Last time I offered some more Sword & Sorcery stories in The House of Mystery. This time it is the sister comic, The House of Secrets. As with the last bunch, these could be more Howardian but they still appeal to heroic fantasy fans. The men creating them are no strangers to S&S: Ernie Chan inked John Buscema’s Conan the Barbarian for years as well as Claw the Unconquered for DC. Sam Glanzman drew Charlton’s The Adventures of the Man-God Hercules in the late 1960s. In the future, Michael Fleisher would write Conan from 1983 to 1989. And Steve Ditko, though known for Spiderman, was an early fan of S&S at Warren.
Perhaps the unsung hero here is Jack Oleck, who wrote several of the strips I talked about previously, wrote the majority of these as well. Jack left comics after the Comics Code came in but returned to write exclusively for DC’s horror and romance lines. He created “Space Voyagers” with Alex Nino and Kong the Untamed with Alfred Alcala.
“An Eye For an Eye” (The House of Secrets # 117, March 1974) is a nine-pager written by Jack Oleck and drawn by Ernie Chan. The Duke goes to terrible lengths to defeat his rival, Baron Dracko, including consorting with witches. He promises the life of an innocent and ends up killing the one person he would not.
“The Centaur” (The House of Secrets #122, August 1974) was written by Sam Glanzman and Martin Pasko and drawn by Glanzman. This short three-pager has a hunter find a lost Elysium and a centaur. When he chooses to leave, he becomes a deer. The anti-hunting sentiment is pretty common to 1970s comics.
“A Connecticut Ice Cream Man in King Arthur’s Court” (The House of Secrets #123, September 1974) this twelve page epic was written by Michael Fleisher and Russell Carley, with art by Alex Toth. The Mark Twain parody elements are obvious. Ice Cream vendor, Ernie Baxter, finds himself in King Arthur’s Medieval realm. His ice cream wins him friends but gets Merlin on his bad side. When Ernie decides to use rat poison to remove rivals, his plan backfires.
“Catch as Cats Can” (The House of Secrets #124, November 1974) this seven page story was written by E. Nelson Bridwell and drawn by Luis Dominguez. The Baron and his Baroness have forbidden cats in the town. Everywhere Hilde and her cat, Zauberkatze, show up the brutal tax collectors and knights are defeated by magic. In the end we learn the cat is the witch, not the girl.
“Witch Blood” (The House of Secrets #143, December 1976-January 1977) was written by Jack Oleck and drawn by Ernie Chan and Bill Draut. A couple is given the son of a witch. (The woman was actually innocent, removed by the baron for her land.) The boy grows up and has the power to transform himself. When he learns of his true mother’s death, he becomes a hawk and claws out the baron’s eyes. His father shoots him with a crossbow.
“Sorcerer’s Apprentice” (The House of Secrets #148, October-November 1977) was written by Jack Oleck and drawn by Steve Ditko and Ernie Chan. This story packs a lot into eight pages. Basra, the worst sorcerer’s apprentice ever, is very ambitious. He would marry the king’s daughter. To do this he goes with the king into battle and uses magic to help him win. Later he murders the king and becomes ruler, marrying the princess. Full of his power, he has his old master, the wizard, killed. This is his undoing. Basra returns to his true nature, a scarecrow.
“The Knight in the Gilded Cage” (The House of Secrets #154, October-November 1978) was written by Scott Edelman and drawn by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. Squire Robert is impatient to become a knight. He murders his master, the Golden Knight, Sir George of Sherwood, and takes his armor. While out socializing between jousts, the armor makes Robert slap another knight, causing a duel. While the two joust, Squire Robert can not control the armor and gets skewered.
These comics for the most part seem inspired by the Middle Ages rather than any Hyborian realm. Still, comics like “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” especially feel very Sword & Sorcery while others are more like comments on fantasy themes. Next time, we will look at S&S in superhero comics!
