had most of the story written novel-fashion with white print on black background, accompanied by a full-page illustration. 

Finally, or hero reached the land at the end of the world, where there was a showdown between him and the Deathdealer (not Gath of Baal), and though I don't recall who the winner might have been, I think it was a draw. 

Kong

Kong the Untamed was one other Barbarian mag DC tried in the seventies. Like Kubert's Tor it was set in the prehistoric age and featured a Cro-Magnon hero. But unlike that, Kong (or at least for the first few issues) was set in the actual Plesticene era, and contained cavemen and cave beasts, no dinosaurs. it focussed on the conflict between the Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal races. Kong is a yellow-haired Cro-Magnon boy, an outscast by the chief of his tribe, whose people war with the brutish "beast-men." In the premeire issue, Kong gets captured by Gurat, and Neanderthal warrior whose tribe had been decimated. Seeing Kong as the enemy, he ties up the boy, intending on killing him later. Kong escapes Gurat, only to learn that his mother has been murdered by his own Cro-Magnon people. 

Later both Kong and his former captor are captured by a common foe, they escape, and through a series of perils, become friends [one slight correction--Gurat first saves Kong from Neanderthal Bear cult who tries to sacrice him to a cave bear. Such cults did exist]. During the third of fourth issue, Kong and Gurat stumble upon a lost world, a portion of the Plesticene where dinosaurs still roam. They escape an allosaurus, and manage to kill a pteranodon, whose Gurat opins is "worse than a march rats" Kong and Gurat are soon separated with Kong captured by a tribe of Amazon women. He makes friends with a male warrior named Roland, and the two battled and kill a carnivourus stagosaurus. It always annoyed me when they get the bsic facts about dinosaurs wrong, especially when they made herbivorous dinosaurs into carnivores, unless they had some kind of explanation for it, like the gryfs of Burroughs' Pal-ul-don.

Meanwhile, Gurat is captured by a tribe of warriors who ride pteranodons, who ultimately prove to be allies. Kong's friend Roland gets burned at the stake by the high preistess for speaking out against women. The the pterandon-riders attack the Amazon village, and Kong is rescued by Gurat. 

And that wraps up the short-lived series, save that I just very recently discovered that they did plan at least one final issue. Alter Ego showed the title page for the next, in which Kong's and Gurat's pteranodon gets struck by lightening. What eventually happened is anyone's guess. 

When the series was authentic, it featured dire wolves, mammoths, a cave bear, and a smilodon. Alfredo Alcala did the work on the first four or five issues of Kong. 

Anywaym I recall at the time someone writing in and congratuating the creators for not having dinosaurs in Kong and making it authentic. They replied that once he saw dinosaurs encroaching onto Kong's territory, that he should keep in mind that cavemen comics minus dinosaurs tend to sell poorly. That's very easily countered of course. One, the dinos didn't save the mag. And two, I knew even at the time that dinosaur comics did not tend to sell well at all! In fact, all of the caveman and most of the barbarian comics other than Conan himself tended to far poorly. 

It's a sad, sad world we live in!

P. S In regard to the writing on Kong, one thing I just discovered on another was the Gerry Conway apparently did the script for final issues, and that makes since, since it is rather bleak, with Kong's friend getting burned at the stake. Gerry's writing was also bleak on his Ka-Zar stories. 

Skull the Slayer

Skull the Slayer was very innovative take on the Barbarian genre back in the mid-seventies. The hero was Jim Skully a Vietnam war vet, who was severely mistreated on his return home. When his brother attacks him in a drunken rage, Skully kills him in self defense, but flees when he's suspected of murder. A plane flies the capotured Skully and three other passages, young teen boy and girl, and an African American doctor who believes Skully is just a killer because of his training, and distrusts him throughout the series. The plane flies through the Bermuda Triangle and which it turns out is a dimensional vortex that sends them back through time to the Mesozoic era. Or does it? It turns out that there are also cave people and later, meso-Americans inhabiting the land. Skull kills a tyrannosaurus in the first issue, after he brought down an eophippus (also out of time-place.)The doctor suggests that "they can start all over," and avoid the mistakes that humanity has made. The girl, Anne, points out that there was never any record of humans at this time periods, which means they didn't accomplish anything. But the boy discovers evidence of humans. There follows in the second issue, a capture by Neanderthals, a styracosaurus stampede, and Skull's battle with an elasmosaurus, which is misidentified by the narrator and the doctor as a brontosaurus (something pointed out by a reader in the letters column later on). I don't recall where Jim got the belt through the rest of the series (it may have been from a "god" the cavemen worshipped, and there was a link to the aliens. Anyway, it greatly increases his strength, making him able to battle and kill dinosaurs, just as the author intended! He once toyed with the idea of the title being Skull, Slayer of Dinosaurs, but that didn't happen. 

The next issue had the band discover a "time tower" constructed by aliens, where Skull battles another T-rex, this time a robotic one, before they wind up in a pseudo-ancient Egypt, where the soldiers are all robots, and the pharaoh is one of the aliens who created both the time tower and Bermuda vortex, as he explains to the band before murdering Jeff as an example. That's right, the new writer that was assigned at that time killed off the rest of the characters save Skull himself! He also tried a different format, one that cut out the dinosaurs that were supposed to be a major element from the series. Anne dies during an escape from the Egyptians, and the doctor perishes defending her. Skull then reaches a different level of the tower where he meets "the Black Knight" and Merlin, both actually robots. The next issue has Skull and the Knight battling an army of demons. The original format may have been abandoned, but a new writer was brought in and all three of Skull's deceased companions get their lives back, and return and they to the prehistoric world! The three then become lost in a vast swamp, where they recover the medical kit from the wreckage of their plane. Then they get captured by a war party of ancient Meso-Americans and taken across an ancient sea, where Skull fights and slays a huge ichthyosaurus. Then they are taken to what Skull believes are the lost cities of Cibola, a ruse used by the Indians to get rid of Cortez. The temples are of the same style as the those of the ancient Mayans and Aztecs, only molded out of pure gold! The city's ruler, however, is a white American man who also became lost in Bermuda, and wound up worshipped as a god. The next issues has skull and company battling a stegosaurus and then two chained pteranodons in the beast-pits below the city. In the final issue a high priest of the Jaguar plot to take over the city with his allies, an aerial fleet of pteranodon-riders. And just when Skull and his friends get captured by the evil priest, we're informed it's the very last issue of the series. It ends on the note that Skull have have begun to get a larger reader following just before it ended and after the decision to cancel the series had already been made. So they asked for letters, saying "If you will it, the Slayer will back!" Unfortunately, there evidently wasn't enough fan response, and series did not return. However, the cliffhanger ending did get wrapped in an issue of Marvel Two-In-One, that had the Thing teaming up with other heroes throughout the Marvel universe. Ben Grimm gets his plane captured by a giant pterodactyl, and taken through the vortex.  He and Skull manage to defeat the priest, and return to present. The villain follows them with his army of trained pteranodons, but the good guys win, and Ben suggests that the pterosaurs would do well in the Savage land, informing  Reed Richards that "he'll contact Ka-Zar." The doctor calls a truce, of sorts, with Skully, and the young people drive off, their prehistoric adventure finally ended. 

