Solomon Kane: The Weird Tales Adaptations

Solomon Kane is an iconic character. When Hugh Jackman plays a descendant of Abraham van Helsing, he looks like Kane. That austere warrior in the big-brimmed hat is a force to reckon with as he fights flying monsters.

The original Robert E. Howard stories began before Kull and Conan, so they aren’t technically Sword & Sorcery but they feel like S&S. To split hairs is rather stupid with Howard anyway. Whether it is in a time before history or during history is of little importance. In any age, a Howard character is an explosion of action on any scene.

The Kane stories were Howard’s first big success in Weird Tales, getting the cover for August 1928. (Not his first cover, that went to “Wolfshead” in April 1926). Six more stories appeared until July 1932 and “Wings in the Night”. By this time Howard had already finished with Kull and was penning the Conan stories. For the next four years Conan would be his main focus, though in the 1960s and 70s Kane would get the unpublished and fragmented pieces revived in paperback form.

Marvel Comics began adapting Solomon Kane stories shortly after the success of Conan the Barbarian. 1973 saw “The Skulls in the Stars” done for the horror magazine Monsters Unleashed #1. Later Kane would meet Dracula in the same pages. Once the Marvel/Howard machine got going, Solomon Kane appeared regularly in the pages of Savage Sword of Conan.

I have arranged these adaptations by their original Weird Tales appearances, not their comic book versions.

“Red Shadows” (Weird Tales, August 1928) has Solomon Kane following the murderer, Le Loup, all the way to Africa when he wantonly kills a young girl. The Wolf allies himself with a tribe on the coast and its king, Songa. Kane is quickly captured. In his hut is another captive, the Juju man, N’Longa. Gulka the gorilla-slayer overhears the two men and they are to be sacrificed to the Black God. Gulka tries to stare Kane down but fails. In his rage he grabs a man and cuts his heart out on the altar of the Black God. kane sees the gorilla Gulka killed and placed in a tree.

When the logs are being lit, N’Longa warns Songa that his magic is great. He appears to fall dead but soon the corpse of the sacrifice stands up and walks toward Songa. The king throws a spear into the zombie but he can’t stop it from killing him. When the villagers see this they free Kane and N’Longa. Kane pursues Le Loup and finally kills him in a duel. While Kane bathes his many wounds, Gulka gets the advantage over the wounded man and gloats. Suddenly a giant shadow comes from the jungle. It is the male partner of the slain gorilla. The giant crushes Gulka like a toy and slams his body into a broken branch, leaving him hanging like the slain female. Kane is left alone, deciding to return to his ship that lies waiting on the sea.

The first of the series to be published, it sets many of Kane’s famous habits and his association with N’Longa. Not the most supernatural of stories but Howard was happy with a gorilla or a snake at times. The zombie was obviously strong enough for Farnsworth Wright who gave the cover to this story. Howard probably originally hoped to sell the story to Adventure, not Weird Tales.

The first adaptation of “Red Shadows” appeared in Marvel Premiere #33-34 (December 1976-February 1977) The script was provided by Roy Thomas and artwork was by Howard Chaykin.

“The Skulls in the Stars” (Weird Tales, January 1929) has Solomon Kane coming to a split in the trail, after leaving Torkerton, one going the long way to London through a swamp and a shorter path going over a moor. A young lad tells him that everyone takes the swamp road because the moor road is haunted. Solomon, guns and sword ready, takes the moor road. In the coming night he hears a man fleeing a laughing pursuer. The man falls torn to bits dead at Kane’s feet. The monster appears as a misty shadow, which forms burning eyes and then a mouth. Though immaterial, it possesses sharp talons which tear Kane’s clothing and body. He fires both pistols into the shade then attempts to kill it with his sword. None of these prove effective, so he wrestles with it, using only his courage and faith. The ghostly demon flees him in the end for it can not defeat the man’s iron will. Before it flees it whispers a terrible secret.

