If you missed the last one…
Creatures on the Loose #26 (November 1973) saw the departure of Vince Colletta as inker. From now on the artwork in the comic would vary depending on who was involved. The replacement inker was Wayne Howard, better known from Charlton Comics like Midnight Tales. His style is based on Wally Wood‘s fantastic and horror work. As an inker for Val Mayerik he was adequate if not exciting.
George Alec Effinger also left. He was replaced by veteran Pulps and comics writer, Gardner F. Fox. GFF wrotet he very first S&S comic in Crom the Barbarian in 1950. Fox left DC where he was one of their key writers for decades. He wrote for Marvel, Warren and Skywald during this time. He also penned two series of paperbacks starring Kothar and Kyrik.
The opening of the comic delivers a large info dump of Lemurian history that drives our heroes to their desperate mission. Fox handled it with several pages of heroic recap. The villains of the book, the Dragon Kings, are introduced along with the Valkarthan god, Gorm. Unlike Conan’s Crom, Gorm is a god who helps his children. We learn that Thongor’s distant ancestor, Thungarth, wielded the Star Sword created by Gorm.
Thongor looks away from the wizard’s mirror and notices a female servant. He is as surprised as we are! In the glass, Sharajsha shows how the terrible Dragon Kings ruled the world.
The humans suffer greatly, so Thungarth calls on the all-father, Gorm. The god creates the Star Sword, the only thing that can defeat the lizard men.
Sharajsha explains that a star stone exists in the Scarlet Tower of Tsargol. With this metal, Sharjsha could make a new star sword. It will be Thongor’s mission to take the flying boat to the tower and steal the weapon. The boat was broken by the Grakk but Sharajsha can easily work with urlium, the metal that repels gravity.
Thongor goes on his mission and easily makes it into the tower. His difficulties begin once inside. The tower is guarded by the Slorgs, woman-headed serpents.
He fights and kills many. Free once again he finds the star stone and ties it to the waiting rope from the boat.
The master of the tower, the Archdruid Yelim Pelorvis, sends the slorgs against Thongor and he is captured. The flying boat get away with the star stone.
Thongor is put into the dungeon. Which means he will soon have a new friend. This time it is not Ald Thurvis but the also ERB-sounding Karm Karvus.
The two warriors are sent to the arena, where a young woman is also present as a sacrifice. The men will have to face the terror of the arena, a very rare Zemadar. (A big lizard!)
Thongor kills the monster by driving his sword into the Zemadar’s eye. This causes the monster to rise up. Karm Karvus stabs it in the heart as it exposes its underbelly. (Try and imagine it all as a Ray Harryhausen movie scene…)
No surprise, this pisses off the Sark of Tsargol, since the monster was his favorite. Too bad for the ruler, Thongor is the best sword-thrower in all of Valkarth.
This issue has a nice blend of Edgar Rice Burroughs (Karm Karvus and the arena fight!) and Robert E. Howard elements (towers and snakes). The Dragon Kings are in imitation of King Kull’s Serpent Men from “The Shadow Kingdom” (Weird Tales, August 1929), who were also part of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos monsters. The Slorgs are Carter’s second female monsters, after his bird-demon. The late introduction of the female serving girl, Slissa, does little to off-set the large number of aggressive female baddies. Fortunately, the Dragon Kings aren’t all Dragon Queens.
Next time…plenty of sword-fighting!