Marv Wolfman was the creator of the series, who also colored it! The first two issues were drawn excellently by Steve Gann, who also worked on Savage Tales, Ka-Zar's black and white magazine (Gann might be considered the Rembrant of Ka-Zar comics, were it not for Brent Anderson). The above images really give a small sample of Gan''s talent as an artist, especially when it came to dinosaurs and pretty girls!

 It is truly a shame that Skull's series was cut short, and never reached the high hopes its creator intended for it. I do believe that the wrap-up in Marvel Two-In-One was written by Wolf, but still, one wonders what would have happened had the series been allowed to continue on its own. How would they defeat the priest then, and what further perils and marvels would the heroes encounter. Sadly, we'll never know. 

Naza: Stone Age Warrior

Another stone age comic I know little about. Naza: Stone Age Warrior was a comic that was published by Dell, probabably in the fifties or sixites, which I never knew of until I discovered it at an old comics seller, but I don't think I actually have any issues. I will likely buy some, though the art wasn't that great from what I've seen so far. It was about Cro-Magnon warrior in a world that I don't think featured dinosaurs, at least not regularly. Then again, I seem to recall seeing a Jack Sparling drawing from this featuring a theropod,so possibly there were a few survivors in Naza's world.  There is, of course, the huge, titanoboa-like giant snake on the cover of this issue. 

Kona: Monarch of Monster Isle

I don't know that much about Kona either, though I do own a few issues, and plan to get more. He was a Tarzan/Ka-Zar type hero protecting a band of adventurers on a lost island inhabited, not only by dinosaurs, but giant mutant forms of present day animals, including frogs, cats, birds and insects!

Prince Valiant

Prince Valiant was comic-strip hero created by Hal Foster back in the forties. Foster also famously had a run on Tarzan. Valiant was a warrior prince of (mythical) King Arthur era. I've only read a little of it, but the series seems to have some of the flavor of Robert E, Howard's Solomon Kane, in that the prince occasionally visits exotic regions like Africa, and often tangles with fantastic menaces like surviving plesiosaurs, giant lizards and serpents, and hordes of bat-winged humanoids. Prince Valiant has endured over the years, and is still found in as a regular newspaper strip. He's currently drawn by comics Great Thomas Yeates. Sadly I currently don't have access to these strips. But how cool is this art:

Thun'da

Thun'da was a genuine Frank Frazetta comic strip, from back back in the days when he still did them. It's a basically lost world tale set in Africa. Roger Drumm is flying his cargo plane over an unexplored Congo region, when he crashes into a lost realm. First his plane gets shaken by a huge brontosaurus, then he's attacked by a pteranodon which he manages to kill with bullet. He's then captured by a tribe of Neanderthals. Later, he escapes rescuing Pha,  a native princess who remains with him through the series.. The first story ends with him slaying a monstrous serpent worshipped by the sub-men. 

The second issue has Drum, know known as Thun'da and his primitive sweetheart battling an invasion of australopithicines  riding wooly mammoths. The third tale has Thund'as slay an attacking saber-tooth, whom he learns was a female defending her cub. He raises the orphaned smilodon, whom he names sabre, to adulthood, and great cat accompanies him and his mate on further adventures. Unfortunately, though, a new writer made the decision to return Thund'a to mainstream Africa (though Sabre and the girl remained in tow). Frazetta left shortly after that (can't say that blame him). The Thun'da strips have been reprinted many times since. A short Thund'a comic series was revived in the early 2000s, with a different artist, and the same basic stories. More dinosaurs turned up this time, Drumm saves the cub Sabre from a pair of deinonychus this time. There are still the mammoth-riding ape-men, and a huge pteranodon, and a giant serpent do appear at the end, though this time (I think), he ends up riding the snake, rather than slaying it!

Barbarian Heroes

 

Ah, comic books heroes. For me they were never superheroes. The typical comic book hero always carried a sword, a dagger or a stone ax, rescued maidens, and battled dinosaurs and fantastic beasts, and often evil sorcerers. Only later, did I realize that my heroes of the comics were holdovers from the pulps, and that the superhero was made for the comics almost from the start. The archetypical, and first barbarian hero, was of course, Conan by Robert E. Howard, and most imitations sold poorly and fell by the wayside, both in and out of comics. Here are some of them. 

Brak the Barbarian

Brak the Baarbarian was the creation of John Jakes, a blond Conan-like warrior from the north. He inhabited an alternate world that has been described as being at the same basic period as the early Roman Empire on our own earth. Only on Brak's world, magic and sorcerers abound. Brak was briefly featured in the comics in issues of Savage Tales featuring Ka-Zar. It was drawn by artist Steve Gann, one of the finest of the Old Comic Masters, who also drew at least two of the Ka-Zar stories. In them, Brak contended with an evil sorcerous, and her horde of demonic street urchins called "Darter Boys", with silver claws, fangs, and weird pupil-less eyes. There was also one feature detailing the history and creation of Brak, with a pic by Rudy Nebres of Brak defending a captive girl from a dragon. 