We cut to Kane walking back to Torkerton to the house of Ezra the miser. Kane confronts the man about Gideon, his cousin, an idiot who once lived with him but has been gone the past year. People gather as Kane accuses Ezra of murdering the man. Kane and the crowd take him to the oak on the moor where the dead man’s skull is found. Ezra murdered Gideon because he would tell of the cruelties Ezra committed against his cousin. He killed him on the moor because he didn’t want the ghost too close to town. The ghost has been killing blindly, looking for Ezra. Kane and the villagers tie Ezra to the tree and wait for Gideon to come for his revenge.

The comic version is unusual for several reasons. First it did not appear in a Robert E. Howard-related comic but in Monsters Unleashed #1 (1973) The scripting is by Roy Thomas (which is not unusual) but the art was by Ralph Reese, who did most of his work in underground comics. This comic is visually interesting because it hasn’t been inspired by decades of John Buscema.

In “The Rattle of Bones” (Weird Tales, June 1929) Kane encounters a traveler out on the road. Kane vaguely recognizes him and is suspicious. The traveler reveals himself to be none other than Gaston the Butcher, a brutal bandit that lures travelers into a killing den disguised as a tavern. Kane and Gaston fight in the darkness but a previous victim claims Gaston’s life with skeletal hands.

This story appeared in Savage Sword of Conan #18 (April 1977). Once again adapted by Roy Thomas and drawn by Howard Chaykin.

“Moon of Skulls” (Weird Tales, June-July 1930) has Kane return to Africa, this time seeking Nakari, the vampire queen of Negari.  Kane soon finds the the ancient city built by an older race. The current occupants are native Africans who seek depravity and debauchery, overseen by Nakari herself.  Capturing Kane, Nakari offers Kane his freedom if he will be her lover.  Kane, of course, refuses Kane. He has come to Negari to find an Englishwoman named Marylin, kidnapped and sold to the Barbary pirates.  Marylin winds up as Nakari’s plaything.  She is about to be sacrificed to the Moon of Skulls, the god of Negari. Kane fights Nakari, knocking her out with a pistol butt. When she recovers and charges him he kills her with his blade. The English escape as the city suffers an earthquake.

This serial was the longest of the Kane stories and contains many elements Howard would use again in the Conan series: evil queens who like to whip other women, the offer of a kingship for sex, sacrifice to eldritch gods.

It was adapted in three non-consecutive issues, for Savage Sword of Conan #34 (October 1978), #37 (February 1979), and #39 (April 1979). The script was provided by Don Glut. Art was drawn by David Wenzel and Bill Wray inking the first installment, then only Wenzel for the rest.

“The Hills of the Dead” (Weird Tales, August 1930) has Solomon Kane receive a gift from his friend, Nlonga the Juju man, before setting off into the jungle. N’Longa gives him a staff of hardwood with a cat’s head carved in the top. N’Longa tells him if he needs help to lie down and sleep with the staff on his chest.

Kane wanders from the jungle to the savannah, where he rescues a black girl from a charging lion. He insists on taking her to her village but they have to stay over night in a cave in the hills, though she begs him not to stay there. While making a fire, two strange looking black men come to the fire and stare at Kane with glowing red eyes. When Zunna, the girl, returns with firewood, they attack. Kane kills one by shoving the juju staff through its chest, turning it to ash. The other he has to wrestle until he can break its neck. Powerless but not destroyed, Kane finishes it with the staff. Zunna explains that her village has been terrorized by the vampires that live in an ancient stone city in the hills. The vampires hide in the day time to avoid the vultures which will feast on them.

Kane sleeps with the staff on his chest and calls N’Longa in his sleep. His instructions are to bring the girl’s lover, Kran, to the cave. When this is done, N’Longa takes over his body and puts Zunna in a trance to sleep. Kane and N’Longa (in Kran’s body) go to the city in the hills and prepare to fight the vampires. While getting ready, one attacks N’Longa and Kane shoots it with his musket. The sound brings all the vampire horde and Kane must battle them to give N’Longa time to cast his magic. When things look desperate. a massive flock of vultures come, summoned by the juju man, and chase the vampires back to their city. N’Longa sets the grass on fire and the sudden flames destroy the undead. Returning to the cave, N’Longa bids Kane farewell and Kran returns to his body, unaware of what has happened.

