Fabian's Queen Of The Black Coast!

"Whenever I was obliged to draw a violent scene, I had to decide how far to go. Today, violence on film, on television, and in comic books sometimes reaches a level of grossness I find hard to stomach. When this drawing was in the preliminary pencil stage, I had Conan's sword swinging down just above the native warrior's head, I would not go so far as to show the head being lopped off, that would be too gross. But when I was in the inking stage and got to that area, without thinking about it I erased the pencilwork and redrew the sword lopping off the head! It was a mistake, I should have left that part up to the viewer's imagination. There is no excuse for being gross. I made the same mistake when I painted a poster showing Conan cutting a giant ape in half with his sword, which also happens to be based on the same story, "Queen of the Black Coast". I guess I got caught up in the violent nature of Conan and lost control of myself!" - Stephen Fabian

"One of the early decisions an illustrator has to make when composing a picture is where to put the horizon line, or the viewpoint. In this case I placed it at the lower part of the picture so that both Conan and the viewer have to look up at Belit, who is basically performing, 'on stage'." - Stephen Fabian

"It was but a ghost of a city on which they looked when they cleared a jutting jungle-clad point and swung in toward the in-curving shore. Weeds and ran river grass grew between stones of broken piers and shattered paves that had once been streets and spacious plazas of broad courts. From all sides the except the river, the jungle crept in, masking columns and crumbling mounds with poisonous green. Here and there buckling towers reeled drunkenly against the morning sky, and broken pillars jutted up among the decaying walls." - Queen of the Black Coast

The cold light struck icy fire from the jewels in Belit's clustered black locks as she stretched her lithe figure on a leopard skin thrown on the deck. - Queen of the Black Coast

Then the rest were on him, in a nightmare rush of blazing eyes and dripping fangs. His fiercely driven sword shore the first asunder: then the desperate impact of the others bore him down. - Queen of the Black Coast 

In one mad instant she was there- a tense white shape, vibrant with love fierce as a she-panthers. The dazed Cimmerian saw between him and the onrushing death, her lithe figure, shimmering like ivory beneath the moon: he saw the blaze in her dark eyes, the thick cluster of her burnished hair: her bosom heaved, her red lips were parted, she cried out sharp and ringing as the ring of steel as she thrust at the winged monster's breast. - Queen of the Black Coast

So passed the Queen of the Black Coast, and leaning on his red-stained sword, Conan stood silently until the red glow had faded far out in the blue hazes and dawn splashed its rose and gold over the ocean. - Queen of the Black Coast

Here's a link to the complete REH story "Queen of the Black Coast".

These are some of the most beautiful images I've ever seen from Fabian. He's a master. 

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La Reina de la Costa Negra!

I have to file La Reina De La Costa Negra under stuff I likely knew but had forgotten, though much apparently about this situation has come to light in recent years. It seems that several years before Marvel's blockbuster launch of Conan into its comic universe, the creations of Robert E. Howard had already had a relatively successful introduction into the Mexican comic book world. 

It's not quite the true-blue Howard (but then neither are the Marvel or Dark Horse versions, and many argue neither are the iconic Lancer books given the sometimes-controversial editorial involvement of L. Sprague De Camp and Lin Carter). But it seems the Conan's paramour from the exciting Howard story "Queen of the Black Coast" had her own comic which did feature Conan (sort of) as a sidekick. Look here for some more details.

Based on the covers I've seen these seem to be some competent comics (for the era) and I'd love to get hold of one just to see what it's like. As the typically hyperbolic ad says Conan was indeed the "The Comic-Mag Event of the 70's!!", but what we didn't know then was that it had also been the same in the 60's just south of the border.

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Kull Exile Of Atlantis!

I've said before that of all of Robert E.Howard's creations, King Kull is perhaps my favorite. Having recently re-read the slim canon of adventures from the pen of REH titled Kull - Exile of Atlantis, I can confirm that opinion. There's something magnificent about Kull, that alas never quite attaches to the personality of the more realistically portrayed Conan. Kull is a cooler head by a mote, and while of barbaric origins seems a bit more comfortable in his royal persona. If I had to separate the two, I'd say that Kull is smart and even reflective, while Conan is savvy with sharp instincts,  Kull is noble while Conan is brave.You might even refer to Kull as a Philosopher-King, but you'd never hang that tag on Conan.

Perhaps the best story Howard ever wrote was "The Shadow Kingdom" which appeared in Weird Tales and debuted Kull, and created (in the minds of many) the genre of sword and sorcery. If so, it's a mighty beginning and remains at least the most atmospheric of Howard's S&S stories. Kull's adventures.  This story along with "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune" and "Kings in the Night" are the only three Kull stories published in Howard's lifetime and the unpublished "By this Axe I Rule" became the template for Conan's debut story "The Phoenix and the Sword". The former is a better story I think, though with little or no magic but fuller characterization for the conspirators.

A lot of Kull's canon didn't find an audience until the 60's in the Lancer paperback which appeared after the enormous success of the Conan series. Under an evocative Roy Krenkel cover these yarns have a real potency and are rife with potential.

Years later, I read them in this Bantam collection which largely reprints the earlier Lancer effort. Ballantine's collection from 2006 is handsome and sturdy and offers up more fragments and drafts. The artwork by Justin Sweet is exquisite and runs throughout the book.

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The King Is Dead! Long Live King Kull!