Here's a page from a comic that I seem to remember from a reprint in Savage Sword of Conan, (as my memory of it is in Black and White). but was first printed in Chamber of Chills 2, in which Brak saves a maiden from a dinosaur-like dragon. The art is not Gann's. and I couldn't locate an example. 

Kavin

I honestly don't a lot about Kavin, or his creator, only that, like Brak, he was one of the many Conan imitations of the late 60s/70s Barbarian boom. Like Brak he also was apparently yellow-tressed, hailed from the North of his world, and had to contend with evil wizards. My first real exposure to him was when I found a paperback copy of "The Return of Kavin", in the break room of a the children's ward of memorial hospital in Indianapolis, when I was around twelve. In it, Kavin had to contend with some supernatural entity called "Ess" that had been banished to a netherworld, and I remember some poor girls being captive to an evil sorcerer. More recently I bought the above copy of the first Kavin novel at a Burroughs convention, mainly for the Frazetta cover. That is one sizzling babe Kavin's got, with a wealth of posterior! I did not finish reading the book, but I still plan to. I don't believe Kavin was ever adapted in the comics. 

Fafnrd and the Gray Mouser

The creation of Fritz Leiber, Fafnrd and the Gray Mouser inhabited the world of Newhon, and certainly did make it into the comics, as you can see by the above, though not in their own ongoing mag. As Conan facsimiles go, Fafnrd and the Mouser are considered to be a cut above the rest, literary wise. Their world of Newhon is a unique one, and there was once a role-laying game based on on it, and contained some cool monsters unique to that realm, such as a giant reptile with arms like swords, and a swamp-dwelling leopard-like cat. I've read a little of Lieber in Lin Carter's Flashing Swords anthology, and just really couldn't get into the Fafnrd stories. On a different note, both characters look very like how one might picture them, Fafnrd in particular. I essentially pictured him as looking like Fafnir, a Vanir friend of Conan's from the comics (not to be confused with Fafnir the Dragon from the Norse saga of Siegfried). 

And this brings us to...

Thongor

Thongor was a direct Conan imitation by Lin Carter, who also famously (or infamously) penned several Conan pastiches. At least one of these, "Demon of the Snows" was a re-written Thongor story about a "Snow Worm" called a "remora" by Carter, which may well have gone on to inspire the D&D arctic monster the remorhaz. Thongor was a Barbarian warrior of Earth's prehistoric past. Carter set Thongor's adventures on the Island of Lemuria in the Pacific ocean, adventures set in Atlantis having been done tto death already. On Carter's version of Lemuria, Mesozoic monsters still thrive in the jungled south, as well as other, more fantastic creatures like the deodath, which bore a similarity to another beast native to Carter's version of Callisto. Like the Atlantis of fiction, Lemuria boasts high civiliztions, while the rest of the world is still in the stone age. Thongor hails from the Black Hawk tribe in the far north of the continent, though throughout the series he travels south, battling monsters and sorcerers. He eventually takes a mate, Sumia, becomes Sark (king) of a jungle realm, and has a son, much as with Carter's and DeCamp's tales of King Conan, with many wild adventures on the way.  Roy Thomas, Marvels' famous adapter of Conan, had actually optioned Thongor before Howard's hero, according to the sources I've read. The interior art of the first Thongor issues was done by an early Val Mayrick, who draws pterosaurs really well. There was also a Thongor movie in the works by the late 70s, with Harryhausen-like effects for the pterodactyls (they were going to adapt this very story, from Carter's first Thongor novel). But sadly, the project was shelved. Here are some of the proposed stop-motion "graks", which are a bit wyvern-like:

Unlike the ostensibly superior Fafnrd stories, I really loved the Thongor tales, which kept me enthralled both in the comics and actual novels, the same with most of the rest of Carter's fiction. These were a guilty pleasure. I was first (unknowingly) introduced to Thongor when my dad bought me the above comic as a small child. It is from the first novel, where he tangles with pteranodons (graks) on an airship, and a tyrannosaurus (dwark) in the jungle. I wound up cutting out the pictures of the pterodactyls, and the comic itself got lost. Later, I searched for it in comic book stores, thinking it was an early issue of Conan. Turned out it was Thongor, a creation of Lin Carter, whom I was already reading voraciously. 

Conan

No need to introduce this guy, the original barbarian hero created by the same man who created the genre. 

I've decided to use the iconic image created by Frank Frazetta here. The covers of the original pulps contain REH's Conan stories generally made Conan appear more like Roman legionare with short-cropped hair, or even depicted him as looking rather sissified. It was Frazetta who at last established Conan as the Howard described him, with a mane of black hair, and smoldering blue eyes, and the depiction has endured ever since. 

It was Roy Thomas who first adapted Conan for the comics, after first optioning Carter's Thongor. Conan's Marvel run lasted well over 100 issues, both in their color comic, and the companion black and white mag, Savage Sword of Conan. There was also the King Conan comic (later slightly altered to Conan the King), which detailed Conan's adventures as monarch of Aquilonia, which lasted a fairly respectable run, but not nearly as long as other two. King Conan adapted some of DeCamp and Carter's tales, and included Conan's wife Zenobia, and Prince Conn, who was a Carter creation, and hated by some fans. Roy Thoma adapted many of Howard's tales for both Conan the Barbarian and Savage Sword. More unusually, he adapted quite a few of Howard's non-Conan tales into Conan stories. One story arc even adapted Norval Page's novel Sons of the Bear God, the difference being it was now set in the Hyborian kingdom of Shem rather than central Asia, and staring Howard's hero instead of Prestor John (a legendary Christian king). 

A number of artists worked on the Conan comics, including Barry Windsor-Smith on the early issues, John Buscema (perhaps the most famous of the Conan artists) Ernie Chan, Gary Kwapiz, Rudy Nebres Pablo Marcus, Alfredo Alcala, to name some of the Greats. 

