Beowulf Comics: DC’s Dragonslayer #5 December 1975-January 1976

If you missed the last one…

Beowulf Dragonslayer #5 (December 1975-January 1976) was, without doubt, the most Science Fictional of the six issues. Ancient swordsmen versus aliens from UFOs. As I mentioned before, John Jakes parodied the idea in his novel, Mention My Name in Atlantis (1972) with Conax the Barbarian. Jakes ties in the Atlantis myth as will Michael Uslan in this comic. I personally found the humor annoying in Jakes’ book (not much on humorous fantasy — my one fault as a human being — and can’t say I am crazy about mixing UFOs with Sword & Sorcery. This, despite growing up in a town with a UFO landing pad!)

All of this Atlantis/UFO visitors began with Erich Von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods? (1968). The book suggested that images in ancient artifacts portray aliens in spaceships. He works in Egyptian pyramids, Stonehenge, Peruvian ruins and many others. The book was a bestseller and influenced much of the 1970s UFO culture. You find its marks in Don F. Glut’s Tragg and the Sky Gods from Gold Key. You find it in Kenneth Bulmer’s Odan the Half-God series from DAW books, 1977-1980 (as Manning Norvil). You find it here in Beowulf #5. (To be honest you find it 1940 in Manly Wade Wellman’s “The Day of the Conquerors” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, January 1940).

Let’s see what Uslan does with the idea…

In Asia, the heroes come across a ruin that reminds Beowulf of Stonehenge in England. On the stones they see the image of the chariot of the gods (above).

Suddenly a sorceress and her druids appear from nowhere. She knows Beowulf’s name and has come to destroy him. She has a bevy of druids to help her.

Each of the companions tries to stop of the priests but neither Nan-Zee, Sydriit nor Wiglaf can stand against their zappy powers.

The Shaper tries his magic and is zapped too. (This image reminds me of Jim Starlin.)

It is Beowulf who strikes back, using their own energy against them.

Unferth, always the coward, runs off to find a flying saucer. He meets a woman from space and makes a deal. He will capture Beowulf, which he does by striking him from behind with a club.

Beowulf and Nan-Zee awaken to meet their jailer, the space woman. They are given a tour of the ship and see the frozen heroes. She explains that her tribe, with their far-eastern druids, were chosen to serve the gods. Beowulf and Nan-Zee see the Earth far below them. To pay back Unferth and the druids back on Earth, the space woman zaps them with a laser.

Unferth and the other companions survive the treachery only to be attacked by new enemies. They are taken prisoner. (Their fate will be known next issue.)

The space woman hears Beowulf mention the Zumak fruit, the object of their quest. She laughs. She tells him that the gods have taken all the Zumak. Beowulf sees Satan’s ironic plan…

Beowulf has had enough. He beats back the druids, while Nan-Zee deals with the priestess. Beowulf starts pulling out the wires on the cryo-chamber.

The frozen warriors revive. They are not happy with their hostess. One of the warriors thanks Beowulf. The Prince of the Geats mentions the Zumak. The warrior tells him he has seen the fruit growing on the island of Crete. Using the viewer, the warrior shows Beowulf the legendary land of Atlantis below them.

Beowulf calls the frozen warriors together. They must land the saucer in Atlantis. The gods themselves feel otherwise…

The aliens try to stop them by putting them to sleep. Beowulf fights them, biting one of the aliens and taking his ray gun.

Having zapped the ship’s controls, fire breaks out and the ship crashes…

…causing Atlantis to sink. (Yep, it was all Beowulf’s fault!)

Beowulf, Nan-Zee and the warrior jump out of the crashing ship. They are the only ones to survive.

The warrior tells Beowulf how the aliens used “Science” to make all the frozen men understand each other. The goddess Athena appears and we learn the warrior is Odysseus, lost after the Trojan Wars. He fades back into history. Beowulf and Nan-Zee are off to Crete to find the last of the Zumak fruit.

Tales of Atlantis have been part of Fantasy fiction since the novel became the primary mode to write in. L. Sprague de Camp, in his book Lost Continents (1970), discusses or mentions: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, The Lost Continent by C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne, the Atlantis stories of Clark Ashton Smith (Malygris), Robert E. Howard (Kull), Lillian Elizabeth Roy’s The Prince of Atlantis, Phyllis Cradock’s Gateway to Remembrance, Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Maracot Deep”, New Trade Winds For the Seven Seas by Alaric J. Roberts, “The Sunken World ” by Stanton Coblentz, Dennis Wheatley’s They Found Atlantis, Three Go Back by J. Leslie Mitchell, The Breaking of the Seals and Alas, The Great City by Francis Ashton, The Lost Garden by C. G. Foster, The Monster of Mu by Owen Rutter, Tlavatli by Otto Schulz, Out of the Silence by Erle Cox, Deluge by S. Fowler Wright…and many more.

The Atlantis motif goes back to Plato, of course, but theosophists and “free thinkers” have been tying it to the supernatural ever since at least Victorian times. The more modern 1970s craze was hardly new, merely a new version for a generation seeking answers after an unpopular war, social upheaval, and a loosening of restrictive religious values. Like Lancer Sword & Sorcery, it starts in the 1960s and blossoms in the 1970s. (Some of the images and ideas seen here will surface again in the 1990s with Stargate (1994). The heavily Egyptian flavored aliens and a plot borrowed from Louis L’Amour’s The Haunted Mesa (1987) would spawn several television shows as well.)

Our final issue next time...”Labyrinth of the Grotto Minotaur”