Marvel had blundered into a real success with Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian. The Bronze Age was blooming and with the now mostly defunct Comics Code having eroded somewhat, the time was ripe for new and old genres to return among the cavalcade of superheroes. Conan was a spearhead in the move for diversity. But with success the desire to imitate is quickened and so Marvel cast about for a copy of their highly successful (ultimately) sword and sorcery star.

(Roy Krenkel)

Lin Carter's Thongor of Lemuria, and John Jakes Brak the Barbarian would be given the nod. But clearly the best first choice was found in Howard's own works, specifically the hero who had preceded and was in many ways exceedingly similar to Conan, the answer was King Kull.

They tried him out in one of their monster comics. The title had been Tower of Shadows and it had debuted alongside its companion Chamber of Darkness a few years previous as EC-style horror mags featuring new stories and art from the Marvel Bullpen. But that didn't seem to be successful, so the decision was made to turn Tower of Shadows into the Creatures on the Loose and feature reprints of vintage Marvel/Atlas monsters from the classic days.

But during that transition, there had been plans apparently to feature a King Kull story written by Roy Thomas and drawn by the young talent Berni Wrightson. Wrightson would make his reputation a year later at DC when he and Len Wein co-created Swamp Thing, but at that moment he was doing covers for Marvel, specifically the aforementioned horror mags Tower of Shadows and Chamber of Darkness. Wrightson was graduated from covers to a complete story with King Kull.

This story was an adaptation of a Howard story which had only recently been uncovered and published. It speaks for itself, and you can read the adaptation of "The Skull of Silence" in its entirety here.

But what's curious is how Wrightson's original cover for the story was shelved in favor of the Marie Severin version eventually used. Marie's is more kinetic in a classic comic book way, but Wrightson's is the better cover, more obviously in keeping with the story it advertises. Maybe it was the title change that prompted the new Severin cover, as it seems to have been made very quickly, since ads about Kull being in Tower of Shadows had already been published. Maybe Kull's back is too much to the reader, but whatever the cause, the cover was changed, and Wrightson's Kull was hidden behind a rather "superheroesque" cover.

I've always liked Kull. Robert E. Howard's other sword and sorcery hero, the prototype to the much more financially successful Conan is at once the same and different from his more famous glowering brother-creation. He is a King of Valusia, and with that comes age and maturity and a greater comfort with the supernatural than Conan ever displayed. Conan as King of Aquilonia is familiar with dark magic but it still makes him bristle, while Kull battling black magic always was opposed but never quite dismayed by it. Kull was a bit more learned perhaps than Conan, at least I always imagined it so. Kull's Atlantis was less barbaric by a small bit than Conan's Cimmeria maybe. His was a civilization soon to crash which Conan's is one still gathering its strength. 

Above you can get a great look at two very distinctive takes on a fantastic debut cover for the debut of Kull the Conqueror. 

Howard's surly king got his own title with scripts by Roy Thomas and art by Ross Andru and Wally Wood. But that team didn't last as while Thomas lingered a bit, the art was taken on by the brother-sister act of Marie and John Severin. This duo is what makes these early issues of Marvel's Kull the Conqueror so memorable.

Marie offered up some muscular pencils in the brawny Marvel style while John inked them in a way that evoked more classic comics like the work of Hal Foster and others. The synthesis of these two was remarkable and made for good comics. Gerry Conway took over for Roy after a short time and Kull rumbled along with a hiatus here and there. The sales weren't great, and Kull became a sidebar in Marvel's black and white line where sword and sorcery could really show its stuff. 

Dark Horse reprinted those Marvel comics, though I have to say the artwork was not as clean as I'd have hoped. Maybe it's the original materials but the work seems a bit muddy to me compared to the other volumes Dark Horse has reproduced. The stories are still great though, and they offered up many fine moments of pleasure and dallied with the trade for a few days.

A very good sword and sorcery read. But that's not all. 

Dark Horse has done a pretty dang good job collecting up Marvel's REH material. The run of Conan trades has been pretty awesome and now that the series is into issues, I didn't get off the stands, I have beautiful "new" John Buscema artwork to look forward to a few times a year.

One of the runs I yearned for them to get to was the King Kull material. The first volume featured great comics by Marie and John Severin, even if the reproduction was a bit muddy in places. The second volume caps off that classic run.

But the big news is it gives us the lush revision by Mike Ploog. It's a shame Ploog couldn't do more of these, as issue eleven of the newly dubbed "Kull the Destroyer" is as good as S&S comics get. But with the very next issue, the inking by Sal Buscema while perfectly fine lacked the luster of the earlier installment and things go downhill from there.

Ploog and Steve Englehart left the book after a handful of issues and are replaced by Doug Moench, Ed Hannigan and the great Alfredo Alcala. But while all of those talents are great in other times and places, the final result here looks rushed and muddled.

It doesn't help that there is a two-year break in the run between issues fifteen and sixteen. Kull had some B&W adventures in between there and they are key to understanding the subsequent stuff. It's not included though there are some obligatory explanations.

Marvel apparently thought that the failure of Kull was due to his being a King, as they cast him down off the throne and make him a wannabe again. This served to make him more like Conan, but it sadly also took away much that made him distinctive. In the later issues of this run, it might as well be Conan in the mix as the distinctive personality of Kull, reflective and less reflexively violent is gone.

It's a shame, but I'm still glad this material is finding a new audience. I just hope that audience is a forgiving one.

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