While Thomas penned nearly all of the issues during the seventies, soon other writers took the reins, notably Michael Fleisher, whose wildly imaginative stories introduced Conan to re-occuring antagonists such as Wraal, the Devouver of Souls and Bor 'Ac Sharaq, a Baracan pirate who was obssessed with vengeange on Conan to the point of madness. Other writers included Bruce Jones, around the same time that he was a regular writer for Ka-Zar, and generally wrote twist endings for his Conan tales, the same as for his horror stories. Thomas returned to Savage Sword during the nineties, and penned mostly original tales that took Conan even to Australia, and adapted deCamp's novel Conan and the Spider-God. He also transformed another non-Conan (horror) tale of Howard's, "The Black Hound of Death" into a Conan yarn. 

Sometimes in the ninties, though, readers seemed to lose interest in Conan. Marvel tried to alter it, and officially cancelled Savage Sword, only to resurect it as as Conan the Savage. These efforts didn't work, and soon Conan's Marvel run ended. But it wasn't long until Dark Horse picked up Conan, and tried to keep him near to Howard's original vision. And for the most part they were successful; perhaps tastes had swung back, but whatever the reason, Conan enjoyed a successful comeback at Dark Horse. A younger generation of artists now drew him, including Cary Nord, who'd been inspired by the Old Masters at Savage Sword. Another new artist, Tomas Giorello, may even have surpassed some of those Masters, and did the art on the several issue adaptation of Hour of the Dragon , Howard's one full length Conan novel, also known as Conan the Conqueror. 

Currently, Conan has been passed back to Marvel, where it is doing fairly well, with good, though not great, stories and art. Marvel is also doing some strange things with Conan these days, like sending him to the modern (Marvel) era, and teaming him with the Avengers. Conan's future seems uncertain at this point. 

Kull

Kull is another barbarian hero created by Howard, perhaps the next most famous one to Conan, also adapted by Marvel, and later by Dark Horse. Neither ran for a very long time. He was a predasessor, and perhaps a prototype to Howard's Cimmerian hero. Kull lived earlier, in the Time of Atlantis, which was a actually a land of Barbarians; the higher civilizations existed on the Thurian continent, where Kull deposed a tyrant named Borna and took the crown of Valusia for himself. Kull was an orphan raised by tigers, and who took the tiger as his totem animal, as Conan did the lion (Amra). Though humans dominated Kull's era, there also existed a few survivors of the serpent-men, who possessed the insidious ability to shape-shift into humans, and a winged race of bird-headed men, as introduced in an Alan Zelenetz story, "The Amulet of Ka." Kull might well have been an actual ancestor of Conan, as the blacked-maned Atlantean barbarians were established as ancestral to Cimmerians, as told (I think) in Howard's history of the Hyborian age. Though separated by millenia, Conan and Kull did manage meet on occasion, by means of sorcerous time-portals. 

Kull's comic book run is a bit confusing. He first appeared in Marvels' Bizarre Adventures, illustrated by John Bolton, and there was very brief black and white Kull magazine, Kull and the Barbarians. I didn't really pay much attention to the small color Kull issues Marvel produced during the seventies.

 In the eighties, they brought Kull back, starting with direct-to -comic -book-store issues at the same time that they marketing Ka-Zar, Mirconauts and Moon Knight in direct sales market. I still do  not know why they did this, but it was sort of cool; there were two or three "first issues" of Kull, one being a werewolf tale with a wrap-around cover, and printed on slick paper. It featured the art of little-known Great John Bolton. The other two direct premiere issues also featured wrap-arounds. One featured Bolton art with Kull on the front and his tiger totem on the back, with interior art by another Great, Nestor Redondo. The third premiere issue of Kull sported a Joe Jusko wrap around by Joe Jusko (not a painting) of Kull battling tigers. 

This issue was interesting in particular, because it was written by Bruce Jones, who introduced Kull's sister Iraina, also an orphan reared by Thurian tigers, who humiliates Brule the Spearslayer, Kull's Pictish friend, then beheads her own ruler, and goes on to conquer most of the known world with her army of female were-tigers. Of course she is ultimately undone by her brother. After that Alan Zelentz took over the scripting, penning the aforementioned "Amulet of Ka" story, in which Kull sets out to recover the aforementioned amulet to save the life of Tu, his councelor. 

After that, the Kull series went mainstream, with no more wrap around covers and zero- ad format Though the scripts maintained the general quality, it didn't last long, because, well, Kull didn't have the staying power that Conan did. Kull went on to appear in a back series in Savage Sword for a time in the late eighties, written by then-Conan writer Chuck Dixon, whose take on Kull often had gruesome twist endings. More recently Kull appeared at Dark Horse, though little as been seen of him since. 

Solomon Kane

Solomon Kane was a Puritan hero created by REH. He appeared in a number of short-lived comics and limited series. Kane was intelligent brooding and introspective, and a bit philosophical, even more so than Kull. Kane traveled the world, combating evil. Inevitably, the Kane stories tended toward horror. While this was almost true of Howard's original Conan tales, it was even more true here. 

I'm out of time, and I'll write more later on the rest of the heroes.

Okay, time to post more. 

Cormac Mac Art

Cormac Mac Art was a lesser known creation of Howard, that had an even lesser known comics run. His stories were set in historical times, and he might have been a Viking hero. There was little fantastic or supernatural elements in most of them, but one story fragment contained in the Cormac volume of the Howard Library series of paperbacks during the late ninties, contains references to King Arthur, as well as a horde of half-human monsters and satyr like beings. Some of the other stories in that volume are pastiches by science fiction writer David Drake, in addition to  original Howard tales. 

Bran Mac Morn

Bran Mac Morn was Howard's Pictish hero. Howard had an interest and admiration for the Picts, a race/culture from Breton's ancient past. Bran lived at the time of the ancient Roman Empire, and to defend his people against the Romans, he enlists the aide of a race of subterrean beings who had once been men, a staple of REH's fiction, in the horrific "Worms of the Earth."

