If you missed the last one…
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but I always let out a girlish cry of delight when I stumble on another Sword & Sorcery (or close) gem hiding in the long boxes. Here is a dozen to consider. DC, Marvel, Pacific, Archie and Western, they all keep providing me new heroic fantasy tales. Usually in five-six page lengths. The 1970s were great for comic companies trying to figure out how to do S&S. By the 1980s, and many issues of Conan the Barbarian later, they seem to have it down. The innovations aren’t in the storytelling but the paper the comics were printed on. (Remember this Kull comic? It cost $2 instead of 75 cents because of the better paper. Love the John Bolton though.) Enjoy them while you can because the 1990s are coming and S&S will largely disappear outside the established franchises (Conan, Elfquest, Xena). I would trade entire 1990s series for one more Sword & Sorcery six pager by Walt Simonson with giant spiders in it.
“Sanctuary” (Tower of Shadows #8, November 1970) was written and drawn by Wally Wood. King Hamand of Cybernia is tired from battle so he leaves things with his wizard, Abarac. The king sleeps then wakes to see a horrible specter. We learn that Hamand had to go to a crypt of the Druid King to retrieve his crown. Now a specter haunts him. Hamand fights magic to protect his tower. In the end, he kills the only men who know his secret. He tries to kill Abarac as well but the sorcerer proves to be his haunting specter. I have to suspect this one was meant for the Warren magazines, though it was one of a number of freelance S&S comics that Wally sold to DC and Marvel. Later he’d do some for Warren’s 1984 but that didn’t go well.
“The Sword and the Sorceress!” (The Avengers #84, January 1971) was written by Roy Thomas. Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith were just getting going on Conan the Barbarianat this time. John Buscema would take over the art in April 1973. The Sword & Sorcery portion of this comic is at the beginning. The Black Knight, astride his Pegasus, takes on Arkon the Magnificent and his scaly flying horse. It proves to be a dream the Scarlet Witch, Wanda, is having. The rest is a pretty typical superhero stuff.
“The Guardian” (Ripley’s Believe It or Not #40, June 1973) was written by Paul S. Newman. The Lady Jehane is killed while King Richard is away. Her ghost appears many times through the king’s life and warns him of danger. When Richard dies in battle, his queen, Berengaria, speaks with Jehane’s ghost one last time. Jehane vanishes to be with her Richard. Not really S&S so much as a Medieval ghost story, it does have some battle scenes with the Saracens.
“Vampires’ Gold” (Weird Mystery Tales #9, December 1973-January 1974) was written by Jack Oleck. Another Horror tale with S&S leanings, with Hayes and Price, two thieves on the run. They hide out in a small village where an old couple keep their son locked in the basement. The rumors are that the old people are rich vampires. The thieves kill the man and woman with wooden stakes then go to the basement for their gold. Unfortunately for them, they have misunderstood. The old folks were not the vampires. They were the wards guarding their vampire son.
“The Two Thieves of Baghdad” (Chilling Adventures in Sorcery #5, February 1974) was written by Gray Morrow and Larry Hama. Thief Ibn Saud finds a magic amulet that turns him into a powerful Djinn. He demands gold from the Caliph. The ruler’s vizier, a magician named Abbassides, knows what is going on. He turns young Hassan into an eagle and has him steal the amulet from the giant. Saud is buried under the ground and Baghdad goes back to normal. Young Hassan dreams of having been an eagle. Vicente Alcazar had done the adaptation of Larry Niven’s “Not Long Before the End” five years earlier.
“Barometer Falling” (Chilling Adventures in Sorcery #5, February 1974) was written and drawn by Gray Morrow. Morrow was a pro at heroic fantasy long before 1974. Kalos the mercenary solider and his squire, Baylyk, sleep in the ruins of the Old Ones. After Kalos falls asleep, the squire goes off exploring on his own. He ends up in the webs of a spiderwoman. She is about to suck his blood when Kalos shows up and fills her with arrows. We learn the Old Ones were modern humans. This is a post-apocalyptic S&S tale. Or is it? We then learn that Kalos and Baylyk are Atlanteans and their continent sinks because it is a failed experiment by aliens. (Gotta love the 1970s!)
“Dragons” (Chilling Adventures in Sorcery #5, February 1974) was written by Phil Seuling. We begin with primitive tribes and totems, then go on to symbols of heraldry. Finally the author pairs St. George with a new kind of dragon…T. rex.
“The Curse” (Weird Mystery Tales #10, February-March 1974) was written by Murray Boltinoff. A warrior known as the Slasher tries to find Fate so he can explain why his sword does not kill. After roughing up some peasants, the Slasher finds the cloaked Fate. The troubled warrior learns that he died in a ditch and is now a ghost hopelessly doomed to kill no more. Shades of The Sixth Sense (1999)! Gil Kane did plenty of Sword & Sorcery, mostly for Marvel but also DC. He would later write a King Arthur novel with John Jakes.
“Sword of the She-Devil” (Marvel Team-Up #79, March 1979) was written by John Byrne and Chris Claremont. Wow, a Red Sonja team-up by the people who produce the top-selling X-Men comics! On the Winter Solstice, Spidey and Mary Jane get attacked by monsters in a museum. mary jane disappears and Red Sonja shows up to help Peter. A wizard named Kulan Gath wants to open the Saarpools and take over the universe. Daring-do follows, with Spidey and Red crucified over the Saarpool. Once a necklace is taken from the wizard, he turns back into the security guard who had his body possessed. Red Sonja turns back into Mary Jane. Chris Claremont would later write a Red Sonja series that got recast as Marada the She-Wolf in 1985. Spidey and Red would meet again for a five-part mini-series in 2007.
“The Crown of Thorns” (1st Folio, March 1984) was written and drawn by Ron Randall and Mike Chen. A knight comes to a castle looking for the Crown of Thorns Jesus wore. He releases a beautiful woman who claims that the monks killed her husband and took her lands. The two find the monks and the warrior slays them. The last dying monk tells him to look behind his shoulder. The woman has turned into an ugly green witch. She will destroy the crown. The knight takes up the crown and blasts her with it The last monk dies, telling the knight he is doomed to stay there forever, guarding crown and witch. Shades of Indiana Jones! Ron Randall would leave school for gigs on The Warlord, Arak, Son of Thunder and mythology based graphic novels.
“The Dragon” (1st Folio, March 1984) was a collaboration with art by various students at The Joe Kubert School. A knight comes to a village to slay a dragon. He faces off with the monster. Only we learn at the end that the creature was actually a bear.
Conclusion: And a Little Beyond
Our demarcations of “Bronze” and “Silver” etc. aren’t an exact science. Take this issue of Starblazer, a UK Space Opera Black & White that had been published for years. For a few issues in the 200s it started doing Sword & Planet, almost actual Sword & Sorcery. Genres are never as clear cut as critics make them sound. I don’t know how many fans I have seen lumping the Sword & Planet Heavy Metal stuff in with Conan and Fafhrd & Grey Mouser. To them, there is no line and there need be none. A little SF doesn’t ruin the sword-swinging fun. I spend all my time splitting hairs, so I have to admire their catholic attitude. That ship sailed for me so long ago.
“The Prince and the Peasant” (Starblazer #238, 1989) is a dinosaur-filled Edgar Rice Burroughs style adventure that technically isn’t Sword & Sorcery. Our hero, who feels like Tarzan versus the Horibs in Pellicudar, joins up with a sword-wielding warrior to discover that the lizard men are descended from a race of aliens who have crash-landed on the planet. “Dragon Slayer” (Starblazer #210, 1988) was more in the S&S mold.
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