Titan's New Conan Comics (In General)

 

In general, as most other people are saying, Titan's new Conan the Barbarian is a return to the Conan comic's glory days, or at least as near as possible. Jim Zub is a solid writer, and Robert de la Torre, though a Buscema riff, is actually better, if anything, than the style he's riffing on. Doug Braithwaite has his own style, but is as good as most of the Old Masters of the 80s and 90s Conan comics. The first story arc, where Conan teams up with a Pictish female warrior named Brissa to defeat an army of Pict-zombies was pretty much excellent, but the Kull vs. Conan via sorcery tale that followed was even better. I believe it happened before back in the day--yes, at least once in a graphic novel. But here we get links to Conan's past (future?), notably the re-encounter with Yag Kosha, the emerald-skinned elephant headed extratrrestrial, who "remembers" what Conan did/will do for him in that future age.

Now when I first saw de la Torre's depiction of Kosha on one of the alternate covers, I suspected that they were either doing a new adaptation of that story (would have been fine by me), or just wanted to do a scene from that tale as cover, but with no connection to the Zub's current story. But now, the cover actually ties on with the story. Then, of course there is the revival of Thalsa Doom, a villain technically created by Howard, who Conan will later battle in the Hyborian Age. Note: the first Conan movie barrowed the name for the main villain played by James Earl Jones, but the original version was not the same. 

I'm not quite so sure about the new companion Savage Sword of Conan. Generally, yes, I'd say it's a return to the good old days; who would have thought B&W Conans would really be available in the old format, complete with pin-ups, editorials and all? The first issue story though, seemed just okay, as barbarian comics go. Not bad, just okay--nothing to compare the old yarns spun by Roy Thomas and Micheal Fleisher. The art looked too computery, and some readers had issues with the grayscale (I didn't so much).  Like I said it's okay, but its the back-up story Solomon Kane, that has really excellent art and story, a bit like a reverse of the old Savage Sword, where the lead stories were the ones with the better art. The quality lasted throughout the Kane story, but the second issues lead Conan tale had art that again was okay, but seemed a bit sketchy. The werewolf story in the third was drawn by Dark Horse comics; great Cary Nord, who probably qualifies as one one of the New Masters of Conan art, but his more painterly techniques he used with the Dark Horse Conan's would have been better. 

    As for the Black Stone series, its a treat to see Howard's other lesser seen heroes like Steve Allison and El Borak get the comic book treatment. But the story and art I just don't care for so far. So basically, much as enjoy the return of Conan to comic form, I'm still a bit lukewarm on the latter two. 

    

The Early Adventures of El Borak

The new collection of Robert E. Howard's El Borak tales features a T-rex-like dinosaur on its cover. Initially i supposed that this might be just a gimmick to sell the book, as non-Howard tale, as I have one El Borak collection and I was not aware of any dinosaurs anywhere in the pages.

Turns out I was wrong.

The El Borak stories are not ones I've read as extensively as the Conan ones, mainly for the reason that there's very little in the way of fantastic (not necessarily supernatural) elements in the stories, the one exception being El Borak's encounter with a carnivorous gray ape, not unlike the ones that tend to turn up in the Conan stories.

I was surprised a bit to find that the vast majority of tales here were fragments and unfinished. The cover picture is from "The Land of Mystery", a tale that pays homage to H. Rider Haggard's tales of lost realms in the heart of Africa. Now I really haven't read Haggard, because from what I know of them, they're basically lost world tales without dinosaurs. (Yes, there was that proposed movie that was a crossover with Sherlock Holmes and Quartermain, who encountered prehistoric beasts kept alive by the Flame of Irridar from Haggard's She, as I've written elsewhere--but that's not canon).