In the Howardian universe, Picts were also around during Kull's time (in the Pictish Isles) and during the Hyborian age, where they were confined to a stretch of wildland known as the Pictish wilderness. Howard describes them as "a white race, though swarthy," though never spoken as such by the Aquilonian settlers of the region. The Picts are adversarial in the Conan tales like "Beyond the Black River," where Conan fights on the side of Aquilonia, the indigenous Picts basically filling the same role as American Indians to white settlers. Savage Sword writers often penned their own tales set in the Pictish Wilderness, notably Chuck Dixon, who often depicted them as far less noble than Howard did. Though Picts, "like American Indians" according to the letters column once, varied in nature from tribe to tribe, and were occasionally de-picted sometimes as heroes, as in "The White Vulture," Dixon often portrayed Picts as a degenerate culture. Generally, the more savage and ruthless the Pictish tribe was, the more degenerate, with one especially savage tribe literally wallowing in filth. 

During the transition between the Hyborian Age and out modern era, Howard establishes that the Picts were defeated by the Celts. 

Later on author Karl Edward Wagner, creator of his own Barbarian, Kane, wrote a few Bran Mac Morn pastiches. Bran has seldom been de-Picted in comics, but Dark Horse did do an adaptation of "Kings of the Night." "Worms of the Earth" was adapted long ago in an issue of Savage Sword as a backup feature, then reprinted as a single graphic novel years afterward. 

Red Sonja

Red Sonja was a character quasi-created by Howard. His original creation was of a swordwoman named Red Sonya (slightly different spelling), set in historical times in "Shadow of the Vulture." Roy Thomas re-planted her as a Hyrkanian in the Hyborian age, and tweaked her a bit. 

Sonja had a relatively short-lived series in the seventies, followed by a limited series during eighties. She also showed accasionally in the Conan comics, as a backup feature, or to cross swords or team up with the Cimmerian. Since thn, however, she's become much more popular, notably in the Dynamite series. 

During the eighties, there were a series of Red Sonja paperbacks porduced, sporting covers by Boris.

One Savage Sword issue told the very disturbing backstory of Sonja. She grows up happily with her parents and siblings, when one day an army officer from her retired father's  millitary days shows up with his men. Her father seems to realize that the man is dangerous, for he herds his wife and family inside their cabin. He greets him in a friendly manner however, calling the man "old friend," though the man replies that he is now "first in command," indicating a possible rivelry, more than a friendship. After a brief exchange, the man simply utters the words "Kill him." His men kill Sonja's father, and go on to slaughter Sonja's innocent family while the captain bursts into laughter. When the (now teenage) Sonja threatens him with a sword, he spares his men from killing only to rape her himself. Then, on a sadistic whim, he leaves her alive. Years later, after Sonja can best near anyone alive with a sword, she comes upon a band a brigands torturing some poor wretch. After driving them off, she discovers their victim is none other than the captain who murdered her family and raped her! The unknown man has finally recieved his due, though Sonja feels robbed of her personal revenge. 

Niord

Niord was Nordic barbarian native to some primordial, possibly pre-Hyborian era. Howard's tale of Niord and the Worm was both stand-alone, and one of his James Allison stories. Allison is a modern disabled man who experiences dreams of earlier incarnations, this one being the tale that supposedly spawned all the legends of monster-slayer heroes down though that ages, including Siegfried, Beowulf, St. George and others. Niord is a warrior of a blond-haired barbarian tribe, who journeys into the jungled southlands. There they come in contact with the Picts, here de-picted as a dark-skinned, brutish people. During a battle, Niord spares the life of the Pictish warrior Gorm, and the two become friends. Later, when Niord's tribe makes the fatal error of camping among the ruins of a cursed ruin, in spite of the warnings of the Picts, Niord finds them slain. He and Gorm seek out Satha, a gigantic serpent with venhom-bearing fangs (another Howardian staple), whom he slays and coats his arrows with the poison (the story also features Nirod's battle with a saber-tooth tiger.

He then used the envenhomed arrows to slay the slayer of his people. This turns out to be a somewhat catapillar-like, Lovercraftian monstrosity, that slithers forth from a well in the ancient city, summoned by the piping a bizarre, vaguely ape-like entity. It is "not a beast, as humanity knows beasts" according to Howard. "Valley of the Worm" was printed in Supernatural Thrillers with art by Gil Kane. It has been reprinted since in Savage Sword, though always as a stand-alone. Thomas, surprisingly never transformed the tale of Niord into a Conan story.

  In another James Allison tale, "Garden of Fear"another northern warrior presses southward into verdant lands, only to have his love Gudrrn, a woman whom the most ravishing beauties of today are mere shadows, captured by a bizarre flying man. He saves her or course, by drivng a herd of mammoths to trample the garden of blood-drinking plants that circle the winged man's tower. Howard establishes that winged man is some relic of some earlier time, a theme repeated in "Queen of the Black Coast."

"Garden of Fear" WAS turned into a Conan tale by Thomas, and illustrated by Barry Windsor-Smith.

Esau Cairn

This is a strange one. Esau Cairn was the hero of Amalric, Robert E. Howard's one sword and planet novel, his one attempt to imitate Burrough's Mars stories. "Amalric" was also the name of a blond-haired warrior who was a friend of Conan's in "The Scarlet Citadel". Amalric, however, is the title of the both the novel, and short comic series from Dark Horse (I thinkThat makes a bit hard to remember that Amalric is the name of the,  planet, where the story takes place, and Esau Cairn is the name of the hero. The hero is disabled, rather like James Allison, and a professor friend of his propels him, via a new invention of his, to the suface of Amalric, where he is reincarnated in a new body. Thus Cairn's advetures begin. Amalric is frought by mostrous animals, including tusked bears, giant felines, and hyena-like beasts, what seems to be a huge serpent, and some sort of carnivorous moose-like monstrosity. Sentient races also inhabit Amalric, including dog-headed manlike things, a race of beast-men, who capture Cairn and take him to their city. During a war between the beast-men and a black-skinned winged race known as yagas, Cairn and his newfound love escape. But the woman is later made prisoner of the Yagas, and Cairn must rescue her. During the climax, a giant tentacled monster appears, and it's been speculated that this final scene of the protagonists' escape, may actually have been penned by Otic Adelbert Kline, a vetern of the sword and planet genre. The publication above depicts Cairn's battle with the yagas. 