Probably written in 1928, Weird Tales finally published it in 1930. It is interesting to see how Howard handles vampires, such a staple of Weird Tales. He manages to make them creepy and unusual. He wrote a much more ordinary vampire story in “The Horror from the Mound” (Weird Tales, May 1932) set in Texas though even that one got comments in the letter column, The Eyrie, about “not playing by the rules”.

“The Hills of the Dead” was adapted in Kull and the Barbarians #2 (May 1975) #3 (September 1975) with script by Roy Thomas. The artwork by Alan Weiss and Neal Adams is without doubt my favorite of all the Kane adaptations.

“The Footfalls Within” (Weird Tales, September 1931) has Solomon Kane following a band of Arab slavers who have taken the people of a friendly village. When he sees the cruel men about to skin a girl as a diversion he loses control and fires upon them. This results in them surrounding him. At a great cost in lives, they subdue Kane and tie him up. He is to be sold to certain Arabs who Kane scarred when he escaped from slavery years before. One of the slavers, Yussef, takes Kane’s cat-headed juju staff and asks him questions about it, at the same time as he tells Kane it is older than Atlantis. The Arabs happen upon a strange mausoleum as the day’s travel ends. The leader of the Arabs, Hassim ben Said, is lured by the thoughts of treasure to have the vault opened even though Kane can hear monstrous footfalls within the structure. When the lock is smashed, an evil vapor escapes, killing Hassim. The other Arabs flee. Kane breaks his bonds and retrieves his staff. With this, he kills the elder thing, even as Solomon could not do ages before. He releases the slaves and continues on his way.

An alternate version of the Kull story “The Skull of Silence”. This version is better because the hero isn’t fool enough to release the monster in the first place. The illustration by C. C. Senf is a bust though. Senf obviously didn’t pay attention, drawing Kane like an African explorer.

The comic appeared in Marvel Preview #19 (Summer 1979) along with other Howard characters such as Kull. The story was adapted by Don Glut, art by Will Meugniot and Steve Gan. This story is considered part of the Cthulhu Mythos and the artists tried to convey some of that eldritch weirdness.

In “Wings in the Night” (Weird Tales, July 1932) Kane is running in the jungle, when he comes to a village where all the people have been killed but nothing has been taken. Kane is fleeing from cannibals. Staying the night, he gets jumped by one of the man-eaters. But before the cannibal can strike he is taken by a winged monster. He has now seen the harpies who haunt the jungle.

Kane discovers another village, one where the inhabitants regularly sacrifice individuals to the harpies who terrorize them. The Bogonda are a peaceful people and when they see Kane kill one of the monsters with a pistol, they think their deliverer has arrived. The villagers do not pay the sacrifice and the harpies attack en masse. Kane does what he can, killing half a dozen, but the Bogonda are wiped out.

Feeling guilty for their deaths, Kane devises a desperate trap to kill all the harpies. He lures them all inside a sealed hut and burns them to death, killing any who might escape the flames.

And to go back to van Helsing, we find the movie borrowed heavily from this story, at least in the early parts, having Hugh Jackman in his Solomon Kane gear, shooting and fighting winged harpie-like vampires. For Howard fans, it was welcome but an actual Solomon Kane film would have been better. We did get one in 2010 with James Purefoy as an excellent Kane. (It could have used the harpies.)

This comic version was done over two issues, Savage Sword of Conan #53 (June 1980) and #54 (June 1980). Script was again by Don Glut and art by David Wenzel.

In the end, it was David Wenzel who really became known as the Solomon Kane artist with his gray ink washes. Howard Chaykin was earlier but moved on from back-up features to pursue his own comics such as Iron-Wolf, Cody Starbuck and the first Star Wars comic.

There would be Solomon Kane adaptations and new stories to come but we will look at those another time.