Howard, however, does not make the same mistake here. The story starts in a drawing room, wherein El Borak and some friends, including Howard's other hero James Allison, are sitting around, listening to El Borak tell of this adventure. While exploring a remote region in the Congolese Africa, El Borak enters a land inhabited by two feuding tribes, one friendly, the other hostile. He penetrates a forbidden land, and first encounters tree-living gorillas far more aggressive than ordinary ones, something like the gray killer apes of Michael Critchton's Congo. He enters a strange, eerily silent forest that all humans and even the savage gorillas shun. This is where he comes face to face with a living theropod dinosaur. The scene has an air of fantastic unreality, even for El Borak, who has experienced many strange sights. There is a certain spookiness to the encounter, something that is a signature of Robert E. Howard. He feels as though he has been transported back to a primitive era, and that the rile he carries is now a stone-age ax.

The theropod bounds toward him like an enormous kangaroo, a method of locomotion once believed to have been true of giant theropods, but is now known to be incorrect--the same was true for the allosaurus in Burroughs' The Land that Time Forgot. He manages to fell the beast with two slugs from his rifle and ventures on. He catches glimpses of the other dinosaurs in the weird forest, but none other attacks him. He makes it of the forest, across a vast swamp and plain and into an unknown range of mountains. There he encounters a lost city of strange architecture that at first appears to be abandoned. It turns out there are remnants of what must be the builders still living there, a strange white race that might be the descendents of a lost colony of--what? Atlantis? Lemuria? Mu? Howard doesn't tell us, because the story stops after the hero rescues a blonde, violet-eyed girl from large men who seem to be soldiers of some sort. Where the story would have gone after that is anyone's guess. As its merely a fragment, though a fairly lengthy one, it would doubtless have been submitted to Weird Tales. Still, it's a major find on my part and wonderful to read and own this vintage Howard Tale after I thought I'd already consumed all of his weird fiction.

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Wrarrl the Devourer (with a bit on Imhotep the Ravager)

 

Cover of SSOC #96 by Joe Jusko

Wrarrl the Devourer of Souls is a reoccuring antagonist of Conan, apparently created by Michael Fleisher, and introduced in Savage Sword of Conan #90. He is of an other-dimensional race of beings bent of conquering the earth. He he wears a bat-winged helmet that partially conceals his inhuman visage, and sometimes rides a bat-winged horse. His main magical ability is to reduce human beings to "souls" which look like worms, which he devours, hence his name. The columnist of Savage Sword, in answer to a reader's query "why worms for souls?" replied it was "Because that's how Wrarrl sees human souls. To him they're bite-sized tasty treats. Yummy!" 

   The Devourer was first summoned to this dimension by a sorcerer named Meldark, who sought a jewel that would open a door to Wrarrl's realm, from which the Devourer's legions could pour forth into Conan's world. This was when Conan first fell afoul of him. Unfortunately for Wrarrl, he tried to double cross Meldark, and the wizard caused the souls in the Devourer's pouch to grow huge and suffocate him. As with Bor'que Sharaq, it appeared that the Devourer was destroyed, but we learned later on that he was merely banished to another realm. 

Conan encountering the Ape-Bat, a lycanthropic spawn of sorcery

    Wrarrl returned to Hyborian age earth, seeking revenge on Conan, and to release his minions once more in SSOC #96, in another Fleisher story called "the Ape-Bat of Marmert Tarn." The story's intertwined plot has Conan encounter a town whose windows and doors are bolted every night. The reason for this soon becomes clear, as a saber-fanged, bat-winged ape-creature is terrorizing the town after dark. After his first brush with the monster, Conan saves a girl from a giant cliff-mantis. It turns out, she is the daughter of a local wizard who lords over the town of Marmet Tarn. As for the ape-bat itself, the creature is very like the one in Howard's own tragic "Queen of the Black Coast," who kills Belit, incurring the wrath of Conan. While that beast was the degenerate last specimen of a vanished race, the ape-bat of Marmet Tarn, is of entirely different origin; Conan soon finds proof that the monster and the wizard are one. The girl's father transforms by sorcery into the creature every night to terrorize the villagers. Meanwhile, Wrarrl has returned and is seeking vengeance. A brief scene occurs early one when some cat-throat brigands mistake Wrarrl for a rich traveler--a fatal error, as one could predict!