Amalric was adapted by Marvel comics in their Heavy Metal-like magazine Epic, and later a sequal to Howard's original was published by Dark Horse. 

Bront 

Bront was barbarian hero that appeared as a backup feature in the pages of 80s Savage Sword of Conan

The stories were written by then-Ka-Zar writer Bruce Jones, who also possibly created the character. "There has NEVER been a barbarian such as Bront!" so the tagline went. 

Bront seemed to be an odd fusion of Conan with the Sword and Planet genre, such as Esau Cairn and John Carter. In the far-flung future, after humanity has colonized other solar system, Bront is exhiled to a primitive planet where he battles a feline beast called an Eeowee, befriends an Amazon tribe of beautiful women, and later has conflict with a wizard who puts him through a series of tests, including a battle a lizard like beast.

Blackmark

Blackmark was the creation of writer/artist Gil Kane, also a Conan artist. He was a warrior in a post-apocolyptic future, when earth had reverted to barbarianism and was overrun my monsters and human tribes. It was first printed in Marvel Preview, and later as a trade paperback.

Talos

Talos was another creation of Kane's about a platinunm haired warrior, also set in a postapocolytic future reverted to barbarism, and overrun by mutant monsters. It was intended to be a limited series, but they only got as far as one issue. I have the issue somewhere, and recall the boy's testing by, and friendship of, the great white cat, and a battle with a monstrous purple furred cat-like mutant the size of an elephant, but that's all. He was supposed to be a sort of savior to his people, or the fullfillment of a prophecy. Wait, I did find a link that fills in some of the details on Talos. It was supposed to be a twelve-issue run: http://thoulsparadise.blogspot.com/2012/12/inspiration-wilderness-sea.html

Dagar

Dagar the Invincible was a character very much inspired by Howard's Conan, published by Gold Key during the seventies. He was created by dinophile and s-f writer Donald F. Glut, possibly most famous for his Empire Strikes Back novelization. Glut also created two other Gold Key properties at the time, Tragg and the Sky Gods, and the somehwat Lovecraftian Occult Files of Doctor Spektor. All three were drawn by Jesse F. Swantos, and inhabited the same universe. Dagar's world was very Hyborian-like, inhabited by evil wizards and monsters. One of the sorcerors was a necromancer named Ostellon, who also gust stared in the final regular issue of Tragg where he brings a t-rex skeleton to life. The mammoth and the skeletal warriors in the above issue are likely Ostellon's doing. "Some of the prehistoric beasts hadn't died out yet," Glut tells us in the premier issue, and a few mammoths and sabertooth cats persist. One issue features a duel between a ground sloth and a huge snake. 

In one very notable issue, Tragg enters a time portal into the prehistoric past to rescue his love-interest Graylin (though just how she got there, I can't recall). Once there, he saves Tragg's brother Jarn from a pteranodon. Later, Jarn returns the favor when he slays a dimetrodon, and Dagar must confront a huge tyrannosaurus rex before finally saving Graylin and returning to his own time. Glut has commented on this issue that he wasn't actually able to have Dagar and Tragg meet because of some kind of legal problem, but he was able to draw Tragg into one scene. I still have been unable to find it. I do recall though, that in an issue of Doctor Spector, that features a gaint squid-like monster, Tragg and his red-haired mate Lorn definitely do appear in one panel showing the beast in the prehistoric past. 

Tragg

Tragg was Don Glut's caveman hero, his homage to his own favorite comic series, Joe Kubert's Tor. He first debuted in a Mystery Comics Digest issue, a story called "Cry of the Dire Wolf," about the first werewolf, also drawn by Swantos. In the premiere issue of his own series, Glut explains that Tragg and his eventual mate Lorn are members of a Neanderthal tribe, but their genetics are altered by a scientist team of gold-skinned green haired alien humans from the planet Yargon. The two are more advanced than the others, perhaps the origin of the Cro-Magon, the first actual modern humans. Unfortunately for Tragg and Lorn's tribe, there is a revolution on Yargon, and the Techocracy is overthrown. The next team of Yargonians sent to earth seek to enslave the prinitive inhabitiants. Tragg and Lord warn the others, but are exhiled for their troubles.
Tragg's world apparently takes place in the Plesticene, but in an isolated region, perhaps a lost continent, where diosaurs survived into the age of mammals and even humans. Unfortunately, Swantos left after the first two issues, the rest being drawn by the same artist who did the Lost in Space comic for Gold Key. Though it didn't last long, there was one more Tragg issue presented in Gold Key Spotlight, that featured the giat prehistoic shark known as Charcarodon Megalodon.

Tor  

Tor was the caveman hero upon which Glut's Tragg as based. He was created by Joe Kubert in the 1950s. Kubert had always wanted to do something similar to ERB's Tarzan, and he was partly inspired by the oringinal One Million B. C. 

 The world Tor the Cro-Magnon was inhabited by raging diosaurs, gigantic mammals, cavemen and bestial subhumans. There was no real explanation for this, unlike with Tragg. It was just a generic prehistoric fantasy realm, like the B. C. movies. It had a short run during the fifties, with some issues in regular and 3D version, and inspired future comic authors at the time, such as Ka-Zar's Bruce Jones. Kubert unsuccessfully tried to make Tor into a children's story book, a comic strip, and a Saturday Monring cartoon at one point, along the same line as The Mighty Mightor, also set in a prehistoric age that never was. 

Kubert revived Tor in the seventies, starting a new story that was partly the aborted comics series. The rest of the run consisted of old stories that were not technically reprints (though they looked the same except for the coloring), but redrawn and taced from the some of the original stories. This was published by DC.

In the late seventies, a brand knew silent Tor story appeared in the pages of Kubert's own maazine Sojourn, which sadly lasted a mere two issues. The story had him driving a horde of small scavenger theropods from a brontosaur carcass, only to battle with a deinonychus for the remains, a struggle he loses. (Although it appears Tor may be injured or even dead at the end, it is explained in a "making of" feature in another series that a cave girl finds Tor and tends his wounds). The Sojourn Tor story was reprinted in the nineties Tor series as a backup feature, along with another silent strip wherein Tor battles a tylosaurus.

