Sword & Sorcery comics at DC Comics was a slow process. Marvel had struck gold with Conan the Barbarian in October 1970 but their main competitor watched and waited to see if this new craze would go anywhere. DC had tried it back in 1968-69 with “Nightmaster” in DC Showcase, which pre-dated the Marvel Cimmerian, but remained unconvinced. The three issue special was written by Denny O’Neil and drawn by Jerry Grandenetti and Berni Wrightson (with help from Mike Kaluta and Jeff Jones).
The company published scattered S&S pieces throughout their horror and adventure anthology titles but didn’t bite again for two years with the experiment “Fangs of Fire” (Wonder Woman #202, September-October 1972). This special issue, written by SF writer, Samuel R. Delany, would eventually result in DC first official S&S comic. Sword of Sorcery (March/April -November/December 1973). It was based on the idea that Marvel had Robert E. Howard, so DC would take Fritz Leiber. The comic only ran for five issues. Most of the contents was adaptations of Leiber’s Fafhrd & Gray Mouser but some original stories appeared too. It was written by Denny O’Neil and penciled by Howard Chaykin. Inkers were various but some of the work was done by Berni Wrightson. Walt Simonson did some solo work.
DC’s second try would be modeled more closely on Conan. Ernie Chan, the man who inked John Buscema’s work for Conan was the featured artist, making Claw look very CTB. Ernie hung around for seven of the twelve issues. Claw the Unconquered (May/June 1975-August/September 1978) The comic was written by David Michelinie and drawn by Ernie Chan, later by Keith Giffen who was wonderfully experimental. Claw is a warrior cursed with a demon hand, which comes in handy in big battles.
Stalker (June/July 1975-December 1975/January 1976) last four issues. It was written by Paul Levitz and drawn by Steve Ditko and Wally Wood. Stalker has his soul taken by the Demon Lord Dgrth and goes on a quest to reclaim it. The poor sales on this comic surprise me. Ditko and Wood, it should have been a dynasty but it didn’t look like Conan so….
Hercules Unbound (October/November 1975-August/September 1977) went for twelve issues. It was written by Gerry Conway and drawn by José Luis García-López and Wally Wood for the first half then was written by David Michelinie and drawn by Walt Simonson and Wally Wood and Cary Bates took over as writer at the end. This is one of the first SF-tinted Sword & Sorcery series, set in the post-apocalyptic future. The 1980s would embrace this mixture.
Mike Grell’s The Warlord who debuted in 1st Issue Special #8 (November 1975) and then (January/February 1976-Winter 1988) was DC’s big winner. Volume one ran to 133 issues with several follow-up mini-series. Grell blends Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Pellucidar, Sword & Sorcery and other SF ideas in this series about Travis Morgan. Grell slowly distances himself from the comic after issue 50. The best ones are the earliest ones. Again, Science Fiction elements move the sub-genre away from traditional Robert E. Howard.
Beowulf Dragonslayer (April/May 1975-Debruary/March 1976) lasted only six issues, written by Michael E. Uslan and drawn by Ricardo Villamonte. I won’t lie. This was my favorite of all these DC comics. The blend of Anglo-Saxon heroics with legendary monsters from other cultures made it something special. Richardo Villamonte’s artwork was as exciting as anything in Conan the Barbarian but had a Gothic feel to it that surpassed mere thud & blunder. Villamonte worked on DC’s horror titles as well. The comic canceled before the coming wave of comic book deaths…
The DC implosion of 1978 would conquer Claw but spare The Warlord. DC tried to find ways to keep S&S around like DC Special #22-25 (June/July 1976-January 1977), which reprinted Joe Kubert’s “The Viking Prince”. But the sad truth was Sword & Sorcery at DC would have to lurk in the back-up features of The Warlord (Claw, DragonSword, etc.) until 1981. That year Roy Thomas and Ernie Colon would give us Arak, Son of Thunder (derided as “Conan the Indian”). Later Sword & Sorcery at DC include Arion, Lord of Atlantis, Amethyst, Princess of Gem World and Lords of the Ultra-Realm in the 1980s. None of these would prove to be a big win for DC, a company that was willing to leave heroic fantasy to Marvel and the many independent comics that were publishing S&S throughout the 1980s.
I’m a big fan of Arak and the Warlord. It seems to me some of the other series were high quality, but just didn’t take off for some reason or another.
A lot of unused potential in these characters. Revival would be welcome