Clawfang the Barbarian wins the silver medal in the Valhalla of Sword & Sorcery comics. As most know today, the first comic character to bear the title of “barbarian” was Crom the Barbarian. Created by Gardner F. Fox in 1950, he appeared in three strips for Avon. The character didn’t catch on and the idea went underground for more than a decade.
Harvey’s Thrill-O-Rama #2 (September 1966) then reprinted in Unearthly Spectaculars #2 (December 1966) gave us “Clawfang the Barbarian”, the second character to bear that sobriquet. The strip was written by Wally Wood and drawn by his friend, Al Williamson. These gentlemen, along with Gray Morrow, Reed Crandall, Jim Steranko, Steve Ditko, Jeff Jones and others, were all fans of heroic fantasy and wanted to draw it for the comics. These early pieces would appear in underground comics, independent comics like Witzend and in Warren’s horror line in Creepy and Eerie. The Marvel giant, Conan the Barbarian, the guy who would own that monicker, was most of a decade away.
This was an exciting time for S&S comics, even if only a small number of people were aware of it. The staid John Buscema-Ernie Chan look was decades away. (This sounds like I don’t like John’s work, which isn’t true, but he was so staggering a talent that he burned his brand on the sub-genre. After John, you were expected to look like Buscema.)
Let’s get back to Clawfang. His single adventure begins with a prologue. (How Fantasy Bestseller is that?) This two page explanation tells us that the world is now very old after the human race has fallen from being star explorers down to the levels of barbarians.
Our hero, Clawfang, lives in this terrible time of mutants and monsters. The story begins with Clawfang and his reavers waiting to attack a caravan. Once they launch their assault, the barbarian realizes it is a trap. The bandits fight valiantly but are defeated. Only their leader remains to be dispatched when the ruler of the caravan, Princess Felina, spares his life. Clawfang swears his fealty to her and keeps his sword.
The caravan is attacked again, this time by the Norns, weird mutant creatures of the caves. Clawfang is knocked unconscious but when he awakens he goes in search of Princess Felina. She has been taken by the Norns to their cavern lair. Using his torch he drives off the weird eye-less mutants. The couple are left in a cave filled with ancient machines.
Among the weird mechanisms is a man who is revived from an earlier time. He is Dr. James King. He realizes the world has fallen into barbarism. As the only scientist in the world he will rule. He will be King of the World. Clawfang and Felina are to be his first subjects.
Felina distracts the madman long enough for Clawfang to strike. He throws King into his machine, causing the cavern to burn. Clawfang and Felina escape but the barbarian worries that he did not see King die. He fears he has unleashed a terror upon his world.
Obviously there was supposed to be more. That didn’t happen but we can surmise there would be later episodes where James King would send new scientific terrors against Felina’s people and Clawfang the Barbarian would defend them. The entire comic reminds me of a television cartoon twenty years in the future, Thundarr the Barbarian. Wally Wood is way ahead of the curve.
Later Sword & Sorcery tales would mix in post-apocalyptic elements such as the film Wizards (1977), the background of Terry Brooks’ The Sword of Shannara (1977) and many Heavy Metal comic strips after 1978. Much earlier, the novels of Andre Norton used the idea in books like Daybreak – 2250 AD (1954) and The Beastmaster (1959). What inspired Wally Wood? Usually his fantasy seems more The Lord of the Rings inspired with his The King of the World. (Which ironically has nothing to do with James King.) We can only imagine what wonders Wood/Williamson would have cooked up for us.