I just happened upon this Ernie Chan pin-up of Conan and Wrarrl

    After vanquishing the ape bat, there is the inevitable showdown with the Devourer. The rescued girl reads a spell incantation from her father's tome, which temporarily steals away Conan's soul rendering him invulnerable to Wrarrl's magic, and allowing him to slay the Devourer with his sword. Wrarrl"s minons are still there, however, and immediately seek revenge for the death of their master, attempting to dismember the souless barbarian, by "rippling off his limbs, gouging out his eyes," etc. The sorcerer's daughter once again saves Conan by summoning a horde of zombified drowned sailors, but, tragically, sacrifices herself , as they drag her into the sea as well, leaving Conan to contemplate the soridness of the human condition.

    The Devourer, of course, is still not really dead. Wrarrl's next appearance was in Savage Sword #109. In the previous issue, who's main plot involved Conan's conflict with another antagonist, the  traitorous Nemedian inventor Pol Tiurno (more on him in another post), a subplot had the Devourer's minions seeking a sacrifice to summon their master back to the Hyborian realm. This involved the murder of a girl who had just been cruelly rejected, which was a bit disturbing. This sublpot leads directly to the main story of the following issue,called "The Shatterer of Worlds." 

    This was quite an atypical issue of Savage Sword, as Conan was not even the main character, and didn't even feature that much until the end. The story centers instead around a young boy who is learning a trade, and happens to be a huge fan of Conan. Yes, Conan's exploits had become widely renowned by this time, enough that he had his admirers among the Hyborian common folk! 

    In any event, the lad comes across the body of a harlot murdered by Wrarrl's minions, and overhears their plot to raise the Devourer from the dead. The boy takes the most logical course of action-- naturally, he seeks out his hero! After coming across the victims of brawls, swordfights, and a gaggle of young pretty women who have been "tired out" by Conan, the boy at last manages to track the Cimmerian down. Unfortunately, he happens to barge into to Conan's room at an inn, when Conan is in the midst of making love to another girl! Conan is understandably annoyed at this, though it's a bit of headscratcher why he does not at first take the lad's story seriously; Conan has seen far too much in his travels, even battled to Devourer twice already, not to at least consider that Wrarrl might be coming back. 

                                                          

   The truth soon becomes apparent of course; Conan's current love interest is soon captured by the Devourer's minions, and though Conan manages to save her from the sacrifice, a few droplets of the girl's blood are all it takes to revive Wrarrl, back and ripe for conquest! Unfortunately, though, the Devourer becomes enraged upon discovering his acylotes have inadvertently released another otherwordly being known as the Shatterer of Worlds. This elder-horror resembles a gigantic eyeball surrounded by writhing tentacles. Realizing that the Shatterer will simply destroy Conan's world before he can conquer it (along with Wrarrl"s own dimension!), the Devourer forges a temporary alliance with Conan. Gorging on the souls of his transformed minions, Wrarrl rises up to confront the Shatterer of Worlds. It's all over swiftly, and the world is saved once again. It's somewhat of a departure from the standard Conan formula, and a unique SS plot, though it's a bit disappointing that neither Conan nor Wrarrl feature that much until the very end. 

    That was Wrarrl's last appearance in SSOC. But unlike Bor'aque Sharaq, who was never seen outside SSOC, the Devourer did reappear in the Conan the Barberian color comic, under Jim Owsley's reign. This occured shortly after a rather lengthy story arc by Owsley, in which involved Conan and a few allies (including Keiv, a man turned into a plant-creature by sorcery, a guy who didn't like Conan named Delmario, and a girl named Tetra) with a mad Kushite called El Sha Madoc, who fancied himself a god, and presided over a Kothian city-state by the same name. Tetra, by the way, a girl whom Conan was in love at the time, died and was replaced by a demonic entity that was a duplicate of her, who absorbed her feelings and was love with Conan! But that whole story is way to convoluted to relate here, other than it involved a lot of political intrigue. 