Kubert gave Tor a four issue miniseries in the ninties, this time published by Marvel's Epic division. it was released around the same time as Jurrassic Park, though it  featured few dinosaurs (other than in the re-prints), and instead had Tor battling fantastic creatures that never were, including a race of scaley ape-men, semi-humanoid subterrantian reptilians and gigantic worm-like beast. The main story involved Tor revenging himself on some Neanderthal rogues who had killed his father and made slaves of his tribe. He saves a girl from being s sacrifice for the ape-men at the beginning, and she accompanies Tor through the rest of his ordeal. But at the end Tor leavses her with his tribe to go off adventuring beyond the far hills. 

There was also a never-finished Tor story, printed in an omibus volume, in which the hero slays a tryannosaurus, and befriends a tribe of Homo Erectus, whose chief happens to have a beautiful Cro-magnon captive. There is a flashback to a time when Tor's own tribe was invaded and father killed, like in the ninties series. 

Sadly, though each Tor series hinted at picking up where it left off, Kubert never picked up on Tor's further adventures in that particular storyline. 

Instead, each new Tor series was a complete reboot. 

The final Tor series was released in 2009. It cast Tor as a non-conformist member of  his Cro-magonon tribe, sometime in the Plesticene. He is again outcast, this time discovering a lost world, filled with dimunitive ape-men, sabertooths, dinosaurs, and subterranena monstrosties. 

Kubert is rumored to have been working another Tor series at the time of his death. 

Mighty Samson

Samson was a Dell/Gold Key hero in a post apocalypic nuclear furture. He lived in the ruins of New York city, now called N'Yark, and  infested by primitive human tribes and mutant monsters. He had two friends, a girl and a doctor, whose names I can't recall. 

Thundarr

Thudarr the Barbarian was a Saturday-morning cartoon series from the early 80s, created by Ruby-Spears. It appeared to have been inspired party by Might Samson; Thundarr was also a barbarian in a post-aopocolyptic future, ruled by mutant monsters. There were also evil wizards to contend with, as with Howard's Hyborian age, and non-human beings like the reptilian Carocs, the rat-like Groundlings, and the Moks. Thundarr was also a blond barbarian from the north, who rebelled against his inhuman masters. He was accompanied by educated sorceress Arial and Ookla the Mok, as they traveled ruined North America battling evil. 

Thundarr may or may not have had a connection with Samson, but Jack Kirby and Alex Toth did some of the production art. There was never an actual Thundarr comic, though. 

Killraven

This was a very strange Marvel comics series from the 70s era. I sort of knew about it, but didn't really know what it was until very recently. Marvel ran a series of Classic adaptations during the seventies (Tom Sawyer, Moby Dick, etc..), which were kind of cool and contianed no adds. They did HG Wells' Food of the Gods, and War of the Worlds. Killraven may have been a spin-off from the latter. At any rate, Killraven did not take place at the time of Wells' novel; it was set in an alternate timeline in the furture of what was presumably the Marvel universe.

 See what I mean about this being wierd?

 The earth had reverted to barbarism, rather like Samson and Thundarr. The world's superheroes had apparently fought the invading Martians, and lost, with the superhoeroes now dead, and the Martians ruling the earth. One earthling broke his chains however, to fight for freedom, and that man was...Killraven!

There's really little else I know about this so far, as I've never read an issue.

Stalker

This is another one I know virtually nothing other than the fact that it was a very short llived series during the time when DC was attempting various Sword and Sorcery comics to compete with Marvel's Conan. 

Claw

This was another shrot-lived DC barbarian series.from the same era, with the same intent.It lasted slightly longer than Stalker did. I don't know a lot about it either, but Claw hailed from what was apparently alternate universe where wizards and sorcery reigned, much like Brak or Kaven. He resembled Conan more with his shock of ebon hair and rilling muscles, and some of the issues were drawn by Conan Great Errnie Chan (including the above cover). The hitch was that one of Claw's hands had been replaced by a demon's claw. Claw was briefly featured as a back up in an issue of Warlord, which was likely intended to wrap the series up. Claw and the demon (whose wears Claw's actual hand) do battle. They are at a tie, when the Gods intervene, and judge the pair. The demon is cast into the outer darkness, and Claw finally gets his hand back. 

Beowulf

Beowulf was DC's take on the classic Norse hero. I haven't actually read it, but apparently the main antagonist during this series run was Satan himself, who would pit Beowulf against various monsters and menaces. There was later an graphic adaptaion of the original poem by DC.

Warlord

At last, we come to one of my two very favorite series of all time, MIke Grell's Warlord. Unlike the previously mentioned DC series, this one really had staying power, lasting well over one hundred issues. Grell had originally intended to set the series in anceint Atlantis, but wound up going a more Burroughian route. Travis Morgan flies his plane into the northern polar opening, crashing in a lost world at the earth's core with an uncanny resemblence to ERB's Pellucidar. It is inhabited by dinosaurs, and primvel beasts from all eras, but is also home to remnants of Atlantean civilization, who fled their sunken continent and colonized the lost world, known as Skartaris, millinia past. We learn the history of Skartatis as the series unfolds. In the first issue special, Morgan saves beautiful warrior-queen Tara from a voracious deinonychus, only to become captured by the enemies of her people. Morgan runs afoul of the devilish high preist, Deimos, who vows vengeance, becoming the series main villain. We later learn that the Atlantean colonists destroyed themselves in a nuclear holacaust, and the resulting radiation mutated some tribes into beastmen and lizard-folk. The first story-arc has Morgan returning Tara to her homeland of Shambala. Later, Deimos, resurrected by sorcery, kidnapped Morgan and Tara's infant son, Joshua. This is followed by a long quest to recover the child. Deimos used Atlantean technology to make a clone of Joshua.. he then grows the child to adulthood using the same tech, and forces Morgan and the clone to fight. Morgan kills the clone, thinking it is his own son he's killed. The witch Asheya takes the real child to live with a peasant family outside Shamballa. 

