Sword & Sorcery in Star-Studded Comics

Sword & Sorcery was not the original theme in Star-Studded Comics. It was superheroes. The early issues of this fan-published comic published by the Texas Trio were the home of Dr. Weird, The Defender and Xal-Kor the Human Cat. The amateurish art improved over the eighteen issues published between September 1963 and Summer 1972.

As the comic evolved Sword & Sorcery slowly replaced the caped crusaders, until the final issue which was mostly S&S. This transition is not surprising. Harry Herndon and the others that produced the comic were living in the heroic fantasy crucible that was the late 1960s and early 1970s. They saw the new style of fantasy in the paperbacks of the time, those purple-edged Lancers, as well as The Lord of the Rings.

In the Warren comics of the time, Archie Goodwin and artists like Steve Ditko and Reed Crandall were producing some of the first S&S comics since “Crom the Barbarian” appeared in 1950. And by the last issues, Marvel had taken the field with Conan the Barbarian by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith. Herndon’s fan magazine had enough pull to get the likes of Gardner F. Fox, John Jakes and Roy Thomas in their pages. And for firsts, they published a Robert E. Howard story two years before Marvel and gave a future star a home for his fledgling work. That writer was George R. R. Martin.

The initial foray into Fantasy was not a comic story or a prose piece. (Star-Studded Comics published both formats.) . It was an ad in Issue #8 (March 1966). The one-pager was drawn by George Barr for a comic he was doing in Tom Reamy’s fanzine, Trumpet. The story was an adaptation of Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword. (I will be doing a separate piece on this in future.) But think about that for a moment. Lin Carter often takes credit for reviving this 1954 novel with his Ballantine Fantasy Series in 1971. Obviously, there were fans out there before that reprint…

Issue #9 (Summer 1966) gave us our first prose heroic fantasy from a name that would become much more famous in SF circles, Howard Waldrop. “Vale Proditor!”, despite its Roman title, is actually an Arthurian adventure featuring dragons. It is not written in the same humorous style most of Waldrop’s later stories were done.  Artwork was provided by another future star, Buddy Saunders, who would write S&S comics for Warren. The back cover is an illustration from Waldrop’s story, done by D. Bruce Berry. Some of the others involved in these early issue would go on to do significant work in later comics: Jim Starlin, Al Milgrom, Alan Weiss, Bill DuBay, Rich Buckler and Dave Cockrum.

Issue #10 (February 1967) features the prose story “Only Kids Are Afraid of the Dark” by George R. R. Martin. This is not Sword & Sorcery but a tale of Dr. Weird. It was George’s eight appearance in Star-Studded Comics. What makes this one worth mentioning is this explanation from The Complete Dreamsongs (2007):

…Like the Hugo Awards, the Alleys had categories for both professional and fan work; Golden Alleys for the pros, Silver Alleys for the fans. “Only Kids Are Afraid of the Dark” was nominated for a Silver Alley for best text story … and to my shock and delight, it won (quite undeservedly, as Howard Waldrop and Paul Moslander were writing rings around me). Visions of gleaming silver trophies danced briefly in my head, but I never received a thing. The sponsoring organization soon collapsed, and that was the end of the Alley Awards … but the recognition did wonders for my confidence, and helped to keep me writing.

I think we can all be glad about that.

Issue #11 (Summer 1967) begins the strange transforming from superhero comic to Sword & Sorcery with the Dr. Weird tale, “Black Rite”. It was written by George Metzger and penned by Metzger, Rick Shubb and Peter Grant. In this eight pager, Dr. Weird fights a sorcerer who is Death in the grooviest ’60s Tolkien era frames ever. Visually this comic takes me back instantly.

Heroic fantasy took a break until Issue #14 (December 1968) when it returned with a bang. The Robert E. Howard story “The Gods of the North” was adapted. This story appeared in The Fantasy Fan in 1934, and was the basis of the later version known as “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter”. This original version doesn’t have Conan but Amra. It was adapted by Larry Herndon and drawn by Steven Keletz and Alan Hutchinson. Marvel would later do their version with Conan in May 1971.

Issue #16 (November 1969) offered a small respite from superheroes with a gallery of images. Two are Sword & Sorcery.

Issue #17 (Summer 1971) shows the change complete. This issue with the dinosaur and girl on the cover is filled with S&S treats.

“The Barbarian & the Knight” written and drawn by Alan Weiss. Two swordsmen, Ragkor and Sir Lareth, team up to rescue Princess Jamana from the spidery evil of Poglat. Things don’t quite work out that way.

“Behind the Swords” is an editorial by Larry Herndon that explains much. After discussing Sword & Sorcery, the piece goes on to review books by Gardner F. Fox and John Jakes.

“The Warrior of Llarn” begins an adaptation of Gardner F. Fox‘s Sword & Planet novel done by Roy Thomas. Art was drawn by Sam Grainger in a Wally Wood-esque style. Future portions were never published. The back cover is a Llarn color image by Grainger.

Issue #18 (Summer 1972) was the final issue. Steve Fritz provided a very Frank Frazetta b&w style cover. He then went on to sixteen page with a comic version of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” and “The Ring of Nemfast”, where a barbarian seeks vengeance for the death of his girl, Taael.  Fritz wrote and drew both.

Conclusion

Sword & Sorcery in Star-Studded Comics is one of those important snapshots that we get in the late 1960s. Most of this material was produced without the shadow of Conan the Barbarian hanging over it. Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith’s epic run was so important to what came after, it is difficult to remember what existed before. Star-Studded Comics, like the experiments of Wally Wood‘s Witzend, show a different way of looking at Sword & Sorcery comics that would be discarded for the Hyborian tsunami that was Conan.