    Well, one other thing is notable: Owsley invented an otherworldly antagonist of his own named Imhotep the Ravager (not to be confused with the real-life historical pharaoh of the same name). This entity wore blood-red robes, and ALSO rode a bat-winged stallion (though the horse, too, was blood-red), ALSO commanded a legion, and was bent on world conquest. Imhotep and his legions are ravaging across the Hyborian realm, leaving city after demolished city in their wake. El Sha Madoc lies straight in their path when Conan and his allies become embroiled in local politics. It is during a battle that Imhotep finally shows up, and he and Conan battle, in what seems like a duel to the death. But Conan manages to best Imhotep, and the latter calls a truce between them. After the rule of Madoc is shattered, Imhotep rides off into the sky, promising Conan that when they next meet "it will not be as allies." This proves not to quite the case however, when Imhotep once more returns, but this time in SSOC, under the new reign of Roy Thomas, when he again strikes a bargain with the Cimmerian against a common foe. 

    But back to Jim Owsley and Wrarrl. A sect of wizards known as the Council of Seven, seeking to assume political power over the city of El Sha Madoc ressurect the Devourer as an ally to their cause. The Council does not want Jahli, a young boy and heir who stands in their way, to ascend to the throne, and have him murdered. Conan fails to save Jahli's life, and swears vengeance on those responsible. I recall the final scene of one issue, in which one smarmy little man "fears later facing the Devourer," and taunts Conan that he killed the boy himself, and enjoyed doing so. Conan responds accordingly by hacking him to pieces. The cult member who actually committed the murder is, in fact, later transformed by Wrarrl and devoured! I kept think thinking that the poor kid would actually turn up alive. Unfortunately for Jahli, it never happened. Jim Owsley was a very good, but also very depressing writer, who had little hesitation in killing off any character. Sort of like the Stephen King of Conan comics. 

    The Devourer was still around for several issues more however, also written by Owsley, in which he was in more direct conflict with Conan, but when Buscema left and a different artist was brought, I really didn't collect many more issues of Conan the Barbarian, so I can't really say much, save to look up online sources for him. I don't know if there was a final fate for the Devourer, but as he seems essentially immortal, we have not likely seen the last of him. There is a new action figure based on Wrarrl. I'm still waiting to see if Wrarrl will ever come into to conflict with Sharaq. Or with Imhotep, which would be a far more even match. 

 Wrarrl capturing a young girl who apparently harbored powers, from later in Owsly's reign.  According to online sources, Wrarrl attempted to transform her and devour her soul, but since the child was innocent, it backfired, and the child was restored to life! This was a Jim Owsley tale, apparently in a Conan annual. I don't have the issue, but apparently Owsley sometimes spared character's lives after all

Titan's Conan #9

 This Roberto del Torre cover for Titan's comics' Conan The Barbarian 9 got my hopes up that they were adapting Howard's "Tower of the Elephant." Del Torre IS returning for this story arc, but so far as I can tell, it's a brand new story. Howard fans will recognize the scene in which Conan confronts the elephant-headed alien, Yag-Kosha, and it is a much better rendering than Cary Nord's for Dark Horse, as accomplished an artist as Nord is. But shouldn't Kosha be green? I suppose it's the lighting. Anyway, it appears they are NOT adapting the story, so no one get their hopes up. Or is it possible that Conan and Yag-Kosha will cross paths again? Doubtful, this DOES appear to be a scene from that story--Kosha is chained to the throne, presumably by the evil sorcerer who has enslaved him.

