In a previous post, we looked at the Pulp illustrations of Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd & Gray Mouser. This time we will look at the comic books that featured the two best swordsmen of Lankhmar. Sadly, unlike Conan, these two have only had two comics done about them, one in 1973 and the other in 1990.
When DC decided they wanted to launch a Fafhrd & Gray Mouser series, they wanted to premiere the duo in a popular title that fans could migrate from. They chose Wonder Woman. So in Wonder Woman #202 (September-October 1972), with a script by Samuel R. Delany and art by Dick Giorando, the two dimension-crossing Sword & Sorcery heroes met Diana Prince.
In February-March 1973, the first issue of Sword of Sorcery appeared. The comic would run for only five treasured issues. The stories that were adapted include “The Price of the Pain Ease”, “Thieves’ House”, “The Cloud of Hate” and “The Sunken Land”. In addition to adaptations, there was a pirate story and a tale of young Fafhrd by Denny O’Neil and a tale of young Gray Mouser by George Alec Effinger (who would adapt Thongor for DC).
The men who produced this comic are all important to Sword & Sorcery comics. Denny O’Neil as writer and editor got his start with S&S doing Hercules for Charlton. Mike Kaluta, Berni Wrightson, Neal Adams, Vincente Alcazar, Rich Buckler and Ralph Reese would all draw other comics. Walt Simonson was another creator who would have a profound effect on S&S comics, especially with Thor. Howard Chaykin, who was lead on this comic, would be instrumental in the next incarnation.
Chaykin would return in 1990 with Marvel Comics (later collected by Dark Horse) to produce a four issue mini-series of Lankhmar’s greatest heroes. This time around Chaykin wrote the adaptations, while Mike Mignola and Al Williamson did the art. Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh did the colors and Bill Oakley the lettering.
The Stories adapted this time were “Ill Met in Lankmar”, “The Circle Curse”, “The Howling Tower”, “Price of the Pain Ease”, “The Bazaar of the Bizarre”, “Lean Times in Lankhmar” and “When the Sea King’s Away”. No original stories were created.
The Mike Mignola Covers
And that’s it. We have to wait for more. We had a twenty year gap between the 1970s and 1990s. We are overdue…
I wish that Mignola had done these books at the same time period as he did the new cover that appears on the collection (or at least in the midst of his Hellboy series). They would have been masterpieces. Unfortunately, he was still developing his style, and they are only passable comic versions of the stories bearing only touches of would come to be known as Mignola’s style.