Sword & Sorcery comics were few and far between in the Golden Age. But they weren’t non-existent either. “Crom the Barbarian” by Gardner Fox, “The Son of Sinbad” and “The Viking Prince” by Joe Kubert, Malu the Slave Girl come to mind. There were also stories that appealed to heroic fantasy fans even if they weren’t quite Conan the Barbarian. I looked at the odd one here and there. But here are eight more stories that I think fans of heroic fantasy can enjoy. Some are fairy stories while others are horror stories. But isn’t that the mix in a good S&S tale, one part action, one part evil?
The good news is even if you disagree with my picks you get great artwork by Lou Cameron, Louis Zansky and best of all, Wally Wood. All the writers are unknown.
“The Dwarf’s Key” (Calling All Kids #23, February 1949) is a traditional fairy tale with a young prince seeking a wife. On his travels he befriends a bird, a fish and a wolf. All come in handy if he is to get the key and win the day. This artist is unknown but very good.
“The 5 Lives of Otto Marlin” (The Hand of Fate #19, August 1953) begins with a gangster kidnapping a girl for the experiment of a mad scientist, Dr. Otto Marlin. He has created a serum that delves into the past lives of reincarnation. The cops get wise and the doctor injects himself. We get knights and dragons and then ancient Egypt. Things don’t end well for the doc.
“The Phantom Gladiator” (The Hand of Fate #20, October 1953) is another portal fantasy. Nat Murrano and his wife, Grace, are visiting Pompeii. The press of history gives Grace a creepy feeling. An old hag is hired to show them the old arena. She sends them down a time hole. They find themselves in Roman Pompeii. Nat is a gladiator. Grace has fallen for another gladiator, Pugnax. Nat kills him and the old hag who shows up again. The volcano erupts and the two are sent back to the present. Pugnax’s skeleton demands Nat complete his promise to fight him. Everybody dies at the end. (It worked for Shakespeare.)
“Long Shall the Undead Wail” (The Hand of Fate #20, October 1953) begins with Queen Isabella and her lover, Roger de Moritimer murdering the king. With his dying breath he curses them. Whatever happens to one will happen to the other. The Prince sentences Roger to be hanged. He is conscious after death and is buried. He rises as a ghoul. The She-Wolf, as the queen is called, tries to murder a serving girl named Maria. Her beau kills the queen and soon she too is a ghoul. Centuries pass. The two ghouls do not meet until our modern visitors to Glouchester Castle bring them together. They will fight each other to the death — or is that undeath?
“Ivan’s-Woe” (Witches Tales #23, February 1954) starts with Sir Ivan Gwaine winning the jousting tournament then meeting his beautiful princess. The king’s executioner, the scarred and homely Hugo Lavon of Blackmore, is jealous. He engineers an opportunity to challenge Sir Ivan to a duel. They fight and Sir Ivan wins. The battle has damaged his face. He takes over as the ugliest man in England and the king’s executioner.
“The Ghost Hunter” (The Unseen #15, July 1954) has Dando the hunter drinking from a mug offered by a mysterious rider. The strange figure rides off with the kill and Dando follows. They both disappear in a burst of flame. Sometimes Dando is seen riding as a phantom.
“You Can’t Keep a Good King Down” (Horror From the Tomb #1, September 1954) begins with the king of Lobodia dying. His two sons are left to take over. Stobal murders his older brother, Boric, for the throne. He hides the body. There is a legend that if the king is not buried in the family crypt, he will return. Stobal finds the corpse and ties a rock to it, throwing it in the river. Stobal is to marry but the body shows up again. He hides it in a chest. During the marriage ceremony the chest tips over and falls in Stobal’s lap. He dies of shock. Both brothers are buried in the crypt. (Kinda like Weekend at Bernie’s without the sunglasses.)
“The Return of King Arthur” (Valor #1, March -April 1955) proves the best is for last. Wally Wood drew this tale of Arthurian legend for a comic filled with knights and fighting. A cruel tyrant has his slaves freed by King Arthur who has returned after 300 years. The three ladies of the old prophecy appear next. The people rally behind Arthur and the tyrant of Cornwall is slain. We learn after this the entire thing is a con. The man in not really King Arthur at all but another man equally evil to the dead tyrant. A strange figure appears and challenges him to a duel, killing him. The sword that sticks out of his body has a name written on it: Excalibur!
Conclusion
Sword & Sorcery comics became a defined genre after Marvel and Roy Thomas gave us Robert E. Howard’s Conan in 1970. Gardner F. Fox had all the same elements twenty years earlier, but the time was not right. The 1950s (like the 1990s) would not be kind to heroic fantasy. The publication of The Lord of the Rings and then Lancer’s Conan in the 1960s would spark a true S&S revolution that would include comics. The type of story that included sword fights and magic weren’t entirely missing from the comics before the Cimmerian came to Marvel. I hope these tales show there were some stories that hinted at what was to come.