Chuck Dixon's Siege of the Black Citadel

 

   Over this holiday season I read Chuck Dixon's rather slim new Conan pastiche "Siege of the Black Citadel", about Conan  as a sword for hire, leading an army of Kothian rebels against their insane emperor, and his "Black Citadel", a fortress guarded not merely by the imperial army of Koth, but by dark sorcery. If you don't know who Dixon is, he had a long run was the regular writer of Savage Sword of Conan, Conan's black and white comic magazine, back in the day. He wrote many good and memorable Conan yarns, often tending toward the gruesome, back in the late eighties/early nineties after Micheal Fleisher's long run. He's most remembered by comic fans for his creation of the Batman villain Bane, for DC comics. 

   This whole novel just feels like it could fit into an issue of SSOC; I can imagine it as just such as story, illustrated by Gary Kwapisz, Dixon's offtime collaberator. That's no criticism; it's something of complement, given that there hasn't been anything like the richness of Savage Sword, with its often incredible art, backups, feature articles on REH, pinups, etc. On the other hand, this was only a fairly good story that would make a decent SSOC issue, nothing outstanding, and would likely be run-of-the mill as Dixon's stories go, not one of his best. In fact, many of his SSOC tales outdid this one. 

   There is, naturally, a climactic battle between Conan and a demonic creature summoned from an alien plane by the Citadel's mage at the climax of the tale, as there often is.

   The one issue I did have with the story was with a character I sympathized with that (I'm fairly certain) was not intended as sympathetic; namely Ozmeth, the puppet prince who was foolishly left in charge of Black Citadel. He was merely a teen or preteen, and was horrified when soldiers got cooked alive during the battle. Ozmeth is later driven mad when he foolishly looks upon the demonic entity after being sternly warned not to do so. I'll assume he was killed along with everyone else during the final destruction of the Citadel, but by that point, his death would be more or less a mercy. 

 

   So that's about all I have to say about this book. A better than average book on Dixon's part, but nothing really great as Conan pastiches go. 

The Black Stranger, aka The Treasure of Tranicos

 "The Black Stranger" is one of the darkest and most disturbing Conan stories Howard wrote. It is nearly novella length. It's mostly about Buccaneers searching for the treasure along a stretch of Pictish Wilderness coast.  But at the core of the tale is the story of a corrupt nobleman, Count Valenso, on the run from a mysterious vengeful entity, the "Black Stranger" of the title. Valenso has joined one of two sets of feuding bucaneers, supposedly in hope s of securing Tranicos' treasure himself. But the true reason for his presence among them, which Valenso has kept secret, proves far darker. 

    The Count is accompanied by his young niece Belasa, and her younger (sister?) Tina, whom he treats with cold indifference. Apparently the two children are orphaned and are forced to live with their callous uncle, and are in among this rough crew of unfeeling adult males because they have no where else to go. Valenso makes it clear later on that he intends to sell both children into slavery or get rid of them. This element of the tale has an almost Dickensian feel to it.

   The most disturbing incident in the entire story occur when the Count is discussing with his men how to secure the treasure and survive the Picts, when the young serving girl, Tina, blurts out that she has witnessed a "black man" come ashore in a strange boat limned with blue fire. She was frightened and observed him from behind a ridge of sand. Valenso nearly goes mad, first with horror and astonishment, which then transforms to rage, as whips the poor bewildered child with insane fury, until her back is lacerated and nearly flayed, screaming for her to confess that she is lying. The child screams for mercy and insists she is telling only what she saw. Howard describes the faces of the other men as "uncaring as oxen", the awful scene of child brutality not moving them in the least. Belasa comes to Tina's rescue, as the rage suddenly desert's the uncle, and it is clear to the reader that he is now in state of terrorized despair. There is no question that nothing less than stark terror triggered his brutalization of the child. Needless to say, far from thinking Tina a liar, he believes her every word. 

