The Dark Mirror of Klarn proves the smallest seeds can become a forest. Doug Moench would create a vast fantasy world (one largely under-used by Marvel) with the smallest of first steps. As with most of the 1960s and 70s Sword & Sorcery strips, they arrive courtesy of the horror comics. The first of these was to introduce a villain in Monsters Unleashed #9 (December 1974) “The Jewel That Snarled at Slight Greed” with art by Don Perlin. This tale has a dwarf thief and centaur as ill-matched buddies who go up against a wizard named Grithstane. The dwarf steals the blood-jewel from the powerful queen who sets her wizard, Grithstane, on their trail.
The wizard has the stone become a monster. Meanwhile Grithstane kills the queen and assumes power. Eventually the dwarf and centaur tire of the blood-stone and throw it back into the wizard’s tower, just as he is about to conjure another demon. We are to suppose that is the end of Grithstane, but don’t you believe it. He will be back and so will his vulture, Nironus…
Grithstane returns seven months later (not dead and much fatter) in Giant-Size Werewolf #5 (July 1975) “The Peril of Paingloss”. The origin of Jack Russell (who turns into a wolf not a terrier) began in 1972 where he was written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Mike Ploog. Ironically, Doug Moench wrote Giant-Size Werewolf #5 but no Ploog art. The issue was drawn by Yong Montano. Moench and Ploog will pool their talents yet, but wait…
Jack and Buck Cowan go to the creepy estate of Joaquin Zairre, who looks like a vampire. He is actually a demonologist and Satanist. As always, Jack is in search for a cure to his lycanthropy. Zairre kidnaps them and ties them to trees in the forest. He plans to shoot Jack with a silver bullet as the moon rises for a sacrifice to Satan. Before Zairre can do it, Buck interferes and Jack is taken to another reality by Grithstane the wizard.
Jack in werewolf form is attacked by Grithstane’s boss, Paingloss, who subjugates the lycanthrope. Grithstane ties him with magical bonds.
Paingloss takes the werewolf to the Shadow Land, where Jack turns back into a man. (The Shadow Land is important as we will see later.) The adventure continues when the two are attacked by the queen of the land, Delandra and her giant snails. But it is actually Sardanus who poses the biggest threat, for he will conquer our world after he takes control of the Searland and The Shadow Land. (There is a lot going on but Jack is mostly concerned with becoming human again.) Grithstane shows up again and they all take on Sardanus, who proves to be a fake. Well, they did say it was a Giant-Size comic so a giant-size plot must follow…
Most of what happens in this comic is a huge side-step. Grithstane is not the Gargamel wannabe he was earlier, looking more like a fat, old woman and he has no vulture. Moench does introduce the idea of a Shadow Land of darkness and evil magic even if we have strayed from the visions in the Dark Mirror of Klarn.
Now we get to the meat of things with the introduction of the hero, Tyndall. “An Ugly Mirror on Weirdworld” appeared five months later in Marvel Super Action #1 (January 1976). This is an odd birthplace for a Fantasy hero since the magazine was filled with Men’s style action characters such as The Executioner, and headlined a tale featuring The Punisher. Tyndall and his first encounter with the Nightfangers, written by Doug Moench and drawn by Mike Ploog, is a Tolkienesque tale of Fantasy that gives us the name of the realm in which these stories happen. Tyndall is an elfin-eared fellow living amongst dwarves.
They send him into the dangerous Shadowlands to destroy the heart of evil. Tyndall meets many monsters before finding an egg inside a giant fish skeleton.
The egg hatches and he finds the inhabitant is another just like him. He is no longer alone.
Being such a short tale Moench ends it suddenly, with you wanting more. It is no wonder Klarn did not end as a single one-shot filler like so many other Sword & Sorcery pieces in the early 1970s.
Most likely Moench had written the script for Monsters Unleashed, but that black & white magazine had been cancelled. Monsters Unleashed was typically a horror magazine but it did not shy away from a little fantasy featuring a Solomon Kane story as well as “World of Warlocks” by Gene Colon, “Sword of Dragonus” by Frank Brunner, and “Birthright” by Gil Kane. Having the extra 9-pager kicking around, editors figured, what the hell, we’ve paid for it already and used it to fill out the Action Special.
Just as odd, Moench claims he had never read The Lord of the Rings when he wrote the tale. The plot of story seems unfinished, leaving us wanting to know more about Tyndall and Klarn. Ploog’s work on it is a nice precursor to what he would do for Ralph Bakshi’s film Wizards (1977) though the inking can be a little muddy at times.
“Tyndall’s Quest”, Marvel Premiere #38 (October 1978) saw Moench and Ploog return, this time with the inking expertise of Alex Nino. This 17 pagers expands on the concept of Weirdworld after a short review of “Ugly Mirror”. Tyndall and his new mate, Velanna, are seeking a way out of the shadow realm when an evil wizard named Grithstane captures them using wax drones. The wizard threatens to blast Velanna if Tyndall doesn’t complete a quest for him.
The sorcerer sends Tyndall to Klarn, a floating ring-shaped island in the sky that creates the shadow realm, via a flying mound of earth. Tyndall’s objective is to fill a bag with dragon’s blood so Grithstane can renew his youth and impress a beautiful woman captive. Once on Klarn, Tyndall breaks up a mob sacrifice of a beautiful girl who the locals claim is a “changer”.
After fleeing the crowd, Tyndall gets to see what this means, when she changes into a swamp serpent. He is rescued by the dragon, that eats the serpent, allowing Tyndall to kill it with his sword. Returning through Grithstane’s actual Dark Mirror of Klarn with the blood, Tyndall arrives to find that the wizard’s captive was a “changer” too and has eaten him. (Is Grithstane finally dead? We’ll see.)
The tale is longer this time, more colorful and light-hearted (with little in-jokes like when Tyndall attacks a wax drone with a sword the sound effect is “Ploog”) but somehow trite, as Tyndall’s quest is essentially for nought. Moench is working his way up to something larger and more meaningful. The artwork in this episode is my favorite. Alex Nino’s inking has a way of softening Ploog’s characters, while making everything seem natural but unearthly. Only P. Craig Russell’s work in 1986 will come close to this comic’s art.
Next time the Dark Mirror of Klarn reveals… John Buscema!
I loved Weirdworld! I never knew it had its beginnings in Monsters Unleashed.
Honestly I didn’t either back in 1978 when Marvel Premiere appeared. My interest in horror comics lead me there much later.