    Tragically, for the rest of the series Morgan never realizes what has happened. For the fiftieth issue, Morgan finally destroys Deimos. Or at least, we think so. Deimos had been killed at least three times before now!

    After this, after issue 52, Grell left, leaving the art to Mark Terxia, who was followed by many others. Though Grell was credited on the script, these new issues were actually written by his wife, whose stories were more character-driven, and less adventure-oriented. Joshua Morgan was almost re-united with his parents, but was not, most likely at Mike's request. Sometime later, Cary Burkett took over the script, and after that Micheal Fleisher, now famous for his work on the Conan comics. Fleisher more or less returned the comic to its old format, with Morgan traveling Skartatis, running into new civilizations and races in the vast unexplored reaches of Skartaris. Finally, long after the seventies Barbarian boom, not even Warlord could last. And rather than force Morgan into a superhero role, DC decided to pull the plug (wise move). 

    There were a few Warlord annuals, the first of which was written and drawn by Grell, the one time he actually returned. It was a gold-old pulp-flavored tale about Morgan saving a spoiled princess from being sacrificed to the goddess Tarantis, a giant spider (good to see one of those show up in the comic at last). Well, okay; Grell did draw the issue called "Tinderbox" which almost reunited Joshua Morgan with his father. But instead resuming the art, as fans were led to beleive, he left once again.

    In the 90s, however, Grell genuinely returned as the writer, though not the artist, for a mini-series. Deimos might have been "officially" dead, but now that he was scripting once more, Grell brought back the devil-priest as an undead, resurected by a cult (whom he rewards by slaughtering them). Joshua returns, still nicknamed "Tinder," now a young adult and a traveling bard. Deimos casts a spell over the land, causing Skartaris to become dark, and raises an army of the undead to do his bidding. Morgan reclaims the enchanted blade Hellfire from the Lady of the Lake (the backstory for this occurred back in the Grell era), and defeats the undead, and sends Deimos back to the netherworld once again. 

    Following a short-lived reboot  Warlord series by Bruce Jones, Grell once again launched a new Warlord. It first was intended as limited, but they ultimately decided to have it be ongoing. Once again, Grell resurected Deimos, and this time did what he'd said he'd wanted to do since the beginning--kill off Travis Morgan the same as Prince Valiant! (as a side note, Morgan had given up ten surface years of his life to Death--but that's another story). But before it happens, he finally learns Tinder's real identity! It was about time! As for Deimos, he gets banished to the Age of Wizard Kings (which I haven't even touched on). The series continues with Joshua now doning the garb and title inherited by his father! Grell introduces a new sky-faring race we haven't seen before. Joshua captures a wild hypgriff as a steed (mythical beasts are real in Skartaris, apparent holdovers from an earlier age of magic). Deimos manages to escape through his magic mirror, and vows vengeance on all of Travis Morgan's lineage, before he is apparently finally killed in an explosion. At last, he's finally destroyed.  But isn't that what we've all thought before?

    The series was cancelled that issue, apparently a victim of changing trends. This was no longer the era of barbarian comics. But I suspect a greater factor might have been Grell's killing off the main character. I would have kept buying, and but some readers just might not have cared to read the adventures of Joshua Morgan. 

    Interestingly, the name Skartaris is the name of a mountain overlooking the entrance to the lost world of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. As I noticed when I read that book in sixth grade, and immediately made the connection. I even theorized at the time that the world professor Lidenbrock discovered and Warlord's Skartaris might even be one and the same.

     Grell did all the scripting for this new series, and though some issues did not feature his art, others did, including a story arc by him involving Morgan encountering the incarnation of a Skartaran war-goddess. 

    There is actually much, much more I coudkl say about Warlord (I haven't even mentioned Shakira, Morgan's shape-shifting, semi-girl friend), but I need to write an entire blog entry on it, and I've been too lazy up until now.

Above is a map of Skartaris, done after Cary Burkett took over the writing during the late 80s. It shows all the places in Skartaris that had been explored up until then. This was around the time that DC made an official decision to incorporate Grell's Skartaris into the mainstream DC universe. This meant technically transporting Skartaris into a separate dimension to avoid conflict with a number DC stories. Writer Michael Fleisher, famed mostly for his work on Savage Sword of Conan, brought back the main format of the earlier Warlord issues, and took Morgan on a quest beyond the Borath mountains, where he discovered many more lost realms, though the map has never been updated. When Grell finally did return, first in the 90s, and finally in the 2000s, he seemed to ignore all of what happened at DC up till then (which he opined that he hated), and Skartaris is presumably inside the hollow earth once again. Morgan's son Joshua, who was last seen transported to the Age of Wizard Kings back when Burkett was writing, now appeared as a young adult. Morgan finally learns that "Tinder" IS Joshua (something fans had long been anticipating) only seconds before he passes into the afterlife!

Bruce Jones' Warlord

Bruce Jones' Warlord was an attempt to revamp Grell's Warlord in the 2000s, before Grell actually revived his series, and killed off Travis Morgan. 

Fans expecting Grell's Warlord were disappointed. This was an entirely different character and different series. Apart from the place and character names, and the same general concept, it was totally Jones' creation. The Tara character actually becomes a villain in this, as I recall. It's also set in a world filled with dinosaurs, lost civilizations, and mythic ceatures, but this Skartaris experiences both day and night. It lasted less than ten issues, and for the final one, another artist than Bart Sears was brought in and Jones told a tale that took place years and a great distance from where he left off. It was a short tale about a witch that had a twist ending that I found predictable (if you're familiar with Jones' writing, that is). Predictable or not though, he Puritan-like culture in this part of alternate Skartaris is very well conveyed. 

Truth be told, I'm curious where Jones would have took this series, and as with Ka-Zar, I'm longing to see more of what is essentially a Bruce Jones created lost world. If you just forget about the name "Warlord" attached to this project, it's not bad, something like what Otis Aldebert Kline might write, and I wanna see more!