    Now when I originally read this, it was a copy of the altered version retitled "The Treasure of Tranicos," and it was co-authored by L. Sprague DeCamp. And something didn't seem right. It is later revealed that the black stranger is none other than Thoth Amon, the Stygian sorcerer, and Conan's old foe. This didn't quite ad up. For one thing, Amon was DeCamp/Carter creation, and had appeared numerous times in the Conan comics. And also the Stygians (proto Egyptians) were dusky skinned, while Tina described the stranger as tall and "black like a Kushite." Knowing how Howard's original Conan stories bordered on belonging to the horror genre, and judging from Valenso's reaction to the news of the stranger's arrival, this being had to something far worse than a human sorcerer, either Stygian nor Kushite. 

  And thus proved to be the case. 

   It wasn't until many years later that I finally got hold of the original, unaltered Howard yarn, published along with other similarly dark Howardian yarns in the volume pictured above. When the stanger beats his drum within the woods, a wild storm wrecks Valenso's ship, leaving the men stranded and at the mercy of the indigenous Picts.  We learn from Valenso's lips that the stranger is actually a demon cast in a human-like shape, whom he paid a wizard to conjure up to destroy his (Valenso's)enemies, to gain him a position of power. But the corrupt noble tried to cheat the demon, and the dark entity slew the wizard that conjured him, and began pursuing Valenso to the ends of the earth. 

    Now that's vintage Howard for you!

    I won't say more, save---don't read if you don't want to know, slight spoiler---the stranger does get revenge on the count, and has a climactic showdown with Conan. Who unsurprisingly, is the one who recovers the treasure, and uses part of it to make sure the children Belasa and Tina have a secure furtue. One thing Howard makes disturbingly clear in this tale is the utter powerlessness of children, particularly (I imagine) female children among brutal and uncaring adults during the Hyborian age. And that, of course, goes for most of actual recorded history as well. 

Bar'aque Sharaq: Michael Fleisher's Deathless Villain

 

The Bob Larkin painting of Conan facing off with Bor'aque Sharaq. Sharaq was a re-occuring villain during Micheal Fleisher's long run at Savage Sword. He was a Barachan pirate who was captured and tortured by the Argossan navy to find Conan's whereabouts, and they gouged out his left eye in the process. After that, the disfigured corsair became obsessed with killing Conan.

All this happened in a story called "Temple of the Twelve-Eyed Thing," which ended with the titular creature flinging Sharaq to his apparent death out a tower window. But Sharaq survived, and reappeared off and on throughout Fleisher's run, on his quest for vengeance. The issue below is one of a two-part story featuring Sharaq. illustrating the climax, in which a demon from the netherworld reaches out to claim a sacrifice, but it's Sharaq he grabs, not the girl on the alter. It is at this climax that Fleisher cheats a bit, refering to Sharaq's "death-shrieks", as we learn in a later tale that the pirate survived the incident by making a bargain with the demon. He is eventually is able to escape the fiend's dimension, and resumes his quest for revenge. This tale was illustrated by Alfredo Alcala, by the way.

One thing that always bugged me about Sharaq is that Fleisher always had him slaughtering without a hint of remorse any innocent person who happened to get in his way, apparently to demonstrate how evil and ruthless he was. It's fine that Sharaq was so evil. What bothered me was the fact that these innocent people got killed. Worse, Sharaq never got his comupance. Each time Conan thought he had destroyed the corsair for good, Sharaq would always bounce back.

That is, until after an adventure with Snow Raven, one of Conan's many love interests, at the climax of which Sharaq was frozen in mystic ice. It was clear that the ice would melt, and Sharaq would be free, once Conan and Snow-Raven were far away. But ironically, this time Sharaq never showed up again. Fleisher's reign was at end at SSOC, and he later took over as the writer for Warlord at DC. Letters often inquired if Sharaq would be back, but he never was, not during Chuck Dixon's reign, or Roy Thomas's return.

Then again, if SSOC is returning, might it be that Sharaq might return as well?