Here are my favorite Sword & Sorcery comics from Marvel’s Epic Illustrated. The full-sized magazine ran for 34 issues from Spring 1980 to February 1986. It was originally conceived as a competitor for Heavy Metal (Just like 1984, Cimoc and Warrior.) Ultimately the magazine proved too expensive for the sales it received and was cancelled. Before that happened certain artists used it as platform to launch some of the very best of the 1980s Sword & Sorcery comics. (Personally I found it had too many superheroes in it, as Marvel tried to pull in the readers of their regular comics. I don’t care about Galactus and the Silver Surfer. Give me heroic fantasy!)
John Bolton (1951-)
John Bolton began working for Marvel in 1981, drawing a King Kull story. His work at warrior with “Father Shandor” and “Prestor John”, caught Ralph Macchio’s eye. “Marada the She-Wolf” was written by X-Men superstar, Chris Claremont, and was supposed to be a Red Sonja piece. The film version loused up the copyright and Marada was born! John also did the humorous “Fighting Words”.
“Marada the She-Wolf” (February-June 1982)
“Wizard’s Masque” (February-August 1984)
“Fighting Words” (June 1984) was written by John Bolton.
P. Craig Russell (1951-)
P. Craig Russell began illustrating Germanic operas before 1980 in the independent press. “Parsifal” appeared in Star*Reach back in 1978 and Night Music (Eclipse Comics) in 1979. After Epic Illustrated he would collect all his comics in massive collections called The P. Craig Russell Library of Opera Adaptations. His non-Conan style was perfect for the Gothic Elric comics. Other artists followed him later in the 1980s but none ever reached the same heights of style.
“Sigfried and the Dragon” (Summer 1980)
“Elric and the Dreaming City” (October-December 1980) adapted from the story by Michael Moorcock by Roy Thomas (1940-)
“Elric of Melnibone” (October 1982) adapted from the story by Michael Moorcock by Roy Thomas
“Ein Heldentraum” (December 1985) was written by Patrick Mason.
Dave Sim (1956-)
Dave Sim created the best of the Sword & Sorcery parodies in Cerebus the Aardvark. Epic Illustrated gave him a place to try out new art techniques in a series known as “The Young Cerebus Stories”.
“Arnold the Isshurian” (February 1983)
“His First Fifth” (October 1984)
“A Friendly Reminder” (February 1985) artwork by Sim and Gerhard (1959-).
“Selling Insurance/The Girl Next Door” (June 1985)
Charles Vess (1951-)
Charles Vess began writing and drawing his own stories in pencil, then ink and finally in color. After Epic Illustrated he would do the wonderful Ballads books and created Stardust with Neil Gaiman, that was filmed in 2007. He got his chance to try something a little closer to superheroes with The Raven Banner, a tale of Thor’s three buddies.
“Jack’s Tales” (April 1981)
“Children of the Stars” (October 1981-February 1982)
“The Two Sisters” (February 1983)
“Age of the Dragon” (December 1983)
“The Legend” (February 1984) was written by Laurie Sutton (1953-).
“Spirit” (June 1984) was written by Laurie Sutton.
“Fire’s Kin” (December 1984) artwork done with Elaine Lee.
“The Raven Banner” (June 1985) was written by Alan Zelenetz.
Mike Kaluta (1947-)
Mike Kaluta is no stranger to this blog. He was one of the four horsemen of The Studio, including Barry Windsor-Smith, Jeff Jones and Berni Wrightson. He only did two strips but several covers as well.
“Wanderer” (April 1983) was written by Archie Goodwin (1937-1998).
“The Apprenticeship” (June 1984)
Some Singles
“Almuric” (Summer 1980-April 1981) was adapted from the Robert E. Howard novel by Roy Thomas and drawn by Tim Conrad (1951-). In 1991, Thomas would write a sequel The Ironhand of Almuric with art by Mark Winchell, but covers by Tim Conrad.
“The Dragonmaster of Klarn” (December 1981-August 1982) by John Buscema (1927-2002) and Marie Severin (1929-2018) Written by Doug Moench (1948-), this piece is the fourth installment of the Klarn series. The first appeared in January 1976. This piece followed the Marvel Super Specials, Warriors of the Shadow Realm (1978). A final tale would appear later in 1986, not drawn by either Buscema or Severin.
“The Last of the Dragons” (December 1982-October 1983) written by Carl Potts (1952-) and Denny O’Neil (1939-2020) with art by Terry Austin (1952-) and Marie Severin. One of the few cases of diversity in the magazine, that featured a lot of white people. It doesn’t surprise me that Denny was involved with this one. He wrote the famous Green Lantern comics where a black man asks Hal Jordan why he worries about all the aliens while minorities are still oppressed on Earth? The current interest in Manga might also have fueled the choice.
I would hate to suggest there wasn’t other Sword & Sorcery and heroic fantasy in Epic Illustrated. There was good work by Pepe Moreno, John Jay Muth, Mike Saenz, Barry Windsor-Smith, Go Nagai, Kent Williams, Gene Day, Victor de la Fuente, Bob Gould, Adolfo Buylla, Zoran Vanjaka, Sergio Aragones and others. They just aren’t my favorite. Whatever you think of my picks, it is hard to disagree that Epic Illustrated holds a short but important spot in the history of 1980s Sword & Sorcery comics.
